Exploring the Factors that Influence Attitudes and Achievement when Students Take Computerized Tests by Jessie E. Kilgore, Jr. M.A., Wayne State University, 1997 B.G.S., University of Michigan, 1991 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy K-12 Educational Leadership Walden University November 2008 ABSTRACT Currently, a problem exists in K-12 education related to the use of technology for the assessment of student learning. Specifically, due to the lack of access to and infrequent use of computers for middle school students, the rise in the use of high stakes computer-based tests may negatively impact student test scores in poor, urban schools. The conceptual framework of this study was informed by Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, the work of The National Center for Fair and Open Testing regarding ending the misuses and flaws of standardized testing, and James Popham's research on quality assessment. The central research question explored the influence of socioeconomic status, computer access/use, attitudes towards computers, and student achievement levels on computerized tests. This research study was a case study involving 2 charter schools in Michigan. The researcher assumed the role of a non-participant observer and was the primary source for data collection and analysis. The participants for this study were students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 at one suburban and one urban charter school. Multiple sources of evidence were collected, including observations, surveys, and documents. Data analysis was conducted at two levels: category construction was used to examine data for each single case, and a cross-case analysis was used to examineCurrently, a problem exists in K-12 education related to the use of technology for the assessment of student learning. Specifically, due to the lack of access to and infrequent use of computers for middle school students, the rise in the use of high stakes computer-based tests may negatively impact student test scores in poor, urban schools. The conceptual framework of this study was informed by Albert Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, the work of The National Center for Fair and Open Testing regarding ending the misuses and flaws of standardized testing, and James Popham's research on quality assessment. The central research question explored the influence of socioeconomic status, computer access/use, attitudes towards computers, and student achievement levels on computerized tests. This research study was a case study involving 2 charter schools in Michigan. The researcher assumed the role of a non-participant observer and was the primary source for data collection and analysis. The participants for this study were students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 at one suburban and one urban charter school. Multiple sources of evidence were collected, including observations, surveys, and documents. Data analysis was conducted at two levels: category construction was used to examine data for each single case, and a cross-case analysis was used to examine the data for patterns and themes, using the research questions as a guide. A key finding was that home computer access coupled with sole use had a positive influence on student achievement, a positive influence on self-perceptions of computer ability, and significantly influenced the amount of computer usage. Implications for positive social change in education were that practitioners would become aware of the negative effects of computerized testing and implement strategies to mitigate the negative effects. Exploring the Factors that Influence Attitudes and Achievement when Students Take Computerized Tests by Jessie E. Kilgore, Jr. M.A., Wayne State University, 1997 B.G.S., University of Michigan, 1991 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy K-12 Educational Leadership Walden University November 2008 2008 Copyright 200 by


Science education programs that use both formal and informal instruction provide students with more engaging experiences than when only using traditional instruction. However, educators often do not know of, or are uncomfortable with using informal resources. Thus, understanding how educators view and experience science learning in informal environments is necessary for increasing the likelihood that these educators will integrate informal science resources into their curricula. The purpose of this study is to investigate relationships amongst preservice teacher engagement during informal, outdoor learning activities, and perceptions about using informal resources during their future teaching career. During this study, preservice teachers (n=5) took part in a one- day, nature-based fieldtrip as part of a General Science education course. During this fieldtrip, they learned science content and how to teach science in a fieldtrip setting.
Using a four-dimensional framework of engagement (i.e., behavioral, cognitive, affective, agentic), I analyzed video, eye-tracking, and interview data to identify moments of engagement, preservice teachers' perceptions of the fieldtrip, and their integration ideas for using outdoor learning environments in their future teaching career. Participants' actions indicated their engagement across all four dimensions. Participants thought highly of using outdoor learning environments as potential teaching tools, and could identify some way they could integrate them into future teaching practices. No clear relationship existed between observable engagement actions and preservice teachers' future integration ideas; However, participants' overall past experiences with informal learning environments (including the General Science fieldtrip) appeared to largely influence their perceptions and integration ideas. Participants who had no prior teaching experiences drew primarily on their experiences as a student, whereas participants with informal and formal teaching experiences drew upon their experiences as a teacher more than their experiences as a student. Observable engagement actions and interview responses also suggested some participants underwent personally meaningful learning experiences.


The concept and application of the Municipal Harbor Management Plan (MHMP) is one borne out of the Federal Coastal Zone Management Program. Harbor management, as a planning 'genre', actively began in the late 1970's. Having gathered momentum in the 1980's, harbor management is poised as a significant municipal planning tool for the 90's and beyond. It is not the intent of this paper to discuss the mechanics of how a MHMP is developed or carried out as this process has been adequately covered by others. Rather, this paper will review how the MHMP fits into the overall context of harbor management through a discussion of approaches, objectives and successes. This will be accomplished through a review of the following topics: 1) MHMP's - Context and Definitions; 2) MHMP's - Objectives and Products; 3) Applications of the MHMP - Case Examples; 4) Trends for the 1990's. 5) Summary Conclusions


Characteristic arborescent communities of mesophytic or xerophytic species have long been recognized as indicative of forest site quality in the Southern Appalachians, where soil moisture availability is the primary environmental variable affecting productivity. But, a workable quantitative system of site classification based on species composition is not available. We devised a prototype expert system by assigning a relative moisture weight to upland forest tree species according to their position of modal occurrence on a soil moisture gradient ranging from xeric to mesic. We classified forest sites by their position on the gradient, which was quantified by an index representing the average moisture weight for all species present. We determined the relationship of the moisture index with upland oak site index on permanent plots dominated by even-aged stands of either mixed oaks (Quercus spp.) or yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). Regression analysis indicated the moisture index was significantly (P < 0.001) associated with observed site index and explained 62 percent of its variation. Validation of the model with an independent dataset resulted in a mean absolute error in oak site index of 6.9 feet. Results of this exploratory study suggest that estimation of site index based on species composition has potential for application in mixed upland hardwood stands of the Southern Appalachians.


In this article the authors discuss the scourge of sexual violence against women
and girls and consider one possible response in the form of the recently established International Criminal Court (ICC). The article's focus is twofold. The
authors first discuss the impressive (and unprecedented) number of women
judges that have been appointed to the Court. The authors argue that these
appointments will help to ensure that the ICC is a women-friendly institution
for the victims and witnesses that appear before it. This suggestion is bolstered
by the jurisprudence of the ad hoc Tribunals for Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda
(ICTR) where experience has shown that the ultimate beneficiaries of a 'fair
representation of female judges' on the bench are the victims of sexual violence
themselves. The composition of the ICC bench leads to the article's second
focus. The authors consider the wide range of sexual offences which might be
prosecuted before the ICC and, through a discussion of the ICTY and ICTR
experiences, highlight the role that the ICC and its judges might play in the
realisation of women's rights against sexual violence.


Given a set of high-resolution images of a scene, it is often desirable to predict the scene's appearance from viewpoints not present in the original data for purposes of change detection. When significant 3-D relief is present, a model of the scene geometry is necessary for accurate prediction to determine surface visibility relationships. In the absence of an a priori high-resolution model (such as those provided by LIDAR), scene geometry can be estimated from the imagery itself. These estimates, however, cannot, in general, be exact due to uncertainties and ambiguities present in image data. For this reason, probabilistic scene models and reconstruction algorithms are ideal due to their inherent ability to predict scene appearance while taking into account such uncertainties and ambiguities. Unfortunately, existing data structures used for probabilistic reconstruction do not scale well to large and complex scenes, primarily due to their dependence on large 3-D voxel arrays. The work presented in this paper generalizes previous probabilistic 3-D models in such a way that multiple orders of magnitude savings in storage are possible, making high-resolution change detection of large-scale scenes from high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery possible. Specifically, the inherent dependence on a discrete array of uniformly sized voxels is removed through the derivation of a probabilistic model which represents uncertain geometry as a density field, allowing implementations to efficiently sample the volume in a nonuniform fashion.


Jessica Feldman THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER AND LITERACY IN A FIRST GRADE CLASSROOM 2005 Dr. Marjorie E. Madden, thesis advisor Master of Science in Teaching This study is a qualitative case study that explores the connection between literacy and gender in a first grade classroom environment. The subjects for this study are twenty first grade students in a regular education classroom located in a southern New Jersey elementary school. For this study, students were observed with the attempt to answer three questions: I) What gender stereotypes have these first graders internalized coming into the classroom? 2) How are these gender beliefs expressed in the language arts classroom? 3) What are teachers are doing to foster these biases in their students? Data collected includes student writings, discussions, and everyday recorded events. This data is analyzed utilizing the qualitative approach, where themes are identified and linked back to the initial question. Findings reveal a strong link between gender and literacy. This is evident particularly through the ways students voice gender understandings in various literacy activities. This study also suggests the power of the teacher, either positive or negative, in shaping the gender identities of students. Understanding this power becomes an implication of this study for teachers who wish to create unbiased classroom environments.


