Previous findings have reported that track and field athletes may monitor and utilize internal information, including anxiety level, suggesting that the ability to inwardly monitor one's own functioning and utilize anxiety are required to achieve superior performance. Performance monitoring has been investigated using two event-related potential components; the error (-related) negativity (Ne/ERN) and error positivity (Pe). It is unknown whether performance monitoring differs among various types of athletes. It has also been reported that Ne/ERN amplitude is increased in individuals who are more anxious and the prevalence and effect of anxiety also differs among various types of athletes. In this study, we recorded both Ne/ERN and Pe from long-distance runners (n = 24) and sprinters (n = 24) while they were performing a spatial Stroop task under motivation and no motivation conditions. We also collected scores on the Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT). Mean error rate on incongruent trials was lower in the motivation condition than in the no motivation condition. There was neither group effect, nor condition effect found in Ne/ERN amplitude. However, for the long-distance runners, Pe amplitude was larger in the motivation condition than in the no motivation condition. We also investigated the relationships between Ne/ERNs and individual differences in performance anxiety using the SCAT. A multiple linear regression analysis in the motivation condition revealed an interaction between type of runner and SCAT scores, indicating that long-distance runners with higher SCAT scores showed larger Ne/ERN amplitudes whereas the sprinters with high SCAT scores tended to exhibit smaller Ne/ERN amplitudes. Our findings provide further evidence that performance monitoring differs across various types of athletes.


The Global Positioning System is a constellation of 24 satellites which have the ability to calculate the position, time and velocity of any GPS receiver. Ethical concerns arise when a person carrying a receiver has their location transmitted to second party. This type of tracking has a wide variety of applications including tracking dementia sufferers, tracking parolees and law enforcement. A literature review found that the ethics of GPS tracking has not been thoroughly assessed. This paper investigates the ethical issues arising from the real time tracking of people using GPS-based location services. Usability context analysis and an observational study were the methodology used in this study. Usability context analysis provided insight into GPS tracking over the contexts of care, control and convenience. Its current applications could be seen in the tracking of Alzheimer's patients, parents tracking children, law enforcement, parolee and sex offenders, terrorist tracking, employee monitoring and commercial uses. A participant observational study was also used to develop an ethical discussion. It found five issues prevalent to GPS tracking: accuracy, editing track data, user travel behaviour, detail of GIS and user awareness. The results from the usability context analysis and participant observational study were used to form a discussion based on the issues of privacy, accuracy, property and accessibility. Publication Details This thesis was originally submitted as McNamee, A, Ethical Issues arising from the Real Time Tracking and Monitorining of People Using GPS-based Location Services, Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology (Honours), University of Wollongong, 2005,71p. This thesis is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/thesesinfo/4 1 Ethical Issues arising from the Real Time Tracking and Monitoring of People Using GPS-based Location Services IACT450 – Information and Communication Honours Thesis Andrew McNamee 2428866


To investigate the annual and spatial variability in the beginning of growing season across Europe, phenological data of the International Phenological Gardens for the period 1969-1998 were used. The beginning of growing season (BGS) was defined as an average leaf unfolding index of 4 tree species (Betula pubescens, Prunus avium, Sorbus aucuparia and Ribes alpinum). The study shows significant changes in the mean air temperatures from February to April and in the average BGS in Europe since 1989. In the last decade the mean temperature in early spring increased by 0.8°C. As a result the average BGS advanced by 8 d. Between 1989 and 1998, 8 out of 10 years tend towards an earlier onset of spring. The earliest date was observed in 1990. The relationships between air temperature and the beginning of growing season across Europe were investigated by canonical correlation analysis (CCA). The spatial variability of both fields can be described by 3 pairs of CCA patterns. The first pattern, which explains most of the variance, shows a uniform structure with above (below) normal temperatures in whole Europe and consequently an advanced (delayed) beginning of growing season. The other 2 patterns show regional differences in the anomaly fields. Whereas the second CCA pattern has a meridional structure, the third pattern shows a zonal distribution. In all cases the anomalies of the regional air temperature and of the beginning of growing season corre- spond very well. The correlation coefficients between the anomaly fields range between 0.90 and 0.66. For all patterns appropriate examples in the observed data were found.


A formal system is introduced which is capable of representing a universal Turing machine. This enables the input, state-output representation of the computing systems that allows the study on a unified basis of the larger systems involving computer-like subsystems. It has been shown how some problems and concepts associated with the theory of Turing machines can be applied to engineering system and vice-versa. This has been made possible by using the proposed formal system.


Long recognized as one of America's foremost men of letters, Robert Penn Warren continues to dazzle us with his many-sided genius. In the haunting images of his poetry, the narrative power of his fiction, the revealing insights of his essays, we find literary achievement of the highest order.Warren's writing has merited the close attention of literary critics. In this book Neil Nakadate brings together the most important critical essays, including a new essay written for this volume, to give a comprehensive view of the range of Warren's work. A list of Warren's published works, 1929-1980, and a useful checklist of critical works on Warren's writing supplement this rich and balanced collection of essays.Contributors: A.L. Clements, Chester E. Eisinger, Norton R. Girault, Robert B. Heilman, H.P. Heseltine, James H. Justus, Richard Law, Frederick P.W. McDowell, Neil Nakadate, Ladell Payne, M. Bernetta Quinn, John Crowe Ransom, Victor Strandberg, Walter Sullivan, William Tjenos, Simone Vauthier, and Robert Penn Warren


Purpose: To describe the prevalence of fall risks factors using the Missouri Alliance for Home Care's fall risk assessment tool (MAHC-10) on home-based health care (HHC) patients in the Aseer region, southern Saudi Arabia. Also, to highlight the process of care, and physical therapy utilization among home health care beneficiaries.
Method: 242 patients' information were retrieved and reviewed. Patients in our study received various healthcare services including physical therapy, nursing and physicians' visits between October and December 2017. We used the MAHC-10, which was designed for assessing multifactorial fall risks among home-based health care patients.
Results: 43% of patients were male, and 57% were female. Males received care within an average of 8 d of a referral date, whereas female patients received care within an average of 15 d. Majority of patients are functionally dependent (78%) of patients. Nursing visits were the highest number of professionals that provided HHC visits for both patients' risk groups. The impairment of functional mobility had the highest fall risk factor among patients receiving HHC services, and fall history factor was the lowest prevalent fall risk factor among patients.
Conclusion: Health care utilization is very important, and it should start early enough to decrease the risk of fall especially physical therapy visits. The level of functional mobility was also a most prevalent factor across all home health care patients in our study, and it is an essential element for predicting the likelihood of a fall in the older adult Aseer population.


Fe-Al-based nanocomposites with a superalloy-type of microstructure constitute a very promising class of materials. They possess a great potential as an alternative to the currently used steel grades in high temperature applications. Intermetallics-containing nanocomposites, such as those with the Fe3Al compound being one of the phases, may open a way towards future automotive and energy-conversion technologies with lower fuel consumption and reduced environmental impact. We employ quantum-mechanical calculations to analyze relations between ordering tendencies of Al atoms in the disordered Fe-18.75at.% Al phase on one hand and thermodynamic, structural and magnetic properties of Fe-Al-based nanocomposites on the other. When comparing supercells modeling disordered Fe-Al phase with different atomic distribution of atoms we find out that the supercell without 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs has a lower energy than that mimicking a perfect disorder (a special quasi-random structure, SQS). Further, coherent interfaces with (001), (110) and (1-10) crystallographic orientations between Fe3Al compound and SQS Fe-Al phase have higher energies than those exhibiting atomic distribution without 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs.


Abstract This paper presents the results from exploratory primary research into the role of the internet in the radicalisation of 15 terrorists and extremists in the UK. In recent years, policymakers, practitioners and the academic community have begun to examine how the internet influences the process of radicalisation: how a person comes to support terrorism and forms of extremism associated with terrorism. This study advances the evidence base in the field by drawing on primary data from a variety of sources: evidence presented at trial, computer registries of convicted terrorists, interviews with convicted terrorists and extremists, as well as police senior investigative officers responsible for terrorist investigations. The 15 cases were identified by the research team together with the UK Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and UK Counter Terrorism Units (CTU). The research team gathered primary data relating to five extremist cases (the individuals were part of the Channel programme, a UK government intervention aimed at individuals identified by the police as vulnerable to violent extremism), and ten terrorist cases (convicted in the UK), all of which were anonymised. Our research supports the suggestion that the internet may enhance opportunities to become radicalised and provide a greater opportunity than offline interactions to confirm existing beliefs. However, our evidence does not necessarily support the suggestion that the internet accelerates radicalisation or replaces the need for individuals to meet in person during their radicalisation process. Finally, we didn't find any supporting evidence for the concept of self-radicalisation through the internet.


The study of volcano infrasound is becoming increasingly popular (Johnson and Ripepe, 2011; Fee and Matoza, 2013) with analysis of the recorded signals contributing to our understanding of eruption dynamics and enhancing capabilities in remote monitoring of volcanoes. Multiple studies have determined the source locations of the infrasound from volcanic eruptions. For example, Ripepe and Marchetti (2002) analyzed infrasound records for events occurring at Stromboli volcano. The authors successfully located different active vents in the craters to a horizontal resolution within a few tens of meters. Additionally, Jones and Johnson (2011) identified a migrating source of infrasound on the surface of the 200 m radius Santiaguito dome. Further from the vent region, infrasound signals are also generated by volcanic jet flow throughout the plume (Matoza et al. , 2009; Fee et al. , 2010). In these cases, large‐scale turbulent interactions within the volcanic plume are likely to be the source of infrasound waves. For these signals, the infrasound spectrum has a shape similar to that of man‐made turbulent jet noise (Tam et al. , 1996; Matoza et al. , 2009).

