The aim of the research is to test what determines customer satisfaction of the people seeking treatment in Jordan. For the purposes of this research, the researcher used the descriptive analytical method to identify and analyze the factors that affect customer satisfaction about medical tourism and health services provided to tourists and people accompanying him in Jordan. The study belongs to analytical explorative studies that follow the approach of collecting and analyzing data to reach the results where a questionnaire was distributed to a number of employees of five star hotels in the city of Aqaba. A total of 120 copies of the questionnaire were distributed, of which 95 were returned, and 20 copies were excluded. So the was based on 75 copies of the questionnaire distributed to a number of patients coming to Jordan for the purpose of medical tourism whose data were obtained by the researcher. The research was based on expectations confirmation theory, Kano model, and customer satisfaction. The questionnaire developed by Pham (2015) was used after it has been modified to suit environmental conditions in Jordan. The main variables included independent variables: Financial considerations, quality of services, and medical facilities; a dependent variable which is customer satisfaction, and an intermediate variable which is the Jordanian environment (including culture, location and government). Four hypotheses were developed to clarify the relationship between (1) financial considerations and customer satisfaction, (2) quality of service and customer satisfaction, (3) medical facilities and customer satisfaction, and (4) the Jordanian environment and customer satisfaction. To answer the research questions comprehensively, the study adopted quantitative research design. The sample consisted of (75) patients coming to Jordan for the purpose of medical tourism. The questionnaire was formed of 46 questions. Multiple and hierarchical regression was applied to the four basic hypotheses. The regression lines produced a model known as customer satisfaction based on three independent and intermediate variables. The study concluded that the cost factor is closely related to customer satisfaction. Foreign exchange rates positively affect customer satisfaction. Professionalism has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Rapid service has a positive impact on customer satisfaction.


Reform of the international monetary system was placed on the agenda of the Group of 20 (G-20) a year ago at the initiative of the incoming French leadership of the G-20. On November 4, 2011 in Cannes, France, the G-20 leaders will announce their conclusions and agreements after a year and half of intense dialogue and debate. The discussions cover (1) surveillance of the global economy and financial system, (2) international lender of last resort mechanisms, (3) capital flows and financial pressures, (4) the currency and reserve asset system, and (5) governance of the international monetary system. While the governance issue, in the form of governance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is not explicitly on the agenda of the G-20 leaders, the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF has placed it on the agenda with high priority. Based on the evidence to date, Truman expects that by the end of 2011, the result will produce a barely passing grade on substance—below B on the inflated scale of grades today—but an A for effort. As long as the process achieves the A for effort via a thorough examination of the full range of reform issues, the shortfall on substance is not crucial, and he welcomes being proved wrong on substance. More would be desirable, but the international monetary system will continue to evolve.


Enthalpies of melting, sublimation and vaporization were determined for some hydrazones. The validity of thermogravimetric procedure for measuring enthalpy of vaporization of the compounds under investigation was demonstrated. Exploring packing modes and intermolecular interactions in molecular crystals of the hydrazones using Hirshfeld surfaces was carried out.


Every day, immigration judges are faced with unrepresented respondents who present signs of severe mental impairment and possible incompetence. They are given no resources for, or guidance on, how to address the situation. Every day, non-citizens with mental impairments are ordered removed from the United States even though, if their stories were actually heard, they might be found eligible for relief. This article provides both theoretical and practical guidance to the decision makers who must address the problem. The article describes the current situation, in which various decision makers respond to the problem in various ways, often by glossing over it. The article then sets out a legal argument derived from different strands of due process jurisprudence (due process in removal proceedings; civil due process generally; and due process with respect to mentally impaired litigants) for why additional procedural protections are necessary. Finally, the article discusses the types of safeguards that would be feasible and adequate, such as setting a clear competency standard requiring both passive and active abilities, imposing disclosure duties on DHS and investigative duties on the immigration judges, creating an expert panel within DOJ to perform competency evaluations, revising procedural rules to require judges to focus on objective evidence where an applicant is incapable of satisfying the current standards for credible testimony, providing for skilled, court-appointed representation where necessary (in some cases in a hybrid guardian-advocate role), and authorizing immigration judges to terminate proceedings in the rare case in which no other safeguard would be adequate.


Supersaturation and rapid nucleation of cholesterol in bile are of key importance in the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones. While the effects of bile acids and phospholipids on cholesterol saturation of bile have been extensively studied, their influence on the cholesterol nucleation time has not been compared. We, therefore, investigated whether increases of bile acid or phospholipid concentrations in bile by in vitro supplementation affect the cholesterol nucleation time. Bile samples were obtained at surgery from patients with cholesterol gallstones. Prior to the nucleation assay the bile samples were divided into 0.5-ml aliquots and supplemented with 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 mumol/ml of different phosphatidylcholines (PC-dimyristoyl, PC-dipalmitoyl, PC-distearoyl, and extracted biliary PCs) or with 5.0, 10.0, and 20.0 mumol/ml of bile acids (glycine or taurine conjugates of cholic acid, deoxycholic acid, or chenodeoxycholic acid). The increase of phosphatidylcholine or bile acid concentration decreased the mean cholesterol saturation index to a similar extent (PC: 0.1-0.3; BA: 0.1-0.2). Supplementations of bile with increasing amounts of synthetic or biliary PCs caused a marked prolongation of the nucleation time in bile from 1.5 +/- 0.2 up to > or = 21 days or 2.5 +/- 0.7 up to > or = 21 days. Concurrently, biliary cholesterol was shifted from vesicles to mixed micelles and the cholesterol/phospholipid ratio of the remaining vesicles was progressively lowered. In contrast, the addition of bile acids to gallbladder bile did not affect the cholesterol nucleation time (2.2 +/- 0.3 days), the percentage of vesicular cholesterol, or the cholesterol/phospholipid ratio of vesicles and micelles.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The epigram, widely practiced in the early seventeenth century, has received remarkably little attention from scholars, and the religious epigram, as a distinct application of the form, has attracted almost none. Only Richard Crashaw's attempts (in both Latin and English) are well known, but his Epigrammatum sacrorum liber (1634) is just one example of a mass of writings that reached their English peak in the mid-1630s (Young). A thorough study of the style of this genre and its relation to the religious lyric and emblem is needed, but my purpose, drawing principally on the epigram collections of the 1630s, is to consider four questions: how was the form understood by its practitioners and audience, under what circumstances and for what function were these epigrams written, to what function were they later put in circulation or publication, and, finally, what different role did the satiric religious epigram fulfill? Ultimately, I argue that the religious epigram was a subgenre that never fully overcame its vexed legacy and reputation, in either its devotional or satiric modes. Religious epigrams in early seventeenth-century England were part of a broad European phenomenon: Neo-Latin, French, and German religious epigrams were widespread, with a tradition going back well into the sixteenth century. (1) This is considerably earlier than English attempts at the genre, which I identify as reaching their high-water mark in the early to mid 1630s. (2) The secular epigram in England had reached its peak between 1595 and 1620, best-known in Jonson's English epigrams and John Owen's neo-Latin ones. I suggest that the cultivation of the religious epigram in England in the 1620s and 1630s stems from both direct imitation of the continental religious tradition and the adaptation of the English secular tradition represented by Jonson, Owen, and Sir John Harington. Also clear is that religious epigrams in England were very much a manifestation of the university culture of Oxford and Cambridge: they were most often written and collected by students and scholars and published by Oxbridge printers. Nearly all Renaissance epigrammatists looked back to Martial, the most prominent classical poet in the genre. Martial's style, tone, and the organization of his epigram books were imitated by self-consciously literary writers like Jonson and Owen, and his example offered the genre a classical legitimacy. However, while Martial was highly venerated as a stylist, his frequent obscenity was a significant difficulty for both Renaissance readers and those who wished to rehabilitate the form for Christian use. A range of writers attempted adaptations and censored editions to render him suitable for a Christian readership. Jesuit scholars in particular developed these expurgated texts, which culminated in the widely used edition by Mathaeus Raderus in 1599, one mocked by John Donne as "gelded Martial" (Sullivan 294). Taking a different approach was the Lutheran Johann Burmeister, who in 1612 published a faithful edition of Martial, Martialis Renati. Parodiarum Sacrarum partes tres Quibus obposita M. Val. Martialis Epigrammata that combined the original epigrams with more edifying paraphrases or parodies on the facing page (Sullivan 281). Such attempts helped to edify the form, making possible the original religious epigrams of the period. But Crashaw also laments at length that the "seed of Idumaea" had grown in the soil of Bilbil, the home of Martial (642). He is wishing, vehemently, that Martial had been a Christian poet. While the goal of Crashaw and others was to sanctify and reclaim the form, to achieve a Christian parody of it, often the result feels closer to burlesque. Ruth Wallerstein writes: "To characterize them [Crashaw's epigrams] in a word, they translate the Bible into Ovid" (59-60). (3) A number of early seventeenth-century epigrammatists directly mark their conversion of the form in program poems, using the language of repentance and conversion as they adopt religious subject matter. …


The Palestinian refugee issue remains a central component of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In this timely book, bringing together the most cutting-edge research from various disciplines, Rex Brynen and Roula El-Rifai explore the demographic and developmental challenges which the return of refugees to a future Palestinian state would generate. As well as outlining the social conditions of Palestinian refugee populations, the book addresses key practical questions, such as how the repatriation of refugees would affect the Palestinian economy and how the international community can effectively support the repatriation of refugees. In doing so, the authors examine and draw lessons from repatriation experiences in other parts of the world. The book provides a collection of world-class research and analysis into this complicated problem at a critical moment in the Arab-Israeli peace process, and should form the foundation of any informed policies on the subject.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are part of deregulated insulin secretion in type 2 diabetes (T2D) development. Rodent models have suggested miR-200c to be involved, but the role and potential as therapeutic target of this miRNA in human islets is not clear. Here we report increased expression of miR-200c in islets from T2D as compared with non-diabetic (ND) donors and display results showing reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in EndoC-βH1 cells overexpressing miR-200c. We identify transcription factor ETV5 as the top rank target of miR-200c in human islets using TargetScan in combination with Pearson correlation analysis of miR-200c and mRNA expression data from the same human donors. Among other targets were JAZF1, as earlier shown in miR-200 knockout mice. Accordingly, linear model analysis of ETV5 and JAZF1 gene expression showed reduced expression of both genes in islets from human T2D donors. Western blot analysis confirmed the reduced expression of ETV5 on protein level in EndoC-βH1 cells overexpressing miR-200c and Luciferase assay validated ETV5 as a direct target of miR-200c. Finally, LNA knockdown of miR-200c (LNA200c) increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in islets from T2D donors ∼3-fold. Our data reveal a vital role of the miR-200c-ETV5 axis in beta cell dysfunction and pathophysiology of T2D.