The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) contains a provision restricting federal courts from considering any authority other than holdings of the Supreme Court in determining whether to grant a state prisoner's petition for habeas corpus. Through an empirical study of cert filings and cases decided by the Supreme Court, the Authors assess this provision's impact on the development of federal constitutional criminal doctrine. Before AEDPA and other restrictions on federal habeas corpus, lower federal courts and state courts contributed to doctrinal development by engaging in a dialogue. This dialogue served to articulate the broad constitutional principles set forth in Supreme Court precedent. AEDPA has effectively ended the conversation, because under AEDPA federal courts lack the power to resolve emerging constitutional issues in the context of state prisoners' federal habeas petitions. Now that only Supreme Court precedent can provide the basis for federal habeas relief under AEDPA, it is more important for open questions to be presented to the Supreme Court. Unless cert is sought and granted in cases arising out of state criminal proceedings, constitutional criminal doctrine may be frozen. Current certiorari practice is out of step with this reality. The Authors' analysis of the procedural posture of criminal cases in which certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court over the past twelve years demonstrates that, since 1995, the Supreme Court's certiorari grants in criminal cases have been tilting away from federal prisoners' direct appeals and towards state prisoners' federal habeas and (to a lesser degree) state court direct appeals. Because the Court is not, as a general matter, using certiorari grants in state prisoners' federal habeas cases to develop doctrine, it appears that certiorari from state court direct appeals is poised to become the primary vehicle for such development. Yet an empirical analysis of certiorari petitions filed in the October 2006 Supreme Court term reveals a gap between this opportunity for doctrinal development and practitioners' current certiorari-seeking behavior. The Authors coded 347 "paid" certiorari petitions and a sample of 300 in forma pauperis petitions, categorizing cases by procedural posture. Although certiorari grants in federal prisoners' direct appeals are declining dramatically, the leading category of cert filings remains federal prisoners' direct appeals. Given that there are far more state criminal proceedings each year than federal prosecutions, the Authors argue that these trends demonstrate an opportunity to file more and better certiorari petitions. The Authors urge the criminal defense community to close this "cert gap," both to ensure a better standard of review for individual clients and to promote continued development of the law.


However utilizing rich, interactive solutions can make learning more effective and attractive, scenario- and game-based educational resources on the web are not widely used. Creating these applications is a complex, expensive and challenging process. Development frameworks and authoring tools hardly support reusable components, teamwork and learning management system-independent courseware architecture. In this article we initiate the concept of a low-level, thick-client solution addressing these problems. With some example applications we try to demonstrate, how a framework, based on this concept can be useful for developing scenario- and game-based e-learning environments.


This is a chapter for a forthcoming volume Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (Oxford University Press 2014) (eds. Eilis Ferran, Niamh Moloney, and Jennifer Payne). It provides an overview of EU financial regulation from the first banking directive up until its most recent developments in the aftermath of the financial crisis, focusing on the multiple layers of multi-level governance and their characteristic conceptual difficulties. Therefore the paper discusses the need to accommodate cross-border capital flows following from the EU internal market and the resulting regulatory strategies. This includes a brief overview of the principle of home country control and the ensuing Financial Services Action Plan. Dealing with the accommodation of cross-border capital flows and their regulation necessarily require an orchestration of the underlying supervisory structures, which is therefore also discussed. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-09 an additional aspect of necessary orchestration has emerged, that is the need to control systemic risk. Specific attention is paid to microprudential supervision by the newly established European Supervisory Authorities and macroprudential supervision in the European Banking Union, the latter's underlying drivers and the accompanying Single Supervisory Mechanism, including the SSM's institutional framework as well as the consideration of its rationales and the Single Resolution Mechanism closely linked to it.


There is a growing recognition that poverty and deprivation in developing countries cannot be defeated solely by the promotion of economic growth. Specific interventions, targeting the most vulnerable sectors of the population, are increasingly considered as necessary complements to more traditional pro-growth policies, especially in the face of unstable global socio- economic scenarios. Social protection is often considered a double-dividend policy for development: it is an effective input for economic growth and it directly reduces poverty by targeting vulnerable households. However, the definition of social protection can be vague and the array of varying definitions can lead to confusion. Social protection has been framed as a policy response to risk, as a human right, and as an agenda for livelihood building. Nonetheless, social protection is generally described as the set of public and private mechanisms that protect and prevent individuals and households from suffering the worst consequences of shocks and stresses. Its novelty lies in its additional attempt to promote resilient livelihoods. However, almost any public intervention could be considered more or less directly part of the social protection system. In this perspective, education policy, pension systems, health care, and many other development policies will fall under a very vague definition of social protection. Such a definition would capture the complex system of linkages between social protection and all other social welfare components, but would hamper our understanding of the specificity of social protection in fighting poverty and promoting economic growth. In what follows we review and discuss the most influential definitions of social protection in the framework of development and aid policies and we explain how the operational definition of social protection has been conceived in the European Report on Development.


The incredible real life story of the world's first super spy Francis Walsingham was the first 'spymaster' in the modern sense. His methods anticipated those of MI5 and MI6 and even those of the KGB. He maintained a network of spies across Europe, including double-agents at the highest level in Rome and Spain - the sworn enemies of Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant regime. His entrapment of Mary Queen of Scots is a classic intelligence operation that resulted in her execution. As Robert Hutchinson reveals, his cypher expert's ability to intercept other peoples' secret messages and his brilliant forged letters made him a fearsome champion of the young Elizabeth. Yet even this Machiavellian schemer eventually fell foul of Elizabeth as her confidence grew (and judgement faded). The rise and fall of Sir Francis Walsingham is a Tudor epic, vividly narrated by a historian with unique access to the surviving documentary evidence.


The UK achieved a remarkable degree of macro-economic stability in the 1990s. Contrary to expectations when the pound was expelled from the European exchange rate mechanism in September 1992, over the next ten years inflation was kept almost exactly on target and its volatility declined by over 90 per cent compared with the previous 20 years. Stability was achieved when the official aim was to balance the budget and major industries were being de-nationalised, contradicting claims that Keynesian policies are needed.


This paper explores the integration/segmentation between the US and Chinese stock markets. Our analysis extends the work of Jorion and Schwartz (1986) to a Fama-French framework using both Chinese and US Fama-French factors. Despite the ongoing liberalisation process in China our results support the segmentation hypothesis.


This paper introduces three new compiler transformations for representing and transforming sparse matrix computations and their data representations. In cooperation with run-time inspection, our compiler derives transformed matrix representations and associated transformed code to implement a variety of representations targeting different architecture platforms. This systematic approach to combining code and data transformations on sparse computations, which extends a polyhedral transformation and code generation framework, permits the compiler to compose these transformations with other transformations to generate code that is on average within 5% and often exceeds manually-tuned, high-performance sparse matrix libraries CUSP and OSKI. Additionally, the compiler-generated inspector codes are on average 1.5 faster than OSKI and perform comparably to CUSP, respectively.


T HIS CHAPTER provides information, analyses, and insights on deafness in the State of Kuwait and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It represents the first time such an approach has been taken in a comprehensive manner. Because of the extreme shortage of documents to prepare this chapter, the author relied on his personal experiences, a few published works on these two countries, anecdotal reports and personal contacts with practitioners in deafness, internal memoranda, all available official documents, and classrooms observations. Kuwait and UAE are located on the Arabian Gulf east of Saudi Arabia. The two countries have been influenced by Western lifestyle while at the same time observing traditional local tribal lifestyle. One of the influences of tribal lifestyle has been the practice of hiding individuals with disabilities for fear of stigmatizing the families and labeling the children. Kuwait and UAE are mainly dependent on oil revenues, although UAE has recently started to capitalize on and to emphasize tourism. The economic prosperity in these two countries has not been accompanied with improved and high-quality special educational services. The current services for the deaf population are fragmented with no clear vision for proper teacherpreparation programs, curricula, and future contributions to the community. The available programs and the future outlook for this group of students are disappointing as depicted in the following documentation and analysis of progress.


Recurrent Neural Networks can be trained to produce sequences of tokens given some input, as exemplified by recent results in machine translation and image captioning. The current approach to training them consists of maximizing the likelihood of each token in the sequence given the current (recurrent) state and the previous token. At inference, the unknown previous token is then replaced by a token generated by the model itself. This discrepancy between training and inference can yield errors that can accumulate quickly along the generated sequence. We propose a curriculum learning strategy to gently change the training process from a fully guided scheme using the true previous token, towards a less guided scheme which mostly uses the generated token instead. Experiments on several sequence prediction tasks show that this approach yields significant improvements. Moreover, it was used succesfully in our winning entry to the MSCOCO image captioning challenge, 2015.


ABSTRACT Voluntary recall of trauma is a key element in exposure-based psychotherapies and can trigger spontaneous dissociative responses such as flashbacks, depersonalisation, and derealisation. In order to examine the associations between cardiovascular and psychological responses to voluntary recollection of trauma, individuals with PTSD recalled a traumatic memory. Heart rate and heart rate variability were recorded continuously and the episodes when different forms of dissociation were experienced during the recall were identified. A significant increase in parasympathetic activity was found during trauma recall, with greater parasympathetic dominance being indicative of greater state depersonalisation/derealisation. Whereas overall decreases in heart rate during trauma recall were associated with increased fear and perceived threat, flashbacks were accompanied by short-term increases in heart rate. These findings demonstrate different types of cardiovascular responses associated with different psychological experiences during trauma recall. Future research directions were discussed.