It is plausible that infrasound waves recorded during volcanic eruptions are a composite signal generated by both processes at the vent/crater and within the eruption cloud itself. However, the source of infrasound is seldom constrained with sufficient spatial resolution to discriminate between signals at the vent or in the volcanic cloud. Determination of detailed infrasound source position and/or its time evolution during an eruption is a key research aim. In this paper, we investigate the locations of infrasound sources and reflections during vulcanian eruptions of Sakurajima volcano in Japan.

Cyclic vulcanian eruptions and continuous open‐vent degassing characterize the recent activity of the Showa crater of Sakurajima volcano, which has been ongoing since June 2006 (Iguchi et al. , 2013). Total numbers of …


In New York State, the default electricity pricing for large customers is Mandatory Hourly Pricing (MHP), which is charged based on zonal day-ahead market price for energy. With MHP, retail customers can adjust their building load to an economically optimal level according to hourly electricity prices. Yet, many customers seek alternative pricing options such as fixed rates through retail access for their electricity supply. Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) is an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) based information exchange model that communicates price and reliability information. It allows customers to evaluate hourly prices and provide demand response in an automated fashion to minimize electricity costs. This document shows how OpenADR can support MHP and facilitate price responsive demand for large commercial customers in New York City.


The cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus exhibits circadian rhythmicity, and the abundance of the KaiB and KaiC proteins display a circadian cycle. Iwasaki et al. and Williams et al. both provide evidence for a phosphorylation-dependent mechanism controlling the circadian rhythm of this simple organism. In the absence of kaiA, kaiB, or kaiC, rhythmic expression of a kaiBC reporter construct is abolished. However, Iwasaki et al. found that the stimulation of kaiBC expression associated with overexpression of KaiA did not occur in KaiC-deficient cells, suggesting that KaiC is required for the stimulatory effects of KaiA. Iwasaki et al. and Williams et al. both showed that in vitro KaiA stimulated the autophosphorylation activity of KaiC; although only the COOH-domain of the protein had this activity. In vivo, the rhythmic phosphorylation of KaiC was decreased in kaiA- cells. Iwasaki et al. further demonstrated that the kaiA2 mutant strain that exhibits an increased period of clock-controlled gene expression also showed decreased KaiC circadian phosphorylation, which was restored in the kaiC15 mutant that suppressed the kaiA2 phenotype. Williams et al. analyzed the structure of the NH2- and COOH-domains of KaiA by circular dichroism and 15N heteronuclear single-quantum coherence spectrum. The NH2-domain resembled a receiver domain, when compared with receiver domains from two-component systems. However, certain essential residues were not conserved, which suggests that the KaiA NH2-domain may be a pseudoreceiver domain. The importance of this domain in regulating the circadian clock is apparent from the abundance of mutations in KaiA that alter periodicity and that occur in this region. Williams et al. suggest that the pseudoreceiver domain receives input from a light sensor (possibly the phytochrome encoded by cikA) and then may regulate the COOH-domain to control the KaiC autophosphorylation. H. Iwasaki, T. Nishiwaki, Y. Kitayama, M. Nakajima, T. Kondo, KaiA-stimulated KaiC phosphorylation in circadian timing loops in cyanobacteria. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 15788-15793 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] S. B. Williams, I. Vakonakis, S. S. Golden, A. C. LiWang, Structure and function from the circadian clock protein KaiA of Synechococcus elongatus: A potential clock input mechanism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 15357-15362 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


If we are to ensure that language and communication skills for national needs are developed through education, then we cannot afford to neglect the existing language resources which Australia's children bring to early childhood and primary school programs. Conservation of these resources can range along a continuum from home language support in mainstream educational programs to full bilingual education programs. The greatest range of national needs will be met through full bilingual education. However, in the current educational and political climate, such programs are unlikely to expand. In such a climate, it is important to ensure that no avenue of linguistic conservation is neglected. The Home Language Support Project, described in this paper, is one attempt to help mainstream teachers include children's home languages in educational programs. The Project is described briefly, and one of the questions which arose during its implementation is discussed -language delivery patterns in home language support programs and the issue of code switching.


Increasingly, people use the internet to connect with one another, access information, and purchase products and services. Along with the growth in the online marketplace have come concerns, as well, particularly regarding both the privacy of personal information as well as competition issues surrounding this and other data. While concerns about privacy and data are not unique to the internet ecosystem, they are in some ways heightened due to the ubiquitous nature of information sharing online. While much of the sharing is voluntary, a group of scholars and activists have argued that several powerful online companies have overstepped their bounds in gathering and using data from internet users. These privacy advocates have pushed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC�?) and regulators in Europe to incorporate privacy concerns into antitrust analysis. Here, we focus on the two most-developed theories of data-related antitrust harm: first, that privacy should be considered in mergers and other antitrust contexts as a non-price factor of competition; and second, that the collection and use of data can be used to facilitate anticompetitive price discrimination. In addition, we analyze the underlying conception of data as a barrier to entry that is a necessary precondition for supporting either proposed theory of harm. We argue that there are no plausible harms to competition arising from either non-price effects or price discrimination due to data collection online and that there is no data barrier to entry preventing effective competition.


The social and political framework from Romania and the new technological revolution issued a revolution in the Romanian education system. There were initiated new forms of education and new instruction fields. Software programs developments have realized the necessity to elaboration of useful applications for instruction, and the professors have perceived the necessity to use these applications for instruction process, both for the traditional education and distance education. This paper wants to make known the experience of the authors (teachers of a state university from Romania and a software engineer) about the utilization of two software applications, one of them is dedicated to distance instruction management, the other is dedicated to design and to realize the contents of online courses. The applications focus the role of the students in the education process with all their specifics features.


Ever since the discovery by Doddington, et al. that the vast majority of biometric errors come from a relatively small number of "weak users", significant research has been devoted to understanding and correcting for the so called biometric menagerie problem. The majority of work in this area revolves around the assumption that match scores are partially dependent on the particular subjects involved in the comparison operation. The focus of this research is to promote a fundamental shift in this understanding by demonstrating that identification rates are noticeably affected by certain intrinsic properties of the subject, such as his or her ethnicity, gender and eye color as well as characteristics of the image, notably the wavelength of light utilized by the sensor. To support these claims, a unique data collection in which these variables are controlled is created. Experiments involving this dataset indicate significant differences in match score behavior as these factors change throughout the subject pool. These results are crucially important to understanding the expected performance of iris biometric systems as they are utilized on larger and more diverse population sets.


The degree of adoption of recommended technology is a crucial factor in the tea smallholdings sector of the low country Sri Lanka as far as the yield is concerned. An empirical study was carried out to ascertain the present situation. Almost all the recommendations were grouped into 11 packages (selection of clones, fertilizer application, soil and moisture conservation, field establishment, training, infilling, weed control, pruning, shading, pest and disease control and plucking). A package consisted of sub indicators to reveal farmers' adoption level. High, middle, low and non-adopters were given justified scores (according to their importance to the yield). The total of marks given to sub indicators was the adoption index of farmers. Though the mean adoption level was 71%, some packages such as pest and disease control, and weed control were marginally adopted. Highest adopted packages included plucking, clone selection, field establishment, and fertilizer application (above 75% level). Adoption level was positively correlated to education, number of dependents, labour use pattern, and subsidies and further, it was negatively correlated to land extent.


Non-adherent cells play key roles in various biological processes. Studies on this type of cell, especially at single-cell resolution, help reveal molecular mechanisms underlying many biological and pathological processes. The emerging microfluidics technology has developed effective methods for analyzing cells. However, it remains challenging to treat and monitor single live non-adherent cells in an in situ, long-term, and real-time manner. Herein, a microfluidic platform was set up to generate and anchor cell-laden water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsions (DEs) to investigate these cells. Within the device, W/O/W DEs encapsulating non-adherent cells were generated through two adjacent flow-focusing structures and subsequently anchored in an array of microchambers. These droplets maintained the W/O/W structure and the anchorage status in the continuous perfusion fluid for at least one week. The mass transfer of different molecules with suitable molecular weights and partition coefficients between the interior and exterior of W/O/W DEs could be regulated by perfusion fluid flow rates. These features endow this platform with potential to continuously supply encapsulated non-adherent cells with nutrients or small-molecule stimuli/drugs through fluid perfusion. Meanwhile, the confinement of cells in the anchored DEs favored long-term monitoring of cellular dynamic behaviors and responses. As a proof of concept, fluorescein diacetate (FDA) was employed to visualize the cellular uptake and biochemical metabolism of TF-1 human erythroleukemia cells. We believe that this W/O/W DE anchorage and perfusion platform would benefit single-cell-level studies as well as small-molecule drug discovery requiring live non-adherent cells.


Blogging is a twenty-first century phenomenon that has heralded an age where ordinary people can make their voices heard in the public sphere of the Internet. This article explores blogging as a form of popular history making; the blog as a public history document; and how blogging is transforming the nature of public history and practice of history making in Singapore. An analysis of two Singapore 'historical' blogs illustrates how blogging is building a foundation for a more participatory historical society in the island nation. At the same time, the case studies also demonstrate the limitations of blogging and blogs in challenging official versions of history.