In this paper, I examine Melville's discussion in Moby Dick of the whiteness of the whale from the perspective of a Kantian account of the sublime. My aim, in the first instance, is to see if the comparison helps to shed light on Melville's puzzling discussion of the color white and why this color serves to heighten the feeling of being overwhelmed by terror when confronted with something extremely large or powerful. In turn, I intend to use Melville's discussion of whiteness to put pressure on some of the philosophical assumptions behind a Kantian analysis of the sublime. In particular, I hope to show that Melville's account of the war between Captain Ahab and the great white whale can serve as an aesthetic counterexample to the Kantian claim that both generals and war are sublime-but only if the general possesses civic virtue and the war is conducted in a just manner. I will attempt to use this counterexample to challenge the philosophical assumption that the power of reason is the basis of our nobility in the experience of the sublime, for this assumption is behind those contemporary accounts of the sublime that have been motivated by the Kantian analysis. As a result, the argument of this paper is an attempt to offer philosophical support to the efforts of those contemporary artists who, like Robert Motherwell, draw inspiration from Melville's discussion of the color white.


Spanish/English codeswitching in published work represents a claim to the right to participate in the marketplace on a bilingual and not just monolingual basis. This book offers a syntactic and sociolinguistic analysis of the codeswitching in a corpus of thirty texts: novels and short stories published in the United States by twenty-four authors between 1970-2000. An application of the Matrix Language Frame model shows that written codeswitching follows for the most part the same syntactic patterns as its spoken counterpart. The reasons why some written codeswitching is considered to be artificial or inauthentic are examined. An overview of written codeswitching research is given, including titles of many texts in addition to the corpus that contain codeswitching between diverse languages. The book concludes with a look at how codeswitching is used by writers to attain their objectives, and what the implications may be for the relative positions of Spanish, English, and Spanish/English codeswitching in the United States.


Based on literature data and my extensive material from along the coast, the distribution of shell bearing marine, benthic gastropods known from Norwegian waters, is outlined. The geographic area covered goes down to c. 1200 m on the continental slope, and extends from the Swedish border in the south to the Russian border in the north-east. On the slope the distribution is restricted to an area east of 0°, and south of 72° N. Neither the North Sea nor the western 'slope' of the Norwegian Trench are included. Systematics and nomenclature follow Clemam (Check List of European Marine Mollusca) closely. The emphasis is on the distribution of each species within the designated area, but taxonomic and nomenclaturial problems are discussed wherever considered relevant. Altogether 365 species level taxa are included, of which 326 are considered as definitely belonging to the Norwegian fauna. The rest are recorded as doubtful, either because only empty shells have been found, or their confirmed distribution falls outside the limits here defined. Of the 'species' included, I consider at least 18 to be undescribed, while another 16 were described from Norwegian material after Hoisaeter (1986) was published. The northern distributional limit is extended for 47 species, while 11 species have received a new southern limit. Sixty six species have a generic name diferent from the one used in Hoisaeter (1986), while 35 species have another specific name. All changes are listed in the main part of the article, and references are given to the sources for the changes. Four faunal components are recognized: a slope component, species mainly found in negative temperatures on the continental slope, between 500 and 1200 m; an Arctic component, species in Norway almost exclusively found in East Finnmark; a group of species in Norway found only or mainly on the Skagerrak coast or in Oslofjorden; and finally the main group found along most of the coast.


The validity of three key Business Excellence (BE) models used in the Asia Pacific— the Australian Business Excellence Framework (Australia), the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (New Zealand) and the Singapore Quality Award Criteria (Singapore)—was examined from a conceptual as well as a predictive standpoint. Unlike in many past studies, in this study the validity of the measurement criteria stipulated in BE models have been directly assessed. The conceptual validity of the three BE models was studied through a generic theoretical model using the partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLSBSEM) method. Apart from measurement validity, the strengths of the hypothesised causal relationships between the constructs of the BE models and their practical implementations were also examined under conceptual validity. The predictive validity of the three BE models was examined through linear predictive models involving enablers—being measures in BE models that cover what organisations actually do in order to achieve business outcomes—as predictors and business outcomes as responses. Alongside predictive validity, the reasonableness of the stipulated weights of the enablers was also examined. Other empirical and pragmatic inquiries covered in this study included: (a) a study of the effect of "industry attractiveness" on financial and market performance, and (b) a study of the relationship between BE constructs and "national cultural dimensions". Results revealed that although the three BE models fulfilled the basic requirements of measurement validity, against more stringent criteria such as those used in psychometrics, they showed low levels of validity. The possible reasons for this were examined and the ways of overcoming the shortcoming were suggested. The generic theoretical model was found to be statistically significant across all three settings: Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. As regards predictive validity, it was observed that enablers appear to be good predictors of business outcomes (thus establishing predictive validity) although there was scope for improvement of the existing weighting scheme of the enablers. This study is important because many organisations in the region use BE models with the expectation of improving their performance in key results areas and hence there is a need to demonstrate that the BE models are based on sound concepts.


Laboratory classes are an essential component of most science and engineering courses with the potential to achieve a number of practical and theoretical objectives. Subsequently, the demands on students (and instructors) are great. The students must not only learn manipulative techniques, but also link theory to practice, solve different kind of problems, interpret data, interact with staff and other students, and successfully navigate the lab itself. Learning in this situation can be greatly assisted by an educator who is able to guide students through this complex process. However, the effectiveness of laboratory classes is often not achieved to their full potential. Rice, Thomas and O'Toole (2009) showed in their report "Tertiary Science Education in the 21st Century" the key role of laboratory instructors for higher science education. They argue a huge impact a laboratory teacher has on the students' growth as chemistry professionals. O'Neal et al. (2007) and Dotger (2010), in their studies into the impact of teaching assistants and retention in science and engineering classes, both stressed the importance of providing high quality instruction in laboratory classes. To improve this situation, the ECTN working group Lecturing Qualifications and Innovative Teaching Methods is developing an online course on teaching in laboratory classes entitled "Developing best practice in university laboratory education". The course is targeted at relatively inexperienced university teachers. First, a Small Private Online Course (SPOC) will be launched and, after a trial period, it will be made open and more massive (MOOC). In this article, the argumentation for the chosen content of the course is given based on the inquiry among university teachers and students, the structure of the course and its component modules are described and the course design is briefly discussed.


Hydrogen abstraction from organic acids by hydroxyl radicals is the initial rate- and selectivity-determining step in the photochemical oxidation of organic acids in the troposphere. To quantify the rate and selectivity of these reactions, the abstraction of hydrogen atoms at the acid, alpha, beta, gamma, and methyl positions was studied for valeric acid, C(4)H(9)COOH, using first principles calculations. At the high-pressure limit, an overall rate coefficient at 298 K of 4.3 x 10(6) m(3)/(mol s) was calculated. The dominant pathways are abstraction at the beta; the gamma; and, to a lesser extent, the acid positions; with a selectivity of 55, 28, and 8%, respectively. This differs from the high selectivity for the acid channel for formic and acetic acids and from the thermodynamic preference for abstraction at the alpha position, but it is consistent with the experimentally observed preference for the beta and the gamma positions in larger organic acids. The rate and selectivity are controlled by the strength of hydrogen bonds between the acid group and the hydroxyl radical in the different transition states and do not correlate with the stability of the products. Natural bond orbital analysis was used to quantify the nature and strength of the hydrogen bonds. At 298 K and below 0.1 atm, the collision frequency is insufficient to stabilize the prereactive complexes, and the reaction becomes chemically activated. However, the reaction rate and the selectivity are largely unaffected by this mechanistic change.


Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors are effective antidepressants whose use is limited because of unwanted side effects and the possibility of a tyramine-induced hypertensive crisis (cheese reaction). (-)-Deprenyl (the official nonproprietary name for this substance is selegiline), a selective MAO type B inhibitor, may be safer and have fewer side effects, but its antidepressant efficacy is uncertain. A double-blind placebo-controlled study was carried out in depressed outpatients who were treated with (-)-deprenyl in an MAO type B selective dose range and at a higher nonselective dose range. (-)-Deprenyl did not have a statistically significant antidepressant effect after three weeks of treatment at doses of 10 mg/d. However, after six weeks and at higher doses (averaging about 30 mg/d for the second three weeks), (-)-deprenyl was superior to placebo in antidepressant effect with a positive response rate of 50% vs 13.6% and with a 41% reduction in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale mean score vs 10% in the placebo-treated group. No hypertensive crises were seen. The rate of occurrence of side effects with (-)-deprenyl was no greater than with placebo. It was concluded that (-)-deprenyl is an effective antidepressant in a dose range where it is distinguished by the absence of many of the side effects typical of nonselective MAO inhibitors.


