Analogue VLSI circuits are essential in many real-time signal processing
applications as naturally occurring signals are analogue. The four-quadrant analogue
multiplier is a key building block in analogue signal processing circuits. It is used to
construct circuits like the modulator and waveform generator. The ideal output (Vout)
of a multiplier is related to the inputs by Vout = KmVXVY, where Km is the multiplier
gain with units of V-1, and VX and VY are input voltages. In reality, imperfections
exist in the multiplier gain, resulting in offsets and nonlinearities. Important
parameters such as power dissipation, supply voltage, input dynamic range,
bandwidth, total harmonic distortion (THD) and linearity are used to assess the
performance of an analogue multiplier.
Nowadays both digital and analogue systems are routinely integrated onto single
chips. Digital circuits commonly use low-voltage supply and employ techniques to
reduce power consumption. Mixed analogue-digital circuits must be designed to
operate in a low-voltage, low-power environment. Conventional analogue
multipliers designed with low supply voltage suffer from performance trade-offs,
resulting in low bandwidth and low dynamic range because the design of analogue circuits is a trade-off of various performance parameters such as power dissipation,
supply voltage, gain, linearity and noise.
The objective of this research is to design a low-voltage, low-power CMOS
analogue multiplier that will address the above problems. The multiplier is designed
in a modified bridged-triode scheme (MBTS) and uses current conveyors. As all
analogue circuits can be decomposed into several sub-circuits, the performance of
these sub-circuits decides the characteristics of the resultant circuit structure. The
proposed circuit makes use of the current conveyor's many special features, such as
high output impedance and large bandwidth, to construct a low-voltage fourquadrant
multiplier.
The analogue multiplier designed in this research operates with a supply voltage of
±1V. The total harmonic distortion obtained from this multiplier is less than two
percent, the input operating swing is up to 1Vpp, and the bandwidth achieved is more
than 100MHz. It is designed using a 0.35μm technology from the Malaysian
Institute of Microelectronics (MIMOS). In addition, an RMS-to-DC converter is
designed using the same low-voltage design technique used for designing the
adaptively-biased low-voltage current mirror (ABLVCM). Then an energy meter is
designed using this analogue multiplier and the RMS-to-DC converter.


Nowadays, a typical video content provider serves a variety of platforms e.g. smartphones, web browsers, and smart TVs. Each of these platforms has specific requirements with respect to transmission and video quality. Moreover, since these devices are increasingly being used on-the-go, the environment within which most of these video streaming clients operate is both unreliable and time-varying. To cater for these heterogeneous requirements, content providers are increasingly adopting adaptive streaming services. Through such services, the quality of the video content received by a user is adapted to fit its specific requirements and capabilities. To adapt the video quality, system capabilities such as network capacity and memory have to be continuously monitored and measured, chunk requests have to be scheduled, and then the optimal video rate has to be decided. Each of these tasks is usually managed by a sub-module of the adaptive bitrate selection function. However, these sub-components interact in a non-trivial manner. For example, while on-off chunk scheduling helps to prevent buffer overflow, it negatively affects the TCP throughput. Hence, these complex interactions between these different sub-components of the adaptive streaming algorithm result in unnecessary rebufferings, undesirable variability, and sub-optimal video quality. To help simplify these interactions, this thesis develops several frameworks and models that define the relationships between the various components of the adaptive bitrate selection system. This includes deriving the valid system state space, which defines the state that an algorithm can be in at any given time, determining the allowable interactions between the various components, and identifying the video quality evolution rules that optimise QoE. Using this information, some state-of-the-art algorithms are improved and novel ones developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The result of extensive evaluations conducted both within a real-world Internet environment and with network trace shows the proposed schemes help in reducing the convergence time, startup delay, and rebuffering events, while at the same time increasing both the average and the stability of the video quality. All this is obtained without any adverse impact on the fairness among the competing players.


The chemical, mineralogical and textural characteristics of the Lampas kaolin occurrence, near Simpang Pulai Ipoh and its genesis were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and differential thermal, thermo gravimetric, Fourier transform infra-red, X-ray fluorescence, energy dispersive X-ray and granulometric analyses. Properties including particle sizes, moisture content, LOI, chemical composition, plasticity, firing shrinkage, brightness/ whiteness and modulus of rupture were used to evaluate its potential as an industrial raw material. Field evidence supported by mineralogical and chemical analyses suggests that the Lampas kaolin is a product of both hydrothermal alteration and weathering of aplite, leucomicrogranite, pegmatites and medium to coarse-grained porphyritic granite. Numerous quartz-feldspar veins and stockworks, silicification and illite alteration (argillic zone) were evident and characterize the hydrothermal fluid influx system of the area. Kaolinite is the predominant clay mineral of the Lampas kaolin with subordinate quartz, feldspar and illite/muscovite. There is localized occurrence of halloysite. Widespread occurrence of red, orange, or brown more stable lateritic clay saprolite characterizes the near surface overburden. The alumina content of Lampas kaolin is generally between 28 and 34%. Impurities, particularly iron oxide is less than 0.2% and total alkali and titania account for less than 1%. The average total alkali and iron contents are about 0.7% and 0.2% respectively. The average dry powder moisture and LOI is 1.25% and 14.0% respectively. The shrinkage and modulus of rupture values of the Lampas crude clay are moderate at lower temperatures, mainly due to its lower alkali and iron contents with over 45% (D45) below the 2μm fraction and has excellent whiteness/brightness but with a lacking workability index.


This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive study of the remaking of Ireland's aristocracy during the seventeenth century. It is a study of the Irish peerage and its role in the establishment of English control over Ireland. Jane Ohlmeyer's research in the archives of the era yields a major new understanding of early Irish and British elite, and it offers fresh perspectives on the experiences of the Irish, English, and Scottish lords in wider British and continental contexts. The book examines the resident peerage as an aggregate of 91 families, not simply 311 individuals, and demonstrates how a reconstituted peerage of mixed faith and ethnicity assimilated the established Catholic aristocracy. Tracking the impact of colonization, civil war, and other significant factors on the fortunes of the peerage in Ireland, Ohlmeyer arrives at a fresh assessment of the key accomplishment of the new Irish elite: making Ireland English.


Abstract A new mode of arsenic incorporation into arsenian pyrite has been discovered. Electron microprobe analyses and elemental maps of arsenian pyrite from Pueblo Viejo, Dominican Republic, show that its chemical composition varies from (Fe0.998As0.003)1.001S2 to (Fe0.963As0.050Cu0.003Ag0.001)1.017S2 and that arsenic is inversely correlated with Fe. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images show that some arsenic in this pyrite is present as nanoscale inclusions of amorphous As- Fe-S in a matrix of arsenian pyrite. The amorphous inclusions display negative facets with a cubic or rectangular morphology, typical of negative inclusions of pyrite and arsenopyrite or marcarsite, respectively, and they are oriented parallel to the lattice fringes (100) of the arsenian pyrite matrix. Elemental maps collected by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) show that the inclusions have a higher content of arsenic than the surrounding pyrite, and TEM-EDX analyses indicate approximate atomic proportions of 62 at% S, 28 at% Fe, and 10 at% As for the inclusions, which are near the minimum melting temperature in the As-Fe-S ternary. These observations suggest that the inclusions were trapped as liquids during growth of the surrounding arsenian pyrite. Although not a new mineral, this constitutes a third form for arsenian pyrite, which has previously been shown to contain arsenic as either As1- or As3+.


The New Basel Capital Accord will allow the determination of banks' regulatory capital requirements due to default probabilities which are estimated and forecasted from internal ratings. External ratings from rating agencies play fundamental roles in capital and credit markets. Discriminatory power of internal and external ratings is a key requirement for the soundness of a rating system in general and for the acceptation of a bank's internal Rating systems under Basel II. Statistics such as the area under a receiver operating characteristic or the accuracy ratio, are widely used in practice as measures for the performance. This note shows that such measures should only be interpreted with caution. Firstly, the outcomes of the measures depend not only on the discrimination power of the rating system but mainly on the structure of the portfolio under consideration. Thus, the absolute values achieved do not measure the performance of a rating system solely. Secondly, comparisons of the outcomes between different portfolios, different time periods or both may be misleading. As a positive result we show that the value achieved by a rating system which predicts all default probabilities correctly can not be beaten.


This thesis explores how Maximus the Confessor understands created motion. It
describes how he utilises not just one description of motion, but several. Recent
literature has struggled to articulate the diversity of ways for describing motion
available to Maximus. Sometimes these works have over-simplified Maximus' views.
At other times the works gesture toward some important areas, but fail to go into
sufficient technical detail. This study explores how Maximus' descriptions of motion
play important but specific roles in his work. Accordingly, the thesis employs a
strategy of closely reading texts containing key descriptions of motion, clarifying their
meaning, and setting out some implications. The work begins by describing
Maximus' cosmological context, and shows the importance of relating different
senses of motion together. This suggests the need for more specific analyses. Chapters
two and three describe a form of self-continuous motion, showing how it permeates
Maximus' thought. Chapters four and five evaluate two approaches in the secondary
literature. Chapter four focuses on motion as a general principle in the cosmos.
Accordingly, it explores how the general account of motion emerges from a theology
of creation. Chapter five analyses how personhood has been used, with some success,
for describing specific instances of motion in Maximus. The sixth and final chapter
examines how motion is comprised of several different processes working cooperatively.
The thesis does not explicitly investigate how Maximus' views on motion
might be reconstructed in contemporary contexts. Nor does it discuss the broader
implications of created motion for his theology. It offers an alternative reading of this
important but notoriously difficult figure of antiquity, suggesting new avenues of
interpretation, as well as opening a range of topics for further research.


