This study investigates temporal changes in regional pulmonary perfusion. Five dogs were studied with five or six different radiolabeled microspheres being injected via a central vein over 30 s every 20 min. The lungs of each animal were cubed into 1.9 cm3 pieces with spatial coordinates noted for each piece. Within individual pieces, the coefficient of variation of regional perfusion over time was 17.2 +/- 6.8% (SD) and across dogs accounted for 7.26 +/- 5.7% of total perfusion heterogeneity. Temporal variability or "twinkling" was not random. When lung pieces with similar temporal flow patterns were grouped together (regardless of spatial location), groups were more tightly clustered in space than expected by chance. Statistical clustering methods revealed regulation of blood flow on a large scale (lobar arteries), and fractal analyses suggested regulation existed on a smaller scale (arterioles). We conclude that regional pulmonary perfusion is heterogeneous over time in a nonrandom pattern and that pieces clustered by temporal patterns of perfusion are neighbors in the spatial domain.


This paper develops a classical-Marxian macroeconomic model to examine the growth and distributional consequences of education. First, the role of education in skill formation is considered and it is shown that an expansion in education will promote growth and have beneficial distributional effects within the working class, but it will redistribute income from workers to capitalists. Second, the model is extended analyze the broader political economic consequences of education on class relations and class conflict. The model suggests the importance of a progressive type of education rather than one which weakens the power workers, for it allows for equitable growth outcomes which improve the position of workers as a whole and reduces inequality within workers. Finally, the model shows that education leads to multiple equilibria and it stresses the importance of providing suitable incentives to workers for taking advantage of greater education access, without which the economy can be caught in a low-skill trap. JEL Categories: E2, E11, O41, J31.


BACKGROUND
Developmental study of dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems in child psychiatric disorders are rare. DBH activity is one of noradrenergic biochemical marker that is correlate in psychiatry to clinical and genetic data.

OBJECTIVES
The main aim of the present study was to measure DBH activity at the onset of acute schizophrenia and depressive disorder in children and adolescents without pharmacological treatment and to compare these values with DBH activity in healthy controls. The authors also investigated untreated ADHD children.

METHODS
We examined 42 control healthy children, 15 children non-treated with acute schizophrenia, 15 non-treated children with acute depressive disorders and 30 non-treated ADHD children, all in age 7-14. Plasma DBH level was provided by Nagatsu (1972; 1974). Depressed children were reexamined after clinical remission.

RESULTS
DBH activity is statistically significantly decreased in non-treated depressive disorder and ADHD in children and adolescents. DBH activity is normalised during antidepressant therapy in child depression. Child schizophrenia patients present with normal DBH activity.

CONCLUSION
These results are similar to the results that have been observed in adult patients with schizophrenia and depression and in previous studies of DBH activity in children with ADHD. These results also indicate hypoactivity of the noradrenergic system in children with ADHD and depression.


Analysis of DNA from members of a Melanesian family from Papua New Guinea with haemoglobin (Hb) H disease revealed that all four alpha globin genes are intact in affected subjects. Study of restriction enzyme site and length polymorphisms and the use of oligonucleotide probes indicated that the molecular basis of this Papuan form of non-deletion Hb H disease differs from the previously described Middle Eastern and Mediterranean types.


In recent years, global policy makers have declared that heads of state must be held accountable through criminal prosecution for internationally wrongful acts. Scholars too have insisted that the international system's embrace of accountability excludes or renders illegal the granting of amnesty. This Article argues that that position is too narrow and uses the ongoing conflict in Syria, as well as other contemporary examples, to examine some of consequences of the clamor for prosecution.
The Article rejects the binary juxtaposition of amnesty and accountability in current international legal scholarship, and instead seeks to broaden the terms of the conversation by considering amnesty from the perspective of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle.
The Article suggests that viewing amnesty as a conflict resolution mechanism that may discharge R2P highlights important values and tradeoffs that the debate over amnesty and its relation to accountability has heretofore neglected.


Abstract: Recent evidence confirms that trilobites were oviparous; however, their subsequent embryonic development has not been determined. A ∼ 6 cm2 claystone specimen from the upper Cambrian (Paibian) Conasauga Formation in western Georgia contains a cluster of >100 meraspid trilobites, many complete with librigenae. The juvenile trilobites, identified as Aphelaspis sp., are mostly 1.5 to 2.0 mm total length and co-occur in multiple axial orientations on a single bedding plane. This observation, together with the attached free cheeks, indicates that the association is not a result of current sorting. The majority of juveniles with determinable thoracic segment counts are of meraspid degree 5, suggesting that they hatched penecontemporaneously following a single egg deposition event. Additionally, they are tightly assembled, with a few strays, suggesting that the larvae either remained on the egg deposition site or selectively reassembled as affiliative, feeding, or protective behavior. Gregarious behavior by trilobites ("trilobite clusters") has been reported frequently, but previously encompassed only holaspid adults or mixed-age assemblages. This is the first report of juvenile trilobite clustering and one of the few reported clusters involving Cambrian trilobites. Numerous explanations for trilobite clustering behavior have been posited; here it is proposed that larval clustering follows egg deposition at a nest site, and that larval aggregation may be a homing response to their nest.