Background
When the coronary atherosclerotic plaque becomes vulnerable, it easily ruptures with subsequent thrombus formation, leading to acute myocardial infarction. Prior studies indicate that oxLDL, antioxLDL antibody, MMP-9, hsCRP play a key role in pathogenesis of plaque rupture. To study the involvement of oxLDL, anti-oxLDL antibody, MMP-9 and hsCRP in the pathogenesis of unstable coronary plaque
Methods: The study enrolled 80 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease who underwent PCI. The case group (n=40) should have a unstable coronary plaque, confirmed by conventional
angiography, whereas control group (n=40) should have stable coronary atherosclerosis. Serum oxLDL, anti-oxLDL antibody, MMP-9 levels was determined by ELISA. The hsCRP detected method on the automated analyzer. Gensini and SYNTAX score were also utilized for assessing the severity of coronary artery disease.
Results: Serum oxLDL (p=0.01), anti-oxLDL antibody (p<0.001), MMP-9 (p<0.001), hsCRP (p=0.009) in the case group were more than in the control group. The binary logistic regression analysis shows that MMP-9 (β=0.985, p<0.001), anti-oxLDL antibody (β=0.892, p<0.001), hsCRP (β=0.041, p=0.005), oxLDL (β=0.011, p=0.016) may play a role in the unstable coronary plaque. ROC Curve analysis shows that MMP-9 (area=0.87, p<0.001) variance is more than anti-oxLDL antibody (area=0.78, p<0.001), hsCRP (area=0.73, p<0.001), oxLDL (area=0.63, p=0.038) making it a diagnostically beneficial for the vulnerable plaque. Gensini score correlated with anti-oxLDL antibody (r=0.25, p=0.026), MMP-9
(r=0.42, p<0.001). But SYNTAX score correlated with anti-oxLDL antibody (r=0.41, p<0.001), MMP-9 (r=0.20, p<0.001)
Conclusion: The serum oxLDL, anti-oxLDL antibody, MMP-9 and hsCRP are significantly involved in the unstable coronary plaque.


Carved for a Roman city prefect who was a newly baptized Christian at his death, the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus is not only a magnificent example of "the fine style" of mid-fourth-century sculpture but also a treasury of early Christian iconography clearly indicating the Christianization of Rome--and the Romanization of Christianity. Whereas most previous scholarship has focused on the style of the sarcophagus, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon explores the perplexing elements of its iconography in their fourth-century context. In so doing she reveals the distinction between "pagan" and Christian images to be less rigid than sometimes thought. Against the background of earlier and contemporary art and religious literature, Malbon explicates the relationship of the facade's two levels of scenes depicting stories from the Old and New Testaments, the connection between the scenes on the facade with those on the lid and ends of the sarcophagus, and the integration of pagan elements within a Christian work. What emerges is a carefully constructed iconographic program shedding light on the development of early Christian art within late antique culture. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Noise belongs among the negative phenomena in our environment and can have a negative effect on human health. Excessive noise occurs in many areas, e.g. in transport, aeronautics and during manufacturing processes. It is often necessary to meet specified noise limits. Acoustic measurements are carried out in many cases, e.g. in order to evaluate the sound absorption properties of investigated materials and acoustic conditions in a given environment. Measurements of extremely low sound pressure levels can be used to describe the acoustic environment in an acoustic laboratory or to measure noise emissions from quiet machines and equipment. Furthermore, measurements of extremely low noise levels are limited by the thermal noise of the measurement chain. If the sound pressure levels are lower than the thermal noise of the measurement chain, then the measurement is not correct. This paper describes the measurement of extremely low sound pressure levels using an improved correlation function method.


Low-grade heat from geothermal sources and industrial plants is a significant source of sustainable power that has great potential to be converted to electricity. The two main approaches that have been extensively investigated for converting low-grade heat to electrical energy, organic Rankine cycles and solid-state thermoelectrics, have not produced high power densities or been cost-effective for such applications. Newer, alternative liquid-based technologies are being developed that can be categorized by how the heat is used. Thermoelectrochemical cells (TECs), thermo-osmotic energy conversion (TOEC) systems, and thermally regenerative electrochemical cycles (TRECs) all use low-grade heat directly in a device that generates electricity. Other systems use heat sources to prepare solutions that are used in separate devices to produce electrical power. For example, low-temperature distillation methods can be used to produce solutions with large salinity differences to generate power using membrane-based systems, such as pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) or reverse electrodialysis (RED); or highly concentrated ammonia solutions can be prepared for use in thermally regenerative batteries (TRBs). Among all these technologies, TRECs, TOEC, and TRBs show the most promise for effectively converting low-grade heat into electrical power mainly due to their high power productions and energy conversion efficiencies.


This dissertation deals with the transferability of an evidence-based treatment method from one cultural context to another, with Multisystemic Therapy (MST) in Sweden as an example. The primary research question is whether the evidence-based treatment intervention MST can be transferred from the US to Sweden with retained treatment effects. This thesis is organized around four separate but interrelated studies. The first of these studies focused on the annual incidence and childhood prevalence of children and youth receiving child welfare interventions in Sweden. It showed that the annual incidence and childhood prevalence of child welfare services among adolescents were comparably high. The second study, a randomized trial, assessed the effectiveness of MST within the normally operating social service system for 156 youths who met the diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder. Youth were randomly assigned between MST and treatment-as-usual (TAU) groups. Assessments were conducted at intake as well as seven and 24 months after referral. The study presents the outcomes after 24 months. Results from multiagent and multimethod assessment batteries showed a general decrease in psychiatric problems and antisocial behavior among participants across treatments. There were no significant differences between the two groups. Although the results also indicate that it was possible to implement MST in Sweden with the same treatment effects as in the US, several possible explanations to the results were investigated including treatment adherence and socio demographical and systemic differences between the US and Sweden. The third study examined weather MST treatment adherence changed during the first six years among Swedish MST teams, factors that account for identified changes, and how treatment adherence was related to post-treatment outcomes. Fidelity data were obtained from 973 families receiving MST from 68 therapists in ten Swedish teams. Results suggested that more than a year of activity was needed to significantly increase therapist treatment adherence. The collective experience of MST within the MST teams seemed to be the variable of primary importance to treatment adherence. The results presented a modest correlation between high treatment adherence and preferable post-treatment outcomes. The fourth and final study was a review that addresses the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies which utilize TAU as a comparator. A meta-analysis suggested a striking heterogeneity in achieved results between the studies included, and the hypothesis that context may affect the outcome was not contradicted. Results highlighted the importance of paying attention to the conditions under which the method has been proven effective.


Background & objectives: Developing a feasible and sustainable model of cervical cancer screening in developing countries continues to be a challenge because of lack of facilities and awareness in the population and poor compliance with screening and treatment. This study was aimed to evaluate a single visit approach (SVA) for the management of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and Lugol's iodine (VILI) along with loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) in women attending Gynaecology OPD in a tertiary care hospital in north India. Methods: In this hospital-based study, 450 women receiving opportunistic screening by conventional Pap cytology were also screened by VIA and VILI. VIA/VILI positive cases underwent same-day colposcopy and biopsy of all lesions. If the modified Reid score was >3, the patient underwent LEEP at the same visit. Results: Of the 450 women screened, 86 (19.1%) and 92 (20.5%) women were VIA and VILI positive, respectively. Detection rates of VIA, VILI and cytology findings at ASCUS threshold were 33.3, 35.5 and 24.4 per 1000, women, respectively to detect a lesion >CIN1. For detection of CIN2+ lesion, detection rates of VIA, VILI and cytology were 20, 22.2 and 22.2 per 1000 women, respectively. Sixteen patients with Reid score >3 underwent the See-and-treat protocol. The overtreatment rate was 12.5 per cent and the efficacy of LEEP was 81.3 per cent. There were no major complications. Interpretation & conclusions: The sensitivity of VIA/VILI was comparable to cytology. A single visit approach using visual screening methods at community level by trained paramedical personnel followed by a combination of ablative and excisional therapy can help to decrease the incidence of cervical neoplasia.


This study takes into account groundwater in local development strategies of Izmir, in which rapid and uneven development has occurred in recent decades. Therefore, resilience thinking is needed in the future development of the city-region. To this end, the paper aims to make an analysis of recently completed asset-based local development strategies for Izmir city towards water resiliency. The methodology has two main steps. Firstly, by using spatial interaction analysis of peninsula and river basins, potential vulnerabilities and risks are indicated. Secondly, a stratified model of strategy evaluation is conducted by scrutinizing the existing layered approaches. Then, these models were applied to all strategic decisions including water resources and indicated a high level of consistency to achieve sustainable and resilient use of blue-green infrastructure in the future of Izmir9s metropolitan area. Local assets, including water resources, are the backbone of future development of the Izmir city-region. Therefore, usage of local assets in a multi-level perspective of strategy development needs to be understood. The stratified model denotes that special emphasis should be given to different river basins in different levels. This study illustrates that synergy management is needed between different layers of local development strategies, in which the role of urban and rural households is of the utmost importance.