In this paper, a bistatic passive radar receiver system named "Coherent‐scatter Atmospheric Passive Radar Imager (CAPRI)" is described. It is primarily designed to study the dynamics of the upper atmosphere by utilizing "transmitters of opportunity" as the RF target illuminators. CAPRI is constructed using the open source software‐defined radio toolkit, GNU Radio, to meet the signal processing requirements in combination with the open source hardware, Universal Software Radio Peripheral 2, for data acquisition. The resultant system is highly flexible, and we present the details of the design as well as a performance analysis. CAPRI will be deployed in Peru, near the magnetic equator, for long‐term operations in the area. FM stations near Lima, Peru, will be utilized with the targets of interest being the equatorial electrojet and the spread F. The results will then be compared to the Jicamarca Unattended Long‐term investigations of the Ionosphere and Atmosphere (JULIA) radar data, and CAPRI will be used to improve the simultaneous time and spatial coverage in the region in a more cost‐effective manner.


Previous research (Paul et al., 2011) found significant improvements in reaction time and movement in Ping-Pong players who went through visual training. While most research has focused on performance in sports, few studies have examined the effect of sports playing in improving visual functions. The current study aimed to address this question by training participants with Ping-Pong playing. In this study, 15 college students of ages 18-35 went through the multiple test and training sessions within a 2-week period. On Day one and four participants were measured on Ping-Pong play performance and visual functions, including processing speed, motion-in-depth perception, and divided attention. On Day two and three, participants were trained with one of the two playing tasks against a Ping-Pong robot for approximately one hour. For the Ping-Pong play sessions, a robot shot balls towards participants' side of the table in random direction, at three different speed levels with either left or right side spins. One training task involved catching and throwing back the Ping-Pong balls using one hand, while the other task involved intercepting the balls using a racket. Their scores of missed interceptions and failed returns were recorded. A four-way repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the effect of training on Ping-Pong play performance and visual functions. The results showed significant effects and interactions on play performance: Training, F(1, 10) = 5.64, p < .05; Speed, F(2, 20) = 17.12, p < .001; Training x Speed, F(2, 20) = 5.51, p < .05; And Training x Task x Spin x Speed, F(2, 20) = 10.90, p < .001. More importantly, significant improvement was found for the divided attention task after training, F(1, 6) = 8.76, p < .05. The results of the current study suggest that sports training not only improves play performance but also benefit visual functions. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Despite data showing that inhibitors of the renin‐angiotensin system increase the risks of fetal morbidity and dysfunctionality later in life, their use during pregnancy has increased. The fetopathy induced by angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors is characterized by anuria, hypotension and growth restriction, but can also be associated with pulmonary hypoplasia. In the kidney, this fetopathy includes atrophy of the medulla, reduced number of glomeruli, developmental lesions of tubules and vessels, tubulointerstitial inflammation and extracellular matrix accumulation. Although angiotensin II (Ang II) inhibition during nephrogenesis interferes with normal growth and development, this review will focus on effects of the heavily accumulated matrix component hyaluronan (HA). An important mechanism of HA accumulation during nephrogenesis is disruption of its normal reduction as a consequence of lack of Ang II activation of hyaluronidase. Hyaluronan has very large water‐attracting properties and is pro‐inflammatory when fragmented. The ensuing inflammation and interstitial oedema affect kidney function. Hyaluronan is colocalized with CD44 overexpression and infiltrating immune cells. These properties make HA a plausible contributor to the observed structural and functional kidney defects associated with the fetopathy. Available data support an involvement of HA in kidney dysfunction of the foetus and during adulthood due to the physico‐chemical characteristics of HA. No clinical treatment for HA accumulation exists. Treatment with the HA‐degrading enzyme hyaluronidase and an HA synthesis inhibitor has been tested successfully in experimental models in the kidney, heart and pancreas. Reduced HA accumulation to reduce interstitial oedema and inflammation may improve organ function, but this concept needs to be tested in a controlled study before causal relationships can be established.


INTRODUCTION: Increasing numbers of research papers about information retrieval for Health Technology Assessments (HTA), systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses are being published. It is time-consuming for information specialists to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in the field. To help searchers with this challenge, the Interest Group on Information Retrieval (IRG) of Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) has compiled the best available research evidence on information retrieval aspects into an open-access web resource: Summarized Research in Information Retrieval for HTA (SuRe Info). The resource can be accessed at http://www.sure-info.org METHODS: The Sure Info team run topic-specific search strategies in selected relevant databases to identify information retrieval methods publications that fulfil the SuRe Info inclusion criteria. Eligible publications receive a structured abstract containing a brief critical appraisal. Key messages for search practice based on the appraisals and accepted best practice are summarized into topic-specific chapters. RESULTS: SuRe Info currently offers fourteen chapters, with more in development. SuRe Info chapters fall into two categories: (i) chapters about general search methods that are used across all types of research, such as how to develop search strategies and the availability and use of search filters, and (ii) chapters summarizing the methods to use when searching for specific aspects of HTA (as defined in the European Network for HTA (EUnetHTA) HTA Core Model®), including searching for evidence on clinical effectiveness and safety, and identifying economic evaluations. References at the end of each chapter are linked to appraisals of publications that have been used to develop each chapter. Links to the full-text of the publications are provided when freely available. The SuRe Info chapters are reviewed every six months and updated if new evidence is identified or if resources change. CONCLUSIONS: SuRe Info is a unique resource, identifying and summarizing current best research evidence on information retrieval aspects for HTA. It supports the timely uptake of potential efficiencies arising from new evidence that may be incorporated into the evidence identification processes of HTA organizations.


Summary Throughout embryonic development, macrophages not only act as the first line of defence against infection but also help to sculpt organs and tissues of the embryo by removing dead cells and secreting extracellular matrix components. Key to their function is the ability of embryonic macrophages to migrate and disperse throughout the embryo. Despite these important developmental functions, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying embryonic macrophage migration in vivo. Integrins are key regulators of many of the adult macrophage responses, but their role in embryonic macrophages remains poorly characterized. Here, we have used Drosophila macrophages (haemocytes) as a model system to address the role of integrins during embryonic macrophage dispersal in vivo. We show that the main &bgr;PS integrin, myospheroid, affects haemocyte migration in two ways; by shaping the three-dimensional environment in which haemocytes migrate and by regulating the migration of haemocytes themselves. Live imaging revealed a requirement for myospheroid within haemocytes to coordinate the microtubule and actin dynamics, and to enable haemocyte developmental dispersal, contact repulsion and inflammatory migration towards wounds.


The need to correct garbled strings arises in many areas of natural language processing. If a dictionary is available that covers all possible input tokens, a natural set of candidates for correcting an erroneous input P is the set of all words in the dictionary for which the Levenshtein distance to Pdoes not exceed a given (small) bound k. In this article we describe methods for efficiently selecting such candidate sets. After introducing as a starting point a basic correction method based on the concept of a universal Levenshtein automaton, we show how two filtering methods known from the field of approximate text search can be used to improve the basic procedure in a significant way. The first method, which uses standard dictionaries plus dictionaries with reversed words, leads to very short correction times for most classes of input strings. Our evaluation results demonstrate that correction times for fixed-distance bounds depend on the expected number of correction candidates, which decreases for longer input words. Similarly the choice of an optimal filtering method depends on the length of the input words.


The current study investigated the influence of a play-based curriculum on the development of pretend play skills and oral language in children attending their first year of formal schooling. In this quasi-experimental design, two groups of children were followed longitudinally across the first 6 months of their first year at school. The children in the experimental group were attending a school with a play-based curriculum; the children in the control group were attending schools following a traditional curriculum. A total of 54 children (Time 1 Mage = 5;6, range: 4;10–6;2 years) completed standardised measures of pretend play and narrative language skills upon school entry and again 6 months later. The results showed that the children in the play-based group significantly improved on all measures, whereas the children in the traditional group did not. A subset of the sample of children (N = 28, Time 1 Mage = 5;7, range: 5;2 – 6;1) also completed additional measures of vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and a test of non-verbal IQ. The results suggested that, in addition to improving play skills and narrative language ability, the play-based curriculum also had a positive influence on the acquisition of grammar.


Venezuela now exhibits the 57th historic episode of hyperinflation as measured in the Hanke–Krus World Hyperinflation Table. Entry to the hyperinflation dataset depends on three qualifying criteria: inflation rates greater than 50% per month; the persistence of this rate for at least 30 consecutive days; and full documentation so that inflation estimates are replicable. This paper measures Venezuela's hyperinflation by transforming changes in the US dollar–Venezuelan bolivar exchange rate into implied inflation rates using the purchasing power parity doctrine. The purchasing power parity method is accurate during periods of hyperinflation. Venezuela's hyperinflation peaked with a monthly inflation rate of 219.7% on 30 November 2016.