The mating behaviour of many mosquito species is mediated essentially by sound: males follow and mate with a female mid-flight by detecting and tracking the whine of her flight-tones. The stereotypical rapid frequency modulation (RFM) male behaviour, initiated in response to the detection of the female's flight-tones, has provided a means of investigating these auditory mechanisms while males are free-flying. Mosquitoes hear with their antennae, which vibrate to near-field acoustic excitation. The antennae generate nonlinear vibrations (distortion products, DPs) at frequencies that are equal to the difference between the two simultaneously presented tones, e.g. the male and female flight-tones, which are detected by mechanoreceptors in the auditory Johnston's organ (JO) at the base of the antenna. Recent studies indicated the male mosquito's JO is tuned not to the female flight-tone, but to the frequency difference between the male and female flight-tones. To test the hypothesis that mosquitoes detect this frequency difference, Culex quinquefasciatus males were presented simultaneously with a female flight-tone and a masking tone, which should suppress the male's RFM response to sound. The free-flight behavioural and in vivo electrophysiological experiments revealed that acoustic masking suppresses the RFM response to the female's flight-tones by attenuating the DPs generated in the nonlinear vibration of the antennae. These findings provide direct evidence in support of the hypothesis that male mosquitoes detect females when both are in flight through difference tones generated in the vibrations of their antennae owing to the interaction between their own flight-tones and those of a female.


This paper sets forth a demoeconomic approach to interregional development along non-neoclassical lines. This objective is carried out by elaborating on a recently published model of interregional growth rate differences (Dixon and Thirlwall, 1975).

First, a critical review of this model suggests the implausibility of its main result, i.e., the possibility of steady growth by a pair of regions over the long run. It is shown that (a) the omission of migration which would eventually dampen the implied income divergence; and (b) the linear structure of the model cause such a result.

Thus, an extension of this model is proposed which includes migration as well as other demographic aspects of development (labor force participation and unemployment), endogenously and simultaneously determined. Interestingly enough, the nature of these variables provides an impetus for reconsidering linearity| the proper modeling of demoeconomic effects necessarily introduces non- linearities.

Non-static long-term rates of change are shown to emerge from the simulation of this extended model| as a consequence of population shifts due to migration, there appear regional cycles accompanied by cycles of divergence and convergence of income.


A constrained multivariable control strategy along with its application in more efficient thermal power plant control is presented in this paper. A neural network model-based nonlinear long-range predictive control algorithm is derived, which provides offset-free closed-loop behavior with a proper and consistent treatment of modeling errors and other disturbances. A multivariable controller is designed and implemented using this algorithm. The system constraints are taken into account by including them in the control algorithm using real-time optimization. By running a simulation of a 200 MW oil-fired drum-boiler thermal power plant over a load-profile along with suitable PRBS signals superimposed on controls, the operating data is generated. Neural network (NN) modeling techniques have been used for identifying global dynamic models (NNARX models) of the plant variables off-line from the data. To demonstrate the superiority of the strategy in a MIMO case, the controller has been used in the simulation to control main steam pressure and temperature, and reheat steam temperature during load-cycling and other severe plant operating conditions.


Data Management in scientific and research processes needs to comply with rules defined in the Good Scientific Practice polices, e.g., issued by scientific institutes and research organizations. Typically these regulations include definitions to protect the data privacy and security throughout the entire lifecycle of the scientific data. Beginning from the generation of the data and ensuring its provenance up to the final archival and corresponding long-term data storage management. This paper introduces a simple way to manage the scientific data that ensures long-term protection and provability of the data quality. Furthermore an easy to use implementation which offers a possibility to structure the scientific data and to archive it according to Good Scientific Practice is presented. Keywords-ELN; scientific data; data formats; long-term preservation; evidence


The interannual and intraseasonal variability of the North American monsoon is of great interest because a large proportion of the annual precipitation for Arizona and New Mexico arrives during the summer monsoon. Forty-one years of daily monsoon season precipitation data for Arizona and New Mexico were studied using wavelet analysis. This time-localized spectral analysis method reveals that periodicities of less than 8 days are positively correlated with mean daily precipitation during the 1 July–15 September monsoon period. Roughly 17% of the years indicate no significant periodicity during the monsoon period for either region and are associated with low monsoon precipitation. High- and low-frequency modes explain an equivalent percentage of the variance in monsoon precipitation in both Arizona and New Mexico, and in many years concurrent multiple periodicities occur. Wavelet analysis was effective in identifying the contribution of high-frequency modes that had not been discerned in previous studies. These results suggest that precipitation processes during the monsoon season are modulated by phenomena operating at synoptic (2–8 days) and longer (8 days) time scales and point to the need for further studies to better understand the associated atmospheric processes.