In this timely critical introduction to the representation of Afghanistan in film, Mark Graham examines the often surprising combination of propaganda and poetry in films made in Hollywood and the East. Through the lenses of postcolonial theory and historical reassessment, Graham analyzes what these films say about Afghanistan, Islam, and the West and argues that they are integral tools for forming discourse on Afghanistan, a means for understanding and avoiding past mistakes, and symbols of the country's shaky but promising future. Thoughtfully addressing many of the misperceptions about Afghanistan perpetuated in the West, Afghanistan in the Cinema incorporates incisive analysis of the market factors, funding sources, and political agendas that have shaped the films. The book considers a range of films, beginning with the 1970s epics The Man Who Would Become King and The Horsemen and following the shifts in representation of the Muslim world during the Russian War in films such as The Beast and Rambo III. Graham then moves on to Taliban-era films such as Kandahar, Osama, and Ellipsis, the first Afghan film directed by a woman. Lastly, the book discusses imperialist nostalgia in films such as Charlie Wilson's War and destabilizing visions represented in contemporary works such as The Kite Runner.


Upper Carboniferous, Namurian to Westphalian coal measures in Belgium form part of the Variscan Foredeep in northwestern Europe, with maximum preserved thickness over 3500 m. Despite post-depositional separation of the Wallonian and Campine coal basins by the Brabant Massif and different tectonic styles, a common lithostratigraphic nomenclature can be applied. The stratigraphic subdivision is based on the distinction between a carbonate-dominated marine Dinantian and siliciclastic continental, coal-bearing Silesian. Basal units testify of a marine transgression, locally continuous with Dinantian carbonate sedimentation, elsewhere drowning an emergent karst landscape. Progressive advance and uplift of the Variscan orogenic belt caused rapid subsidence in the foreland and transition from prodelta mudstones to upper alluvial plain conglomerates, with fewer marine incursions. The Belgian Coal Measures Group encompasses this complete tectonically-driven sedimentary succession.


Objective Developmental assessment is a core paediatric competency, but research demonstrates teaching gaps. This single-blinded, randomised controlled study compares three teaching approaches to developmental assessment in a large group setting based on a student's self-perception and objective competency assessment. Design Students were randomised into one of the following: ▸ a didactic lecture followed by self-study with online resources (control group), ▸ a didactic lecture and small group tutorial (small group) ▸ a combined didactic lecture and interactive component using audio-visual equipment (Interactive Developmental Teaching-IDT group). Competency scores (based on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) scoring system, adapted for undergraduates), mean scores of self-reported confidence and degree of motivation were compared between groups. Results 114 students participated. Statistically significant difference between mean assessment scores was demonstrated for the small group (38.0; 95% CI 36.5 to 39.6) and the IDT group (37.9; 95% CI 36.5 to 39.4) compared to the control group (34.8; 95% CI 33.2 to 36.4). Students' self-reported confidence, acquisition of knowledge and degree of motivation to practice was higher in IDT and small groups compared to the didactically taught control group. Teaching costs, if measured by trainer's time, were one-fifth in the IDT group compared to the small group teaching. Conclusions The IDT is an effective teaching method in large groups, improves competencies compared to didactic lecturing, and is as effective as small group teaching. Adoption of the IDT appears to facilitate learning and can be easily delivered with falling ratios of teachers to students.


China is the world's fastest-growing economic powerhouse. Everybody knows this. But behind the headlines a once-in-a-generation sexual and cultural revolution is taking place - all in the bars, cafes and streets of China's growing mega-cities. Welcome to this new China. Writer and journalist Jemimah Steinfeld meets the young people behind the world's fastest-moving nation to unveil their attitudes towards love, life and sexuality. Young Chinese have new words to describe the world they live in: 'little emperors' - single men who have grown up under the one child policy - they're bossy and selfish; 'bare branches' - those without children; 'leftovers' - women over twenty-six who aren't married; 'comrade' - how the gay community identifies itself; 'love markets' - weekend gatherings across China where parents attempt to find husbands and wives for their children, and others show up to match-make young singles and even offer boyfriends for hire.Jemimah Steinfeld introduces the people at the heart of this world, from the woman starting China's first online dating agency to the mistresses of the rich and powerful; from the company trying to sell sex toys to China's middle-classes to the sino-punks of Beijing's bar scene. Little Emperors and Material Girls is the book which will change the way you see China.


A study was made to determine the conditions under which the optimum droplet size distribution (ie., narrowest size range with a minimum of fines and over-sized agglomerates), is generated in sprays from centrifugal pressure nozzles. A range of non-Newtonian detergent slurries were tested but the results are of wider application and parallel work was undertaken with water, ionic solutions and chalk slurries. Six centrifugal pressure nozzles were used and the drop-size distributions correlated as a function of fluid properties, pressure, fiowrate, feed temperature, and nozzle characteristics. Measurements were made using a Malvern Particle Size Anayser slung across a specially-designed transparent tower section of approximately 1.2m diameter in order to reduce obscuration caused by the spray and improve existing droplet sizing techniques. The results obtained were based upon the Rosin-Rammler distribution model and the Size Analyser provided a direct print-out of size distribution and the parameters characterising it. A Spraying System nozzle, AAASSTC8-8, produced the optimum spray distribution with the detergent slurry at a temperature of 60°C whilst operating at 1200 psi. With other fluids the Delevan 2.2SJ nozzle produced the optimum spray distribution operating at 1200 psi but with the Spraying Systems nozzles there was no clear-cut optimum set of conditions, ie. the nozzle and pressure varied depending upon the fluid being sprayed. The mechanisms of liquid sheet break-up and droplet dispersion were investigated in specially-constructed, scaled-up, transparent nozzles. A mathematical model of centrifugal pressure nozzle atomisation was developed based upon fundamental operating parameters rather than resorting to empirical correlations. This enabled theoretical predictions to be made over a wide range of operating conditions and nozzle types. The model predictions for volumetric fiowrate, liquid sheet length and air core diameter showed good agreement with the experimentally determined results. However, the model predicted smaller droplet sizes than were produced experimentally due to inaccuracies identified in the initial assumptions.


Based on huge research and scores of interviews, this book offers an unforgettable and richly illustrated narrative of the military action that took place in Moscow during 1941; telling portraits of Stalin and his generals, some apparatchiks, some great commanders. It also traces the stories of individuals, soldiers, politicians and intellectuals, writers and artists and dancers, workers, schoolchildren and peasants.


An overview is given of theoretical progress on self-organization at the nanoscale in reactive systems of heterogeneous catalysis observed by field emission microscopy techniques and at the molecular scale in copolymerization processes. The results are presented in the perspective of recent advances in nonequilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, allowing us to understand how nanosystems driven away from equilibrium can manifest directionality and dynamical order.


Warning systems are technically, socially, and organizationally shaped and rest on specific assumptions concerning human behavior during disasters. The common notions about people's behavior in disaster situations are often not based on empirical data, but rather on so-called "myths" which overemphasize rare and situation-dependent extreme behaviors such as panic, disaster shock, looting or helplessness. Due to the fact that these expectations are shaped within social environments, different stakeholders such as a heterogeneous population and professionals exhibit different assumptions. These assumptions may not only be misplaced, they additionally interfere with warning systems. The paper compares empirical results of three connected surveys: a comprehensive document analysis on disaster behavior, qualitative interviews with disaster relief workers and a quantitative representative poll. By contrasting the status of research with professional narrations as well as with the people's expectations, different expectations and their variations are explored.


Mr WILLIAM RUTHERFORD (Department of Health and Social Service, Northern Ireland) writes: It is unfortunate that the study by Mr I W R Anderson and colleagues (24 January, p 278) should have become available only after decisions have already been taken about the nature and scope of advanced training for ambulancemen. A strong case could be made for concentrating primarily on making defibrillation available in all emergency ambulances and leaving other aspects ofadvanced training until the rewards of this move have been reaped. It seems unlikely that this could be negotiated at this stage. This makes it all the more urgent to ensure that good studies are planned and executed to monitor the effect of the new training. Although objective measurement is not easy, it is not impossible.


A current national priority is to increase the number of students prepared for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM; U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Unfortunately, Latina/os are underrepresented in STEM fields (National Science Foundation, 2010). STEM support programs may be one avenue for increasing the number of Latina/o students who enter the STEM pipeline (Afterschool Alliance, 2011), but few studies have examined the benefits of participation in a STEM program for Latina/o youth, and very little is known about the specific program activities that are related to beneficial outcomes. Social cognitive career theory offers a model of career development that emphasizes the importance of learning experiences, which in the context of STEM programs are program activities. In the current study, one-on-one, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 39 participants who were involved in a science support program to investigate the following research questions: 1) What are the benefits of a science support program for Latina/o youth? and 2) What are the program activities that are related to these benefits? Results revealed 12 benefits of program participation: 1) access and exposure, 2) mastering science knowledge and skills, 3) academic outcomes, 4) broadened worldview, 5) confidence, 6) exploration opportunities, 7) higher order thinking, 8) professional development, 9) science interest, 10) science self-efficacy, 11) science is achievable, and 12) technical skills. Six activities were found to be related to the benefits: 1) math and science coursework, 2) oral presentations, 3) college visits and field trips, 4) presentations by professionals, 5) lab activities, and 6) mentoring. The results of this study provide important information about the activities, or learning experiences, that are related to the benefits of participating in a science support program, and they have Running head: SCIENCE PROGRAM BENEFITS 6 important implications for the development and refinement of STEM programs for youth who identify with groups that are underrepresented in STEM.