[Abstract] In the light of previous studies on exhibitors' performance in trade shows and methodology applied to measuring the effectiveness of their participation, this study has diagnosed some problems with participation of the Chinese small and medium-sized exporters/exhibitors in the international trade shows. Focused on pre-show and post-show activities, we've discovered the exhibitors' negligence of non-selling objectives and non-selling indices for evaluation of their performance. Show selection, a crucial pre-show sub-process of participation, is also floppily treated. In view of these problems, with our reasoning we depicted a new framework with an ideal process of effective TS participation based on a framework proposed by Tanner in 2000. [Keywords] International trade show; effectiveness; small-medium-sized exhibitors Introduction Trade shows (TSs) or exhibitions have long been Chinese exporters' initial and popular access to international markets. The most prominent TS, "China Import and Export Fair" (Canton Fair), is known worldwide and isa biannual event held in spring and autumn in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. In its first session, the Fair attracted only 1,223 overseas buyers, mainly from Hong Kong and Macau with 9,600 square meters of exhibition space displaying mostly farm produce and handicraft (http://english.ccpit.org/Contents/). Fifty years later, the Canton Fair has continuously grown and maintained its leading position in China's exhibition industry with the largest exhibit varieties, attendance, and business turnover. With its transactions that account for about one-fourth of China's general export trade every year, the fair, to date, has served as an important platform for promoting products by small andmedium-sized Chinese exporters. Since the turn of the 20th-21st century, trade shows have become increasingly hot sites frequented by Chinese SMCs endeavoring to export their offerings. In turn, theyhave further lured the buyers. Take the 101st session of Canton Fair held in Spring 2007 as an example; the number of buyers from 211 countries and regions reached 206,749, a 7.3% increase over the 100th session. Among them, there were 95 multinational retailers, 15 more than that of the previous session. The total export turnover of the latest session amounted to USD36.39 billion, hitting a historical high with an increase of 6.8 % over the 100th session (http://www.can tonfair.org.cn:82). Besides the Canton Fair, various trade shows have mushroomed in China between 1986 (186 TSs) and 2006 (3800 TSs) (Zhang, 2006), among which more than half of the TSs are labeled "international" in parallel with the rapid growth of China's international trade. Some international TSs organized by European and U.S. firms has been expanded in terms of size and frequency when participated in by a big number of active Chinese attendees. According to the latest report, about 2006 by Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA), "The share of exhibitors from South, East and Central Asia rose by almost four percentage points from 24.0% to 27.8%. Responsible for this increase, in particular, was the explosive increase in participations from the PR China (+32% to a current total of 9,056 exhibitors) and from Taiwan (+37% to 4,844 exhibitors)" (http://www.auma-messen.de/_pages). Between 2001 and 2005, three indicators-the number of TSs held in China, of those participated in by organized Chinese exhibitors overseas and the total national TSs revenues-enjoyed respective annual increase rates of 16%, 19%, and 14%. Almost in the same period, 58 branded TSs got accredited by the UFI (Union of International Fairs, now The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) (http://news.xinhuanet.com/expo/2006). Moreover, in the 2006 Annual Report by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), a specialized government agency in this regard summarizes the progress made in 2006 as follows: "steady growth was witnessed in overseas exhibitions, as over 25,000 exhibitors were organized to participate in 913 events overseas, with a total show space of 310,000 sqm" (2006 CCPIT Annual Report). …


Central puzzles in international macroeconomics are why fluctuations of the real exchange rate are so volatile with respect to other macroeconomic variables, and the contradiction of efficient risk-sharing. Several theoretical contributions have evaluated alternative forms of pricing under nominal rigidities along with different asset markets structures to explain real exchange dynamics. In this paper, we use a Bayesian approach to estimate a standard two-country New Open Economy Macroeconomics (NOEM) using data for the United States and the Euro Area, and perform model comparisons to study the importance of departing from the law of one price and complete markets assumptions. Our results can be summarized as follows. First, we find that the baseline model does a good job in explaining real exchange rate volatility, but at the cost of implying too high volatility in output and consumption. Second, the introduction of incomplete markets allows the model to better match the volatilities of all real variables. Third, introducing sticky prices in local currency pricing (LCP) improves the fit of the baseline model, but not by as much as by introducing incomplete markets. Finally, we show that monetary shocks have played a minor role in explaining the behavior of the real exchange rate, while both demand and technology shocks have been important


This research effort is focused on providing a workstation table design that will reduce the risk of occupant injuries due to secondary impacts and to compartmentalize the occupants to prevent impacts with other objects and/or passengers seated across from them. The table must be capable of protecting the passengers in a seating arrangement with the table located between facing seats. Included in this study are the design, fabrication, quasi-static testing, and delivery of the table for subsequent testing in the crash energy management (CEM) full-scale test. Finite element analyses of the table components and multibody dynamic analyses of the occupant response were performed to help guide the design and predict whether the occupant injury risk for the newly designed table meets the requirements. Four tables were fabricated; two were included in the CEM full-scale train-to-train test in March 2006, and two were constructed for use in quasi-static and dynamic sled tests. To date, only the quasi-static tests and the CEM full-scale test have been performed.


Chapter 3 explores children/adolescents' and adults' narratives of their experience of CISV villages and camps. Specifically, the chapter deals with: (1) definitions of cultural and personal differences and their possible forms of management; (2) descriptions of the connections between forms of communication, conflicts, and possible conflict management; (3) descriptions of the forms of differences highlighted in villages and camps, regarding age, gender, nationality, competence in speaking English as a lingua franca;
(4) observations of the kinds of actions emerged during interactions; (5) adults' perspectives on children's and adolescents' autonomy and dependence, and descriptions of their corresponding educational intentions; (6) descriptions of the meanings of the whole experience, comparing initial intentions/expectations and final assessments.


Poverty and income inequality is estimated from household surveys which provide detailed information on household income and consumption along with socio-economic characteristics. However, these surveys are conducted sporadically with irregular intervals. Thus the resultant estimates are not in the form of a continuous time-series, which is a prerequisite for a rigorous analysis of the relationship between macro variables and the estimates of poverty and inequality in the national context. To cater to the need of researchers and students, this research provides a continuous time-series of poverty incidence and the various measures of income inequality for the period 1985-2016 after applying the interpolation techniques on sporadic counts. These series are then used to explore the relationship between poverty, inequality and growth.


This paper is an extended commentary on a recent British Columbia Court of Appeal Decision, William v British Columbia, 2012 BCCA 285. It rehearses and critiques the central debate between the appellant and respondent regarding the quality or character of physical occupation necessary to successfully ground an Aboriginal title claim under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Ultimately, it argues that the Court of Appeal erred in its endorsement of a "site-specific" understanding of sufficient occupancy, and further, that the central debate itself is orthogonal to the true concern underlying the occupancy requirement. It concludes with an alternative test for sufficient occupancy which is more consistent with the previous jurisprudence and the goals of Aboriginal title and Canadian Aboriginal rights writ large.


The study is motivated by the question "what is the optimal tariff design?" While we do not offer an answer to this question, we use the different designs in four select countries to illuminate the issues involved in designing electricity network tariffs. Electricity networks are a resource shared by all network users. A tariff design that is clear to network users and well understood by them can help them make efficient decisions. A design that sets up conflicting or perverse incentives results in economic distortions. We find that there are a variety of choices and trade-offs while designing the electricity network tariffs for any electricity system. The tariff design must not only be influenced by the technical and economic characteristics of the system, but also the secondary policy objectives that policy makers wish to achieve, while allowing network companies to recover the costs of building and maintaining the network.


Objectives: Cultural value endorsement and ethnic–racial identity promote Latino/a adolescent positive adaptation and mitigate the negative impacts of perceived ethnic–racial discrimination. This study explored the intergenerational process of how adolescents develop these cultural characteristics in concert with their experiences of discrimination, focusing on the role of youth-reported maternal ethnic–racial socialization processes. Method: Participants included 175 Latino/a adolescent–mother dyads recruited from the 7th and 8th grades in an understudied emerging immigrant destination. We tested the effects of maternal cultural characteristics (i.e., familism, private regard, and perceived discrimination) on the same adolescent outcomes through youth-reported maternal ethnic–racial socialization practices (i.e., cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and familism socialization, a novel construct introduced in this study). Results: Three significant indirect pathways were identified. Higher maternal private regard was associated with both higher youth familism and higher youth private regard through greater youth-reported familism socialization, and higher maternal private regard was associated with more perceived youth discrimination through greater youth-reported preparation for bias. Conclusion: Our results highlight maternal private regard as particularly important for understanding how youth perceptions of socialization processes encourage the development of adolescent cultural characteristics and the benefit of using specific assessment tools, such as a familism socialization measure, to identify how ethnic–racial socialization processes serve as intergenerational links. Directions for future research and implications for intervention are discussed.