Abstract. A new species of Cremosperma Benth. is described from Panama, bringing the total for the country to three. One species, C. maculatum L. E. Skog, occurs in the province of Chiriquí and also in Colombia and Costa Rica; the second, C. veraguanum Wiehler, occurs in the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Coclé, and Veraguas; and the new species, C. colonense L. E. Skog, Barrie & McPherson, has only been found in the province of Colón and is distinguished from the others by having larger leaves and corollas white with yellow in the throat. The new species is distinguished from C. ecuadoranum L. P. Kvist & L. E. Skog of eastern Ecuador by its branched habit, sericeous peduncles, the corolla white with yellow in the throat and a longer tube, and the usually longer calyx with wider lobes. Based on IUCN criteria, C. colonense is provisionally assessed as Endangered. A key is provided to the Mesoamerican species.


Summary This article1 is a defence of the humanities that emphasises the nature and value of humanistic knowledge. I firstly outline the present negative perceptions of the humanities and the factors that constrain their development in South Africa. Chief among them is the privileging of technical rational knowledge above Bildung and self-development. Against the background of views on social dedifferentiation and the end of the book I emphasise the career value of the humanities. I try to reverse the opposition between technical rationalist knowledge and Bildung by analysing Maslow's hierarchy of needs and confronting his theory with a number of findings of our recent research into identity and literary space. Two keywords that feature strongly are centrality and narrativity. The implications of this view are explored in a brief analysis of Eben Venter's novel Foxtrot van die vleiseters (1993) [Foxtrot of the Meat-eaters]. 1The article was developed as a thought paper in the NRF's project Shifting Boundaries of Knowledge – The Role of Social Sciences, Law and Humanities. A first version was presented at a regional workshop of the project at Tshwane University of Technology on 28 May 2004.


The historic Iraqi elections of January 30, 2005 restored real democracy to that long-oppressed nation for the first time in half a century, providing compelling vindication to supporters of Condoleezza Rice's confirmation as Secretary of State. Likewise, the growing consensus behind the President's decision that al Qaeda terrorists are morally entitled to humane treatment but not legally entitled to the additional special privileges afforded to prisoners of war under the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 provides compelling vindication to supporters of Judge Alberto R. Gonzales's nomination to be our nation's 80th Attorney General. Securing a proper resolution to this debate is critical to the ongoing success of our global war against terrorism. I. The nomination of Judge Alberto Gonzales to serve as our nation's 80th Attorney General and our first of Hispanic descent is the American dream come true. He is a talented lawyer, a dutiful public servant, and a good man. He is a great Texan and an inspiring American success story. I am honored to call him my friend. Yet his nomination faces noisy, if ultimately futile and unjustified, opposition. I have known the Judge for many years, and I can tell you that the media is absolutely right to refer to him as the "Man from Humble."1 That refers not just to Humble, Texas, where he grew up, but also to the fact he is a modest, self-effacing man. The son of migrant workers, his childhood home where his mother still lives today was built by his father and uncle. As a child, he sold soft drinks at Rice University football games where he dreamed of one day going to school. Mr. Gonzales is the first person in his family to go to college. After graduating from Rice University and Harvard Law School, he joined a prestigious international law firm headquartered in Texas and became one of its first minority partners. He eventually caught the eye of a Texas governor who saw a uniquely talented yet modest man and appointed him general counsel, Secretary of State, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and eventually, counsel to the president. Thus, Judge Gonzales combines stellar legal credentials with an inspiring American success story. Despite this, some liberal legal elites and special interest groups in Washington have sharply attacked his nomination, citing his legal work in support of the war against terrorism. Gonzales unequivocally opposes torture. He also opposes extending international legal privileges to those not legally entitled to them. And he's right: al Qaeda fighters should not be immune from questioning techniques used every day in police stations across America, or equipped with tools that could be used against our own troops. They shouldn't get combat immunity for striking the Pentagon, nor be treated better than an American citizen accused of a crime. II. In the opening months of 2002, the Bush administration announced plans to transfer a number of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured and detained by U.S. armed forces to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for further detention and questioning. The administration also announced that, although these detainees would be treated humanely, as a legal matter they were not entitled to the numerous additional privileges afforded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.2 The administration's interpretation of the Geneva Convention was not only legally correct, but also essential to national security. After all, the ability to question al Qaeda fighters is essential to preventing future acts of terrorism.3 As Judge Gonzales rightly noted during his confirmation hearing, the war on terrorism is essentially a war of information.4 The United States simply must use all available legal means to obtain the information and intelligence necessary to protect the American people from further terrorist attack-a position shared even by the witnesses at the hearing who were hostile to Judge Gonzales. …