Becoming a college professor brings both the feeling of self-accomplishment and discernment regarding this prestigious achievement. Most doctoral candidates are practitioners in the eld of public education and will hopefully transition from a principalship to the o ce of a college professor. While this journey is lled with personal attainment, some of the doctoral graduates experience a variety of struggles along the way to their positions in higher education. This study examined this journey for some of those who have made the move. The questions posed to the participants centered on the bene ts, disadvantages, and suggestions on ways to assist fellow completers who have decided to take a position in higher education. Four primary struggles were identi ed as a result of the study: (1) struggle with the role, (2) struggle with self, (3) cultural struggle, and (4) future struggles. Through a narrative approach, the participants addressed their feelings regarding the move to a professorship, struggles they faced along the way and the impact the professional change had on their lives. ∗http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ http://www.cnx.org/content/m13967/latest/ Connexions module: m13967 2 The Transition from Practitioner to Professor: The Struggle of New Faculty to nd their Place in the World of


Normal 0 21 false false false Most of the research looking at addiction and the relationship with dreams has focused on newly abstinent alcoholics, or given no evidence of motivation to remain abstinent. This study compared the dreams of abstinent alcoholics in Stage II recovery from alcoholism with non-alcoholic controls. Nine female abstinent alcoholics 9 abstinent men, 11 non-alcoholic women and 9 non-alcoholic men kept dream diaries for 2 weeks. Waking personality, mood, and daily waking emotional experience were taken to ensure comparable waking personality and mood. A structured dream dairy was used to measure sleep behaviour, cognitions and self-appraisal, overall dream experience, and dream emotionality during a two week period. Results showed that male and female abstinent alcoholic's dreams were more unpleasant, contained less self-esteem, and more unpleasant emotions than non-alcoholics. Within-group differences between waking and dreaming emotion were identified with all groups reporting significant increases in fear and anger during dreams. Based upon the emotional experience of dreams, we concluded that despite being more than one year away from active alcoholism, abstinent alcoholics dream reflected disturbed dreaming. The implications of these finding are discussed.


Inquisitions held by various authoritative bodies
from the Crown in the eleventh century to the Board of
Trade or the local Borough Council in the twentieth,
have existed for many and different reasons. In
contemporary society any commission of inquiry can be
termed an inquisition, whether its purpose is a
retrospective assessment or a prospective modification
of established policy. The inquisitorial theory is the
searching out and correcting of error on the basis that
there is safety in the truth. As a legal principle it
is the demarcation line between the ancient prophetic
laws of the oracles and the scientific legal systems of
modern civilisations.
William the Conqueror introduced the "Inquisitio"
into England as one of the measures of facilitating the
integration of local administration with the centralisation
of Royal Justice.
Initially, its main function was of a fiscal and
political nature but the institution was not allowed to
suffer the corruption and misuse of its process, as was its continental counterpart following the Lateran and
Toulouse Councils in the thirteenth century. Given
expression in the Coroner's inquest it was used mýin1y
in the investigation of unnatural death or c-m y matter
ordered by the King's writ. From the onset it acquired
a significant role in the developing common law when
inquisition records were used by the Justices in Eyre
for the conducting their business.
The Coroner's inquiry exists in all parts of the
world where the common law took root, but its purpose has
changed; although on occasion an inquest may bring to
light a secret homicide or contribute to the preferment
of a criminal charge; its duty is to provide a forensic
forum for the sifting of medical, legal and scientific
issues in the prevention of untimely death and the
promotion of a better quality of life.


Specification of asynchronous circuit behaviour becomes more complex as the
complexity of today's System-On-a-Chip (SOC) design increases. This also causes
the Signal Transition Graphs (STGs) – interpreted Petri nets for the specification
of asynchronous circuit behaviour – to become bigger and more complex, which
makes it more difficult, sometimes even impossible, to synthesize an asynchronous
circuit from an STG with a tool like petrify [CKK+96] or CASCADE [BEW00].
It has, therefore, been suggested to decompose the STG as a first step; this
leads to a modular implementation [KWVB03] [KVWB05], which can reduce syn-
thesis effort by possibly avoiding state explosion or by allowing the use of library
elements. A decomposition approach for STGs was presented in [VW02] [KKT93]
[Chu87a]. The decomposition algorithm by Vogler and Wollowski [VW02] is based
on that of Chu [Chu87a] but is much more generally applicable than the one in
[KKT93] [Chu87a], and its correctness has been proved formally in [VW02].
This dissertation begins with Petri net background described in chapter 2.
It starts with a class of Petri nets called a place/transition (P/T) nets. Then
STGs, the subclass of P/T nets, is viewed. Background in net decomposition
is presented in chapter 3. It begins with the structural decomposition of P/T
nets for analysis purposes – liveness and boundedness of the net. Then STG
decomposition for synthesis from [VW02] is described.
The decomposition method from [VW02] still could be improved to deal with
STGs from real applications and to give better decomposition results. Some
improvements for [VW02] to improve decomposition result and increase algorithm
efficiency are discussed in chapter 4. These improvement ideas are suggested in
[KVWB04] and some of them are have been proved formally in [VK04].
The decomposition method from [VW02] is based on net reduction to find
an output block component. A large amount of work has to be done to reduce
an initial specification until the final component is found. This reduction is not
always possible, which causes input initially classified as irrelevant to become
relevant input for the component. But under certain conditions (e.g. if structural
auto-conflicts turn out to be non-dynamic) some of them could be reclassified as
irrelevant. If this is not done, the specifications become unnecessarily large, which
intern leads to unnecessarily large implemented circuits. Instead of reduction, a
new approach, presented in chapter 5, decomposes the original net into structural
components first. An initial output block component is found by composing the
structural components. Then, a final output block component is obtained by net
reduction.
As we cope with the structure of a net most of the time, it would be useful
to have a structural abstraction of the net. A structural abstraction algorithm
[Kan03] is presented in chapter 6. It can improve the performance in finding an
output block component in most of the cases [War05] [Taw04]. Also, the structure
net is in most cases smaller than the net itself. This increases the efficiency of the
decomposition algorithm because it allows the transitions contained in a node of
the structure graph to be contracted at the same time if the structure graph is
used as internal representation of the net.
Chapter 7 discusses the application of STG decomposition in asynchronous
circuit design. Application to speed independent circuits is discussed first. Af-
ter that 3D circuits synthesized from extended burst mode (XBM) specifications
are discussed. An algorithm for translating STG specifications to XBM specifi-
cations was first suggested by [BEW99]. This algorithm first derives the state
machine from the STG specification, then translates the state machine to XBM
specification. An XBM specification, though it is a state machine, allows some
concurrency. These concurrencies can be translated directly, without deriving
all of the possible states. An algorithm which directly translates STG to XBM
specifications, is presented in chapter 7.3.1. Finally DESI, a tool to decompose
STGs and its decomposition results are presented.


In this paper, we investigate scaling relations between star formation rates and molecular gas masses for both local Galactic clouds and a sample of external galaxies. We specifically consider relations between the star formation rates and measurements of dense, as well as total, molecular gas masses. We argue that there is a fundamental empirical scaling relation that directly connects the local star formation process with that operating globally within galaxies. Specifically, the total star formation rate in a molecular cloud or galaxy is linearly proportional to the mass of dense gas within the cloud or galaxy. This simple relation, first documented in previous studies, holds over a span of mass covering nearly nine orders of magnitude and indicates that the rate of star formation is directly controlled by the amount of dense molecular gas that can be assembled within a star formation complex. We further show that the star formation rates and total molecular masses, characterizing both local clouds and galaxies, are correlated over similarly large scales of mass and can be described by a family of linear star formation scaling laws, parameterized by fDG, the fraction of dense gas contained within the clouds or galaxies. That is, the underlying star formation scaling law is always linear for clouds and galaxies with the same dense gas fraction. These considerations provide a single unified framework for understanding the relation between the standard (nonlinear) extragalactic Schmidt–Kennicutt scaling law, that is typically derived from CO observations of the gas, and the linear star formation scaling law derived from HCN observations of the dense gas.


Fatigue can refer to a subjective symptom of malaise and aversion to activity or to objectively impaired performance. It has both physical and mental aspects. The symptom of fatigue is a poorly defined feeling, and careful inquiry is needed to clarify complaints of "fatigue," "tiredness," or "exhaustion" and to distinguish lack of energy from loss of motivation or sleepiness, which may be pointers to specific diagnoses (see below).

Prevalence—Like blood pressure, subjective fatigue is normally distributed in the population. The prevalence of clinically significant fatigue depends on the threshold chosen for severity (usually defined in terms of associated disability) and persistence. Surveys report that 5-20% of the general population suffer from such persistent and troublesome fatigue. Fatigue is twice as common in women as in men but is not strongly associated with age or occupation. It is one of the commonest presenting symptoms in primary care, being the main complaint of 5-10% of patients and an important subsidiary symptom in a further 5-10%.

Fatigue as a symptom—Patients generally regard fatigue as important (because it is disabling), whereas doctors do not (because it is diagnostically non-specific). This discrepancy is a potent source of potential difficulty in the doctor-patient relationship. Fatigue may present in association with established medical and psychiatric conditions or be idiopathic. Irrespective of cause, it has a major impact on day to day functioning and quality of life. Without treatment, the prognosis of patients with idiopathic fatigue is surprisingly poor; half those seen in general practice with fatigue are still fatigued six months later.


The Islamic State's (IS) online propaganda has been analyzed from various perspectives aimed at defining the role of the Internet, the power of social media networks, and the main narratives processed online by terrorist organizations. Nevertheless, very little research has focused on defining IS's comprehensive media strategy. To date, IS propaganda has been defined as multidimensional or as a mix of techniques related to moviemaking and video games. In consideration of the highly sophisticated IS online dissemination activity and its impact on Western youth who are already familiar with intensive media consumption, this article explores IS propaganda through a Hollywood-style transmedia approach. I analyze, through a qualitative content analysis of the magazine Dabiq narratives, IS propaganda as a comprehensive transmedia strategy centered on three key assets: synergistic storytelling, imaginary world-making, and semantic triggering.