Background. Nursing education institutions (NEIs) must ensure that their graduates are competent in nursing administration. The adoption of nursing administration-related learning outcomes in pre-registration nursing programmes in Africa has created a platform for the teaching and assessment of nursing administration. Challenges aligned with low-resource NEIs, such as rigid content-based vocational programmes, limit the value and utility of the teaching of nursing administration, resulting in graduates who are not able to manage healthcare units effectively. Therefore, this study explored students' experiences of a nursing administration module with the hope that alignment of the outcomes, content and assessments would be pivotal in the module review to improve nurses' efficiency in managing health units. Objectives . To describe student nurses' perceptions regarding the alignment of learning outcomes, content and assessment of a nursing administration module in an NEI in a low-resource setting. Methods. A sequential mixed methods design was executed in three phases. Data were collected through documents, self-administered questionnaires and focus group discussions with students enrolled in a 3-year pre-registration programme at an NEI in a low-resource setting. The gathered documents were enumerated and mapped against the specific elements of a curriculum as described by Harden and Dent. The quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics, focusing on frequencies. The data generated from the focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis through an inductive reasoning approach was used. Results. The study revealed a non-alignment among learning outcomes, content and assessment of the administration module, causing students to struggle in meeting the expected learning outcomes of the module. In as much as the curriculum documents specified the learning outcomes, the classroom teaching seemed only to be aligned with the described curriculum. In addition to other challenges, the contextual characteristics of the related clinical environment did not support application of what was learnt in the classroom. The assessment practices mirrored the expectations of the curriculum, but were not aligned with contextual realities. Conclusion. Nursing students struggle to meet expected learning outcomes related to nursing administration due to the non-alignment among learning outcomes, content and assessment of the module. NEIs in low-resource settings must radically transform their pre-registration nursing curricula to incorporate contemporary issues and clinical contextual realities to enhance the utility of nursing administration learning outcomes.


The present study tested the impact of attention training on cognition; secondary appraisal of perceived stress, and on metacognition; meta-worry in stressed students. Theoretically derived from the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model (S-REF model; Wells and Matthews, 1994a, 1996), the attention training technique (ATT; Wells, 1990) is intended to promote flexible, voluntary external attention and has been shown to reduce symptoms of psychological distress. The present experimental study explored the effects of ATT on cognitive and metacognitive levels of appraisal, namely perceived stress (primary outcome) and meta-worry (secondary outcome). Stressed students were randomized to an experimental ATT group (n = 23) or a control group (n = 23). The ATT group attended an initial training session followed by 4 weeks of individual (12 min) daily ATT practice. The control group waited for 4 weeks before receiving the intervention. The outcomes were scores on the Perceived Stress Scale 14 (PSS-14) and the Meta-Worry Questionnaire (MWQ) frequency and belief subscales at post study. Both measures decreased significantly following ATT with large pre- to post- effect sizes but there were minimal changes in the control group. The between-group differences were statistically significant. The results add to the literature on the potential effects of ATT by demonstrating effects on the content of cognitive stress appraisals and on meta-worry in an academic setting in a stressed student sample.


To maximize CO2 reduction, refined straight used cooking oils were used as a fuel in Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in this research. The fuel is called C2G Ultra Biofuel (C2G: Convert to Green Ltd) and is a fully renewable fuel made as a diesel replacement from processed used cooking oil, used directly in diesel engines specifically modified for this purpose. This is part of a large demonstration project involving ten 44-tonne trucks using C2G Ultra Biofuel as a fuel to partially replace standard diesel fuels. A dual fuel tank containing both diesel and C2G Ultra Biofuel and an on-board fuel blending system-Bioltec system was installed on each vehicle, which is able to heat the C2G Ultra Biofuel and automatically determine the required blending ratio of diesel and C2G Ultra Biofuel according to fuel temperature and engine load. The engine was started with diesel and then switched to C2G Ultra Biofuel under appropriate conditions. Exhaust emissions were measured using PEMS (Portable Emission Measurement Systems) on one of the trucks under real world driving conditions. Comparisons of emissions between neat diesel mode and blended fuel mode were made. The results show that C2G Ultra Biofuel can reduce particulate matter (PM) and CO emissions significantly compared to the use of pure diesel.


The term desakota, a mixed urban-rural space adjacent to a metropolitan area, has been substantially used to depict a distinct Southeast Asian urban phenomenon. Invoking the resistant and anti-essentialist aspect of this concept, I offer a critical interrogation of suburban developments in a Global South setting, in particular in Manila's urban fringe, by grounding it within neoliberal restructuring in the Philippines. As the Philippines continues to experience sustained real estate growth eliciting jubilant support from both the state and the market, vast tracks of land on Manila's fringe have been converted to multiple gated residential subdivision developments. Using the case study of Canlubang, I problematize the accelerated production of these suburban spaces in two ways. One, I foreground their historical economic, social, political, and geographical relations and contestations involving multiple actors, such as landed elites, taipans, Overseas Filipinos, dispossessed farmers, and indigenous peoples. Second, I unpack these highly preferred developments by linking them to the continued land struggles of farmers and persistent dominance of political-economic elites in the Philippines. As farmers face numerous acts of harassment, violence, and demolition to make way for these developments, several farming communities have managed to sustain their resistance to these projects. These spatial narratives offer possible theoretical and empirical trajectories that elucidate grounded contingencies between urbanization and neoliberalization in multiple contexts and illustrate the instability of urban futures projected by neoliberal visions.


The contemporary challenges of young people are matter of high priority, and one of the crucial issues since they are considered as a major part of human capital in Arab States and over the entire world. This study was conducted to investigate the contemporary challenges facing young people as perceived by faculty of education students at Sultan Qaboos University in Sultanate of Oman. Also, the study aimed to determine the extent to which students view points facing contemporary challenges according to their gender, study area, residency, academic year, and grade point average. The main instrument was a questionnaire consisted of (55) items represented the contemporary challenges to gather data from (403) randomly selected participants. The reliability co-efficient of the questionnaire (Chronbach- Alpha) was (0.90) for total items. Means, standard deviation, t-test and analysis of One Way ANOVA were used to analyze data. The result of the study reveled significant differences at (=0.05) level due to gender variable in cultural, humanity and information and media domains for the benefit of females. The findings also show statistically significant differences in students' responses in the culture and humanity domain according to the study year variable in favor of forth-year-student compare with the first-year-student. Concerning the contemporary challenges facing young people, the sequence ranks of students' responses begin with the highest mean (4.12) for the information and media, fellow by consuming(3.95), economical (3.89), humanity (3.75) and culture (3.54) respectively. Depending on the results of the study, several recommendations were concluded and suggested.


Air-core photonic bandgap fibers (PBFs) have great potential for the resonant fiber-optic gyroscope (RFOG), because they reduce both the Kerr-induced drift and the thermal polarization instability. We experimentally studied an open-loop RFOG in which a 20-m resonant loop of 7-cell air-core fiber is closed by connecting the air-core fiber to a conventional single-mode fiber directional coupler. We measured a random walk of 0.055 °/s1/2 and a long-term drift with a standard deviation of 0.5° /s and a peak-to-peak variation of 2.5 °/s over 1 hour. We discuss the sources of error in this RFOG and identify areas for future improvement. We project that with straightforward improvements, tactical-grade performance should be possible.


Books Medievalism and the Gothic in Australian Culture. Edited by Stephanie Trigg. What If? Australian History as It Might Have Been. Edited by Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer. Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts. Edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney. The Myth of the Great Depression. By David Potts. Memory, Monuments and Museums: The Past in the Present. Edited by Marilyn Lake. Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Edited by Marilyn Lake and Ann Curthoys. Island Ministers: Indigenous Leadership in Nineteenth Century Pacific Islands Christianity. By Raeburn Lange. Texts and Contexts: Reflections in Pacific Islands Historiography. Edited by Doug Munro and Brij V. Lai. Day of Reckoning. By Lachlan Strahan. Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology. By Ian J. McNiven and Lynette Russell. Recognising Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism. By Peter H. Russell. Black Glass: Western Australian Courts of Native Affairs 1936-54. By Kate Auty. Edward Eyre, Race and Colonial Governance. By Julie Evans. Gender and Empire. By Angela Woollacott. Uncommon Ground: White Women in Aboriginal History. Edited by Anna Cole, Victoria Haskins and Fiona Paisley. Mixed Relations: Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia. By Regina Ganter, with contributions from Julia Martinez and Gary Lee. Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet. By Maria Nugent. A Man of All Tribes: The Life of Alick Jackomos. By Richard Broome and Corinne Manning. Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers. By Cassandra Pybus. Over the Mountains of the Sea: Life on the Migrant Ships 1870-1885. By David Hastings. Ulster-New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers. Edited by Brad Patterson. From Paesani to Global Italians: Veneto Migrants in Australia. By Loretta Baldassar and Ros Pesman. Ways of Seeing China: From Yellow Peril to Shangrila. By Timothy Kendall. East by South: China in the Australasian Imagination. Edited by Charles Ferrall, Paul Millar and Keren Smith. Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins. By Peter Edwards. Kin: A Collective Biography of a Working-Class New Zealand Family. By Melanie Nolan. Ida Leeson A Life: Not a Blue-Stocking Lady. By Sylvia Martin. Will Dyson: Australia's Radical Genius. By Ross McMullin. Francis De Groot: Irish Fascist Australian Legend. By Andrew Moore. South by Northwest: The Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica. By Granville Allen Mawer. From Woolloomooloo to 'Eternity': A History of Australian Baptists. 2 vols. Volume 1: Crowing and Australian Church (1831-1914), Volume 2: A National Church in a Global Community (1914-2005). By Ken R. Manley.


Galaxy clusters might be sources of TeV gamma rays emitted by high-energy protons and electrons accelerated by large-scale structure formation shocks, galactic winds, or active galactic nuclei. Furthermore, gamma rays may be produced in dark matter particle annihilation processes at the cluster cores. We report on observations of the galaxy clusters Perseus and A2029 using the 10 m Whipple Cerenkov telescope during the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 observing seasons. We apply a two-dimensional analysis technique to scrutinize the clusters for TeV emission. In this paper we first determine flux upper limits on TeV gamma-ray emission from point sources within the clusters. Second, we derive upper limits on the extended cluster emission. We subsequently compare the flux upper limits with EGRET upper limits at 100 MeV and theoretical models. Assuming that the gamma-ray surface brightness profile mimics that of the thermal X-ray emission and that the spectrum of cluster cosmic rays extends all the way from thermal energies to multi-TeV energies with a differential spectral index of -2.1, our results imply that the cosmic-ray proton energy density is less than 7.9% of the thermal energy density for the Perseus Cluster.