Social media has become one of the main channels for people to access and consume news, due to the rapidness and low cost of news dissemination on it. However, such properties of social media also make it a hotbed of fake news dissemination, bringing negative impacts on both individuals and society. Therefore, detecting fake news has become a crucial problem attracting tremendous research effort. Most existing methods of fake news detection are supervised, which require an extensive amount of time and labor to build a reliably annotated dataset. In search of an alternative, in this paper, we investigate if we could detect fake news in an unsupervised manner. We treat truths of news and users' credibility as latent random variables, and exploit users' engagements on social media to identify their opinions towards the authenticity of news. We leverage a Bayesian network model to capture the conditional dependencies among the truths of news, the users' opinions, and the users' credibility. To solve the inference problem, we propose an efficient collapsed Gibbs sampling approach to infer the truths of news and the users' credibility without any labelled data. Experiment results on two datasets show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the compared unsupervised methods.


The introduction of the principles of sustainable development is carried out in the banking sector's of economy in Ukraine. The basic forms and approaches to realization of corporate social responsibility in foreign financial business are also considered. The modern state of realization of bank corporate social and ecological responsibility in Ukrainian is investigated.


In this book, Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores, and broadens our understanding of historical transformations in African American class and labor formation. Built on the goals, organization, and momentum of earlier struggles for justice, the department store movement channeled the power of store workers and consumers to promote black freedom in the mid-twentieth century. Sponsoring lunch counter sit-ins and protests in the 1950s and 1960s, and challenging discrimination in the courts in the 1970s, this movement ended in the early 1980s with the conclusion of the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. affirmative action cases and the transformation and consolidation of American department stores. In documenting the experiences of African American workers and consumers during this era, Parker highlights the department store as a key site for the inception of a modern black middle class, and demonstrates the ways that both work and consumption were battlegrounds for civil rights.


The U.S. banking system, its regulation and deregulation, and especially its deposit guarantees, continue to pose complex problems. The Crisis in American Banking offers six original perspectives on this continuing crisis, drawing from modern Austrian economics and from public choice theories that have seldom been applied to contemporary banking troubles. The contributors suggest that political regulation has seriously impaired the health of the banking industry. The authors consider long-term prospects for reform in the banking industry in light of the regulatory environment Much in the news lately, the U.S. banking system, its regulation and deregulation, and its troubles, pose a persistent and complex problem for Americans. This timely volume offers six original perspectives keyed to the continuing crisis in the U.S. banking industry. Several authors draw from modern Austrian economics or from public choice theory ideas that have seldom been applied to explaining contemporary banking problems. A pervasive theme of the ideas presented is that the U.S. banking crisis is fundamentally linked to the political regulation of banking. Taken as a whole, the book suggests that government regulatory, macroeconomic, and fiscal policies have seriously impaired the health of the banking industry. The Crisis in American Banking compellingly explains how rent-seeking, ideology, and the historical accretion of regulations have given banking policy its current unfortunate form. Also considered are the long term prospects for reform of banking regulation, and for the banking industry itself in light of the current and foreseeable regulatory environment. At present, the state of the U.S. commercial banking industry and the FDIC suggests disturbing parallels to the state of the savings and loan industry and the FSLIC a decade earlier. The policy regime that allowed their problems to develop does not seem to be on the verge of any dramatic change. The reluctance of Congress to enact real reforms means that the critical analyses and reform proposals in this volume will remain relevant for some time to come.Contributing to the volume are: Gerald P. Driscoll, Jr. (Vice President and Economic Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), Roger W. Garrison (Auburn University), Thomas Havrilesky (Duke University), George G. Kaufman (Loyola University of Chicago), Richard M. Salsman (Vice President, Financial Institutions Group of Citibank), and Walker Todd (Gulliver Foundation, San Francisco).