As part of manufacturing systems, the assembly line has become one of the most valuable researches to accomplish the real world problems related to them. Many efforts have been made to seek the best techniques in optimizing assembly lines. Problem statement: Since it was published by Salveson in 1955, some methods and techniques have been developed based on mathematical modeling. In recent years, some researches in Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) have been conducted using Soft Computing (SC) approaches. However, there is no comprehensive survey studies conducted regarding the use of SC in ALB problems, which is became the aim of this study. Approach: This study reviewed published literatures and previous related works that applied SC in solving ALB problems. Main outcomes: This study looks into the suitability of SC approaches in several types of ALB problems. Furthermore, this study provides the classification of ALB problems that can facilitate distinguishing those problems as fields of research. Result: This study found that Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are predominantly applied to solve ALB problems compared to other SC approaches. This high suitability in ALB refers to GAs' main characteristics that include its robustness and flexibility. These SC approaches have mostly been applied to simple ALB problems, which are not problems that are covered in a real complex manufacturing environment. Conclusion/Recommendations: This study recommends that future researches in ALB should be conducted with regard to other issues, beyond the simple ALB problems and more practical to the industries. Besides the advantages of GAs, there are still opportunities to use other SC approaches and the hybrid-systems among them that could increase the suitability of these approaches, especially for multi-objective ALB problems. This study also recommends that human involvement in ALB needs to be considered as a problem factor in ALB.


Three dimensional terrain rendering is used for various computer applications such as mapping software, flight and other simulations, and computer games. Rendering these terrains at a real time frame rate, with a continuously changing view point can be difficult since they contain a large number of polygons. Techniques have been developed to simplify the rendering task. Level of detail (LOD) algorithms can be applied to these terrains to reduce the detail when it is not required. Effective texturing and lighting is usually applied to keep realism while decreasing the polygon count. Using available graphics hardware for these techniques is very useful for increasing performance. Current programmable graphics hardware allows much greater performance for graphics applications than traditional algorithms running on the CPU. Previous research has shown various improvements in terrain rendering performance using GPU programming. In this report, we investigate GPU based procedural texturing and lighting techniques on three dimensional terrain using real terrain data. We implemented some of these techniques and comment on the visual result to help developers consider which techniques to use.


Objectives: Preventing Loss of Independence through Exercise (PLIÉ) is a novel, integrative exercise program for individuals with dementia that combines elements of different conventional and complementary exercise modalities (e.g. tai-chi, yoga, Feldenkrais, and dance movement therapy) and focuses on training procedural memory for basic functional movements (e.g., sit-to-stand) while increasing mindful body awareness and facilitating social connection. This study presents analyses of qualitative data collected during a 36-week cross-over pilot clinical trial in 11 individuals. Methods: Qualitative data included exercise instructors' written notes, which were prepared after each class and also following biweekly telephone calls with caregivers and monthly home visits; three video-recorded classes; and written summaries prepared by research assistants following pre- and post-intervention quantitative assessments. Data were extracted for each study participant and placed onto a timeline for month of observation. Data were coded and analyzed to identify themes that were confirmed and refined through an iterative, collaborative process by the entire team including a qualitative researcher (SA) and the exercise instructors. Results: Three overarching themes emerged: (1) Functional changes included increasing body awareness, movement memory and functional skill. (2) Emotional changes included greater acceptance of resting, sharing of personal stories and feelings, and positive attitude toward exercise. (3) Social changes included more coherent social interactions and making friends. Conclusions: These qualitative results suggest that the PLIÉ program may be associated with beneficial functional, emotional, and social changes for individuals with mild to moderate dementia. Further study of the PLIÉ program in individuals with dementia is warranted.


Nowadays the orientation maps of polycrystalline material are necessary for a better understanding of, for example, the formation of voids in the interconnects of modern electronic devices. As new generation of devices has dramatically reduced in size, new tools are required to meet these spatial resolution specifications. In this work two electron microscopy techniques are used to study the voids nucleation sites. Orientation maps were acquired with Electron BackScattered Diffraction (EBSD) technique and with NanoBeam Electron Diffraction (NBED) coupled with the ASTAR technique [1]. Experiments were performed on a Zeiss LEO1530 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and on a JEOL 2010 FEF Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), both equipped with a FEG (Field Emission Gun). The orientation maps were acquired with a probe size of 15 nm for EBSD and 2.7 nm for NBED. The present study is carried out on polycrystalline copper interconnections as used in the 45 nm technological node. The orientation maps were acquired on the same cross-section sample allowing a precise comparison of the EBSD and ASTAR techniques. This study confirms the localization of the voids nucleation sites (along the Cu/dielectric interface and grain boundaries) and gives new information concerning the orientation in the neighborhood of the voids. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.


We present a method for depositing cells in a sealed microfluidic device. The device consists of a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic network (MFN) sealed with a Si chip. The Si chip has vias and ports that are connected to high-precision motorized pumps. The surfaces of the PDMS MFN are homogeneously coated with fibronectin cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Flow velocity boundaries are created between vicinal microfluidic structures to prevent or permit deposition of cells in specific regions of the MFN. In narrow flow paths, cells experience a wall shear stress from the fast-moving liquid that overcomes the initial adhesion of the cells with CAMs. Conversely, cells can adhere to CAMs in larger flow paths such as cell chambers inside which the velocity of the liquid and the shear stress are reduced. Interactively changing pumping rates makes the critical velocity (the velocity at which cells deposit in the chamber but not elsewhere) easy to find. The transparent PDMS MFN allows both real-time visualization of the deposition process and cellular assays. We illustrate this method using N9 mouse microglia cells. In one experiment, approximately 75 microglia are deposited per min in a approximately 0.5 microL chamber. The deposited cells remain viable, as assessed from staining and biofunctional assays. This method is simple, reliable, fast, and flexible, and therefore is an attractive technique for depositing cells in microfluidic systems for numerous applications.


The majority of cephalopods are thought to have limitations arising from physiology and locomotion that exclude them from shallow, highly variable, euryhaline environments. The brief squid Lolliguncula brevis may be a notable exception because it tolerates low salinities, withstands a wide range of environmental conditions, and swims readily in shallow water. Little is known about the distribution of L. brevis in Chesapeake Bay, a diverse and highly variable estuary. Therefore, a survey of L. brevis was conducted in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay from 1993 to 1997 using a 9.1 m otter trawl, and the effects of selected factors on squid presence were assessed using logistic regression analysis. During spring through fall, L. brevis was collected over a wide range of bottom- water salinities (17.9 to 35.0‰), bottom-water temperatures (8.1 to 29.6°C), bottom-water dissolved oxygen levels (1.9 to 14.6 mg O2 l -1 ), and depths (1.8 to 29.9 m), but it was not present in trawls con- ducted during winter in. L. brevis, especially juveniles < 60 mm dorsal mantle length (DML), were abundant, frequently ranking in the upper 12% of overall annual nektonic trawl catches, and during the fall of some years, ranking second to anchovies. The probability of catching a squid increased in Chesapeake Bay at higher salinities and water temperatures, and was much greater in normoxic than in hypoxic waters; these variables had a profound influence on both annual and seasonal variability in distribution. Salinity had the largest influence on squid distribution, with squid being completely absent from the bay when salinity was <17.9‰ and most abundant in the fall when salinity was high- est (despite declines in water temperature). Squid were most prevalent at depths between 10 and 15 m. The results of this study suggest that L. brevis is an important component of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem when salinities and water temperatures are within tolerance limits and that unlike other squids, L. brevis may be well-equipped for an inshore, euryhaline existence.


ABSTRACT The new commercial-grade Electroencephalography (EEG)-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have led to a phenomenal development of applications across health, entertainment and the arts, while an increasing interest in multi-brain interaction has emerged. In the arts, there is already a number of works that involve the interaction of more than one participants with the use of EEG-based BCIs. However, the field of live brain-computer cinema and mixed-media performances is rather new, compared to installations and music performances that involve multi-brain BCIs. In this context, we present the particular challenges involved. We discuss Enheduanna – A Manifesto of Falling, the first demonstration of a live brain-computer cinema performance that enables the real-time brain-activity interaction of one performer and two audience members; and we take a cognitive perspective on the implementation of a new passive multi-brain EEG-based BCI system to realise our creative concept. This article also presents the preliminary results and future work.


This study focuses on modeling people's perceptions of places and how those perceptions are affected by cultural differences. Cultural background affects the way people feel and recall information. However, it is unclear how cultural background influences individual's perception of geospatial areas such as a town or a city. One way an individual's cultural background varies is with regard to the patterns of one's routine communication. This concept is described by Hall's high-and low-context cultural model (1976). The ways people perceive geospatial places can be characterized in terms of their tendency to rely on specific landmarks or symbolic addresses. In this study, we use an online survey and an online place recognition game to test the hypothesis that high-context individuals will perceive urban places in terms of landmarks rather than symbolic addresses. The results suggest that high-and low-context is not a unified construct. Instead it is a multi-dimensional construct with sub-dimensions where one of those, i.e. one's attitude towards other's communication style, may affect an individual's perception of places.