We prepared a series of three-dimensional graphene aerogel (3D-GA) encapsulated n-octadecane (OD) composite phase change materials (PCMs) through both solution and vacuum impregnation to ensure that a homogeneous dispersion of OD in the porous structure of 3D-GA was present. At the same time, we also investigated the micro-structure, thermal storage properties, and thermal conductivity of the composite PCMs. We used scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to demonstrate that OD was encapsulated effectively in the porous structure of 3D-GA and that the composite PCMs were prepared successfully. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results confirmed that the composite PCMs possess good phase change behavior, fast thermal-response rates and excellent thermal cycling stability. The melting enthalpy and crystallization enthalpy can reach 195.70 J g−1 and 196.67 J g−1, respectively, and have almost no change for 60 DSC thermal cycles. Temperature–time curves suggested that the composite PCMs have excellent thermal regulation properties, and their temperature can be maintained in the range of 21–27 °C for about 640 s in a heating procedure. Thermal conductivity analysis indicated that the thermal conductivities of the composite PCMs are improved significantly by the highly thermally conductive 3D-GA. All these results demonstrated that the composite PCMs possess good comprehensive properties that can be used widely in energy storage systems.


Adenylyl cyclase catalyses the conversion of adenosine triphosphate into 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate and pyrophosphate. Adenylyl cyclases are grouped into six distinct Classes based on amino acid sequence similarity. Mammalian adenylyl cyclases and numerous prokaryotic adenylyl cyclases are grouped into Class III. Class III is further sub-divided into four sub-Classes, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, and IIId, based upon amino acid polymorphisms within the active site. Class IIIa adenylyl cyclases include the mammalian G- protein regulated transmembrane adenylyl cyclases and numerous prokaryotic adenylyl cyclases such as Rv1625c from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Class IIIb adenylyl cyclases include the mammalian soluble adenylyl cyclase and numerous prokaryotic adenylyl cyclase such as CyaB1 from Anabaena PCC 7120. Class IIIb adenylyl cyclases are stimulated by inorganic carbon. New findings dispute whether the inorganic carbon stimulation of Class IIIb adenylyl cyclases is by HCO(_3) or CO(_2). Class IIIa adenylyl cyclases have previously been demonstrated to be non-responsive to HCO(_3) but have not been investigated with CO(_2) .Experiments were performed using the prokaryotic Class IIIa adenylyl cyclase Rv1625c(_204-443)- The specific activity of Rvl625c (_204-443) was obtained by measuring the conversion of [a-(32)P]ATP into [(^32)P]cAMP. Rv1625c (_204-443) was assayed for pH dependence, cation dependence, dose dependence, enzyme kinetics, and inorganic carbon-activating species in the presence or absence of inorganic carbon. The results showed that in vitro Rv1625c(_204-443) is stimulated by CO(_2) and not HCO(_3) below pH 7.5 with an apparent E.C.(_50) value of 13.2 ± 0.6 mM. Experiments were performed to investigate in vivo CO(_2) stimulation of Rv1625c(_204-443) transformed into Escherichia coli cells. The results showed that in vivo Rv1625c(_204-443) is stimulated by 10 % (v/v) CO(_2) in air. CO(_2) stimulation of Rv1625c(_204-443) was further investigated by identifying the conditions required for CO(_2) to bind to Rv1625c(_204-443). Numerous spectroscopic and biochemical techniques were used to identify conditions required for CO(_2) binding such as circular dichroism spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, HCO(_3) dependent luminescence probe spectroscopy, CO(_2) stimulation assays on Rv1625c(_204-443) mutant proteins, and CO(_2) binding assays. The results showed that metal is not required for CO(_2) binding. CO(_2) binds solely to the apoprotein. As CO(_2) does not require any cefaclors or substrate to bind to Rv1625c(_204-443), the elucidation of the CO(_2) binding site on Rv1625c(_204-443) was attempted. Numerous binding sites were investigated, such as amino acids in the active site with a primary or secondary amine side group (forming a potential carbamate with CO(_2)). Double and triple amino acid CO(_2) binding sites were also investigated by identifying the amino acids that conespond to the HCO(_3) binding site from mammalian soluble adenylyl cyclase. CO(_2) binding was also investigated by growing Rv1625c crystals, exposing the crystals to CO(_2) and X-ray diffraction studies on the crystals to obtain a diffraction data set. Unfortunately none of these techniques was able to identify the CO(_2_ binding site of Rv1625c.This surprising and novel finding that CO'_2' binds and stimulates Rv1625c(_204-443) suggests that other Class IIIa adenylyl cyclases, including the heterotrimeric G-protein stimulated mammalian adenylyl cyclases are also stimulated by CO(_2) and further work needs to be done in this area.


Business confidence announcements attract widespread attention, yet relatively little is known about the series itself. What, for example, does an improvement or deterioration in business confidence mean? We consider this question using a panel of firm-level responses to a business opinion survey that includes a question on business confidence. We relate the confidence responses of the firms to microeconomic and macroeconomic variables that have a direct interpretation and, as a result, determine the variables that firms associate with business confidence. Our analysis of firm-level data reveals that what firms associate with business confidence changes over time and means different things to different firms. Consequently, it is not immediately apparent what a change in business confidence actually means.


The Syrian juniper, Juniperus drupacea Labill has a very limited distribution and is facing severe fragmentation and dieback in Lebanon. The present investigation is a pilot study conducted in Jabal Moussa Biosphere Reserve in order to develop a plan for conservation and sustainable management of this species. A total of 106 individuals were studied from five areas. The correlations between environmental factors (altitude, exposition, and slope) as well as canopy density with the trees distribution, size and vitality were investigated. The most remarkable individuals were mainly found in Aarbi, the central karstic area in association with Quercus calliprinos Webb., Q. infectoria Oliv. and Pistacia palaestina Boiss. The statistical analysis showed that the optimum conditions for Juniperus drupacea growth is at middle altitudes, at western expositions with low slope and in relatively open forest. In short term, to manage and conserve this unique species, we can perform a selective cutting to i) eliminate infested trees and branches, ii) reduce the number of trees per unit area – reducing therefore the density of the canopy and distance between trees – in order to preserve the remarkable vitality of trees.


The magnitude of the influence that predators exert on their prey is partly determined by factors that influence the density and behaviour of predators, and partly by factors that influence the survival of prey in the presence of predators. We tested whether the presence of reefs influences the density of small predatory fishes inhabiting seagrass meadows, and the intensity of predation by these fishes on tethered crabs, by taking measurements at increasing distances from 10 rocky reefs at 2 locations separated by several hundred km. We also tested whether these variables were influ- enced by type of seagrass by comparing patterns yielded in meadows dominated by Amphibolis spp. and Posidonia sinuosa, 2 seagrasses with different morphological and architectural characteristics. The densities of small predatory fishes declined rapidly with increasing distance from reefs, with sig- nificantly lower densities 30 m from reefs than immediately adjacent to reefs. Densities >300 m from reefs were generally not significantly different to densities 30 m from reefs. However, the survival of tethered crabs showed no consistent trend associated with distance from reefs. Type of seagrass was not a significant influence on the density of small predatory fishes, but did influence the survival of tethered crabs: those in Amphibolis spp. meadows were 3.1× more likely to be eaten than those in P. sinuosa meadows. These patterns were consistent between locations. Our results suggest that over landscape scales (hundreds of metres) reefs are an important influence on abundance of small preda- tory fishes, but not on the intensity of predation on crabs. Differences in the intensity of predation between the 2 seagrass species are likely due to their dissimilar morphological and architectural characteristics.


The Santa Margarita Wildlife Carnivore Survey was designed to study the diversity of wildlife of the Santa Margarita Ranch, and to provide an interface with the Learning Among the Oaks (LATO) outdoor education program. The study took place in the coastal range of California, United States, and was aimed at addressing species specific analysis including habitat utilization, latency to detection, and activity patterns. Target species included native carnivores (mountain lion, bobcats, coyotes) and nonnative species of management concern (feral pigs, red fox). Working nights and camera efficiency were also compared between camera models. Six Cuddeback cameras were deployed on Santa Margarita Ranch for a seven week study Overall, 12 species of mammals and six species of birds were detected. Of the 12 mammal species, seven were carnivores (bobcat, coyote, red fox, mountain lion, opossum, raccoon, and striped skunk). The remaining five mammalian species were deer, feral pig, rabbit, grey squirrel and ground squirrel. Black bear and grey fox were not detected at all during the survey. The highest mammalian utilization intensity occurred at Site 3 from ground squirrel visits (15.37 visits per survey day), and the highest carnivore utilization intensity occurred at Site 2 from coyote visits (0.35 visits per survey day). Median carnivore latency periods ranged from 4.5 days (coyote) to 26 days (raccoon and mountain lion). Activity patterns were analyzed with a chi square goodness of fit test (α=0.05) for coyote, deer, feral pig, and ground squirrel. Coyote (p=0.68) and feral pig (p=0.60) showed no significant selection for activity during different times of the 24hr diel period. Deer (p=0.00089) were more active during dusk and less active during day than expected by chance. Ground squirrels (p=6.9x10 198) showed selection toward activity during the day and avoidance of activity during night and dawn. Camera efficiency data indicated that the newer model Cuddeback Attack cameras were considerably more efficient (99.08% of images contained data) than the older model Excites (88.99% of images contained data). Excite models should be replaced for further study to increase camera efficiency and improve the chance of capturing individuals. Additionally, data should be collected yearround to obtain greater statistical power in analyzing data and to offer comparison across seasons.