We suggest and analyze a model of global technological growth under a prescribed constraint on the annual emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). The model assumes that industrial GHG emission is positively related to the world's production output driven by the development of the "production"technology stock. "Cleaning" technology is developed in parallel to keep the annual GHG emission within a "safety" zone. The ratio between annual investment in "cleaning" technology and annual investment in "production" technology acts as a time-variable control parameter in the model. Under a set of natural assumptions we find an optimal control which maximizes an integral utility characterizing the rate of economic growth over a given time period. In substantial terms, the optimal control strategy suggests that "production" technology is developed at a maximum rate until a critical point is reached at which the annual emission hits the prescribed upper bound. In the subsequent period investment in "production" and "cleaning" technology is planned so that the annual emission "tracks" the prescribed upper bound. One should note that the proposed control strategy optimal with respect to the chosen utility, is the most risky one since it assumes a minimum distance to the boundary of the "safety" zone.


The problem of timely detecting the engine faults that make engine operating parameters exceed their control limits has been well-solved. However, in practice, a fault of a diesel engine can be present with weak signatures, with the parameters fluctuating within their control limits when the fault occurs. The weak signatures of engine faults bring considerable difficulties to the effective condition monitoring of diesel engines. In this paper, a multivariate statistics-based fault detection approach is proposed to monitor engine faults with weak signatures by taking the correlation of various parameters into consideration. This approach firstly uses principal component analysis (PCA) to project the engine observations into a principal component subspace (PCS) and a residual subspace (RS). Two statistics, i.e., Hotelling's T 2 and Q statistics, are then introduced to detect deviations in the PCS and the RS, respectively. The Hotelling's T 2 and Q statistics are constructed by taking the correlation of various parameters into consideration, so that faults with weak signatures can be effectively detected via these two statistics. In order to reasonably determine the control limits of the statistics, adaptive kernel density estimation (KDE) is utilized to estimate the probability density functions (PDFs) of Hotelling's T 2 and Q statistics. The control limits are accordingly derived from the PDFs by giving a desired confidence level. The proposed approach is demonstrated by using a marine diesel engine. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can effectively detect engine faults with weak signatures.


Background and aims: The aim was to correlate retinal sensitivity as determined by scanning laser ophthalmoscope microperimetry (SLO-MP) in glaucomatous eyes with paracentral visual field (VF) defects detected by standard automated perimetry (SAP). Methods: Twenty eyes with glaucomatous optic neuropathy and an SAP VF defect involving the central 16 test points (at least one point with p<1% in the 24–2 VF) were enrolled. Eyes with diseases other than glaucoma were excluded. All patients underwent SLO-MP and SAP of the central 10°. Results from each eye were divided into four quadrants for analysis. Normal and abnormal quadrants by SAP were compared with the corresponding normal and abnormal quadrants by SLO-MP. Regression analysis was used to correlate the mean threshold values (dB) of SLO-MP and SAP in each quadrant. Macular optical coherence tomography (OCT) was performed when there was a disagreement between functional tests. Results: The mean age and VF mean deviation were 60.8 (13.4) years and −7.3 (6.1) dB, respectively. There was a significant correlation between SLO-MP and SAP results in all quadrants (r2⩾0.68, p<0.001). All abnormal SAP quadrants had a corresponding abnormal SLO-MP quadrant. However, 21% of the normal SAP quadrants had an abnormal corresponding microperimetry result; a corresponding significant reduction in total macular thickness measured by OCT was present in 75% of these quadrants. Conclusions: Macular sensitivity evaluated by SLO-MP correlates significantly with SAP paracentral VF defects. SLO-MP detected retinal sensitivity reduction in areas of OCT structural damage with normal SAP and suggests that subtle paracentral functional deficits may be present in many more eyes with established glaucoma than generally assumed.


The paper delves to estimate microfinance demand, supply and its mismatch in India in general and Assam in particular. Since exact estimation is a bulky task, it adopts an approximation model based on poverty database, mixmarket database and some complementary reports on microfinance. The study shows that microfinance demand has shown a trend of increasing growth for India as well as Assam and stands its candidature as a potential matured market in future. The supply of microfinance for India as a whole is at low level, which shares only 0.70 per cent of gross domestic product of India. From the regional perspective, southern region dominates the supply of microfinance and Assam shares the least. The study indicates a huge mismatch between demand for and supply of microfinance and considering mixmarket average loan size all the regions of India are deficient in terms microfinance supply. The study further indicates some of the possible reasons for the mismatch.   Int. J. Soc. Sci. Manage. Vol-2, issue-4: 308-314


One contributor to the twentieth century rise in married women's labor force participation was declining responsiveness to husbands' wages and other family income. Now that the rapid rise in married women's participation has slowed and even begun to reverse, this paper asks whether married women's cross-wage elasticities have continued to fall. Using the outgoing rotation group of the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) and estimating coefficients separately for each year from 1994 through 2006, we find that the decline in responsiveness to husbands' wages has come to an end—at least for the time being—and even find evidence of rising responsiveness to husbands' wages. This increase in the cross-wage elasticity of participation occurs largely between 1997 and 2002 and is concentrated among younger women and women with children. ; We also explore a number of possible explanations for this development. We conclude that declining divorce rates, rising child care costs, and the increasing prevalence of high work hours for high pay—all of which were more pronounced at the high end of the income distribution—along with rising income inequality may have played a role. Also possible is that some of the decline is an artifact of changes in the tax system and the way income is measured. In addition, we observe some backsliding in attitudes supportive of gender equality in the market and at home, and perhaps a change in lifecycle timing among Generation X women.