Background The development of the Drosophila eye imaginal disc requires complex epithelial rearrangements. Cells of the morphogenetic furrow are apically constricted and this leads to a physical indentation in the epithelium. Posterior to the furrow, cells start to rearrange into distinct clusters and eventually form a precisely patterned array of ommatidia. These morphogenetic processes include regulated changes of adhesion between cells. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we show that two transmembrane adhesion proteins, Capricious and Tartan, have dynamic and complementary expression patterns in the eye imaginal disc. We also describe novel null mutations in capricious and double null mutations in capricious and tartan. We report that they have redundant functions in regulating the architecture of the morphogenetic furrow and ommatidial spacing. Conclusions/Significance We conclude that Capricious and Tartan contribute to the adhesive properties of the cells in the morphogenetic furrow and that this regulated adhesion participates in the control of spacing ommatidial clusters.


There have been several recent weld failures either during the initial post construction hydrostatic tests, or immediately following construction. Girth welds typically do not fail as a result of internal hoop loads without the contribution of loads due to out side forces. External loading should be considered during design, welding procedure development, construction, and pipeline operations. This paper presents one example where a girth weld failed as a result of preexisting 1940's weld imperfections and recent, 1980's, external loading. This analysis of the girth weld failure in the 30-inch pipeline included an initial failure analysis, a fracture mechanics analysis, and a finite element analysis that integrated the pipe-soil interaction, as well as localized stresses associated with weld imperfections. A critical part of this study was to evaluate how changes in soil conditions associated with a drought followed by soil saturation associated with rainfall, contributed to lack of local support and increased overburden loads associated with the saturated soil. The failure analysis of the ruptured girth weld and surrounding pipe concluded that the failure of the girth weld was caused by increased bending loads imposed on the pipeline after recent construction activities, and that the fracture initiated at a lack-of-penetration/fusion imperfection that was 20 1/4-inches long and 0.110 inches deep. A coupled investigation using finite element and fracture mechanics analyses verified numerically that with reduced-strength soil, stresses were generated in the girth weld of sufficient magnitude to cause a fracture. Temperature, terrain, and fatigue were considered, but were not deemed to significant enough to affect the stresses or other conditions that resulted in the failure. The overriding observation of this study is that no single factor contributed to the failure that occurred. Rather, the girth weld failure was the result of weld imperfections that generated elevated stresses due to excessive loads imparted to the pipe due to settlement associated with non-compact backfill associated with excavation work. Had the pipe not displaced vertically due to localized soil conditions, it is unlikely that the pipeline would have failed. The recent excavation activities were adequate for normal soil conditions; however, dry soil at the time of construction resulted in lack of compaction and excessive moisture just prior to the failure that generated in differential settlement and heavy overburden, combined with lack of penetration imperfection in the girth weld in question, resulted in generating excessive bending stresses that contributed to the eventual failure of the pipeline.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


A critical literary evaluation of Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, and middle-class Victorian culture, this essay seeks to connect Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective fiction to the ideology of the Victorian middle classes. This study focuses on the ideological mindset of the Victorian middle classes and how a conflicted notion of the ideal often lead to values that were highly praised but rarely put into practice. This essay argues that, together, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson form and protect the ideals of the Victorian middle classes. Where one may fail, the other succeeds in maintaining values and stability. Holmes uses middle-class Victorian ideology to formulate his deductions and Watson creates a vital link between Holmes' eccentricities and the middle-class reader. It is for this reason that the connection between the middle-class Victorian audience and the stories' characters is so strong.


In Connecting Spheres, Boxer and Quataert, along with an array of eminent contributors, examine the social history of women within western civilization over the past 500 years. Expanded and updated, this new edition addresses both long-standing and more recent issues which have affected women's lives in modern Europe. These topics include the role of women in public versus private spheres; changes in family life in post-communist Eastern Europe; the impact of religion on the lives of women; the growth of the prostitution sector; the rise of feminism and antifeminism; and the part female sexuality has played in impacting women's roles in social and political life.


Background: Recent extensive clinical evidence demonstrated that autologous adult stem cell therapy was safe and effective as a treatment strategy for type 1 diabetes. Our initial work was designed to examine the safety and efficacy of the implantation technique on 20 subjects with six months of evolution. This new report analyzes the results from three years follow up. Methods: With the authorization from the Ministry of Health of Argentina, 20 subjects with type 1 diabetes were treated with single autologous bone marrow cell transplantation into pancreatic blood flow through pancreatic artery catheterization immediately after bone marrow aspiration. The primary endpoint was defined as normalization of C-peptide and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) with insulin independence at 3 years posttreatment. Results: 15 subjects (75%) achieved clinical improvements. 7 subjects (33%) reached the primary endpoint, in which 4 subjets with decreased C-peptide levels required insulin administration again at 3 years post-treatment. Other 8 subjects (34%) showed partial function at 3 years post-treatment. There were no serious adverse events observed. No increases of islet cell antibody (ICA) and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibody. Conclusion: This procedure may be a safe and effective treatment for chronic type 1 diabetes. The follow-up results showed a significant increase of the pancreatic secretion of C-peptide and a decrease in the daily dose of exogenous insulin. This effect partially disappears by the three years follow-up without an increase of the level of the ICA and GAD antibodies.


Colleges and universities provide a practical setting where faculty can integrate a curriculum that teaches sport management students, who are the future sport industry leaders, on critical topics they will encounter while working in the field. In light of the recent cases of sexual violence in the sport world (e.g., USA Gymnastics/Michigan State University, Baylor Football, Carolina Panthers), this study sought to examine the types of education and training on sexual violence that sport management faculty are utilizing in the classroom. Through the use of qualitative methods, 21 sport management faculty from 4-year institutions were interviewed to determine if and how the topic of sexual violence was being integrated in the classroom. Results showed a majority of the faculty were integrating current events and topics related to sexual violence in the classroom. However, faculty perceived that some courses were a "better fit" for these topics than others. Faculty also reported challenges to teaching these topics as the lines between a legal, sociological, and ethical standpoint can become confusing for students.


The yellow spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) shares a unique endosymbiotic relationship with the unicellular green alga Oophila amblystomatis. Though a number of studies have isolated and identified O. amblystomatis, the alga's taxonomic identity is yet to be resolved. In this study the nuclear SSU rRNA gene was used to identify two well supported Oophila clades that included sequences from past studies in addition to isolates from the current study, and showed that O. amblystomatis does not group monophyletically with its own members, and groups paraphyletically with other species of green algae. Past studies have also assessed the potential for indirect effects on embryo development via herbicidal exposure to the endosymbiotic algae, but few have taken into account the possibility of correct species identification, strain, or locale sensitivity. In this study, the response of O. amblystomatis to the exposure of two herbicides, atrazine and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic (96 h exposure acute toxicity tests), followed by recovery (96 h recovery in untreated media) acid were characterized. Lowest growth inhibition no-observed effect concentrations of 70 μg/L and 30 mg/L of atrazine and 2,4-D, respectively, followed by full recovery at these concentrations, indicate that these herbicides do not pose a risk of growth inhibition to egg-inhabiting algae. This study proposes a revision of the current taxonomy of O. amblystomatis, and demonstrates the need for species identification and thorough phylogenetic reconstruction in toxicity testing.


The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of migration to study medicine in Peru. We con ducted a secondary data analysis of the Red-LIRHUS study (2011-2012). We included 3 680 Peruvian students. Approximately, 23.2% migrated for medical school. Less than 1% were international migrants. We found a higher proportion of migrant students in Universities outside of Lima than in Universities in Lima (27.1% vs. 15.8%). There was also a higher proportion of migrants in private universities (28.3% vs. 16.0%) Migrant students were more likely to live alone (27.4% vs. 6.4%) and to report having failed a module/course (51.0% vs. 38.6%) compared to non-migrant students. It is necessary to evaluate potential interventions for the preservation of the well-being of people who migrate for their medical training.


A method for seepage and settlement monitoring in earth embankment dams using fully distributed sensing along optical fibres is proposed. A model is developed for simulating and monitoring seepage and settlement systems. This model relates the strains and the temperature changes to the fiber Brillouin gain spectrum in the embankment dam embedding the optical fiber sensors. The model consists of two parts. Submodel 1 addresses the simulation of seepage inside the embankment dam. Submodel 2 relates the measurement of the fiber Brillouin gain spectrum to the changes in temperature and strain inside the embankment dam. Both the changes in temperature and strain during the process are used to reveal serious seepages and settlements occurring inside the embankment dam. The continuously decreasing temperature curve shows an abrupt dramatic increasing rate, which shows that the change is not caused by the temperature of the seepage water but the strain. In this paper, as an example, a model filled with the soil from Yellow River is built and bare optical fibers are embedded under different soil layers near the seepage path. The simulated seepage flows under various flow rates are monitored using the optical fibers and measured by a DiTeSt -STA202 distributed temperature and strain analyzer. A partial settlement within the embankment dam model is observed.