Infectious bursal disease (lBD) is one of the most important viral diseases in
chickens. IBD virus ( IBDV) from seven local field outbreaks in layer, broiler and
village chickens were isolated, propagated and identified. The pathogenicity
and immunogenicity of one of the selected isolates were determined in specific
pathogen free (SPF) chickens.
The study showed that the IBDV can cause sudden onset of mortality
ranging from 15 % to 90 % during the outbreaks.. It occurred in both the vaccinated
and non-vaccinated chickens with the age group ranging from 1 8 days to
14 weeks. Layers appeared to be more susceptible to the virus than the broilers,
whilst the highest mortality (90 %) was observed in village chickens.
Haemorrhages of the bursa of Fabricius, muscles and mucosal layers at the
junction of the proventriculus and gizzard were the typical gross lesions caused by the virus. The bursal lesions vary from moderate enlargement and
oedematous to severe atrophy. Histologically, the enlarged bursa showed acute
necrotizing bursitis, whilst chronic necrotizing bursitis was seen in the atrophic
organ. The virus particles were detected in the cytoplasm of the lymphoid cells,
macrophages and necrotic cells of the bursa of Fabricius under transmission electron
microscopy (TEM). Inoculation of the IBDY isolates obtained from the bursa of
Fabricius into embryc'l1ated chicken eggs caused embryonic death, haemorrhages,
oedema and hepatic necrosis. The lesions were more severe in SPF eggs than the
commercial eggs. Inoculation of the virus into susceptible chickens caused some
variation in the mortality and lesions. All isolates of the IBDY from the outbreaks
showed distinct curve of agar gel diffusion precipitation lines between the positive
sample and reference serum against IBOY.


Who am I? Is there anyone who loves me as I am? A quest for 'individual identity' is a major topic in manga (and anime) texts, which combine visual art forms with strong narrative-driven structures that portray a diverse range of social phenomena. This paper examines the characterisation of 'twins' in manga and anime, paying particular attention to 'identical twins' in girls' manga, in terms of the following: the fashioning of self and the individual's quest for / negotiation of subjective forms of agency through their struggles with actual and/or internalised pressures for social conformity. As De Nooy (2005) claims, tales of twins figure as a significant motif in contemporary culture and these narratives continuously evolve to respond to the place and the period of their (re)telling, often representing an account of an ambiguous self and/or 'other self' in relation to issues of gender and sexuality. Twins in manga (and anime) are the same, yet such characters are often created by female artists for female readers as embodiments of personal, psychological struggles for individual independence rather than as a gendered girl, unlike western novels, plays and films. Perhaps reflecting the general impression of 'twins' as the identical, Japanese twins in manga (and anime) are generally limited to the identical (same sex) or male/female twins with similar appearances. Male/female twins tend to represent the strong, affectionate, (mythic) bond, with incestuous overtones. It can deconstruct pre-determined gender roles but only lightly, as exemplified by the first twin manga, Tezuka Osamu's 'Futago no kishi' (Twin knights) from 1958. In contrast, tales of identical twins often focus on their rivalry and their conflict, where jealousy plays a critical role. It explores psychological issues, in which the twins may be interpreted as dramatisations of the self and the mirrored self, the split and fragmented self, and the internal conflict between unconsciousness and the social self or the ego and the super-ego. Many identical twins narratives in manga revolve around deep-seated anxieties and uncertainties about individual identity, especially that of girls. As Fujimoto (2001) sums up: twin tales in the 1950s demonstrate a recovery of lost wholeness, which end with the happy reunion of twin girls who grew up separately, followed by darker and more suspenseful stories, entwined with jealousy, rivalry and conflict between twins with contrasting nature (e.g., the good and the bad). From 1985, along with a general interest in 'identity', twin narratives of both girl twins and boy twins flourished, with a specific focus on psychological issues, such as inner conflict; conflict between the self and the expected self, which also closely related to other narratives (e.g., clones, multiple personalities and reincarnations), all of which relate to issues concerning individual identity. In recent manga publications twin tales are increasingly characterised by playfulness, lightness and positive tones in their depiction of identical twins' development of independence from the double to two individuals as exemplified by Minako Narita's Cipher.


This essay seeks to trace the many—and often conflicting—economic ideological interpretations of the transatlantic abolitionist impulse. In particular, it explores the contested relationship between free-trade ideology and transatlantic abolitionism, and highlights the understudied influence of Victorian free-trade ideology within the American abolitionist movement. By bringing together historiographical controversies from the American and British side, the essay calls into question long-standing conceptions regarding the relationship between free trade and abolitionism, and suggests new avenues for research.


Farmland invertebrates play a pivotal role in the provision of ecosystem services, i.e. services that benefit humans. For example, bumblebees, solitary bees and honeybees, are crucial to the pollination of many of the world's crops and wildflowers, with over 70% of the world's major food crops dependent on the pollination services provided by these insects. The larvae of some butterfly species are considered to be pests; however, together with moth and sawfly larvae, they represent a key dietary component for many farmland birds. Spiders and ground beetles predate on crop pests including aphids, whilst soil macrofauna such as earthworms are vital for soil fertility services and nutrient recycling. Despite their importance, population declines of invertebrates have been observed during the last sixty years in the UK and NW Europe. For example, seven UK bumblebee species are in decline, and in the last 20 years, the species Bombus subterraneus (short-haired bumblebee) has become extinct, whilst there was a 54% decline in honeybee colony numbers in England from 1985 to 2005. Comparable trends have been documented for butterflies with a 23% decline in UK farmland species such as Anthocharis cardamines (orange tip) between 1990 and 2007. These declines have been widely attributed to the modern intensive arable management practices that have been developed to maximise crop yield. For example, loss and fragmentation of foraging and nesting habitats, including species-rich meadows and hedgerows, have been implicated in the decline of bees and butterflies. Increased use of herbicides and fertilisers has caused detrimental effects on many plant species with negative consequences for predatory invertebrates such as spiders and beetles which rely on plants for food and shelter.


Until the mid-1980's, federal judges had broad discretion in sentencing defendants. However, this created disparities in sentencing from one judge to another, and this created a desire for much greater uniformity. This drive for uniformity resulted in a number of strict legislative measures, including mandatory minimum sentences and mandatory sentencing guidelines. Over time, the judiciary branch grabbed back some discretion (largely through the Supreme Court's Booker decision in 2005, which made the sentencing guidelines advisory rather than mandatory), but this has resulting in a return to disparities. The underlying problem is a view of sentencing that sees a zero-sum equation between judicial discretion and uniformity - that is, the belief that uniformity must be established by curtailing judicial discretion. This article argues for a different model: Sentencing guidelines that use peer effects and modern technology to directly use judicial discretion to create uniformity. Instead of mandated, arbitrary guidelines, a computer-based sentencing information system would require a sentencing judge to review and consider all the other sentences chosen by judges in similar situations, and this body of experience would functionally become the guidelines. A judge who strays too far from the norm would have to justify that choice based on unusual and compelling circumstances. Such a system would harness discretion as the engine towards uniformity, and discard the false dichotomy between the two that has created so much discord.


Recently, a semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation approach has been proposed to solve the sensor network localization problem. Although it achieves high accuracy in estimating the sensor locations, the speed of the SDP approach is not satisfactory for practical applications. In this paper we propose methods to further relax the SDP relaxation, more precisely, to relax the single semidefinite matrix cone into a set of small-size semidefinite submatrix cones, which we call a sub-SDP (SSDP) approach. We present two such relaxations. Although they are weaker than the original SDP relaxation, they retain the key theoretical property, and numerical experiments show that they are both efficient and accurate. The speed of the SSDP is even faster than that of other approaches based on weaker relaxations. The SSDP approach may also pave a way to efficiently solving general SDP problems without sacrificing the solution quality.


Beginning in 2004, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) undertook a series of pavement rehabilitation projects to address deficiencies in three sections of the I-64 corridor between Richmond and Newport News. I-64 serves as the primary avenue between the Richmond and Hampton Roads metropolitan areas and carries a combined traffic volume ranging from approximately 20,000 to 90,000 vehicles per day. For nearly 100 mi, this roadway is a four-lane divided facility that was originally built between the late 1960s and early 1970s as either a jointed reinforced or continuously reinforced concrete pavement. The existing concrete pavement was rehabilitated using three rehabilitation procedures: two standard approaches and an experimental approach. The standard rehabilitation procedures included the use of full-depth portland cement concrete (PCC) patches overlaid by a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay and full-depth PCC patches followed by grinding of the pavement surface. The experimental rehabilitation procedure consisted of the use of full- and partial-depth HMA patches followed by an HMA overlay. The purpose of this study was to document the initial condition and performance to date of the I-64 project and to summarize similar work performed by state departments of transportation other than VDOT. The pavement rehabilitation cost per lane-mile was nearly 20% less for the section of I-64 for which full-depth PCC patches followed by grinding of the pavement surface was used than for the other two sections. However, the experimental results do not allow for a comparison to determine any differences in the structural capacity or service life between the sections. The study recommends that VDOT's Materials Division annually monitor the ride quality of the pavement in the three rehabilitated sections of I-64 so that the end of service life can be defined as the pavement roughness increases because of deterioration. Further, the Virginia Transportation Research Council should collaborate with other research organizations to encourage and pursue full-scale or laboratory-scale accelerated pavement testing to determine the optimum repair materials and methods for pre-overlay repair of existing PCC pavements and to develop models to quantify the deterioration of an asphalt overlay placed over an existing concrete pavement because of reflection cracking.