Creativity is currently a popular, but ill-defined, word in English primary education. The concept of creativity has been a recurring feature of government reports, education acts and advice to teachers but the history of creativity is cycles of promotion followed by a swing away from creativity towards a 'back to basics' model. This cyclical nature of educational thought and practice regarding creativity was analyzed. The main threats to creativity seem to be a lack of shared definition; lack of resources; a perception of creativity as antithetical to standards; and teachers seen as technicians rather than professionals. The Hadow Report (1931), which formalised the primary stage of schooling, did not use the word creativity but advocated many approaches that would be considered creative today. Similar approaches were recommended in the Plowden Report (1967) and again in Excellence and Enjoyment (DfES, 2003). In addition to Excellence and Enjoyment, currently creativity is promoted in The Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum, although they all use the term creativity differently. The result is that the government is promoting creativity without teachers, pupils and the general public sharing a clear understanding of what this means. The danger in this lack of agreement is that creativity becomes a meaningless rallying cry rather than an embedded concept. A common conception of creativity as building on skills and knowledge is needed to prevent another swing away from creativity in education. This needs to be supported by trusted, professional teachers.


Ocean wave is a rich source of renewable energy with much higher power density than winds. Various WEC technologies have been proposed or are under development. In this study, we developed a 2-dimensional (2D) model and analyzed the rotational motion of the lift-type rotor's blade under steady flow and unsteady flow. The numerical model was validated by experiments under steady flow. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis was performed to identify the major contribution of frequency in terms of vortexes generated in the flow field. A comparative study was also performed by comparing all the cases in terms of energy conversion efficiency under different wave conditions. It turns out that the efficiency of energy conversion has a maximum value in the steady flow, while the efficiency for unsteady flow keeps decreasing, therefore this is highly due to the increased dissipation because of the oscillating. When the flow is oscillating, the rotational speed of the rotor under periodic condition is lower than the rotational velocity with steady flow, and a curve fitting was performed in this study to predict the periodic average rotational speed. We conclude that for oscillating flow a minimum of 1.6% energy conversion efficiency can be expected, but it may vary for the actual ocean waves. It is expected the current 2D simulation results can contribute to the wave energy community, especially when the rotor design and optimization is required.


This Article proposes a fundamental shift in the movement to reform employment termination law. For forty years, there has been a near consensus among employee advocates and worklaw scholars that the current doctrine of employment at will should be abandoned in favor of a rule requiring just cause for termination. This Article contends that such calls are misguided, not (as defenders of the current regime have argued) because it grants workers too much protection vis-a-vis management, but because it grants them too little. A just cause rule provides only a weak cause of action to a narrow subset of workers – those able to prove their firing was for purely arbitrary reasons. It fails to account for the justifiable, but still devastating, termination of workers for economic reasons, by far the most common reason for job loss today. In this way, the rule is not only inadequate, but anachronistic. Just cause protection is consistent with a mid-twentieth century view of the social contract of employment, which anticipates a long-term, symbiotic relationship between employer and employee in an economy dependent on internal labor markets. Under such a system, the just cause rule gave legal force to parties' social contract of employment. In contrast, today's employers operate principally in an external labor market in which implicit promises of long-term employment have been replaced by implicit promises of long-term employability. Both companies and workers anticipate significant job turnover both in times of economic turbulence, such as the current downturn, in which employers are forced to shed numerous workers due to financial hardship, as well as during economic bubbles, in which companies lay off workers and reorganize for strategic reasons. Given these practices and expectations, the goal of termination law ought not to be protecting individual jobs but rather assisting workers in the inevitable situation of job loss.To that end, the Article proposes the adoption of a universal "pay-or-play" system of employment termination. Absent serious misconduct, employers would be required to provide advance notice of termination or offer wages and benefits for the duration of the notice period. In contrast to just cause proposals, "pay-or-play" recognizes the necessity and value of employment termination. Rather than encouraging parties to maintain status quo relationships, "pay-or-play" seeks to facilitate transition. It affirms managerial discretion in hiring and firing by eliminating fact intensive inquiries into employer motive. At the same time, it makes real employers' implicit promise of employability by granting workers a window of income security in which they can comfortably search for the next opportunity.


Tidal waves or tsunamis are long water waves of small steepness generated by impulsive geophysical events of the seafloor or by coastal landslides. Whereas their coastal evolution is now well-understood, their generation is not. Until recently (Tadepalli and Synolakis 1994a, 1996), numerous anecdotal records of historic tsunamis where shorelines significantly retreated before the tidal waves advanced up the coastline have been disregarded; the prevailing paradigm for tsunami studies is the modeling of the evolution and runup of a single-hump leading-elevation waves which offshore have solitary-wave profiles. We propose a model for the leading-wave of tsunamis to explain why the coastal manifestation of most tsunamis suggests a leading-depression N-wave, a waveform which causes the shoreline to recede before advancing up the beach. Farfield, we use the Korteweg-De-Vries equation, and we find that N-waves of geophysical scales do not fission over transoceanic propagation distances and no leading solitary waves emerge. Nearshore, we use shallow water theory to calculate the evolution and runup of emerging non-breaking waves, and we observe that they evolve according to Greens' law (Green, 1837, Lamb, 1945, Synolakis, 1991). We discuss the effects of certain ground deformation parameters and provide one application of our theory by modeling the Nicaraguan tsunami of September 1, 1992.


Mapping profiles of SMEs dodol in IPB Lingkar Kampus and assessments cooperation with SMEs that produce dodol in 14 villages with minimum commercial scale has been conducted. The selected SME was Jaya Rasa in Cikarawang, Bogor. Supporting and mentoring of PIRT Certificate of Jaya Rasa SME have been conducted and gained certificate of Home Production (PIRT) for dodol with No. No. P-IRT. 206320101808 in the name of SME owner Mr. Anjay Bustomi. This activity has also successfully developed products processed of taro dodol, fermented taro dodol and its derivatives in the form of chocodolas (Chocolate with dodol talas). These products have been equipped with a representative packaging to be sold as typical products and souvenir of Bogor, including pictures of specific and well known place or location in Bogor. Trademark registration for chocodolas and simple patent registration for fermented taro dodol has been conducted. Justification and trial production of taro dodol on SME location has been done with a production of about 10 kg per week. Marketing of taro dodol, fermented taro dodol and chocodolas has been done by deposit in outlets of stores and school canteens in about 40 outlets. To support the sales and image of the product has also developed an online store for selling the products.


Skin injuries can be treated via grafting. However, since both autologous and allogeneic skin grafts have their own limitations, skin tissue engineering was developed as an alternative approach to promote healing. Autologous tissue-engineered skin requires a few weeks for cell culture and cannot be used for acute treatment. In this study, healing potential of allogeneic bilayered tissue-engineered skin (BTES) was evaluated in sheep. Isolated allogeneic skin cells from the sheep were cultured using a combined medium of DKSFM:F12:DMEM in the ratio 2:1:1 supplemented with 5% FBS. Differential trypsinization was later carried out to separate the fibroblasts and keratinocytes. The allogeneic BTES was fabricated using allogeneic fibrin as biomaterial by polymerizing the fibrin-keratinocyte layer with calcium chloride followed by fibrin-fibroblast layer. Half of the wounds were isolated with PVC rings to prevent cell migration. The wounds were treated with allogeneic BTES and silk, as control. Wounds were observed at days 7, 14 and 21 to determine the rate of reepithelialization. After 3 weeks, the sheep were euthanized. Histological evaluation with H & E, elastin van Gieson and Masson's trichrome staining showed that allogeneic BTES treated wound healed faster compared to the control group. In conclusion, allogeneic BTES has the potential to be developed as off the shelf product for rapid treatment of full thickness wound.


Abstract The authors present an automated, rule-based system for converting piano compositions into paintings. Using a color-note association scale presented by Edward Maryon in 1919, which correlates a 12-tone scale with 12 hues of the color circle, the authors present a simple approach for extracting colors associated with each note played in a piano composition. The authors also describe the color extraction and art generation process in detail, as well as the process for creating "moving art," which imitates the progression of a musical piece in real time. They share and discuss artworks generated for four well-known piano compositions.


Abstract Collaboration, re-storying, privileging insider knowledges, deconstruction, and not-knowing are among the foundational practices of narrative therapy. In this paper, a narrative therapist collaborates with her past clients to retell the story of a 9-year old's resistance to what is called Asperger's Disorder in the psychiatric world. First, the story is told from the mother's perspective. Next, the Asperger's diagnosis is deconstructed and traditional courses of treatment are considered in juxtaposition to a post-modern approach as the story is told from the vantage of the family therapist. Then, the client, now 13, recounts in an interview with the therapist, his thoughts about therapy and what he has carried forward from this experience.


Abstract The Grybów Unit occurring in the Ropa tectonic window was the subject of micropaleontological and geochemical investigation. Studies, based on calcareous nannofossils, proved that the level of reworked microfossil is not higher than 22 % and it varies between two sections. Quantitative analyses of the reworked assemblages confirmed the domination of Cretaceous and Middle Eocene species. The Sub-Grybów Beds, Grybów Marl Formation and Krosno Beds were assigned to the Late Oligocene and represent the terminal flysch facies. Detrital material accumulated in the Oligocene sediments originated from the Marmarosh Massif, which is the eastern prolongation of the Fore-Magura Ridge. The microscopically obtained petrological features agree with the chemical composition of the samples. Mica flakes, rounded grains of glauconite, heavy mineral assemblage, including abraded grains of zircon, rutile and tourmaline as well as charred pieces of plant tissues are reworked components. Enrichment in zircon and rutile is confirmed geochemically by positive correlation between Zr and SiO2. Zr addition is illustrated on 10×Al2O3–Zr–200×TiO2 and Zr/Sc vs. Th/Sc diagrams. Interpretation of the A–CN–K diagram and variety of CIA and CPA values indicate that the source rocks were intensely weathered granite-type rocks.