In this paper a suite of complementary methodologies are utilised to enable a comprehensive sustainability assessment of 2050 scenarios for 10 European cities. The aim is to compare a 2050 business as usual scenario (based on recent trends) with a 2050 post carbon (PC2050) scenario developed with city stakeholders. A key strength is that it applies both a production based approach and consumption (footprint) based accounting methodology to assess the impacts. A semi-quantitative/qualitative indicator approach shows that nearly all cities will improve under Business As Usual (BAU) for most indicators but the performance is significantly improved under PC2050.


Background NKX2-1 encodes a transcription factor with large impact on the development of brain, lung and thyroid. Germline mutations of NKX2-1 can lead to dysfunction and malformations of these organs. Starting from the largest coherent collection of patients with a suspected phenotype to date, we systematically evaluated frequency, quality and spectrum of phenotypic consequences of NKX2-1 mutations. Methods After identifying mutations by Sanger sequencing and array CGH, we comprehensively reanalysed the phenotype of affected patients and their relatives. We employed electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) to detect alterations of NKX2-1 DNA binding. Gene expression was monitored by means of in situ hybridisation and compared with the expression level of MBIP, a candidate gene presumably involved in the disorders and closely located in close genomic proximity to NKX2-1. Results Within 101 index patients, we detected 17 point mutations and 10 deletions. Neurological symptoms were the most consistent finding (100%), followed by lung affection (78%) and thyroidal dysfunction (75%). Novel symptoms associated with NKX2-1 mutations comprise abnormal height, bouts of fever and cardiac septum defects. In contrast to previous reports, our data suggest that missense mutations in the homeodomain of NKX2-1 not necessarily modify its DNA binding capacity and that this specific type of mutations may be associated with mild pulmonary phenotypes such as asthma. Two deletions did not include NKX2-1, but MBIP, whose expression spatially and temporarily coincides with NKX2-1 in early murine development. Conclusions The high incidence of NKX2-1 mutations strongly recommends the routine screen for mutations in patients with corresponding symptoms. However, this analysis should not be confined to the exonic sequence alone, but should take advantage of affordable NGS technology to expand the target to adjacent regulatory sequences and the NKX2-1 interactome in order to maximise the yield of this diagnostic effort.


A unique lens for studying event project management in the era of sustainability, digital transformation, smart cities and rapid development in technology. It discusses and explains how to manage events utilising the sustainable project management model adapted to the specific context of event management.


The last decade of the 20th Century saw unprecedented changes in the global telecommunications industry. Numerous state-owned telecommunications operators were privatised and a wave o9f pro-competative and deregulatory telecommunications policies swept the world. new market-based approaches to the supply of telecommunications services were introduced in scores of countries.

The liberalisation of telecommunications markets was motivated by various factors including:

- Increasing evidence that more liberalsied telecommunications markets were growing and innovating faster and serving customers better

- The need to attract private sector capitalo to expand and upgrade telecommunications networks and to introduce new services

- Growth of the internet which caused data traffic to overtake voice traffic in many countries and led to the introduction of many new service providers

- Growth of mobile and other wireless services which provided alternatives to fixed networks and introduced new service providers to telecommunications markets

- Development of international trade in telecommunications services which are increasingly provided by trans-national and global service providers.

As market-based approaches were adopted during the 1990s, the number of national telecommunications regulatory authorities increased from 12 to over 90 around the world. To some this appears ironic. Shouldn't the market-based supply of telecommunications be accompanied by less regulatory intervention, rather than more?

The consensus answer around the world is "yes in the long run, but no in the short run". The successful transformation of monpolistic telecommunications markets into competative ones requires regulatory intervention. Without it, viable competition is not likely to emerge. In fact, the times when privatisation and the introduction of significant competition occur can be the busiest in the lifecycle of a regulatory organisation.

Regulatory intervention is required for a variety of reasons. Typically regulators must authorise or licence new operators. They must often remove barriers to market entry by new operators. they must oversee interconnection of new entrants with incumbent operators. Regulatory intervention may also be required to ensure competative markets do not fail to serve high cost areas or low income subscribers.

the objectives of telecommunications regulation vary from country to country. Governemtns in most countires continue to see telecommunications as an essential public service. even after telecommunications networks are no longer run by them, governments normally retain a regulatory role to ensure that telecommunications servidces are supplied in a manner consistent with national perceptions of the public interest.