The aim of this paper is to make a brief overview about the recent evolution of the environmental tax systems in the Baltic region. With this purpose in mind, the article contains a review of the environmental taxes used in eight Baltic countries (Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Sweden) during the period from 2002 till 2011. Environmental taxation evolution has taken different paths across European Union countries, underpinned by different environmental policy frameworks. Presently, the European Commission is stimulating the European Union Strategy 2020 to have a more secure and competitive green economy in Europe. The results of this paper show that the collection of environmental taxes differs among the Baltic countries. It is partly related to environmental policy of each Baltic country and partly due to environmental tax reforms, which have been implemented in Sweden, Denmark and Germany. It may also be due to more ambitious goals and purposes when it comes to reductions in energy use and to protect the nature of the world. In the article, attention is also paid to the problem of application of efficiency of economic instruments in the European Union. The authors discuss and compare environmental reflections in environmental policy of the European Union.


ABSTRACT The BCL-2 family includes both proapoptotic (e.g., BAX and BAK) and antiapoptotic (e.g., BCL-2 and BCL-XL) molecules. The cell death-regulating activity of BCL-2 members appears to depend on their ability to modulate mitochondrial function, which may include regulation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP). We examined the function of BAX and BCL-XL using genetic and biochemical approaches in budding yeast because studies with yeast suggest that BCL-2 family members act upon highly conserved mitochondrial components. In this study we found that in wild-type yeast, BAX induced hyperpolarization of mitochondria, production of reactive oxygen species, growth arrest, and cell death; however, cytochrome c was not released detectably despite the induction of mitochondrial dysfunction. Coexpression of BCL-XL prevented all BAX-mediated responses. We also assessed the function of BCL-XL and BAX in the same strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with deletions of selected mitochondrial proteins that have been implicated in the function of BCL-2 family members. BAX-induced growth arrest was independent of the tested mitochondrial components, including voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC), the catalytic β subunit or the δ subunit of the F0F1-ATP synthase, mitochondrial cyclophilin, cytochrome c, and proteins encoded by the mitochondrial genome as revealed by [rho0] cells. In contrast, actual cell killing was dependent upon select mitochondrial components including the β subunit of ATP synthase and mitochondrial genome-encoded proteins but not VDAC. The BCL-XL protection from either BAX-induced growth arrest or cell killing proved to be independent of mitochondrial components. Thus, BAX induces two cellular processes in yeast which can each be abrogated by BCL-XL: cell arrest, which does not require aspects of mitochondrial biochemistry, and cell killing, which does.


The transition from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plans has left workers forced to make choices that may decrease their financial resources in retirement: taking lump-sum distributions before retirement that divert funds that could support consumption in retirement, not annuitizing DC benefits, or choosing a single-life annuity over a joint-and-survivor option so that their surviving spouses are left susceptible to income loss. This study examines pension coverage, lump-sum distributions, annuitization, and annuity life options among Health and Retirement Study households observed at ages 65-69 and 75-79 and relates these pension provisions to poverty incidence and the risk of falling into poverty at older ages. The results indicate that households with pensions that are annuitized with the joint-and-survivor life option and that do not take lump-sum distributions before age 55 are best able to avoid income and asset poverty. The results emphasize the importance of making DC plans operate more like DB plans, because the opportunities for these poor financial choices are likely only to grow given the reliance on DC plans as the sole source of employer pension income for future cohorts of retirees.


Arising out of the author's lifetime fascination with the links between the formal language of mathematical models and natural language, this short book comprises five essays investigating both the economics of language and the language of economics. Ariel Rubinstein touches the structure imposed on binary relations in daily language, the evolutionary development of the meaning of words, game-theoretical considerations of pragmatics, the language of economic agents and the rhetoric of game theory. These short essays are full of challenging ideas for social scientists that should help to encourage a fundamental rethinking of many of the underlying assumptions in economic theory and game theory. As a postscript two economists, Tilman Borgers (University College London) and Bart Lipman (University of Wisconsin, Madison), and a logician, Johan van Benthem (University of Amsterdam, Institute for Logic, Language and Computation and Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information) offer comments. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.) (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


This paper presents the analysis of the performance of charge pump, and the design strategy and efficiency optimization of 2.4GHz micro-power charge pump using 65nm CMOS technology. The model of the charge pump takes account of the threshold voltage variation, bulk modulation, and the major parasitic capacitor. Charge pump is sensitive to the input voltage swing and the actual input voltage swing is less after the capacitor divider, which generates the optimized size transistor. From the mathematic model of the charge pump, the relationship between the charge pump performance and design parameter is presented. After parameter analysis and performance discussion, a design procedure to maximize performance is presented. Corresponding to the design procedure presented in this paper, a high efficiency charge pump at 2.4GHz is presented.


We investigate social circles in intra-firm settings. First, we argue that social circles are inhabited by individuals whose attitudes display fit with the objectives of the social circle rather than more self-centered instrumentalism or calculation. For a test of this hypothesis, we distinguish between friendship circles and strategy-influence circles. We find that friendship circle membership is positively associated with attitudes that display empathic concern but negatively with more instrumental attitudes, whereas strategy-influence circle membership is positively associated with attitudes that display long-term ambition but negatively with attitudes that display short-term calculation. Second, we argue and find that membership of social circles affects individual performance (social circles foster the exchange of information, for which we find clear evidence), albeit not necessarily in a linear fashion. Our new insights into social circle membership and performance implications can guide individuals in seeking access to such social circles and can aid management in understanding and perhaps influencing intra-firm knowledge flows.


In this article, we investigate the relative performances of company-owned outlets vs. franchised outlets using an original database consisting of 150 units of a French chain. At first glance, the financial and quality performances of company-owned units are better than franchised units. However, this result is reversed when the particular characteristics of each unit are taken into account in the analysis. Furthermore, our result suggests that if company-owned units are less efficient than franchised units, all things being equal, they respond more quickly to change imposed by the franchisor leading to higher quality performances. This result highlights the fact that if franchisees have greater incentives to maximize return on sales and quality, they are also more independent of the franchisor and could therefore impede adaptation of the chain. Thus, franchised units may represent a drawback when the franchisor wants to implement a new strategy and may explain why plural forms (i.e. franchise mix) appear to be efficient organizational choices.


This article offers some philosophical and theological bases for a new equilibrium between privacy and communication. In our liberal society, the predominant conception of privacy is based on the assumption that humans are isolated individuals, each pursuing his own self-interest, and so privacy is in permanent conflict with the right to information. Considering that everything is for sale, commercial media are boldly promoting an increasing exhibitionism and voyeurism, while virtual communication can also lead to new kinds of social isolation. In contrast with that individualism, Catholic theology sees the human person as "imago Dei" and so naturally inclined to altruistic self-giving, even though in fact always in need of divine grace. Therefore, society does not have to be built on mutual suspicion, and the right to privacy is not at odds with the right to information. Defending privacy is the best way of promoting authentic and respectful communication.


Different unexpected combinations between industry, local government, private participants, educational institutes and artists resulted past year in challenging opportunities for transitions in urban and rural areas. The power of art with the perspective of the artist approaching challenges evokes a chain of thoughts and (cascading) events, affecting systems. This results not only in innovative sustainable social i the second is the process of organisation of the lab within its environmental and societal context. The Lab itself can be regarded as a complex adaptive system while the organisation of the SDG-Lab is within panarchy, acting on multiple levels and on different scales. Both faces, content and context, of the SDG lab have their own emerging properties. For facilitation of the SDG-lab we organised workshops where creative methods based upon TRIZ ("Theory of inventive problem solving") and CPS (Creative Problem Solving) were applied. TRIZ makes use of pre-established thinking patterns and proven abstract solutions to sets of abstract problems. TRIZ provides a toolbox for solving complex (wicked) problems. TRIZ uses the heuristics of intrinsic technological and societal evolution once a concept emerges. CPS is used for application of the TRIZ toolbox, by making concrete problems abstract and abstract solutions, concrete. TRIZ and CPS makes use of analytical and design thinking. Results of these workshops are emerged pre-concepts which have the potential to create change. Contextual settings of the SDG-lab determine its rate of success. Many good ideas perish in the "valley of death", before they can realise their full potential. The contextual setting determines acceptance and hence increases probability of idea realisation. The action of organising SDG-labs generates curiosity, enthusiasm, resistance and other emotions with people and organisations. This lead to disturbances in panarchy, which is rendered in emerging opportunities that can be seized by imaginative people. Sarasvathy and Simon (2000) coined for this approach the concept of effectuation as an entrepreneurial principle for seizing opportunities which emerge from entrepreneurial actions in contrast to causation where managerial thinking obscures seeing opportunities. Effectuation is actor dependent where given specific means, choice of effect is driven by characteristics of the actor and his or her ability to discover and use contingencies. This approach is also recognised in innovation theory where the concept of "exaptation" is explored. Exaptation is the attribution of a new functionality to an existing artefact (or organization, scientific achievement, or


The way relationships between symbols and thoughts are created is a general problem in learning, mainly described as "how students' learn to mean". This general problem raises some basic questions concerning how students' relate understanding to words used in learning. The present research provides an alternative perspective on the relationship between thought and language derived from the phenomenographic tradition and from the later philosophy of Wittgenstein. The general aim of the thesis is to analyse, describe and discuss aspects of learning and understanding concerning the relationship between thought and language. In the empirical investigation twenty-seven students from two institutes of higher education, a school of nursing and a teacher training college, participated. Qualitative interviewing was the instrument used both to stimulate students' reflection on their expressed conceptions of a particular problem presented and to document their reflection. Contextual analysis was the method used. The results of the empirical analyses are presented in related descriptive categories focusing on to three aspects of learning and understanding concerning relationships between words used and conceptions of a problem; 1) the character of relationships experienced 2) the different qualities in the process of students reflecting on relationships 3) the change of conceptions The theoretical investigation concerns, on the one hand the principle differences between understanding objects of knowledge and understanding language meaning in relation to learning and on the other hand the relationship between thought and language in theories of language meaning and understanding in the philosophy of language. One of the main conclusions drawn is that the proposed identity between thought and language within the theory of representationalism, well represented in social constructivism and individual constructivism, can not be presupposed in an educational perspective on learning as it focuses too much on learning to understand language meaning more than learning to understand objects of knowledge.