Acetylsalicylic acid is one of the most prescribed medications in the world. It is used for prevention of acute myocardial infarction, colorectal cancer, antipyretic, and as an analgesic. This study aimed to investigate the in vitro bioequivalence of three formulations of acetylsalicylic acid, simulating physiological conditions of the dissolution medium, and analyzing its possible implication for public health. A spectrophotometric method for the quantification of acetylsalicylic acid at 265 nm was used. The dissolution test was performed using a USP apparatus 2 (paddle) with 900 mL of medium at 37 ± 0.5 °C and 75 rpm. At pH 4.5 and 6.8, the three formulations did not meet the criteria of very fast or fast dissolution (85% in ≤ 15 or 30 min, respectively). Generic A has a similarity factor ( f 2 ) of 50 at pH 4.5 and 80.7 at pH 6.8; generic C f 2 values were 31.2 at pH 4.5 and 72.4 at pH 6.8. Generic B did not meet the acceptance range of the similarity factor (50 − 100) at pH 4.5 and 6.8. For all products tested, the dissolution efficiency was greater than 79%, and the mean dissolution time was 5.5–15.9 min. Based on the in vitro dissolution results, Generic A is bioequivalent with the innovator, whereas generics B and C are not. However, the dissolution profiles of generics A and C are similar to the innovator at pH 6.8, which is the appropriate dissolution medium for this drug.


The serum activities or concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), albumin, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), bilirubin (BIL), cholic acid (CHOL), chenodeoxycholic acid (CHENO), and transferrin with isoelectric point 5.7, and the urinary excretion of albumin were determined among male current or former house painters (n = 135) and house carpenters (n = 71) who had worked in their trades for at least 10 years before 1970. Workers who showed a value above the 90th percentile among the carpenters in at least one of the tests ASAT, ALAT, GGT, BIL, CHOL, or CHENO were regarded as showing "possible signs of liver dysfunction". Each participant's lifetime solvent exposure was evaluated by interview. The painters were divided into categories with low, intermediate, and heavy cumulative exposure during life (LTSE) or during the most exposed year (MEYSE). All participants stated none or slight recent exposure. The prevalence of possible signs of liver dysfunction increased with solvent exposure category according to LTSE as well as MEYSE with a numerically higher risk estimate in the heavy exposure category for MEYSE than for LTSE. ALP activity increased with exposure category according to both exposure estimates. This increase seemed to be due to an interaction between exposure to solvents and current or previous long term intake of medicines potentially toxic to the liver. None of these results was affected by whether or not the subjects had been exposed to solvents during the year before the investigation. The exposure to solvents was not significantly related to any other outcome variable. It is concluded that long term heavy exposure to solvents may elicit changes in conventional liver function tests indicative of a mild chronic effect on the liver. The findings also suggest that heavy solvent exposure during short time periods is a more likely cause of the findings than lifetime cumulative solvent exposure and that an interaction between solvent exposure and medicines potentially harmful to the liver may be important in the causation of the effects.


While conducting doctoral research in social science on late motherhood, two analytical engagements with the feminine came to my attention as evidence of a patriarchal bias toward the realm of womanhood. Whether her name was anima, the unconscious or mother, the views of the analytical fathers appeared to be perpetuating a social problem continuing in current times. Across affective fields and narratives on late procreative desire, buried in the Word Association Experiment and held in dream journals, was the memory of a male sibling who had enjoyed primacy of place in the parental home over the daughter. Taking a cue from Kalsched's psycho-spiritual approach to the ways in which development, in particular feminine development is interrupted, my talk tracks one particular research Participant's ambivalent relationship to becoming a mother, the lengths she went to, including changing her sexual identity, to create what she had missed from early life: a family.


Sexual transmission is a widespread means of infection, but apart from those in humans, the ecology of sexually transmitted organisms is not well known. In this study, we present an ecological study of a sexually transmitted mite, Parobia husbandi Seeman and Nahrung (Acari: Podapolipidae), that lives beneath the elytra of Chrysophtharta agricola (Chapuis) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). In each of 2 yr, prevalence of mites on beetles began each spring at about 10–20% but gradually increased to 80–100% by late summer. Overlap of adult beetle generations at this time (i.e., the parental generation mating with the F1 generation) is essential for the persistence of these mites. Mites exhibited temporal change in their spatial distribution on beetles; these changes were probably a response to beetle activity (e.g., emergence from diapause) and the need for dispersal from parental to F1 generation beetles. Prevalence and mean intensity of mites was higher on female beetles compared with male beetles. Female bias of sexually transmitted infection has been predicted in animals but hitherto observed only in primates. We speculate that variable male mate-finding success is the cause of these sex-based differences of mite infections, and that female bias in sexually transmitted disease (STD) infection will be widespread in the animal kingdom.


"Martin Creed: Works" presents the first comprehensive survey of the work and career of Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed. Renowned for his straightforward approach to making art and his deft economy of means, Creed has produced sculptures, installations, drawings, films, performances, music and text, each of which has found its inspiration in the objects and activities of everyday life. This extensive volume documents more than 700 works produced over twenty years, selected by the artist himself. Always in search of the essential nature of things, Creed uses the simplest materials to create a world in which reality appears transformed by conceptual rules, as well as by the unexpected breaking of those rules. His work is simultaneously subtle and spectacular, austere and playful whether it be a sheet of paper crumpled into a ball, a protrusion from the wall, a door opening and closing, the lights going on and off, or a soundtrack inside a moving lift. The book features a foreword by the artist and accompanying texts by Germaine Greer, Darian Leader, Colm Toibin and others, supplemented by an exhibition history, bibliography and biography.


Summary.  Telomerase activity is present at low levels in peripheral lymphocytes (PL) and is upregulated upon activation, possibly protecting PL from telomere shortening. As decreased telomere length is considered a sign of cellular senescence, telomerase may, therefore, play an important role on immune function, organ regeneration and carcinogenesis. So far, quantification of human telomerase reverse transcriptase levels (hTERT) in PL, has not been reported. We determined hTERT mRNA levels in PL of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients, in an attempt to address whether hTERT transcripts in PL are altered in these viral diseases, which are characterized by immune dysfunction and increased incidence of hepatocarcinogenesis. hTERT mRNA levels in PL of HBV (n = 17), HCV (n = 24) patients and healthy controls (n = 22) were quantified by real‐time polymerase chain reaction. We observed significantly lower hTERT mRNA levels in HBV and HCV patients compared with healthy individuals (P < 0.05). hTERT mRNA levels were not associated with the patients' clinical status (inactive, hepatitis and cirrhosis). Also no correlation was observed between hTERT mRNA expression, and HBV and HCV replicative activity. In the inactive group (n = 18) we observed a negative correlation between hTERT mRNA expression and disease duration (rs = −0.52, P < 0.03). We performed for the first time an accurate quantification of hTERT mRNA expression in PL of HBV and HCV patients. The observed low levels of hTERT mRNA expression in the above patients may suggest its involvement in the immunopathogenesis of chronic viral hepatitis.


The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Broward County water managers commenced a 3.5-year cooperative study in July 2012 to refine the geologic and hydrogeologic framework of the Floridan aquifer system (FAS, fig. 1) in Broward County (Cunningham, 2013). A lack of advanced stratigraphic knowledge of the physical system and structural geologic anomalies (faults and fractures originating from tectonics and karst-collapse structures) within the FAS pose a risk to the sustainable management of the resource. The principal objective of the study is to better define the regional stratigraphic and structural setting of the FAS in Broward County (fig. 1). The objective will be achieved through the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of new seismic-reflection data along several canals in Broward County. The interpretation includes integration of the new seismic-reflection data with existing seismic-reflection profiles along Hillsboro Canal in Broward County (Cunningham, 2013; Reese and Cunningham, 2014) and within northeast Miami-Dade County (fig. 2), as well as with data from nearby FAS wellbores. The scope of the study includes mapping the geologic, hydrogeologic, and seismicreflection framework of the FAS, and identifying stratigraphic and structural characteristics that could either facilitate or preclude the sustainable use of the FAS as an alternate water supply or a treated effluent repository. In addition, the investigation offers an opportunity to: (1) improve existing groundwater flow models, (2) enhance the understanding of the sensitivity of the groundwater system to well-field development and upconing of saline fluids, and (3) support site selection for future FAS projects, such as Class I wells that would inject treated effluent into the deep Boulder Zone (fig. 1).


Abergairn Castle is finely situated on the summit of an isolated kaim about half a mile west of the upper outlet of the Pass of Ballater, and about the same distance north-east of St. Kentigern's ancient church, near the junction of the Gairn with the Dee. The castle had commanded a magnificent view, now partly obscured to the south-west by graceful birch trees, of Glenmuick and the hills which enclose it, culminating in the grand outline of Lochnagar. Westward and northward the ground rises and hides the valleys of the Dee and the Gairn. To the east and south the kaim sinks abruptly into a wide bottom extending to the mouth of the Pass of Ballater. Through this bottom runs a tiny stream that drains the Pass ; and the flats adjoining its bed are still largely in marsh, so that before modern drainage this must have provided a strong defence for the site.