With the widespread adoption of market-based approaches to the supply of telecommunications services, there is a growing consensus that regulators should not be involved in detailed "management" of the sector. Instead the regulators' role is seen to involve maintenance of a regulatory environment conducive to the efficient supply of telecommunications services to the public. The service suppliers will generally be private sector operators.

The trend today is toward deregulation. Some traditional forms of telecommunications regulation are now viewed as having been more damaging than beneficial to the development of national telecommunications infrastructure and services. Today when regulatory measures are proposed or reviewed, governments and regulators must generally ensure that there is a demonstrated need to regulate and the most efficient measure is selected to meet the specific regulatory objective.


Violence between Hindus and Muslims is a structural given of Indian society. One finds its traces very early in the country's history, a fact that can drive the analyst to explain the phenomenon by referring to the incompatibility of Hindu and Muslim cultures. However, those historians interested in the phenomenon have always emphasized the economic dimension of the rivalry between Hindus and Muslims, which springs from territorial conflicts or commercial competition. Among sociologists and political scientists, this approach has found favour with many authors more or less inclined to Marxist categories. The interpretation of violence between Hindus and Muslims that I have suggested during the last wave of riots between 1989 and 1992 is very different. This interpretation values the role of politics in two complementary aspects, the ethno-religious ideology and the exploitation of communal issues by political parties. Indeed, research on communal riots in India after 1947 suggests that these riots largely originate from a distorted idea – ideology – of the Other; the Hindu though representing an overwhelming majority, often perceive of the Muslims as a 'fifth column' threatening them from within Indian society. And the Hindu nationalist parties, which have codified this ideological pattern, employ it for electoral means in the course of campaigns laying the ground for the outbreak of violence. These parties have, in fact, learned to mobilise Hindus against Muslims on the basis of real or presumed 'sacred' issues since the emergence of electoral politics in colonial times. Their goal is to provoke such kinds of riots in order to polarise the electorate along the religious cleavage more effectively. This explanatory model of Hindu-Muslim riots has to be verified again in the light of the Gujarat riots of 2002. Moreover, these riots also commit us to reconfirm the role of the Hindu nationalist party. The latter has to be weighted even more heavily due to the events in Gujarat, for the party held political power in that State. This state of things explains the rather exceptional intensity of the Gujarat riots. Because, this time, communal violence was not so much a reflection of the common logic of communal riots in India, but rather the result of an organised pogrom with the approval of the State acting not only with the electoral agenda in mind, but also in view of a veritable ethnic cleansing. Beyond that, the intensity of the riots has also demonstrated that this kind of violence has triggered a feedback in society even among groups so far less inclined to ethnic nationalism like, for example, the tribals. But there is an effect of yet another political strategy at work, which reminds us of the ideological core of our explanatory model: the more and more thorough diffusion of Hindutva in reaction to a fear of Jihad.


Co-infection with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is a common occurrence in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive patients and an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality. Little is known however of the burden or the natural history of these infections or their interactions in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where both viruses are endemic. In this study a total of 1500 people aged 11 months to 76 years referred to the serology unit of Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital between the months of July to December 2003 were evaluated for anti-HIV, anti-HCV and CD4+ T-cell count and compared with the subjects' socio-demographic and risk factors. HIV and HIV/ HCV seropositive persons who consented to a follow-up study were age and sex matched with HIV and HCV seronegative control subjects and followed for 18 months with biannual monitoring of trends in CD4 count against a possible HIV or HCV seroconversion of the seronegative control subjects. The overall prevalence of antibodies to HIV and HCV was 6.7% (101/1500) (CI, 5.6-8.2) and 2.1% (31/1500) (95 % CI, 1.4-2.9) respectively. HIV rates in asymptomatic adults were 3.6 %( 43/1189) (OR: 0.16; CI: 0.13-0.28) and 1.0 %( 12/1189 (OR: 0.16; Cl: 0.08-0.34) for HCV. HIV/HCV co-infections rate was 0.6% among all the subjects sampled and 8.6% in HIV positive persons.

The HIV rate in this study is twice the UNAIDS/WHO estimate for the country and twice the numbers of women than men were infected with HIV at a comparatively younger age, while males 55 years and over had higher HIV rates than those below 35. HCV and HIV/HCV co¬infection was more commonly associated with males than females. This study showed that Hepatitis C serotype 2 is the most prevalent type in the country and was predominantly associated with HIV-1, and suggests that HCV serotype 2 spread earlier than serotypes 1 and 3. The mean CD4 count of apparently healthy males and females was 489/[mu]l and 496/[mu]l respectively, while the mean CD4 count at diagnosis (CD4dx) of HIV, and HIV/HCV persons was 310 cells/[mu]l and 306 cells [mu]l; respectively.