Proper progression through mitosis ensures the maintenance of whole chromosomal
stability in a eukaryotic cell. Hence, failures during this tightly regulated process can lead
to the perpetual mis-segregation of whole chromosomes, which is referred to as
chromosomal instability (CIN). This process results in the generation of aneuploidy and
an increased genetic variability contributing to tumourigenesis and tumour progression.
Although CIN is a major hallmark of human cancer, the underlying mechanisms leading
to perpetual chromosome mis-segregation during mitosis are largely unknown.
Interestingly, the tumour suppressor Brca1 and its positive regulator Chk2 were found to
be crucial for the proper regulation of spindle microtubule plus end polymerization within
mitotic spindles, which is pivotal for correct microtubule-kinetochore attachments and
faithful chromosome segregation. Consequently, loss of the CHK2-BRCA1 axis leads to
enhanced spindle microtubule plus end assembly and the induction of CIN. Despite the
importance of these findings the underlying molecular mechanism remained elusive and
the regulation of Brca1 during mitosis is still poorly understood.
In this study we identified the centrosomal protein Cep72 as a novel Brca1-interacting
protein. Importantly, Cep72 was found to be frequently upregulated in human colorectal
cancer suggesting that CEP72 represents a putative oncogene. Overexpression of CEP72
mirrors mitotic defects seen upon loss of BRCA1 or its positive regulator CHK2, indicating
a possible function for Cep72 in negatively regulating Brca1 during mitosis. In detail,
overexpression of CEP72 results in enhanced spindle microtubule plus end polymerization
rates causing spindle assembly defects, lagging chromosomes and the induction of CIN.
Intriguingly, these defects can be suppressed by concomitantly increasing the levels of
the positive Brca1 regulator Chk2. Vice versa, reducing the Cep72 protein levels restores
proper microtubule plus end polymerization and spindle assembly in cells with a partial
loss of CHK2. Thus, my results suggest that the mitotic function of Brca1 is positively
regulated by Chk2, and counteracted by Cep72. Furthermore, the balanced regulation of
Brca1 by Chk2 and Cep72 seems to be crucial for proper microtubule dynamics and
accurate chromosome segregation ensuring the maintenance of whole chromosomal
stability.


Objective: To evaluate smoking pattern and associated factors related to smoking for patients attending anti-smoking clinic in Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A Cross-sectional study design used to carry out this research using Arabic questionnaires to gather the data from anti-smoke clinics, Abha, Aseer region, KSA. The total 695 respondents included in this study and data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Results: The study revealed that majority of respondents attended anti-smoke clinics were educated (Secondary level 41.4% and university level 46.8%). Cigarette smoking (61.6%) was observed among patients and mostly was motivated to initiate smoking by friends (47.5%). Impulse to cessation of smoking was due to religious and health reasons both contributed 21.9%. And this study also showed that married respondents (56.1%) were more interested to participate in cessation trials than unmarried. Conclusion: There is an urgent need of equity based health intervention programs, tobacco control programs to be implemented effectively in order to provide counselling and guidance to quit smoking, training, capacity building and more anti-smoke clinics should be established.


PURPOSE
This work improves the accuracy and realism of automated breast computed tomography (bCT) tissue segmentation by refining the detection of low-contrast fibroglandular structures to produce high-resolution realistic computer-generated (XCAT) breast phantoms from empirical human subject data.

METHODS
Previous work by Hsu et al. [Med. Phys. 38, 5756-5770 (2011)] produced high-resolution realistic computer-generated breast phantoms from empirical human subject data but challenges were encountered with the accurate segmentation of fine, low-contrast glandular structures. The current work addresses those challenges. A 3-D anisotropic diffusion algorithm was used to denoise fourteen bCT datasets. After breast masking, two adipose non-uniformity correction techniques were applied. The first has been described by Altunbas, et al. [Med. Phys. 34, 3109-3118 (2007)]. The second approach employed an original technique using higher-order polynomials to correct for residual adipose non-uniformity. Histogram thresholding then produced initial gland and skin segmentations. This was followed by a novel glandular linking and extension protocol based on skeletonization of the skin and glandular segmentations and a pixel gray-level-weighted distance transform. Skin mask definition and glandular density differentiation completed the segmentation.

RESULTS
Volumetric denoising reduced the standard deviation of the adipose background by an average of 60.4%. The Altunbas method corrected for radially symmetric, quadratic non-uniformities in breasts with circular coronal cross sections, but performed poorly on high-density breasts and breasts with asymmetric adipose non-uniformity. Follow-up correction using the novel method improved adipose uniformity by an average of 24.6%. The new fibroglandular linking and extension protocol improved the detection of low-contrast fibroglandular structures, including Cooper's ligaments. The total number of fibroglandular tissue islands was also reduced.

CONCLUSION
The semi-automated bCT segmentation protocol improved low-contrast glandular fiber detection in high-noise reconstructions. Linking of disparate fibroglandular tissue islands and capture of Cooper's ligaments will contribute to the overall accuracy and realism of empirically-derived XCAT breast phantoms. This work was supported by NIH Grant 5R01-CA-134658.


Scientific imaging techniques such as optical and electron microscopy and computed tomography (CT) scanning are used to study the 3D structure of an object through 2D observations. These observations are related to the original 3D object through orthogonal integral projections. For common 3D reconstruction algorithms, computational efficiency requires the modeling of the 3D structures to take place in Fourier space by applying the Fourier slice theorem. At present, it is unclear how to differentiate through the projection operator, and hence current learning algorithms can not rely on gradient based methods to optimize 3D structure models. In this paper we show how back-propagation through the projection operator in Fourier space can be achieved. We demonstrate the validity of the approach with experiments on 3D reconstruction of proteins. We further extend our approach to learning probabilistic models of 3D objects. This allows us to predict regions of low sampling rates or estimate noise. A higher sample efficiency can be reached by utilizing the learned uncertainties of the 3D structure as an unsupervised estimate of the model fit. Finally, we demonstrate how the reconstruction algorithm can be extended with an amortized inference scheme on unknown attributes such as object pose. Through empirical studies we show that joint inference of the 3D structure and the object pose becomes more difficult when the ground truth object contains more symmetries. Due to the presence of for instance (approximate) rotational symmetries, the pose estimation can easily get stuck in local optima, inhibiting a fine-grained high-quality estimate of the 3D structure.


Established almost 100 years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team is known for their large, dedicated fan base called Leafs Nation. I am a devoted member of this nation and, as such, the team's communication practices speak both to me, and about me. This major research paper (MRP) is an analysis of e-mails sent to a subscriber-only list in the context of marketing. Researching the e-mail communication from the Toronto Maple Leafs to their fan base lends itself to an understanding of the communication that occurs in a professional setting. Not only do the Toronto Maple Leafs communicate directly with their proactive fan base but I argue that the way in which they do this instills a sense of community within Leafs Nation through the use of themes, metaphors and rhetorical tropes. Communicating effectively with a fan base is an essential component in running a sports organization. Texts in the form of words and images do not only assist in getting an organization's message to the supporters, but their connotative meanings can also contribute to the senses of community and belonging. This paper will examine how the Toronto Maple Leafs employ rhetorical devices in the e-mail newsletters sent out to Leafs Nation, as well as analyzing the rhetorical connotations in these devices. Also, I will be examining the way in which the use of rhetorical devices contributes to the creation of an online 'imagined community,' a concept first introduced by Benedict Anderson in 1936 in the context of nations and nationalism. Anderson stated that an imagined community does not conform to traditional ideals of a community and is constructed by those that see themselves as being a part of this community, and I see the Leafs Nation as conforming to the ideals detailed by Anderson. As such, I will be completing a qualitative textual analysis of 43 e-mails that have gone out to the subscriber-only fan list since 2012. By examining these e-mails I will attempt to identify the presence of the rhetorical devices of pathopoeia, scesis onomaton and principle of scarcity and the overall frequency with which they appear. Based on the data that emerges from my research, I will then attempt to draw correlations between the findings and attempt to link the presence of rhetorical devices as a contributing factor to the creation of Leafs Nation as an online imagined community through a qualitative textual analysis.


A variety of chromatin remodeling complexes are thought to assist sequence-specific transcription factors. The complexes described to date are expressed ubiquitously, suggesting that they have general transcriptional functions. We show that vertebrate neurons have a specialized chromatin remodeling complex, bBAF, specifically containing the actin-related protein, BAF53b, which is first expressed in postmitotic neurons at about murine embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5). BAF53b is combinatorially assembled into polymorphic complexes with ubiquitous subunits including the two ATPases BRG1 and BRM. We speculate that bBAF complexes create neuronal-specific patterns of chromatin accessibility, thereby imparting new regulatory characteristics to ubiquitous sequence-specific transcription factors in neurons.