Visual Authoring System Benefits Instruction As Well as Instructor at Ohio State J. Brooks Breeden was, in his words, "capital-B bored." A professor in the department of landscape architecture at The Ohio State University, he teaches courses that involve lots of mathematical problem-solving. And for a while there, in the mid-'70s, he spent virtually all his free time on campus holed up in his office constructing those math problems--horizontal and vertical curve calculations, percent of slope calculations, etc. Fresh problems for tests, student practice, classwork and homework assignments were necessary, of course, but to Breeden they were all "old-hat." Students of landscape architecture, which concerns the design of all outdoor space, study civil engineering, horticulture, ecology and the natural sciences. Math plays an important role in the discipline. Miscalculate the low point in a driveway curve, and the catch basin for run-off could wind up a yard away from a puddle of rainwater. Miscalculate where to construct an apartment building, and zoning laws could require that it be torn down. Breeden's classes help ensure that future land planners know how to correctly determine such things. Interim Solutions In 1976, Breeden consulted Ohio State's office of computer-assisted instruction (now the office of computer-based instruction) to see if courseware existed that could automatically generate random math problems suited to his purposes. It didn't, but a systems analyst in the office, Carl Philabaum, helped Breeden develop his own CAI program--written from the ground up. "I was not aware at the time of any high-level authoring languages," says Breeden. "I thought you just had to do this." Over the next few years, he and various colleagues painstakingly wrote a series of problem-generating CAI programs, but a disquieting fact slowly emerged. The mainframe terminals that this courseware ran on couldn't handle graphics, so students had to visualize some highly complex scenarios. A formal university study in 1981 confirmed what Breeden suspected: Students didn't transfer learning from the alphanumeric computer displays to real-world graphical applications. For a brief time, Breeden was able to remedy this by using Magnavox Orion plasma-panel terminals with 35mm rear-slide projection and touch-sensitive screens. But when the machines were discontinued and the language support was withdrawn, CAI reverted to the original mainframe terminals. In 1984, 20 IBM PCs were installed in a School of Architecture lab, and Breeden rewrote 24 problem-generating programs to run on them. Adequate graphics could be displayed on this equipment, but they were complicated and time-consuming to produce. A Chance Encounter When HyperCard came on the scene in Fall 1987, Breeden went back to Ohio State's office of computer-assisted instruction to investigate the possibility of using it for CAI. A member of the office staff, however, had something else to show him: a demo of the icon-based Course of Action authoring system from Authorware, Inc. of Bloomington, Minn. "It blew me away," recalls Breeden. "I said, 'My God, look at the animation. …


Cancer immunotherapy often aims at the reactivation and expansion of tumor-specific CTL. In an attempt to correlate in situ and/or systemic tumor-specific T cell expansion with tumor regression, we investigated the effects of adenovirus-mediated IL-12 or IFN-gamma gene transfer into established P815 murine tumors. While IFN-gamma was no more potent than the vector alone, IL-12 gene transfer promoted tumor eradication. Despite this antitumor effect, no significant cytolytic activity was detectable using classical cytotoxicity assays from in vitro restimulated splenocytes. Since intratumor gene delivery may induce a localized expansion of CTL, the presence of P815-specific CD8+ T cells in situ was assessed. Using the Immunoscope approach, we found a dramatic increase in clonotypic T cells at the tumor site following IL-12, but not IFN-gamma gene delivery. Antitumor CD8+ T cell frequencies were then re-evaluated using this molecular detection technique, which revealed a comparable expansion of specific T cells in the peripheral organs, most strikingly in the blood. These data show that local IL-12 gene transfer, in contrast to IFN-gamma, mediates a potent antitumor effect that correlates to clonal tumor-specific T cell expansions in situ and in the periphery.


We consider the problem of minimizing a functional over a parametric family of probability measures, where the parameterization is characterized via a push-forward structure. An important application of this problem is in training generative adversarial networks. In this regard, we propose a novel Sinkhorn Natural Gradient (SiNG) algorithm which acts as a steepest descent method on the probability space endowed with the Sinkhorn divergence. We show that the Sinkhorn information matrix (SIM), a key component of SiNG, has an explicit expression and can be evaluated accurately in complexity that scales logarithmically with respect to the desired accuracy. This is in sharp contrast to existing natural gradient methods that can only be carried out approximately. Moreover, in practical applications when only Monte-Carlo type integration is available, we design an empirical estimator for SIM and provide the stability analysis. In our experiments, we quantitatively compare SiNG with state-of-the-art SGD-type solvers on generative tasks to demonstrate its efficiency and efficacy of our method.


Using minute-by-minute data from over 60,000 smart thermostats in households distributed across the United States, we analyze the persistence of energy consumption behaviors in response to external weather shocks. The analysis examines habitual behavior and provides insight into what affects long term change and what triggers the decision to reconsider one's passive choices. Our preferences for indoor temperatures demonstrate habituation to outdoor temperatures. This habituation is asymmetrical between positive and negative changes and non-linear at the extremes. While our indoor temperature preferences habituate to match small outdoor changes, our preferences revert to long term means in response to extreme temperature change. We also find people are more likely to make active choices when outdoor temperature is salient. Finally, we show there is heterogeneity in how preferences respond as a function of social norms, political preferences, and change costs. Results provide guidance on how conservation policies impact energy use–failure to understand the influence of habit on decision making can lead us to over-estimate the impact of short term policy nudges but underestimate the long run impact of small changes. Our results also inform how changing average temperatures and changing cultural attitudes may affect energy conservation behaviors.


Diffuse reflectance and photoacoustic (PAS) IR techniques are used for spectral measurements of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) fibers. The spectral observations on the fibers are similar to those observed in films. The stress-induced phase transformation is reversible with annealing of the drawn fibers. The annealing process also increases the amount of crystallinity in the fiber. With the use of recently developed PAS methodology to study orientation of the surface species, the orientation of surface aromatic and carbonyl groups is analyzed. In the alpha phase, the surface aromatic rings are preferentially perpendicular on the surface whereas carbonyl groups are preferentially parallel. A similar orientation is observed in the drawn fibers. Annealing of the drawn fibers changes the orientation of the aromatic rings. Upon annealing, the phenyl rings are preferentially parallel to the surface. The depth of penetration at 3000 cm−1 in PBT fibers is found to be approximately 4 μ.


Abstract The crystal structure of seeligerite, Pb3IO4Cl3, from the San Rafael mine, Sierra Gorda, Chile, was solved in the space group Cmm2, and refined to R = 3.07%. The unit-cell parameters are: a = 7.971(2), b = 7.976(2), c = 27.341(5) Å, V = 1738.3(6) Å3 and Z = 8. The crystal structure consists of a stacking sequence along [001] of square-net layers of O atoms and square-net layers of Cl atoms with Pb2+ and I5+ cations located in the voids of the packing. As is typical of cations with a stereoactive lone-pair of electrons, Pb2+ and I5+ adopt strongly-asymmetrical configurations. Pb2+ cations occur in a variety of coordination polyhedra, ranging from anticubes and monocapped anticubes to pyramidal 'one-sided' coordinations. I5+ is coordinated by a square of four oxygen atoms: I1 and I3 exhibit a 'one-sided' coordination, whereas I2 has square-planar coordination. The TEM investigation has revealed additional superlattice reflections (which were not registered by X-ray diffraction (XRD)) in the hk0 diffraction pattern of seeligerite based upon a 0.158 Å-1 square net, which can be interpreted as arising from a 20-cation super-sheet motif (12.6 Å × 12.6 Å), likely related to a further level of Pb-I order superimposed upon the 8-site motif identified by XRD.


ABSTRACT This collectively written work offers a map of our ongoing efforts to work through critical approaches to the study of security and global politics with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa, engaging both experiences and voices of scholars from and working in the region. The unique contribution of the project, we suggest, is threefold. First, we reflect on our commitment to decolonial pedagogy, and how our collective experiences organising a Beirut-based summer school on critical security studies for graduate students and junior scholars living and working in West Asia, North Africa, and the Levant are shaping the project. Second, we affirm and extend the contributions that postcolonial international relations and critical approaches to security have made to scholarship on the region, and to our own work. Third, we take inspiration from the C.A.S.E. collective's interest in 'security traps' and address how and to what extent security discourse may risk colonising other fields in the pursuit of interdisciplinary scholarship. The article concludes with a transition to individual reflections by the authors to highlight the plurality of approaches to the project.


Real-world information is imperfect and is usually described in natural language (NL). Moreover, this information is often partially reliable and a degree of reliability is also expressed in NL. In view of this, the concept of a Z-number is a more adequate concept for the description of real-world information. The main critical problem that naturally arises in processing Z-numbers-based information is the computation with Z-numbers. Nowadays, there is no arithmetic of Z-numbers suggested in existing literature. This book is the first to present a comprehensive and self-contained theory of Z-arithmetic and its applications. Many of the concepts and techniques described in the book, with carefully worked-out examples, are original and appear in the literature for the first time.The book will be helpful for professionals, academics, managers and graduate students in fuzzy logic, decision sciences, artificial intelligence, mathematical economics, and computational economics. Readership: Researchers, academics, professionals and graduate students in fuzzy logic, decision sciences and artificial intelligence.


The search for the missing heritability in genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) has become an important focus for the human genetics community. One suspected location of these genetic effects is in gene–gene interactions, or epistasis. The computational burden of exploring gene–gene interactions in the wealth of data generated in GWAS, along with small to moderate sample sizes, have led to epistasis being an afterthought, rather than a primary focus of GWAS analyses. In this review, I discuss some potential approaches to filter a GWAS dataset to a smaller, more manageable dataset where searching for epistasis is considerably more feasible. I describe a number of alternative approaches, but primarily focus on the use of prior biological knowledge from databases in the public domain to guide the search for epistasis. The manner in which prior knowledge is incorporated into a GWA study can be many and these data can be extracted from a variety of database sources. I discuss a number of these approaches and propose that a comprehensive approach will likely be most fruitful for searching for epistasis in large‐scale genomic studies of the current state‐of‐the‐art and into the future.