This study sought to investigate the behaviour and attitudes of dog walkers to picking up and disposing of dog foul, with a specific focus on bagged dog waste. Two research methods were utilised. The first explores locational and social factors influencing dog walkers' behaviour in picking up and disposing of dog faeces. Dog waste audits were conducted on popular dog walking paths in Lancashire. Secondly, the results were used to deliver an online national dog walking survey. Results of the audits suggested that availability of bins, path morphology, visibility, and path location are key factors in determining the occurrence of dog faeces. In the survey a key factor influencing behaviour was the belief that clearing up after dogs is the 'right thing to do' and this was associated with an awareness of health risks. Dog walker typologies are also proposed heuristically, ranging from those dog walkers that are 'proud to pick up' who will pick up in any location, through those who make contextual judgements about where and when it could be permissible to leave dog waste, to the 'disengaged' who will not pick up even if they are aware of the health and environmental consequences. The study advocates active engagement of dog walkers in tackling this contested, potentially environmentally damaging issue.


Electoral campaigns are central to influencing how people vote and can also affect people's perception of the legitimacy of a country's elections and democracy in general. Today, political parties and other stakeholders are increasingly use new online techniques in electoral campaigns. Many countries struggle with applying regulatory frameworks on elections to the online sphere, especially as regards online political advertising and microtargeting. This Event Report provides an overview of the issues at stake and recommendations from two roundtables on online political advertising and microtargeting that were organized by International IDEA in June 2020, in collaboration with the European Commission and the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. It covers topics such as what sets online campaigning apart from traditional campaigning, the rights and freedoms potentially affected by the use of digital microtargeting and online campaigning, gaps in current regulations, and division and coordination of oversight roles both domestically and internationally.


Marine mammals help gather information on some of the harshest environments on the planet, through the use of miniaturized ocean sensors glued on their fur. Since 2004, hundreds of diving marine animals, mainly Antarctic and Arctic seals, have been fitted with a new generation of Argos tags developed by the Sea Mammal Research Unit of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK. These tags investigate the at-sea ecology of these animals while simultaneously collecting valuable oceanographic data. Some of the study species travel thousands of kilometres continuously diving to great depths (up to 2100 m). The resulting data are now freely available to the global scientific community at http://www.meop.net. Despite great progress in their reliability and data accuracy, the current generation of loggers while approaching standard ARGO quality specifications have yet to match them. Yet, improvements are underway; they involve updating the technology, implementing a more systematic phase of calibration and taking benefit of the recently acquired knowledge on the dynamical response of sensors. Together these efforts are rapidly transforming animal tagging into one of the most important sources of oceanographic data in polar regions and in many coastal areas.


Abstract : As computer attack patterns shift and threats to networks change and grow almost daily, it is critical that organizations achieve reliable information security. Investment decisions about information security are best considered in the context of managing business risk. Risks can be accepted, mitigated, avoided, or transferred. Outsourcing selected managed security services (MSS) by forming a partnership with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) is often a good solution for transferring information security responsibility and operations. Although the organization still owns information security risk and business risk, contracting with an MSSP allows it to share risk management and mitigation approaches.


Part I:
 The Mazatzal Mountains are located in Gila, Yavapai, and Maricopa counties in central Arizona. The rocks in the central part of this range are dominantly Precambrian, and the only younger stratified rocks are of Tertiary or younger age. The Precambrian rocks have undergone a Precambrian regional metamorphism to lower greenschist grade.

 Two main mappable units of stratified rocks are present: the Alder series and the Red Rock rhyolite. Previous work (Wilson, 1939) had indicated that the Alder series is a clastic sedimentary pile, and that it lies in fault contact with an older Red Rock rhyolite. This work shows that the Alder series consists of about one-third directly accumulated volcanic material, another third of slightly reworked volcanic material, and the remaining third of argillites, quartzose sandstones, and limestones. The total thickness of the section is unknown, but is at least 14000' (4200 meters). The overall character of the Alder series is eugeosynclinal, in view of its great thickness, the abundance of volcanics, the thick sections of volcanic sandstones and wackes, and an overall trend towards more shallow-water deposited rocks towards the top of the section. The volcanics of the Alder series, however, are predominantly felsic (dacites to rhyolites), and basalts and pillow lavas, though present, are not abundant.

 The Red Rock rhyolite is a thick (at least 1000 meters) pile of extrusive rhyolitic volcanics including abundant ash-flow tuffs. There is no evidence of a fault between the Red Rock rhyolite and the Alder series. The Red Rock rhyolite lies with depositional contact and without apparent unconformity on the uppermost Alder series beds. In the lower Gold Creek area, a feeder dike to the Red Rock rhyolite penetrates the uppermost Alder series, and broke the surface at the time of accumulation of the Red Rock rhyolite.

 The lithologies of the Alder series show a fairly continuous evolution from sediments and volcanics accumulated in relatively deep water to sediments and volcanics accumulated in progressively more shallow water, and finally to sediments and volcanics accumulated under intermittently subaerial conditions. The basin of accumulation of the Alder series became progressively more shallow, at least partly because of the large volumes of volcanic material which accumulated there, until the eruption of the tremendous amounts of volcanics of the Red Rock rhyolite obliterated the remaining vestiges.

 The Red Rock rhyolite is petrographically and chemically indistinguishable from some of the volcanics in the uppermost Alder series. It evidently accumulated from sources which were active in latest Alder series time and which contributed to the uppermost Alder series section. Thus at least locally, the Alder series - Red Rock rhyolite contact intertongues. The thickness of the Red Rock rhyolite and the abundance of associated intrusive increases to the northeast, suggesting a probable direction of the source area, perhaps the Precambrian alkali rhyolite complex of Tonto Basin described by Conway (1973).

 Several generations of shallow intrusive rocks penetrate the Alder series and the Red Rock rhyolite. Two types of felsic porphyries were emplaced before folding, while one type of felsic porphyry was emplaced after folding. Mafic volcanic sheets and dikes which intruded in and near the Red Rock mass of the Red Rock rhyolite may have been emplaced during folding.

 Chemical analyses were obtained for nine samples of the Pre-cambrian rocks of the central Mazatzal Mountains. These analyses suggest that the volcanic rocks of the lower Alder series are dominantly dacitic, while the upper Alder series volcanics are dominantly rhyolitic. The chemical composition of the upper Alder series volcanics and the Red Rock rhyolite are generally quite similar to modern, unaltered alkalic rhyolites.

 The structural framework of the area is dominated by tight, northeastward-trending folds. The Red Rock rhyolite is exposed at the cores of synclines, while a faulted anticlinal structure cuts off the oldest Alder series beds to the southeast of Mt. Peeley. These large-scale structures are of Precambrian age.

 Isotopic age determinations using the U-Pb method on cogenetic zircon fractions were performed on upper Alder series volcanics. The apparent age indicated by the analyses is 1730 ± 20 m.y. The upper Alder series volcanics are not distinguishable in apparent age from the Red Rock rhyolite as determined by Silver (1964). This apparent age is distinctly younger than the ages obtained for previously-correlated rocks in the Prescott-Jerome area, and confirms the suspicions of Anderson et al (1971) that the Yavapai schist of the Prescott-Jerome area is not correlable with the type Alder series.

Part II:

 The lead of high-purity, acid-washed K-feldspar concentrates from five Precambrian granites was removed in a stepwise fashion by two different techniques. Both the technique of stepwise volatilization under vacuum and the technique of stepwise partial attack by hydrofluoric acid yielded leads from the same K-feldspar concentrate which varied significantly in their isotopic composition.

 The patterns of lead isotopic variation from the feldspar concentrates show that the lead isotopic heterogeneity is due to a variable component of radiogenic lead which was generated since the crystallization of the rock. Two classes of lead isotopic variation were observed:

 (I) Parallel and colinear variation in the 206/204, 207/204, and 208/204 ratios, suggesting that the feldspar incorporated lead derived from long-term uranium and thorium decay from a source with constant Th/U, and

 (II) Variation in the 206/204 ratio independent of any 207/204 and 208/204 variation. This suggests that the feldspar contains lead derived from the continuing separation and concentration of a U^(238) intermediate-daughter, probably Rn^ (222).