Abstract. The Great Calcite Belt (GCB) of the Southern Ocean is a region of elevated summertime upper ocean calcite concentration derived from coccolithophores, despite the region being known for its diatom predominance. The overlap of two major phytoplankton groups, coccolithophores and diatoms, in the dynamic frontal systems characteristic of this region provides an ideal setting to study environmental influences on the distribution of different species within these taxonomic groups. Samples for phytoplankton enumeration were collected from the upper mixed layer (30 m) during two cruises, the first to the South Atlantic sector (January–February 2011; 60° W–15° E and 36–60° S) and the second in the South Indian sector (February–March 2012; 40–120° E and 36–60° S). The species composition of coccolithophores and diatoms was examined using scanning electron microscopy at 27 stations across the Subtropical, Polar, and Subantarctic fronts. The influence of environmental parameters, such as sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, carbonate chemistry (pH, partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), alkalinity, dissolved inorganic carbon), macronutrients (nitrate + nitrite, phosphate, silicic acid, ammonia), and mixed layer average irradiance, on species composition across the GCB was assessed statistically. Nanophytoplankton (cells 2–20 µm) were the numerically abundant size group of biomineralizing phytoplankton across the GCB, with the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi and diatoms Fragilariopsis nana, F. pseudonana, and Pseudo-nitzschia spp. as the most numerically dominant and widely distributed. A combination of SST, macronutrient concentrations, and pCO2 provided the best statistical descriptors of the biogeographic variability in biomineralizing species composition between stations. Emiliania huxleyi occurred in silicic acid-depleted waters between the Subantarctic Front and the Polar Front, a favorable environment for this species after spring diatom blooms remove silicic acid. Multivariate statistics identified a combination of carbonate chemistry and macronutrients, covarying with temperature, as the dominant drivers of biomineralizing nanoplankton in the GCB sector of the Southern Ocean.


Enrico Berlinguer, the former leader of the PCI (Partito comunista italiano - Italian Communist Party), who died in 1984, became the object of popular nostalgia in post-Berlin wall Italy. The paper accounts for the political, historiographical, and even psychological factors behind this nostalgia. The article also highlights how journalists and politicians, both right and left, have used (and abused) Berlinguer's thought and ideas, making him either a symbol of the morality that is today lacking in Italian politics (the right-wing perspective), or a prophet of the struggle against a broken financial system (the left-wing perspective). Finally, the paper analyses the rise of a spontaneous cult of Berlinguer at grassroots level over the last thirty years. The kaleidoscopic variety of interpretations regarding Berlinguer's political legacy is ultimately due to the inability of the Italian post-communist leaders to reconcile themselves with their political past, leading to a splintered and conflictual identity among the Italian post-communist Left in general.


Ritalin® is a popular pharmaceutical. It keeps young people quiet and focused, but attracts intense opprobrium. Beginning with an account of the dimensions of Ritalin®'s use in the United States and controversies surrounding it, this article outlines how this might be understood in moral-panic terms and examines the role of the psy-function and various conflicts of interest, coverage in popular culture, and governmental responses. In many cases, progressive academics and activists have criticised moral panics, recuperating moral-panic folk devils as semiotic guerrillas struggling against authority. In this instance, however, the scene is too complex and multifaceted for that heroisation. There are no good guys; there is lots of panic, from all political-economic quarters. Some of it is justified—and none of it is straightforward.


In 2004 Washington Mutual (WaMu) was touted by the business press as one of the most customer-focused, innovative, community-friendly, employee-loyal, and shareholder-enriching retail banks in the United States. Its stock reached $46.18 in May 2006, an almost 60% increase since 2001. CEO Kerry Killinger was lionized. By late 2008, however, WaMu's stock had plummeted to 16 cents as it became infamous as the largest bank failure in U.S. history. Relying on publicly available published sources, the case documents eroding focus on customers, excessive risks in subprime mortgages, alleged unethical pressure on mortgage officers to approve bad loans, attempts by the CEO to retain his job, and the eventual termination of the CEO, sale of the company to Chase, and destruction of all shareholder value. Whereas the (A) case documents WaMu's formula for success, the (B) case challenges readers to discover the seeds of destruction in the company's leadership, culture, incentives, and human resource policies and practices. WaMu's death contains some hard lessons of the danger of success and pride.

To help students learn the importance of ethics no matter how well managed a company is, the dangers of growth for growth's sake, the perils of failing to listen to lower-level professionals, and the liability of too much success.


MOTIVATION
High mass accuracy is an important goal in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry experiments. Some manufacturers employ a mass calibration system that regularly switches between the analyte and a standard reference compound, and leads to gaps in the analyte data. We present a method for correction of such gaps in global molecular profiling applications such as metabolomics. We demonstrate that it improves peak detection and quantification, successfully recovering the expected number of peaks and intensity distribution in an example metabolomics dataset.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
Available in XCMS versions 1.23.3 and higher. Distributed via Bioconductor under GNU General Public License. (http://www.bioconductor.org/packages//2.7/bioc/html/xcms.html).


Despite the ability to produce human-level speech for in-domain text, attention-based end-to-end text-to-speech (TTS) systems suffer from text alignment failures that increase in frequency for out-of-domain text. We show that these failures can be addressed using simple location-relative attention mechanisms that do away with content-based query/key comparisons. We compare two families of attention mechanisms: location-relative GMM-based mechanisms and additive energy-based mechanisms. We suggest simple modifications to GMM-based attention that allow it to align quickly and consistently during training, and introduce a new location-relative attention mechanism to the additive energy-based family, called Dynamic Convolution Attention (DCA). We compare the various mechanisms in terms of alignment speed and consistency during training, naturalness, and ability to generalize to long utterances, and conclude that GMM attention and DCA can generalize to very long utterances, while preserving naturalness for shorter, in-domain utterances.


Defensive chemicals such as volatiles are essential for many insects against the attack of predatory insects, but in the research domain of chemical ecology there remains a need to better understand how intrinsic physicochemical constants of volatiles determine the intraand interspecific diversification of such compounds produced by prey insects, knowing that many predatory insects primarily rely on chemical cues during foraging. To apprehend and explore the diversity of emitted chemicals as related to the receiver's perception, here we aim to transform chemical into acoustic signals by a process of sonification, because odours and sounds are similarly perceived in their spatiotemporal dynamics. Since insects often emit a complex mixture of repellents, we prototyped a sonification software to process physicochemical parameters of individual molecules, prior mixing these sonified data by following the chemical profile of specific insect defensive secretions. In a proof of concept, the repellence of insectivorous ants towards single chemicals was compared with the repulsive response of humans towards the auditorily translated signals. Expected outreaches of our ongoing project called 'SonifChem' are, among others, to explore the repulsive and even the attractive bioactivities of chemicals emanating from any (biological) source.


During the nineteenth century, a number of writers, including W.H. Ainsworth and Wilkie Collins, proposed a relationship between fiction a nd drama. A number of critics have also examined this relationship in the work of Charles Dickens, but one of his most theatrical texts, the Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi (1838), has been given little critical attention. Yet by examining the Memoirs within the context of Dickens's earlier essay, 'Th e Pantomime of Life' (1837), I argue that in the M moirs Dickens foregrounds the themes of theatre and performance in his depiction of Grimald i's "offstage" life. Dickens integrates the principal figure of the pantomime Clown into the Memoirs, and uses both text and illustration to demonstrate the theatrical quality of life through the persistent presence of a demanding pantomime audience. In 'The Pantomime of Life', Dickens demonstrates th e t eatrical nature of life by mixing off-stage and on-stage scenes in a way that s ows how the stock characters of the pantomime have identifiable counterparts in the "re al world. In particular, he focuses on the mischievous figure of the Clown (as formulated in G rimaldi's act), who appears in life as the confidence trickster who uses his play-acting skill to dupe an audience so socially selfconscious that they are willing to believe in the p r tence. This sort of character had already briefly appeared in Sketches by Boz (1836) but had been developed further in The PickwickPapers (1837) through the character of Alfred Jingle. In the Memoirs, the fictional figure of Jingle is reformulated in the real-life v illain, Mackintosh. The other aspect of the theatrical dynamic is the persistent presence of a pantomime audience, which Dickens often conflates with a vol atile public mob. In a number of episodes in the Memoirs, Dickens demonstrates how the audience's misreadin g of the boundaries between on-stage and off-stage, which initially ma de them so attractive to confidence tricksters, becomes something more threatening. Gr imaldi's identity becomes fixed, as he is forced regularly to perform outside of the play house, either for a large and unregulated mob on the London streets, or for a smaller group f eople in the barber's shop. Despite the author's early optimism, the Memoirs was a commercial failure for Dickens and, unsurprisingly, he declined the offer of helping Tom Ellar with a similar project. However, the Memoirs is better seen as part of one of Dickens's early p rojects in characterisation, in which life was refigured as a pantomime performance. Theorised in 'The Pantomime of Life', this theme runs through much o f is early work, from Sketches by Boz to Oliver Twist (1838) and is also a recurrent motif in later char acters such as Seth Pecksniff and Wilkins Micawber. In this way, Dickens refigur es the character of Grimaldi, taking him from the stage and into the pages of his novels. Writing for the stage During the nineteenth century, a number of writers proposed a relationship between


We formulate an error function for the supervised learning of image search/detection tasks when the positions of the objects to be found are uncertain or ill-defined. The need for this uncertain object position (UOP) error function arises in at least two ways. First, point-like objects frequently have positions that are inaccurately specified. We illustrate this with the problem of detecting microcalcifications in mammograms. The second type of position uncertainty occurs with extended objects whose boundaries are not accurately defined. In this case we usually only need the detector to respond at one pixel within each object. As an example of this, we present results for neural networks trained to detect clusters of buildings in aerial photographs. We are currently applying the UOP error function to the detection of masses in mammograms, which also have poorly-defined boundaries. In all of these examples, neural networks trained with the UOP error function perform much better than networks trained with the conventional cross-entropy error function.


The submitted portfolio and accompanying thesis focus on the subject of doubles and duplication and their application as musical materials and compositional devices in my own work and, to a lesser extent, throughout the history of music and other artistic disciplines. In this study I look at the acoustic, structural, perceptual and aesthetic implications derived from the duplication of sonic materials, instruments, objects, setups, gestures and performers.