ABSTRACT Citizenship education has evolved substantially in recent decades, with a rapid proliferation of education forms and approaches. The currently available evaluation studies, however, do not allow us to determine what kind of approach can be considered as a best practice for schools and education systems. In this article, we rely on the results of a 5-year panel study to investigate the long-term effects of various forms of citizenship education. Using the Belgian Political Panel Survey (n = 3,025), a three-wave longitudinal panel survey of 16-, 18- and 21-year-old Belgian late adolescents and young adults, we determine which citizenship education effort (i.e., classroom instruction, being a member of a school council, and an open-classroom climate) has a long-term effect on political trust and political interest. The results suggest that classroom instruction, the presence of an open-classroom climate, and being a member of a school board are positively related to political trust. We also find that classroom instruction and being a member of a school board are significantly associated with higher levels of political interest. We close with some observations on what these findings imply for citizenship education policies.


Endothermically decomposing mineral fillers, such as aluminium or magnesium hydroxide, magnesium carbonate, or mixed magnesium/calcium carbonates and hydroxides, such as naturally occurring mixtures of huntite and hydromagnesite are in heavy demand as sustainable, environmentally benign fire retardants. They are more difficult to deploy than the halogenated flame retardants they are replacing, as their modes of action are more complex, and are not equally effective in different polymers. In addition to their presence (at levels up to 70%), reducing the flammable content of the material, they have three quantifiable fire retardant effects: heat absorption through endothermic decomposition; increased heat capacity of the polymer residue; increased heat capacity of the gas phase through the presence of water or carbon dioxide. These three contributions have been quantified for eight of the most common fire retardant mineral fillers, and the effects on standard fire tests such as the LOI, UL 94 and cone calorimeter discussed. By quantifying these estimable contributions, more subtle effects, which they might otherwise mask, may be identified.


With contributions from some of the most important current feminist thinkers, Transformations traces both the shifts in thinking that have allowed feminism to arrive at its present point, and the way that feminist agendas have progressed in line with wider social developments.

A thorough reassessment of feminism's place in contemporary life, the authors engage in current debates as diverse as globalization, technoscience, embodiment and performativity, taking feminism in fresh directions, mapping new territory and suggesting alternative possibilities.


If an eyewitness rejects a show-up, police may respond by finding a new suspect and conducting a second show-up with the same eyewitness. Police may continue finding suspects and conducting show-ups until the eyewitness makes an identification (Study 1). Relatively low criterion-setting eyewitnesses filter themselves out of the multiple show-ups procedure by choosing the first suspect with whom they are presented (Studies 2 and 3). Accordingly, response bias was more stringent on the second show-up when compared with the first, but became no more stringent with additional show-ups. Despite this stringent shift in response bias, innocence risk increased with additional show-ups, as false alarms cumulate (Studies 2 and 3). Although unbiased show-up instructions decreased innocent suspect identifications, the numbers were still discouraging (Study 4). Given the high number of innocent suspects who would be mistakenly identified through the use of multiple show-up procedures, using such identifications as evidence of guilt is questionable. Although evidence of guilt is limited to identifications from a single show-up, practical constraints might sometimes require police to use additional show-ups. Accordingly, we propose a stronger partition between evidentiary and investigative procedures.


This article draws on anthropological research conducted with communities in Ayacucho, the region of Peru that suffered the greatest loss of life during the internal armed conflict of the 1980s and 1990s. One particularity of internal wars, such as Peru's, is that foreign armies do not wage the attacks: frequently, the enemy is a son-in-law, a godfather, an old schoolmate, or the community that lies just across the valley. The charged social landscape of the present reflects the lasting damage done by a recent past in which people saw just what their neighbors could do. The author contributes to the literature on transitional justice by examining the construction and deconstruction of lethal violence among "intimate enemies" and by analyzing how the concepts and practices of communal justice have permitted the development of a micropolitics of reconciliation in which campesinos administer both retributive and restorative forms of justice.


This research project aimed generally to investigate the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to deliver legal research skills training at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Legal research skills are an increasingly important part of students' studies. It is vital that law graduates are equipped with the necessary skills to research a legal problem adequately to become a competent legal practitioner. As SOAS law students study not only English and EU law, but also the laws of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, they need to be able to develop research skills that enable them to find relevant regional material effectively, accurately and successfully.

However, a number of problems have come to light at SOAS which have initiated a change in the way legal research skills training is currently delivered – including the
issue of student retention, high numbers of international students, diversity of students' backgrounds and skills, and their different information needs. Thus, an investigation was undertaken into how SOAS can use the capabilities of a VLE to help change the current approach to legal research skills training.

A questionnaire was delivered to all law students currently studying at SOAS to discover their specific information needs relating to legal research skills. Additionally, an evaluation policy was constructed using previous research and the experience of other institutions, to evaluate two existing legal research skills programmes available in the UK and Australia. The results of this evaluation and questionnaire help to inform
the construction of the framework.

The results provided a general framework for the delivery of legal research skills training to undergraduate students at SOAS. By including the more generic skills as
well as specific legal research skills, this framework has a wider application and can, therefore, be used, compared and adapted for further research by other institutions.


The contribution of denitrification to sediment metabolism was studied at 2 sites (muddy and sandy) in unvegetated tidal creek sediments from a small Cape Cod, USA, salt marsh receiving nitrate-enriched groundwater flows (32 mmol m -2 d -1 ). Simultaneous measurements of sediment N2, CO2, O2, and dissolved inorganic N fluxes were made over annual cycles. A total of 46% of the ammonium remineralized within the sediments was transformed to N2 by coupled nitrification- denitrification (Dn). Denitrifying and nitrifying bacteria contributed 15 and 18% to total sediment C and O cycling, respectively. C, N, and O2 cycling rates were limited by both temperature and the availability of labile organic matter. Muddy sediment C content was twice that of sandy sediments, but was half as labile, resulting in similar mean metabolic rates between sediment types (mean muddy and sandy O2 consumption rates were 62 and 58 mmol m -2 d -1 , respectively; CO2 production was 58 and 46 mmol m -2 d -1 ; and Dn was 5.4 and 4.9 mmol N m -2 d -1 ). Sediment δ 13 C (-18.5 and -20.8‰) and the molar CO2:N flux ratio (6.1) at both sites are consistent with a sediment metabolism based on algal rather than macrophytic biomass, and groundwater nitrate was the dominant source of N supporting algal growth. Annually, Dn accounted for 72% of total denitrification, with the remainder accounted for by water column-supported denitrification. Since all the denitrified N orig- inated from groundwater nitrate, algal uptake must have initially out-competed denitrification for water column nitrate, but nearly half of this algal N was subsequently remineralized and denitrified.


Simultaneous machine translation (SiMT) aims to translate a continuous input text stream into another language with the lowest latency and highest quality possible. The translation thus has to start with an incomplete source text, which is read progressively, creating the need for anticipation. In this paper, we seek to understand whether the addition of visual information can compensate for the missing source context. To this end, we analyse the impact of different multimodal approaches and visual features on state-of-the-art SiMT frameworks. Our results show that visual context is helpful and that visually-grounded models based on explicit object region information are much better than commonly used global features, reaching up to 3 BLEU points improvement under low latency scenarios. Our qualitative analysis illustrates cases where only the multimodal systems are able to translate correctly from English into gender-marked languages, as well as deal with differences in word order, such as adjective-noun placement between English and French.


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
Living tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) based on rapidly degrading scaffolds and autologous cells might overcome the limitations of today's valve substitutes. Following minimally invasive trans-apical implantation into an ovine model, TEHVs showed adequate in-vivo functionality, but a thickening of the leaflets was observed. In order to evaluate the impact of the substantial tissue deformations of TEHVs associated with the crimping procedure during minimally invasive delivery, trans-apical and conventional implantation technologies were compared in an ovine model.

METHODS
Trileaflet heart valves (n=11) based on PGA/P4HB-scaffolds, integrated into self-expandable stents, were engineered from autologous ovine vascular-derived cells. After in-vitro culture, the TEHVs were either implanted surgically (n=5), replacing the native pulmonary valve, or delivered trans-apically (n=6) into the orthotopic pulmonary valve position. In-vivo functionality was assessed by echocardiography and by angiography for up to eight weeks. The tissue compositions of the explanted TEHVs and corresponding control valves were analyzed.

RESULTS
TEHV implantations were successful in all cases. Independent of the implantation method, the explants demonstrated a comparable layered tissue formation with thickening and deposited fibrous layers. Active remodeling of these layers was evident in the explants, as indicated by vascularization of the walls, invasion of the host cells, and the formation of a luminal endothelial layer on the TEHV leaflets.

CONCLUSION
This direct comparison of trans-apical and conventional surgical implantation techniques showed that crimping had no adverse effect on the integrity or functional outcome of TEHVs. This suggests that a thickening of TEHVs in vivo is neither caused by nor enhanced by the crimping procedure, but represents a functional tissue remodeling process.


In this article, a routing protocol EARP (Energy Aware Routing Protocol) with the terminal node is proposed, to deal with the impact of the limited energy resources of Cognitive Radio Networks on the whole network routing. The protocol allows choosing the route from the neighbor nodes in different transmission paths, according to energy consumption of a single node and the full path. If the path breaks, the protocol will increase local routing maintenance strategy. It effectively reduces the retransmission caused by the situation, and improves the routing efficiency. It also can prevent the link transmission process selecting the fault route due to the energy depletion. Through simulation experiments compared with the LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) routing protocol, the results showed that in the same experimental environment, the proposed EARP could obviously balance the load, protect low energy nodes, prolong the network survival time and reduce packet loss rate and packet delay of data delivery. So it can improve the energy consumption of sensing node and provide routing capabilities.