 The amount and type of radiogenic lead incorporated by the five feldspar concentrates correlates with the concentrations of uranium and thorium in the rocks and with the geologic age and history of the rocks. Thus the rock with the highest uranium content (the Lawler Peak granite) has the K-feldspar with the greatest amount of uranium-derived radiogenic lead, and the rock with the highest thorium content (the Marble Mts. granite) has the K-feldspar with the greatest amount of thorium-derived radiogenic lead. The calculated Th/U values for the sources of the radiogenic leads ranges from two to eleven. Th/U values in this range are reasonable for several common granitic accessory minerals of appreciable U and Th content, but are higher than the Th/U values of the zircons in the rock.

 For two of the rocks, the Payson granite of Arizona and the Giants' Range granite of Minnesota, the composition of the radiogenic lead of the K-feldspar concentrates suggests that the rocks were disturbed by nearby Precambrian intrusives. The apparent time of incorporation of the radiogenic lead of the K-feldspar of the Giants' Range granite is 1010 ± 150 m.y., which correlates well with the time of intrusion of the Duluth gabbro complex at 1120-1140 m.y. (Silver and Green, 1972).

 Although the least radiogenic lead fractions derived from the K-feldspar concentrates were significantly closer to the composition of the original feldspar lead, in no case was the original feldspar lead isolated. Moreover, because the least volatile lead fractions of some of the feldspar concentrates were more radiogenic in character than fractions of lesser volatility, it appears that the technique of stepwise volatilization is not promising for the routine isolation of original feldspar leads. The technique of stepwise hydrofluoric acid attack, however, yielded a greater isolation of original feldspar leads in fewer and simpler steps. This technique may be useful for the routine removal of the greatest part of the radiogenic lead component of Precambrian feldspars, and with further development may lead to the complete isolation of the original leads of such feldspars.

 The isotopic compositions of the least radiogenic fractions of the three 1450 ± 20 m.y. southwestern granites have almost no variation in 207/204 (15.39 ± .02) and less than 1% variation in 206/204 (16.32± .08). Calculations using the patterns of lead isotopic heterogeneity of these feldspars suggest that the original 206/204 values of these rocks were close to 16.16. The observed least radiogenic 208/204 value of the high-thorium (142 ppm) Marble Mts. granite is distinctly higher than those of the other two 1450 ± 20 m.y. granites. These patterns suggest that these rocks were derived from a common, long-lived source, which source underwent a differentiation so as to cause a change in Th/U and Th/Pb a few hundreds of millions of years before the emplacement of the granites.


I. Introduction On July 25, 1985, the Council of the European Communities adopted a product liability directive(1) (the Directive) that has engendered a wide and varied debate among industry and consumer groups,(2) as well as within the legal community.(3) The Directive(4) has been legislatively adopted by all the Member States of the European Union (EU) (as the European Community (EC) is now known) except Ireland, France, and Spain.(5) However, the debate over the Directive's impact on litigation and on competition in the EU has yet to be resolved. This Note will undertake an analysis of the Directive with an eye toward that debate. The author will first analyze the Directive, its history and implementation, and the interesting and relevant differences between it and U.S. product liability law, from a doctrinal standpoint. The Note will next discuss the impact of the Directive on trade in light of various predictions by scholars. The author will explain why fears of a European product liability crisis on a U.S. scale are unfounded, in large part because of the important procedural structures discouraging litigation in Europe. The analysis will conclude with a call for reform of the Directive itself, justified by the Directive's purported goals of protecting European consumers and harmonizing European product liability law so as to create a level competitive playing field in the EU.(6) II. The Scope and Direction of the Directive The Directive begins with a simple but far-reaching prescription: "The producer shall be liable for damage caused by a defect in his product."(7) Thus, with a single sentence, the Directive wipes away years of negligence doctrine in European product liability law, with one caveat. After a Member State has enacted the Directive, a plaintiff may still employ that country's previously available tort and contract remedies,(8) unless the individual country's enabling legislation eliminates them. The Directive next defines key relevant terms such as product, producer, and defective.(9) The term product, which includes electricity, encompasses all movable articles except primary agricultural products and game.(10) The Directive's designation of what qualifies as a producer is expansive, and therefore threatens more individuals and companies with liability than those currently exposed to litigation under the present legal regimes in EU countries.(11) The Directive provides that product or component part manufacturers, producers of raw materials, and those who present themselves as producers all meet the definition of producers.(12) Were these the only qualifications, perhaps the Directive would not have occasioned such an outcry from industry concerns. However, the Directive also defines those who import products into the EU as producers.(13) Finally, the Directive permits plaintiffs to treat each supplier (of the product causing the injury) as a defendant-producer unless that supplier apprises the plaintiff "of the identity of the producer or of the person who supplied him with the product."(14) This places the burden on the named defendant to prove that he is not the producer. Thus, the Directive places a higher burden on product liability defendants than they face under U.S. law, where the burden of proof for identifying the defendant rests with the plaintiff.(15) Further, under Article 4, the plaintiff need only prove the defect in the product, the damage suffered, and the causal link between the two.(16) Implicitly, the plaintiff is encouraged to assert that any supplier is the producer, thereby forcing the named supplier to try and avoid liability by naming another "producer," or by proving that "the defect which caused the damage [probably] did not exist . . . when put into circulation by" the supplier but "came into being afterwards."(17) A product is defective under the Directive according to a consumer expectations test. …


The purpose of this study is to present a case for the need for audit committee in Constituency Development Fund to promote corporate governance and accountability in constituency development fund management in Nairobi Province, Kenya. The study provides an analysis and critique of the extent of engagement research in the field of corporate governance and accountability in constituency Development Fund management and present case for further research that may be directed to outside Nairobi province. The study found that the extent of literature in the field of corporate governance and accountability and reporting in contrast to the field to management CDF in Nairobi had largely ignored the practice within CDF organizations. The study arguesthat CDF can benefit from the methodological and theoretical insights of audit committee and other disciplines. The study suggests where further contributions might be made by future research endeavors engaging with audit committees with organizations. Engaging audit committee in CDF governance and accountability has the potential to improve theorizing practice and the sustainability performance with organizations. Drawing on the methods and theories of other disciplines and the papers in the special issues (of audit committee) the study presents away forward for researchers engaging with audit committees in organizational practicing corporate governance and accountability.


Adsorption isotherms for water vapor on powdered cesium iodide are reported. Both macroscopic and microscopic (single-particle) samples of CsI powder from the same source were studied by two different techniques. The adsorption isotherms for the macroscopic samples were obtained using a Cahn 2000 Electrobalance, which leaves the sample uncharged during the measurement and utilizes a conventional microbalance to measure the relevant mass changes. The adsorption isotherms for the microscopic samples were obtained using a custom-made two-ring electrodynamic balance to measure the mass changes due to adsorption that occurred for single suspended charged particles of the CsI powder. Here, the relevant mass changes were determined from the changes observed in the required particle suspension voltages in the balance. The total charge on each particle studied was determined using the electron stepping technique. Based on the classification scheme of Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller, it is concluded that type III adsorption isotherms were observed for both the macroscopic and the single-particle CsI samples, which would indicate a multilayer adsorption process. The isotherms for the macroscopic and the single-particle CsI samples, while exhibiting the same basic shape, were found to vary greatly in magnitude. It is believed that this variation in magnitude is primarily due to the charge on the microscopic samples interacting attractively with the highly polarized water molecules and thus significantly increasing the multilayer adsorption of water. Some possible chemisorption was also indicated for both the charged and uncharged CsI, as evidenced by an inability to completely regenerate either the macroscopic or the microscopic samples.


Xenopuslaevis retinas, like retinas from all vertebrate classes, have endogenous circadian clocks that control many aspects of normal retinal physiology occurring in cells throughout all layers of the retina. The localization of the clock(s) that controls these various rhythms remains unclear. One of the best studied rhythmic events is the nocturnal release of melatonin. Photoreceptor layers can synthesize rhythmic melatonin when these cells are in isolation. However, within the intact retina, melatonin is controlled in a complex way, indicating that signals from many parts of the retina may contribute to the production of melatonin rhythmicity. To test this hypothesis, we generated transgenic tadpoles that express different levels of a dominant negative XenopusCLOCK specifically in the retinal photoreceptors. Eyes from these tadpoles continued to produce melatonin at normal levels, but with greatly disrupted rhythmicity, the severity of which correlated with the transgene expression level. These results demonstrate that although many things contribute to melatonin production in vivo, the circadian clock localized in the retinal photoreceptors is necessary for its rhythmicity. Furthermore, these data show that the control of the level of melatonin synthesis is separable from the control of its rhythmicity and may be controlled by different molecular machinery. This type of specific "molecular lesion" allows perturbation of the clock in intact tissues and is valuable for dissection of clock control of tissue-level processes in this and other complex systems.