From a general perspective, the use of duplication raises a number of issues of identical sounds by two or more sonic sources, the importance of synchronicity or asynchronicity in the suggestion of aural and visual analogies, the role of distance in the establishment of auditory correspondences, the degree of similarity required by specific materials to be identified as doubles, the role of the performer in creating a sense of gestural and performative duplication, the relationship between acoustic and acousmatic sources in the delineation of sonic parallels, etc.

In this thesis, the subject of duplication is chiefly regarded from spatial, performative and sonic perspectives. The sections focusing on spatial issues examine the function of duplicated setups of objects and instruments in the space of performance. The analysis of performative elements addresses the role of gestural duplication and doppelgangers as musical and scenic resources. Finally, the sections on sound investigate the perceptual and aesthetic effects of duplicated sonic sources, echoic interactions and sonic displacements. This thesis is structured into two main parts. The first part (chapters 1 & 2) examines the different possible categories and models of duplication and their usage throughout music history. The second part (chapters 3 & 4) focuses on the application and different roles of duplication in my own music.

The issue of duplication has been explored in the works composed throughout the research process. A total of six pieces (approximately 105 minutes of music) have been written over the course of this PhD. The issues present in these compositions have been thoroughly examined in my thesis, becoming the main object of study. Each of these works approaches duplication in a different manner, highlighting the versatility and potential compositional applications of this phenomenon.


Contemporary research concerning wildlands and wildlife of the American West increasingly calls for greater complexity in understanding humanenvironmental relationships. This dissertation investigates a culturally diverse portion of Greater Yellowstone in order to complicate these dialogues. It explores a riparian corridor along the Wind River, a region permanently settled by Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho and Euro-American residents in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Using the Wind River Basin as a case study, this research observes the landscape through three different lenses: settlement geography, place identity, and vegetation change. By incorporating a variety of methods to understand regional change (including historical research, interviews with residents, and comparative aerial and ground photography), it finds that riparian change relates to a complex cultural-ecological mosaic. Not only is change perceived differently by a variety of communities in the Wind River Basin; change relates to century-old settlement geographies, government policies and cultural preferences, shifting economies and power relationships, and evolving relationships formed by interrelationships of people and environment. This dissertation argues that investigations of environmental change must not oversimplify dynamic relationships between people and place. Indeed, the complexity of these places may relate to why Greater Yellowstone has remained one of the largest intact ecosystems in the lower 48 states.


It could be said that chinese aesthetics merges together three cornerstones (capisaldi) of the western tradition. It might be intended as the study of beauty in the Platonic sense, because of the vaste debate on the topic rooted back in chinese's ancient times; it could match the sense of aesthetics as intended by Baumgarten, because of the long tradition of chinese perceptual studies, and it may also be compared to the Hegelian philosophy of art, given the abundance of chinese artistic manufacts and theories. Chinese aesthetics is distinctive and very different from the western one. While the latter tries to grasp the inner beauty of things by breaking them and accounts for beauty as an object, chinese aesthetics considers beauty as a subject, rather aiming at feeling the beauty of things for what they are. Compared to the occidental tradition, which is rooted in sensation but deviates from sensation to pursue a rational goal, chinese aesthetics originates from the sensation and adheres to it all the time. Therefore, the chinese stance makes for a unique and genuine approach to the discipline.


Abstract The olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), a species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable, is characterized by its mass-nesting behavior, also known as arribada. For decades, this phenomenon has facilitated the utilization of this species by coastal communities, much of it illegally. At Ostional beach, Costa Rica, a community-based egg-harvest program operates legally to generate important income for the community while promoting the protection of the ridley nesting assemblage. However, to date, no analysis exists that indicates the long-term viability of the egg harvest program as a sound management tool. To address this void, we generated baseline abundance data of the major arribada events that occurred in the period 2006–2010, as well as egg harvest data, along with preliminary hatching success. Arribadas ranged between 3564 and 476,550 egg-laying females, which indicated a large variability in the magnitude of the mass nesting events. Estimated mean egg harvest was 4746.4 and ranged from 1527 to 8138 total clutches. In relation to the estimated number of clutches laid, the estimated mean of clutches harvested was 21.2%, ranging from 1.5% to 102.4%. Estimated monthly mean hatching rates ranged from 0.0% to 32.6%. It is not clear whether arribadas underwent a significant change in abundance during the study period, although the number of years covered is too short to establish a long-term trend. However, when compared with historical data, the population appears to have declined. Based on our data, we present various management recommendations aimed at increasing hatching rates.


As technology has evolved, bat researchers have relied more heavily on using acoustic techniques to collect data on bat communities. Acoustic data can be collected actively, where the researcher is present at the sampling point and follows the bat with the detector, or passively, where the researcher is not present and the detector is set out by itself. Active sampling can yield longer, clearer calls, and is only conducted during part of the night (usually from sunset to about 02:00 hours) for short bouts (20 minutes). By contrast, passive sampling can yield lower quality calls, but procedures are easily repeatable and data can be used to measure temporal variation in activity throughout the night and detect individuals and species that are missed during active sampling. Researchers are increasingly attempting to monitor and compare bat communities over time, including sites where both active and passive sampling have occurred. However, these two techniques can yield different detection probabilities and the extent to which data collected using these two techniques can be compared is unclear. Thus, in July 2017 we simultaneously collected acoustic data actively and passively to compare detection probabilities of bats at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA. Using Anabat Express detectors, we detected five species or species groups (Eptesicus fuscus/Lasiurus cinereus, L. borealis/L. seminolus, Perimyotis subflavus, Myotis austroriparius, and Nycticeius humeralis) using each method. Using single season occupancy modeling, we found that method (passive vs. active sampling) had a significant effect on detection probabilities of all species, and that passively sampling throughout the night yielded the highest detection probability for all species. As a result, if differences in detection probability are not taken into account, comparison of historical active datasets with current passive datasets could lead to different insights into habitat use by similar bat communities. Based on our findings, we recommend that researchers use passive sampling throughout the night when studying and monitoring bat communities.


Objective Unhealthy lifestyles have been associated with lower workplace productivity and are the main targets of worksite wellness programmes. The degree to which workplace productivity increases over time in response to changes in lifestyle habits, however, remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between 2-year changes in key lifestyle risk factors and workplace productivity loss. Method A retrospective cohort of 1273 employed adults in 2009 and 2011 was studied from the Heart of New Ulm Project. The outcome was overall workplace productivity loss in 2011. Predictors included 2-year changes in smoking, alcohol use, fruit/vegetable consumption and physical activity, as well as an optimal lifestyle score based on a composite of these four factors. Results The adjusted model indicated that participants who continued to smoke over 2 years had significantly greater overall workplace productivity loss compared to those who remained non-smokers during the same timeframe (9.8% vs 2.5% productivity loss, p=0.031). Lifestyle improvements, however, were not associated with a reduction in workplace productivity loss. Conclusions Employed adults in this cohort who quit smoking, moderated alcohol use, increased fruit/vegetable consumption, or increased physical activity over 2 years did not have less productivity loss compared to those whose lifestyle factors remained stable. In workforces where productivity is already high and/or lifestyle factors are generally healthy, further lifestyle improvements may have limited impact on employee productivity. Larger experimental studies in more diverse regions are needed to help guide employers' investments in lifestyle-oriented worksite wellness programmes.


Density functional theory calculations have been performed to understand the intriguing experimental observations on the hydration of propargylic alcohols to α-hydroxy ketones catalyzed by task-specific ionic liquids (ILs) and CO2. Focusing on a representative propargylic alcohol, 2-methylbut-3-yn-2-ol, we explored its hydration mechanism and the catalytic reactivities of different ILs towards the reaction in detail. The calculated results show the electrostatically controlled character of the reaction, where the reactivity depends on not only the anion's own nature but also its counterion cation that can regulate and control the anion basicity via electrostatic and H-bonding interactions. The reaction is proposed to proceed via an energetically viable mechanism that features the initial addition of CO2 to the hydroxyl group of the propargylic alcohol with assistance of the IL anion as a proton acceptor. The different catalytic performances of several ILs are attributed to their different proton-accepting capabilities. The best catalytic performance of [Bu4P][Im] is ascribed to its most efficient proton-accepting properties. The theoretical results provide a foundation for exploiting the controlled synthesis of α-hydroxy ketones as well as cyclic carbonates and oxazolidinones from the hydration of propargylic alcohols or propargylic amines.


This is the first paper to address the premium-social performance relationship upon an unbalanced panel of 66 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the MENA region over 2004-2014. According to a fixed effects model using instrumental variables, financial sustainability is the primary determinant of premium (i.e. the financial margin), whereupon social performance has a positive albeit insignificant impact. Mature MFIs maintain financial sustainability and serve rather non-poor clients, although they tame interest rates.


The increasing awareness and demand of consumers for safe and high quality food have lead many companies to undertake a comprehensive evaluation and reorganisation of their food control systems in order to improve efficiency, rationalisation of human resources and to harmonise approaches. This evaluation in food control systems has resulted towards the necessity to shift from the traditional approach that relied heavily on end-product sampling and inspection and to move towards the implementation of a preventative safety and quality approach, based on risk analysis and on the principles of the hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) system. Yoghurt is the most popular fermented milk world-wide; the estimated annual consumption in South Africa amounts to nearly 67 million litres. The aim of this study was to implement a HACCP program in a commercial yoghurt factory and then to evaluate the program during certain critical stages of the manufacturing process.