Hot material from the asthenosphere rises along mid oceanic ridges. The processes behind the magma supply at fast and slow spreading ridges are fairly known. However, for ultraslow spreading ridges, various theories exist, how the magma supply and the plumbing system looks like, but geophysical evidence supporting these models is lacking. The predominantly used model describes mantle upwelling cells spaced every 85 – 100 km, which generate magmatic robust segment centers and feed magmatically weaker segments by lateral melt migration. The upwelling ductile magma creates a localized hotter mantle area.

In 2009 during the Polarstern expedition ARK – XXIV/3 a network of broadband ocean bottom seismometers was deployed for 10 days between 75°50' N and 76°50' N along the ultra – slow spreading Knipovich Ridge. In this time period over 900 local earthquakes were recorded.
The local velocity model provided by seismic refraction data in this region was used to localize these microearthquakes with Hyposat. The events were selected after their root- mean -square value, their error ellipses and their greatest azimuthal angle without observation (GAP) to ensure a high quality of the event location. Furthermore, the stability of the hypocenters was tested with different localization programs.
 After the identification of highly reliable events the tectonic structures become visible. We interpret a locally high concentration of earthquakes in the crust as an indication of a detachment fault.
However of greater interest is a zone, where no earthquakes occur in the uppermost mantle underneath the Logatev Seamount. Since earthquakes reflect the released energy of a sudden stress drop caused by brittle failure, the absence of this failure suggest a higher temperature in this area. The lack of crustal and upper mantle seismicity in a clearly defined area beneath the seamount may thus yield a first convincing evidence for the existence of mantle upwelling cells underneath a magmatic center.


Many uncertainties exist in development of oil fields. Developing proxy models as substitutes for reservoir simulators is a fast method for uncertainty analysis. Artificial neural network (ANN) and polynomial regression models (PR) were used as proxy models in a sector of an Iranian heavy oil reservoir under steam flooding scenario. Screening analysis was used to find influential uncertain parameters. Different experimental designs have been applied to construct proxy models. A combination of Box-Behnken and inscribed central composite designs was most informative design. Comparison between proxy models results and simulator outputs shows that ANN and PR models can accurately predict the simulator outputs. However, the deviation of ANN from actual results is less than quadratic polynomials. The constructed proxy models were used in Monte Carlo simulation to obtain probabilistic production forecasts. The combination of experimental design and proxy models is a fast and accurate tool for risk analysis and prediction.


A preliminary survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of some tick-borne haemoparasitic diseases (TBHDs) and their effects on the haematological parameters of sheep and goats in Maiduguri abattoir. A total of 200 blood samples were collected from sheep (n = 100) and goats (n = 100) from November 2015 to May 2016. Giemsa stained blood smears were prepared and examined under light microscope, to screen for haemoparasites. Packed cell volume (PCV) was determined by microhaematocrit centrifugation technique while haemoglobin (Hb) concentration was determined by Sahli's method. The total white blood cell (WBC) and red blood cell (RBC) counts were estimated with Neubauer hemocytometer while erythrocyte indices were calculated. The results showed 13.5% overall prevalence of tick-borne haemoparasitic diseases in sheep 13 (6.5%) and goats 14 (7.0%). There was no significant (p>0.05) differences in prevalence of haemoparasites between sexes and age groups of sheep and goats. Anaplasma ovis and Babesia ovis were identified in the study of which A. ovis [23 (11.5%)] was higher (p<0.05) than B. ovis [2 (1.0%)]. A single co-infection of A. ovis and B. ovis was encountered in sheep. The mean values of PCV, Hb and RBC counts of infected sheep were lower (p<0.05) than the uninfected sheep. Similarly, the mean values of Hb and WBC of were significantly (p<0.05) lower in infected goats. This stud has reports important tick-borne haemoparasitic diseases in sheep and goats. We recommend tick control using suitable acaricides, periodic screening and treatment of small ruminants in Maiduguri.

 Key words: Anaemia, Anaplasma ovis, Babesia ovis, haemoglobin, packed cell volume, white blood cell count.


An exact expression for the spin–spin correlation function is derived for the zero-temperature random-field Ising model defined on a Bethe lattice of arbitrary coordination number. The correlation length describing dynamic spin–spin correlations and separated from the intrinsic topological length scale of the Bethe lattice is shown to diverge as a power law at the critical point. The critical exponents governing the behaviour of the correlation length are consistent with the mean-field values found for a hypercubic lattice with dimension greater than the upper critical dimension.


Abstract
This thesis explores how families explain and justify their uses of the internet
within the home. It focuses on three key purposes for which the internet is used
- education, work and leisure - and discusses these in the context of power
relations within families. Whilst previous research exists in relation to children's
and adults' internet use, there is little which investigates use embedded within
the context of everyday family life. An added dimension of this research is in its
exploration of how internet use changes over time. The findings are drawn from
qualitative data based on longitudinal research carried out with 17 UK families.
The data collection consisted of in-depth interviews, diaries and observation
carried out over a two year period.
The study challenges the rhetoric, rife within the public domain, that the internet
is transforming our daily lives, revolutionizing leisure, education, learning and
working at home. Instead, families view the internet with ambivalence, and
incorporate it into the pre-existing routines of their lives in mostly rather banal
and narrow ways. Furthermore, not only are some family members struggling to
learn the functional, critical and creative skills and competencies to be able to
use the internet in the first place, but parents' regulation strategies may also be
preventing children from developing abilities to use the internet safely. A further
concern addressed here is that inequalities in access persist between families
and within families connected to the internet. Whilst the changes within the
sample families are more related to employment and education than family
breakdown, these changes prompt shifts in families' uses incrementally at key
points in addition to the day-to-day fluctuations that occur. This, therefore,
reflects the dialectical relationship between the medium and the individual
through which use is configured; and it is ultimately this relationship that
determines what the internet can become.


This paper presents a baseline test for the listening quality (LQ) using voice over digital subscriber line (VoDSL) access technology by using voice/listening quality(V/LQ) transmission with voice compression while countinously downloading file. The design of an experimental VoDSL network architecture is presented. We identify the efficiency of the LQ based on the following digital subscriber line (DSL) service levels, 640K/640K, 1.5M/384K, and 3.0M/512K for each American National Standards Institute (ANSI) loops.


In this paper, it is shown how the author's general theory of slowly varying wave trains may be derived as the first term in a formal perturbation expansion. In its most effective form, the perturbation procedure is applied directly to the governing variational principle and an averaged variational principle is established directly. This novel use of a perturbation method may have value outside the class of wave problems considered here. Various useful manipulations of the average Lagrangian are shown to be similar to the transformations leading to Hamilton's equations in mechanics. The methods developed here for waves may also be used on the older problems of adiabatic invariants in mechanics, and they provide a different treatment; the typical problem of central orbits is included in the examples.


This guide can help you learn how to properly format your bibliographies and papers in AMA, APA, Chicago and MLA citation styles, and avoid plagiarism.


When the public communication networks can not provide service during disaster and high traffic cases, Professional Mobile Radio systems (PMR) such as trunked Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) systems are needed to improve the service quality and to provide uninterrupted service to the public safety officers. While providing continuous voice and data service, it is very important to select the base station (BS) to be served by efficient cell selection algorithms. The aim of the user association algorithms is to reduce the waiting time while establishing reliable transmission link for PMR systems in emergencies. In this sense, we propose the full set user association algorithm that each user selects the BS according to the calculated utility value determined based on both received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value and cell load information. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by considering different performance metrics for trunked DMR systems in urban area.


It is well-known that the phalangeal formulae of the feet of dinosaurs and other vertebrates are relatively consistent within any given clade. Indeed, such similarities are part of the basis for alpha taxonomy (e.g., bird and non-avian theropod relationships). Developmental studies of the vertebrate foot support the view that morphological similarity owes as much to intrinsic (formal) developmental dynamics as to extrinsic (functional) influences. Thus, the morphologies of ornithopod, non-avian theropod and most bird feet are convergent (especially with respect to digits II-IV) despite significant differences in size and functional adaptation. Despite these "general" convergences, "detailed" variation in the morphology of tridactyl, mesaxonic, Triassic through recent non-avian dinosaur and bird tracks has allowed the diagnosis of hundreds of ichnotaxa, as well as the recognition of nearly continuous subtle variation in modern bird tracks. Several studies characterize this variation by measuring how far digit III projects anteriorly beyond lateral digit IV and medial digit II, creating an "anterior triangle" between the tips of digits II, III and IV (Weems, 1992). Differences in this projection of digit III highlight a polarity between strong mesaxony (strong central tendency) and weak mesaxony (weak central tendency). Early studies (Olsen, 1980) suggested that as theropod tracks in the Grallator-Eubrontes plexus increase in size, they shift from narrow to wide and from strongly to weakly mesaxonic. However, such polarities also reiterate (independent of size) among medium-sized and diminutive theropod tracks (e.g., Minisauripus). Such polarity also recurs among ornithopods, and is equally striking in extant birds (e.g., between passerines and members of the charadriiformes). Such "intrinsic" differences can only be partially attributed to functional variation in digit divarication caused by foot-substrate interaction. Moreover, such polarities in foot morphology give important clues to whole limb and whole body proportions, and suggest an intrinsic "lawfulness" to patterns of convergence.