In the linear seismic design of buildings, the (deterministic) substructure method is a customary and efficient approach. However, the existence of spatial variability in the parameters of the mechanical model of the soil, as well as parametric errors, calls for the use of probabilistic approaches in order to provide a reliable design of the structure. The construction of probabilistic models of the soil impedance matrix provides a natural path to such approaches within the context of the substructure method. Two main techniques are described in this paper: a parametric one, typically using the stochastic finite element method, and a nonparametric one, which was introduced more recently. The latter is explored more specifically, and the possibilities it offers in terms of seismic design are presented. In particular, it is shown that it allows for the estimation of quantiles of the quantities of interest, rather than confidence intervals, which lead to highly conservative design. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We present the results of the assessment of the intramolecular residue‐residue contact predictions from 26 prediction groups participating in the 10th round of the CASP experiment. The most recently developed direct coupling analysis methods did not take part in the experiment likely because they require a very deep sequence alignment not available for any of the 114 CASP10 targets. The performance of contact prediction methods was evaluated with the measures used in previous CASPs (i.e., prediction accuracy and the difference between the distribution of the predicted contacts and that of all pairs of residues in the target protein), as well as new measures, such as the Matthews correlation coefficient, the area under the precision‐recall curve and the ranks of the first correctly and incorrectly predicted contact. We also evaluated the ability to detect interdomain contacts and tested whether the difficulty of predicting contacts depends upon the protein length and the depth of the family sequence alignment. The analyses were carried out on the target domains for which structural homologs did not exist or were difficult to identify. The evaluation was performed for all types of contacts (short, medium, and long‐range), with emphasis placed on long‐range contacts, i.e. those involving residues separated by at least 24 residues along the sequence. The assessment suggests that the best CASP10 contact prediction methods perform at approximately the same level, and comparably to those participating in CASP9. Proteins 2014; 82(Suppl 2):138–153. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The secreted proteins of the Slit family have been characterized as chemorepellents that regulate axon guidance and neuronal migration. However, they also stimulate branching of dorsal root ganglion axons. Whitford et al. now show that Slit stimulates branching of cortical neuronal dendrites as well. Slit and its receptor Robo are expressed during the time when the migrating patterns of neurons and axons are elaborating the layers of the cerebral cortex. As expected, exogenously added and endogenously expressed Slit repelled axons of cultured cortical neurons. However, Slit stimulated the total number of neuronal dendrites and dendritic branch points, as well as dendritic length. Expression of a dominant negative Robo receptor inhibited the stimulatory effect of Slit on dendrites. Hence, branch formation may be a general property of Slit, making these secreted proteins bifunctional chemotropic cues that differentially regulate axonal and dendritic patterning in the developing mammalian brain. K. L. Whitford, V. Marillat, E. Stein, C. S. Goodman, M. Tessier-Lavigne, A. Chedotal, A. Ghosh, Regulation of cortical dendrite development by Slit-Robo interactions. Neuron 33, 47-61 (2001). [Online Journal]


Microribonucleic acids (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression posttranscriptionally and control many biological processes including tumourigenesis. Given that, miRNA levels are heavily dysregulated in tumour tissues, many of these RNAs have been identified as classifiers for particular cancer subtypes. In addition, miRNA gene signatures can provide prognostic value, are associated with tumourigenic processes such as metastasis and can identify certain tumour cell types including drug-resistant and cancer stem cell populations. To gain a better molecular understanding of therapeutic response and disease relapse, there has been an impetus to develop miRNA biomarker profiles through less invasive strategies (i.e. from serum and other sources) rather than from repeated biopsy near the original tumour site. Through these techniques, miRNAs have been found to exist in cell-free fractions, in exosomes and in circulating tumour cells. While it is still unclear about the mechanisms guiding the release of miRNAs into the serum and other sources, overall, miRNAs have the potential to be used in understanding the pathogenesis of disease prognosis and for diagnostic purposes and in the development of new therapeutic treatment regimens.

Key Concepts

MicroRNAs function as master regulators of gene expression at the posttranscriptional level.
MicroRNAs can function as oncogenes or tumour suppressors in a cell-context-dependent manner.
MicroRNAs are stable, found in serum and other biofluids and make good non-invasive biomarkers.
MicroRNA profiles are associated with therapeutic treatments and disease outcomes.
MicroRNAs can themselves be therapeutic agents or therapeutic targets.

Keywords:

microRNAs;
cancer;
biomarker;
exosomes;
stem cells;
oncogene;
tumour suppressor;
therapeutics;
serum;
HDL


The author explores the earliest historical and archaeological record of shears, and uses his findings to discuss how an examination of historical period and Iron Age material culture from wide parts of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe might help to answer questions about the origins of Finnish material culture and ethnicity. Key Words: European origin of Finnish material culture; European Iron Ages; History of agriculture; Agricultural tools; Sickles; Scissors; Scythes; Rakes; Flails; Harvest techniques; Homeric legend; Achilles Shield. The Origins of Grandmother's Shears Perhaps even the young generation knows what shears (Figure 1) are, whereas older people recall the shears in their context as a female instrument used especially in shearing sheep. Shears appear in Finland already among finds dated to the earlier Roman Iron Age provided with their characteristic elliptical handle.2 The basic structure in shears remained relatively unchanged through time,' although there are some time-bound features, such as the handle ending in a loop reminiscent of the Greek letter omega, a feature seemingly appearing in Finland during the Viking Period.4 Regarding the Viking Period finds, there is a prominent feature which differs from the recent practice: shears are found to a marked extent in male burials. It is supposed that small shears would have been used first of all as toilet implements and the greater ones for shearing and textile working.5 Also in Scandinavian countries, shears are found both in male and female burials, for example, in Denmark appearing in a warrior burial dated to the first century BC.B In this case we can surmise that the shears were used for haircutting, because there was also an object identified as a razor. It has been supposed that the beard arid moustache of a man recently discovered near Manchester had been cut by shears.7 In northern Germany the shears are documented to the late La Tene Period,8 but in the southern parts of the continent they can be traced into the earlier La Tene Period, again discovered to a marked extent in warrior burials, which seem to have belonged to a very high social class.9 Even here the earliest examples are provided with a simple elliptical handle, but already during the late La Tene Period the handle is enlarged to an omega-like loop.10 It has been suggested that all Celtic shears would have been used as toilet implements.11 Accordingly, in the light of the archeological evidence composed often of rich warrior burials - the Finnish shears are connected to a common European feature, which can be traced easily to the Celtic cultural area on the northern side of the Alps. The marked masculine and military connection of the shears can be recognized also in the tombs of local Celtic tribes in northern Italy.12 On the other hand, in the light of the information given by Marcus Terentius Varro,L! shears were introduced to the Romans by barbers (tonsores) corning from Sicily 453 years after the foundation of Rome, i.e. at about 300 BC. The author implies that before that time the wool was taken from sheep by plucking (vellere; > vellus, vellimnum meaning wool).14 Among our sources, it is only Calpurnius Siculus who explicitly mentions shears in working wool from sheep, warning about the danger of damaging the skin with sharp shears (ne sit acuta forpice laesa cutis). 5 Varro's information is matched by the written information regarding the Greek world. For example, the habit of shaving followed the model given by Alexander the Great,16 although among the Romans this came later, in the second century BC.17 On the other hand, we hear from Plutarch how in Syracuse early in the fourth century BC Dionysios the elder, famous for his cruelty and suspiciousness, did not allow his hair to be cut with shears but had it burnt off!18 In addition to shearing and caring for personal hygiene, shears were used in the Roman world in various textile tasks. …


Temperature dependent studies of a selection of materials including erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG), zinc nitride nanocrystals(NCs) and manganese-doped cadmium selenide (CdMnSe) NCS have been undertaken in order to determine their fundamental optical properties. The study is based upon the measurement of their photoluminescence (PL) and PL transient decay transient over the temperature range of 300K to 5K.

For the Er:YAG samples, two different sample types are studied as a function of erbium concentration that are a fast-cooled (mono-phase) and a slow-cooled (bi-phasic) polycrystalline material. Due to the presence of emission upconversion in these materials the emission dependence on excitation power is also studied. It is found that for high Er concentrations (40-50%) energy transfer upconversion (ETU) occurs that may be of use for assisting population inversion at the 4I11/2 level for the laser 3µm emission. Generally it is confirmed that the single phase and bi-phasic materials possess slightly different optical properties and that the material production must therefore be carefully controlled in order to realize optimized materials for optical applications.

Zinc nitride NC materials are studied for the first time with four samples representing a range of NC diameters characterized. These materials were highly susceptible to oxidation which presented a significant challenge in their handling and study. Strong emission was observed across the visible spectral region though the origin of this it was found probably included trap state emission and for the smallest NC samples organic ligand emission. The PL was found to shifting to higher energies as the size of the NC is decreased as expected due to increased quantum confinement and in line with the Brus equation. Two of the samples (8.9nm and 2.7nm diameter NCs) display a temperature dependence of the optical properties in line that seen in other semiconductor NCs such as PbS. The other samples displayed anomalous behavior that could be due to ligand emission (2.5nm NC sample) or higher energy trap states caused by localized oxidation (3.8nm NCs).

A study of temperature dependent optical properties of CdMnSe NCs was focused around the role of NC shape and type. Core only, core/shell and dot-in-rod samples were studied and all found to display a blue shift as temperature is reduced from 300K to ~5K of between ~24meV to 58meV. The core only NCs display a different luminescent behavior to that of the core-shell and dot-in-a-rod samples. The PL is related to the recombination of confined excitons within the NC, together with a contribution from what are most probably trap states located at the surface of the NC. In these samples no contribution from the Mn2+ ion is found suggesting that the dopant ions are not fully incorporated into the NC but may reside on the surface.