Several studies report a right hemisphere advantage for visuospatial integration and a left hemisphere advantage for inferring conceptual knowledge from patterns of covariation. The present study examined hemispheric asymmetry in the implicit learning of new visual feature combinations. A split-brain patient and normal control participants viewed multishape scenes presented in either the right or the left visual fields. Unbeknownst to the participants, the scenes were composed from a random combination of fixed pairs of shapes. Subsequent testing found that control participants could discriminate fixed-pair shapes from randomly combined shapes when presented in either visual field. The split-brain patient performed at chance except when both the practice and the test displays were presented in the left visual field (right hemisphere). These results suggest that the statistical learning of new visual features is dominated by visuospatial processing in the right hemisphere and provide a prediction about how fMRI activation patterns might change during unsupervised statistical learning.


Despite several developments in logistics that strive to decrease costs, tendencies can be found for increased logistical costs (Pewe, 2011, p. 17). Some factors causing increased system complexity are increased selection and faster market movements. The Warehouse Department at Carlsberg Sverige in Falkenberg has been chosen to be studied regarding continuous quality improvements. Carlsberg Sverige implemented an automated inventory system and automated order-picking system in 2012-2013, which has had about 40% increase of stock keeping units (SKUs) since the investments. Since the implementation of the automation Carlsberg Sverige has encountered challenges with other quality of goods. The system has become more sensitive and it has become more important to eliminate deviation.The study aimed to develop a way for long-term reduction or elimination of quality errors that result in negative effects to the system. A specific area investigated was regarding both effect of the organization in a holistic perspective and on a level of detail of the analyzed area. The study did not include quality of beverages, but only external quality problems of goods, such as faulty stacking of packages or plastic wrapping hanging outside of the goods.An exploratory study was conducted with predominantly quantitative data collection methods. Initially a current state mapping was made, a flow chart was created through interviews and observations of employees. Critical activities / situations were identified in the flow chart and three areas were determined for further investigation regarding quality errors. Observations were carried out where all occurred abnormalities were registered. The results were analyzed and a focus area determined for continued deeper examination. A final model was created with the influence of theories and collected data from the case study.The examined focus area was part of the fully automated warehouse. Adaptation to the new automation was still under investigation and a need for more clarity in the continuous quality improvements . From the observations, it was revealed that in approximately 70% of the observing time in the focus area, there was an error in the area affected system. Registered errors were categorized into ten groups, seven groups were included in the research scope. Out of the seven categories there were two significance regarding amount of repetitions of registered errors; unreadable label was measured 30 times, and plastic wrapping outside goods was discovered 12 times during 7 hours of measurement. Significance regarding average duration was discovered for; system errors of labels and wood detected by sensors on conveyors.Detected errors with significance were further analyzed with fishbone diagrams to find root-causes. Several common causes were discovered in the fishbone diagrams, for instance regarding inadequate methods and measurements. The discoveries functioned as basis for the final model that consists of: Key Performance Indexes (KPI's), a flow chart of affecting processes, daily whiteboard meetings, improved communication channels and a process for implementation of routines. The model developed was to fit this case study, which represents; a complex system with lots of shift work, both manual and automated processes and handling of beverage goods. Despite this, the model is considered to function as a basis to work on continuous quality improvements for organizations outside the mentioned scope, but with modifications of the model.


Monitoring activities using video data is an important surveillance problem. A special scenario is to learn the pattern of normal activities and detect abnormal events from a very low resolution video where the moving objects are small enough to be modeled as point objects in a 2D plane. Instead of tracking each point separately, we propose to model an activity by the polygonal 'shape' of the configuration of these point masses at any time t, and its deformation over time. We learn the mean shape and the dynamics of the shape change using hand-picked location data (no observation noise) and define an abnormality detection statistic for the simple case of a test sequence with negligible observation noise. For the more practical case where observation (point locations) noise is large and cannot be ignored, we use a particle filter to estimate the probability distribution of the shape given the noisy observations up to the current time. Abnormality detection in this case is formulated as a change detection problem. We propose a detection strategy that can detect both 'drastic' and 'slow' abnormalities. Our framework can be directly applied for object location data obtained using any type of sensors - visible, radar, infrared or acoustic.


Among the large-scale facilities operated at the Center for Lightweight-Production-Technology of the German Aerospace Center in Stade BALU is the world's largest research autoclave. With a loading length of 20m and a loading diameter of 5.8 m the main objective of the facility is the optimization of the curing process operated by components made of carbon fiber on an industrial scale. For this reason, a novel dynamic autoclaving control has been developed that is characterized by peripheral devices to expend the performance of the facility for differential applications, by sensing systems to detect the component state throughout the curing process and by a feedback system, which is capable to intervene into the running autoclave process.


In Exploring the Gospel of John, scholars of international standing gather to honor D. Moody Smith by examining the trails he has blazed in Johannine scholarship. Every aspect of the study of John is represented in this book, including the historical origins of the Johannine community, the religious traditions in the gospel within and beyond early Christianity, the Fourth Gospel's literary dimensions and theological concerns, and the distinctive challenges presented by the Gospel's interpretation. This book is indispensable for all interested in the Fourth Gospel. For researchers, it summarizes the modern history of Johannine scholarship as it points the way for its advancement in the next century. For pastors and students, it offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, and reliable guide to this important New Testament book.


Alachlor [2-chloro-N-(2,6-diethylphenyl)-N-(methoxymethyl) acetamide] dissipation in the field shows two characteristics: (i) rapid, initial loss followed by slower degradation and (ii) sensitivity to environmental conditions including precipitation patterns, soil temperature, and soil-water content. Empirical models, such as a first-order equation, are simple and easy to use, but they do not accurately predict alachlor dissipation in the field. Complex mechanistic models provide theoretical mechanisms for dissipation, but their usefulness can be limited because they typically require data that is difficult to acquire under field conditions. We developed a hybrid model (M2CM) for alachlor dissipation based on a two-compartment model (2CM). Our model requires only easily-collected weather, soil, and pesticide information. It predicts the daily amount of alachlor in the soil and calculates times for 50 and 90% dissipation. We calibrated it with data from 30-cm-deep field-soil samples and weather records from the 1993 growing season. Using 1992 and 1994 environmental data, the model calculated dissipation values that fit field-sample data accurately (0.95 ≤ r 2 ≤ 0.99). Results from the 2CM were not as consistently satisfactory (0.64 ≤ r 2 ≤ 0.97). According to the M2CM, the alachlor half-life (time to 50% dissipation) was 1 d for all 3 yr. Time to 90% dissipation was 18 d for 1992, 23 d for 1993, and 15 d for 1994.


A phosphine-mediated domino reaction between phthalimidomalonates and allenoates furnishes highly functionalized pyrroloisoindolinone derivatives in synthetically useful yields. When ethyl but-2-ynoate was reacted with phthalimidomalonates under the same conditions, pyrroloisoindolinone derivatives were also obtained in good to excellent yields. The mechanism for the transformation is a tandem γ-umpolung/Wittig/γ-umpolung process. The present domino reaction not only exploits the potential of allenoates, but also extends the existing phosphine-mediated cyclization scope.


Opportunity theories of crime suggest that crime occurs in specific spatio-temporal patterns due to an increase in opportunity and a decrease in risk. Financially-motivated crimes have been demonstrated to be influenced by the economy. From an opportunity perspective this is likely to be due to changes in an individual's financial circumstances leading them to view the benefits of crime to outweigh the risks. To extend this idea, this research is examining whether financial hardship influences the perceived costs/benefits associated with crimes such as vehicle arson committed with the intention of escaping debt. From 1997-2003, vehicle fires in Surrey were occurring at a rate more than double the national average and many of these were transpiring under suspicious circumstances. Using an opportunity theory framework, this study aims to examine the spatio-temporal patterns of vehicle arson and discover how it was effected by changes in economic conditions. The data for this study were obtained from Surrey Fire Services and contain information on all fires that involved a vehicle in Surrey from 2000-2015. The vehicle fire data were separated into arson and non-arson groups depending on their recorded act/omission and various economic variables were considered to represent the market. Vehicle arson trends were examined over the study period along with motor vehicle theft data, economic variables and the non-arson fire data. Relative to the unsuspicious vehicle fires, vehicle arson was significantly more likely to occur at night in areas with little surveillance. Results indicate that vehicle arson increases during times of economic downturn. Vehicle arson significantly increased following a rise in unemployment and interest rates whilst non-arson vehicle fires remained stable throughout the study period thus supporting an opportunity theory of crime. Results are discussed with relation to situational crime prevention policy and practice.


In crystals that lack a center of inversion, in addition to the third-order nonlinearity a cascaded χ(2):χ(2) second-order nonlinearity contributes to the nonlinear refraction. A coupled-mode theory in the frequency domain is used to investigate theoretically the application of this new nonlinear index of refraction for realizing intensity-dependent temporal and spatial light-field evolution in waveguide structures. The significant modification and the immense enhancement of the effects of purely third-order optical nonlinearity by second-order down-mixing of the driven second-harmonic field with the incoming light at the fundamental are discussed.