This paper is concerned with the nature of etymological gender inflection in Malacca Creole Portuguese and its place in the diachrony of the language. The discussion considers pairs of items with etymological gender inflection and human referents. Speaker intuitions of the word-pair vitality are assessed by word recognition and judgments of the acceptability of test words in specific syntactic contexts. The items surveyed are initially contemplated as a type of derivational morphology. Subsequently, the question is posed as to whether this etymological gender morphology could have a contextual dimension, and it is observed that some limited traces thereof may be found. The incorporation and retention of etymological gender inflection is attributed to second language input to the creole, involving early second language lexical and phrasal development, influenced by a combination of communication pragmatics, salience, and potential Indian substrate features. It is suggested that such input could be both an early diachronic occurrence or could have arisen through an ongoing diglossia involving a wider lectal grid that may have existed until the 19th century.


Objectives To examine the association between exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in the home and mental health among children. Methods Cross-sectional study of 2357 children representative of the Spanish population aged 4–12 years in 2011–2012. Duration of SHS exposure in children was reported by parents. Probable mental disorder was defined as a score >90th centile in the parental version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Statistical analysis was performed with logistic regression and adjusted for sociodemographic variables, lifestyle, neighbourhood environment and family characteristics, including parental mental health. Results Among study participants, 6.9% (95% CI 5.7% to 8.0%) were exposed to SHS in the home for <1 h/day and 4.5% (95% CI 3.5% to 5.5%) for ≥1 h/day. Compared to children not habitually exposed to SHS, the multivariate ORs for probable mental disorder were 1.49 (95% CI 0.85 to 2.62) for SHS exposure <1 h/day and 2.73 (95% CI 1.38 to 5.41) for SHS exposure ≥1 h/day (p for linear trend=0.002). The corresponding ORs for attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were 2.18 (95% CI 1.30 to 3.64) for <1 h/day exposure and 3.14 (95% CI 1.63 to 6.04) for ≥1 h/day exposure (p for linear trend <0.001). No association was found between SHS and the rest of the components of the SDQ. Conclusions Among children, SHS exposure in the home during ≥1 h/day is associated with a higher frequency of mental disorder. This association was mostly due to the impact of SHS on ADHD.


Predication focus — a category where the predicate or a part thereof constitutes (or is part of) the sentence focus — is frequently encoded across the Bantu family by inflectional or morphosyntactic means. This phenomenon is associated with another observation which is rather unexpected at first glance. There often exists a formal parallel between marking devices of predication focus on the one hand and of present progressive on the other. This is valid across Bantu for a number of different morphological or syntactic forms. Some cases even suggest that this "isomorphism" can result from a directional grammaticalization change from predication focus toward progressive. As the formal and historical relation between the two categories cannot be viewed as accidental, an explanation is called for. Although progressivity and focus pertain to different functional domains, their relationship can indeed be motivated. The present proposal elaborates the previous hypothesis by Hyman and Watters (1984) that the progressive is an inherently focused verb category. Thus, the paper throws light in particular on the pragmatic import of progressives beyond their semantic aspect of time marking.


Genome sequencing has become commonplace, but the understanding of how those genomes ultimately specify cell fate during development is still elusive. Extrapolating insights from deep investigation of a handful of developmentally important Drosophila genes to understanding the regulation of all genes is a major challenge. The developing embryo provides a unique opportunity to study the role of gene expression in pattern specification; the precise and consistent spatial positioning of key transcription factors essentially provides separate transcriptional-readout experiments at a critical point in development. We cryosectioned and sequenced mRNA from single Drosophila melanogaster embryos at the blastoderm stage to screen for spatially-varying regulation of transcription. Expanding on our previous screening of wild type embryos, here we present data from dosage mutants for key maternally provided regulators, including depletion of zelda and hunchback and both over-expression and depletion of bicoid. These data recapitulate all of the expected patterning changes driven by these regulators; for instance, we show spatially-confined up-regulation of expression in the bicoid over-expression condition, and down-regulation of those genes in the bicoid knock-down case, consistent with bicoid's known function as an anterior-localized activator. Our data highlight the role of combinatorial regulation of patterning gene expression. When comparing changes in multiple conditions, genes responsive to one mutation tend to respond to other mutations in a similar fashion. Furthermore, genes that respond differently to these mutations tend to have more complex patterns of TF binding.


Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper presents two new tools for the identification of faked interviews in surveys. One method is based on Benford's Law, and the other exploits the empirical observation that fakers most often produce answers with less variability than could be expected from the whole survey. We focus on fabricated data, which was taken out of the survey before the data was disseminated to external users. For two samples, the resulting rankings of the interviewers with respect to their cheating behavior are given. For both methods all of the evident fakers are identified.


Perturbative treatments of the lattice dynamics are widely successful for many crystalline materials; however, their applicability is limited for strongly anharmonic systems, metastable crystal structures and liquids. The full dynamics of these systems can, however, be accessed via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using correlation functions, which includes dynamical structure factors providing a direct bridge to experiment. To simplify the analysis of correlation functions, here the dynasor package is presented as a flexible and efficient tool that enables the calculation of static and dynamical structure factors, current correlation functions as well as their partial counterparts from MD trajectories. The dynasor code can handle input from several major open source MD packages and thanks to its C/Python structure can be readily extended to support additional codes. The utility of dynasor is demonstrated via examples for both solid and liquid single and multi‐component systems. In particular, the possibility to extract the full temperature dependence of phonon frequencies and lifetimes is emphasized.


Seaweeds provide food and shelter for countless species of invertebrates. Many studies show how particular species of seaweed facilitate particular invertebrates, but few examine the simultaneous effects of multiple seaweeds, despite the fact that algal composition and diversity are known to vary considerably. We conducted laboratory experiments to determine how algal species richness affected the consumption and growth of 2 common rocky shore herbivores: the turban snail Chlorostoma funebralis and the lined shore crab Pachygrapsus crassipes. For both herbivores, highest growth was achieved on a diet of mixed algal species, though this was greater than growth on the best single species only for C. funebralis. However, the herbivores differed in their growth on particular single species diets and consumed prey species at different rates. This suggests that, despite the similar boost in growth achieved by a diverse diet, the exact mechanism was not the same for the 2 species. The benefits were not due simply to inclusion of the best single food species in the mixed diet because consumption of these highest quality foods was lower in mixed than in single species treatments and contributed only 50% of dietary intake in mixed diet treatments. It seems likely that complementary nutritional quality, chemistry, or morphology among prey species contributed to the positive effects of diet species richness on herbivore per formance. Similar findings for taxonomically and ecologically distinct herbivores suggest that such effects of diet species richness on consumer performance may be widespread among marine generalist herbivores.


This thesis, situated between literature, history and memory studies participates in the modern recovery of the long-obscured relations between Scotland and the Caribbean. I develop the suggestion that the Caribbean represents a forgotten 'lieu de memoire' where Scotland might fruitfully 'displace' itself. Thus it examines texts from the Enlightenment to Romantic eras in their historical context and draws out their implications for modern national, multicultural, postcolonial concerns. Theoretically it employs a 'transnational' Atlantic Studies perspective that intersects with issues around creolisation, memory studies, and British 'Four Nations' history. Politically it insists on an interrogation of Scottish national narratives that continue to evade issues of empire, race and slavery. Moving beyond a rhetoric of blame, it explores forms of acting and thinking in the present that might help to overcome the injurious legacies of the past.

Chapters include an examination of pastoral and georgic modes in Scottish-Caribbean texts. These include well-known authors such as James Thomson, Tobias Smollet, James Grainger, Robert Burns; and less well-known ones such as John Marjoribanks, Charles Campbell, Philip Barrington Ainslie, and the anonymous author of Marly; or a Planter's Tale (1828). Chapters two to four highlight the way pastoral and georgic modes mediated the representation of 'improvement' and the question of free, bonded and enslaved labour across Scotland, Britain and the Caribbean in the era of slavery debates. The fourth chapter participates in and questions the terms of the recovery of two nineteenth century 'Mulatto-Scots', Robert Wedderburn and Mary Seacole. Bringing 'Black Atlantic' issues of race, class, gender, empire and rebellion to the fore, I consider the development of a 'Scottish-Mulatto' identity by comparing and contrasting the way these very different figures strategically employed their Scottish heritage. The final chapter moves forward to consider current memorialisations of slavery in the Enlightenment- Romantic period. The main focus is James Robertson's Joseph Knight (2003) that engages with Walter Scott's seminal historical novel Waverley (1814) to weave issues of racial slavery into the familiar narratives of Culloden. Robertson also explores forms of solidarity that might help to overcome those historical legacies in a manner that is suggestive for this thesis as a whole.


Economic literature has established the importance of risk attitudes in economic decision making. The study examines determinants of risk aversion in children. It also explores the potential of the government to mitigate the effect of shocks, by looking at the effectiveness of the world's largest public works program – National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). First, it builds a general model of the determinants of childhood risk aversion. The study finds that the environment – economic and psychological, that a child is born into plays an important role in developing the non-cognitive skill preference for risk. Additionally, economic shocks do not have a significant impact on risk aversion in childhood years vis-a vis psychological trauma. Second, the study investigates whether NREGS has been effective in smoothing income shocks for rural households as would be reflected by less risk averse children. NREGS has been effective in providing a stable environment to children resulting in lower risk aversion. Access to the scheme reduced risk aversion in the Indian sample by 3643%. The study employs OLS and Probit models using Young Lives Round 3 (2009-10) cross-section data from Andhra Pradesh, India, since the risk questions were only asked in that round. Identification is difficult using only crosssection data, so I am only able to establish correlations. Further, the Young Lives dataset contains a rich set of control variables, and Propensity Matching is used to correct for self-selection into the NREGS. A series of reliability test have also been conducted to ensure the robustness of results.