Although the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) was introduced in 2007, there is little or no research examining the impacts of PRME on its signatories. PRME introduced a Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) Policy in 2008 requiring its signatories to produce SIP reports on their progress on the implementation of PRME. The study aims to measure the impacts of PRME, influential reasons for supporting PRME, activities reported in 212 SIP reports written in English by 180 signatories and how PRME differs from other voluntary declarations on sustainability in higher education. The study comprises a six part methodological process, comprising; (1) surveying 171 signatories to examine impacts of PRME and influential reasons in supporting PRME, (2) the first part of content analysis of 212 SIP reports to examine the quality of reported activities, (3) the second part of content analysis of 212 SIP reports to examine the quality of reports, (4) the content analysis of the website information of six Australian non-PRME business schools to examine whether activities of the PRME signatories differ from those of non-PRME institutions, (5) examination of characteristics of the PRME signatories in terms of the size of institutions, locations, countries of origin, their accreditation statuses and academic membership in the United Nations Global Compact and (6) a comparative assessment of PRME and other declarations in the higher education sector. The study shows that PRME does not make significant changes in the activities of its signatories. The signatories do not understand the principles and their concepts due to lack of clarity of the concepts framed in the principles.


In this work we integrate at the tactical level two decision problems arising in container terminals: the berth allocation problem, which consists of assigning and scheduling incoming ships to berthing positions, and the quay crane assignment problem, which assigns to incoming ships a certain QC profile (i.e. number of quay cranes per working shift). We present two formulations: a mixed integer quadratic program and a linearization which reduces to a mixed integer linear program. The objective function aims, on the one hand, to maximize the total value of chosen QC profiles and, on the other hand, to minimize the housekeeping costs generated by transshipment flows between ships. To solve the problem we developed a heuristic algorithm which combines tabu search methods and mathematical programming techniques. Computational results on instances based on real data are presented and compared to those obtained through a commercial solver.


Tumor angiogenesis is essential during lung cancer development and targeting angiogenesis may possess a potential therapeutic value. The present study demonstrates that azithromycin, a Food and Drug Administration-approved antibiotic drug, is a novel tumor angiogenesis inhibitor. Azithromycin inhibits capillary network formation of human lung tumor associated-endothelial cells (HLT-ECs) in vitro and in vivo. It significantly inhibits HLT-EC adhesion and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced proliferation of HLT-ECs in a dose-dependent manner without affecting migration. In addition, azithromycin induces apoptosis of HLT-ECs even in the presence of VEGF. Notably, azithromycin inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in multiple lung cancer cell lines to a significantly reduced extent compared with in HLT-ECs, suggesting that HLT-ECs are more susceptible to azithromycin treatment. In a lung tumor xenograft model, azithromycin significantly inhibits tumor growth and its anti-tumor activities are achieved by suppressing angiogenesis. Notably, the inhibitory effects of azithromycin on angiogenesis are associated with its ability to suppress VEGF-induced activation of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt), focal adhesion kinase, and disruption of focal adhesion assembly and actin stress fiber formation in HLT-ECs. The present study identifies that azithromycin targets VEGFR2-mediated focal adhesion and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways in HLT-ECs, leading to the suppression of angiogenesis and lung tumor growth.


Abstract Cancer stem cells may mediate therapy resistance and recurrence in various types of cancer, including glioblastoma. Cancer stemlike cells can be isolated from long-term cancer cell lines, including glioma lines. Using sphere formation as a model for cancer cell stemness in vitro, we derived sphere cultures from SMA-497, SMA-540, SMA-560, and GL-261 glioma cells. Gene expression and proteomics profiling demonstrated that sphere cultures uniformly showed an elevated expression of stemness-associated genes, notably including CD44. Differences in neural lineage marker expression between nonsphere and sphere cultures were heterogeneous except for a uniform reduction of &bgr;-III-tubulin in sphere cultures. All sphere cultures showed slower growth. Self-renewal capacity was influenced by medium conditions but not nonsphere versus sphere culture phenotype. Sphere cultures were more resistant to irradiation, whereas both nonsphere and sphere cultures were highly resistant to temozolomide. Nonsphere cells formed more aggressive tumors in syngeneic mice than sphere cells in all models except SMA-560. There were no major differences in vascularization or infiltration by T cells or microglia/macrophages between nonsphere and sphere cell–derived tumors implanted in syngeneic hosts. Together, these data indicate that mouse glioma cell lines may be induced in vitro to form spheres that acquire features of stemness, but they do not exhibit a uniform biologic phenotype, thereby challenging the view that they represent a superior model system.


Although not originally designed for implementation in correctional settings, researchers and clinicians have begun to use the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) to assess offenders. A relatively small number of studies have made attempts to validate the alcohol and drug abuse scales of the PAI, and only a very few studies have validated those scales in nonclinical correctional samples. The current study examined evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the substance abuse scales on the PAI in a large, nonclinical sample of offenders. The net sample for the current study consisted of 1,120 federal inmates. Both the drug abuse and alcohol scales showed good convergent validity through high correlations with relevant proximal and distal indicators of substance use across multiple measures from several data sources. Discriminant validity was established as neither scale showed any "erroneous" correlations after controlling for the other scale. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.


Janice Broun, an Oxford graduate, is a specialist writer on religion in communist and postcommunist societies with a particular interest in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. She has had several articles published on Bulgarian religious affairs since the early 1980s, and book reviews on a wide variety of aspects of religious life in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly on martyrs and confessors in the former Soviet Union. She is the author of Conscience and Captivity: Religion in Eastern Europe (1988) and of six contributions to Censorship: an International Encyclopedia (London, Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001).


We analyze the behavior of observable quantities of the detailed individual-oriented tree growth model TRAGIC++. The model is run on very large time scales (50 kiloyears (kys)) to investigate possible evolutionary processes related to height growth strategies and on small spatial scales (support for approx. 30 adult trees). Transient phases of maximal height and tree number are investigated by means of recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). Simulations are compared with model runs where evolution is excluded. The causes behind phenotype changes in terms of strategy parameters of trees can be identified with the help of RQA, while linear methods alone give ambiguous results. Our investigations suggest that RQA might be a suitable tool for detecting causal relationships in noisy and complex environments.


T he broad outlines of the recently passed Tax Reform Act of 1986 suggest a shift in the tax burden toward business. Over the five-year period 1987–1991, corporate tax revenues are projected to increase by $120.3 billion with individual tax revenues declining by $121.9 billion. It is natural to conclude that business investment in plant and equipment will be discouraged by this shift. Yet the relationship between tax revenues and investment incentives is a complicated one, particularly when the change in business tax revenues is accompanied by a major change in the tax structure producing these revenues. This paper's primary aim is to discuss the channels through which this major change in the tax structure will affect the incentives for business investment. Among the related questions discussed are the law's impact on the efficiency of capital allocation; corporate debt-equity ratios; corporate mergers and takeovers; tax shelter activity and the nonpayment of taxes by individuals and corporations; the strength of foreign investment in the United States; and the market value of the equity shares of U.S. corporations.


In 1852, a year after the publication and rather tepid reception of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville released to the world a novel he had promised was "much more calculated for popularity." "A regular romance," he called it in a letter to his publisher, though the romance that followed--the novel Pierre, or the Ambiguities--is anything but regular. (1) It is a novel in which, among other things, an amplifying strain of gothicism, and of gothic opacity, comes gradually to consume the plot, the major characters, and finally the narrative voice itself, much to the predictable dismay of the author's contemporaries. (One newspaper, the New York Day Book, gave its notice the pithy title, "HERMAN MELVILLE CRAZY." (2) Still, before the novel's incest and murder plots are fully ripened, Melville pauses to consider young Pierre Glendinning's fate as an author, and the more general fate of authorship in America. In a chapter called "Young America in Literature," he writes: Pierre himself had written many a fugitive thing, which had brought him, not only vast credit and compliments from his more immediate acquaintances, but the less partial applauses of the always intelligent, and extremely discriminating public. In short, Pierre had done that, which many other boys have done--published. (3) For Melville, this is irony so broad and unregulated it might as well be called sarcasm; and the clear bitterness he felt over the treatment of Moby-Dick, particularly at the hands of the "Young America" clan of authors and editors, is on uncomfortably naked display here. That nakedness is probably what motivated one critic to aver that "whether the satire has the serious political implications which have been attributed to it may be doubtful." (4) We might have reason to be a bit more credulous than this, since the anger here, uncontoured though it may be, is directed not just at what this critic calls a "literary clique" but at, precisely, "the public"--the very same "public" who, as Melville goes on to write, "had applauded [Pierre's] gemmed little sketches of thought and fancy." At issue, in other words, is more than any literary clique, more than that "high and mighty Campbell clan of editors" who so unabashedly overpraise Pierre, but a specifically civic body, a "public" whose capacity for literacy, and aptitude for literary responsiveness, Melville wishes to worry over. And this makes sense, since the question of literacy--of a person or group's fluency with a variety of communicative acts and interpretive tools--is, for Melville, ever a matter of dramatic and necessarily civic consequence. We need only think of all the scenes of failed reading, impotent silence, and interpretation gone awry on that floating allegory of national fate, the Pequod. The moral is difficult to miss: civic health, in Melville's fictional cosmos, requires able readership. Pierre appears in 1852, and the years immediately following do nothing to allay Melville's anxieties about the readerly capacities of the American public. But the events of those years do, it seems, focus his misgivings. Melville's breath, we might say, had time to straighten, his brain to bubble cool, so that what would come from him by 1855 was no longer that sneering broadside vitriol, but the rigidly controlled, exactingly apportioned anger of a writer who has passed beyond wounded authorial pride into a vastly more embracing fatalism. In the essay that follows, I want to contend that the vehicle Melville fashions to carry this anger, this furious dismay before a direly inept and seemingly ineducable American readership, is the great novella of slave revolt "Benito Cereno"; that its method is, in a complicated way, gothic; and that what not indirectly inspires and crystallizes this anger--what transpires so momentously between Moby-Dick and "Benito Cereno"--is the publication and unprecedented reception of Harriet Beecher Stowe's sentimental epic, Uncle Tom's Cabin, in 1852. …