Only about half of the apparently healthy population had CD4 counts of 500 cells and over (51%), while 1.1% (15/1377) had counts below 200 cells per microlitre for no explained reasons. HIV/HCV co-infected person recorded a lower CD4 count at diagnosis than HN alone infected persons and also a more significant decline in CD4+ than HIV infected alone persons. The study shows that high HIV rates were independent of the educational status of the individual, while history of sexually transmitted diseases, high income earning and involvements in polygamous marriages were all significant risk factors for HIV, HCV and HN/HCV co-infection. Female circumcision, knowledge and use of condoms, blood oath, histories of blood transfusion and wife inheritance were not associated with HIV or HCV transmission. The study found an HIV incidence rate of 1.4% (4/288) during the 18 months follow-up period and identified Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) as the associated risk factor. There is need for a new CD4+ staging in the country based on the population within the country and the initiation of a large scale longitudinal study to elucidate the risk factors associated with HCV in the country. The study has provided baseline data on CD4 and its trends in co-infected persons and also a baseline on the distribution and epidemiological pattern and associated risk factors of co-infection between HIV and HCV in the country. It has also determined the incidence of HIV and its associated risk factors in the country. The study has therefore contributed to our understanding of the natural history of these infections and provided an important frame work for possible intervention.


In the wake of the global financial crisis that began in 2007, faith in the rationality of markets has lost ground to a new faith in their irrationality. The problem, Roman Frydman and Michael Goldberg argue, is that both the rational and behavioral theories of the market rest on the same fatal assumption - that markets act mechanically and economic change is fully predictable. In "Beyond Mechanical Markets", Frydman and Goldberg show how the failure to abandon this assumption hinders our understanding of how markets work, why price swings help allocate capital to worthy companies, and what role government can and can't play. The financial crisis, Frydman and Goldberg argue, was made more likely, if not inevitable, by contemporary economic theory, yet its core tenets remain unchanged today. In response, the authors show how imperfect knowledge economics, an approach they pioneered, provides a better understanding of markets and the financial crisis. Frydman and Goldberg deliver a withering critique of the widely accepted view that the boom in equity prices that ended in 2007 was a bubble fueled by herd psychology. They argue, instead, that price swings are driven by individuals' ever-imperfect interpretations of the significance of economic fundamentals for future prices and risk. Because swings are at the heart of a dynamic economy, reforms should aim only to curb their excesses. Showing why we are being dangerously led astray by thinking of markets as predictably rational or irrational, Beyond Mechanical Markets presents a powerful challenge to conventional economic wisdom that we can't afford to ignore.


A Reference Grammar of French is a lively, wide-ranging and original handbook on the structure of the French language. It includes new information on register, pronunciation, gender, number, foreign words (Latin, Arabic, English, Spanish, Italian), adjectives and past participles used as nouns, texting, word order, frequency of occurrence of words, and usage with all geographical names. Examples come not only from France, but also from Quebec, Belgium and Switzerland. Readers will appreciate the initial passages illustrating the grammatical features of a given chapter. Also included is a user-friendly introduction to the French language, from its Latin origins to modern times. A full glossary explains any terms that might confuse the less experienced reader, and the index leads the student through the detailed labyrinth of grammatical features. This handbook will be an invaluable resource for students and teachers who want to perfect their knowledge of all aspects of French grammar.


In Tourists of History , the cultural critic Marita Sturken argues that over the past two decades, Americans have responded to national trauma through consumerism, kitsch sentiment, and tourist practices in ways that reveal a tenacious investment in the idea of America's innocence. Sturken investigates the consumerism that followed from the September 11th attacks; the contentious, ongoing debates about memorials and celebrity-architect designed buildings at Ground Zero; and two outcomes of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City: the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the execution of Timothy McVeigh.

Sturken contends that a consumer culture of comfort objects such as World Trade Center snow globes, FDNY teddy bears, and Oklahoma City Memorial t-shirts and branded water, as well as reenactments of traumatic events in memorial and architectural designs, enables a national tendency to see U.S. culture as distant from both history and world politics. A kitsch comfort culture contributes to a "tourist" relationship to history: Americans can feel good about visiting and buying souvenirs at sites of national mourning without having to engage with the economic, social, and political causes of the violent events. While arguing for the importance of remembering tragic losses of life, Sturken is urging attention to a dangerous confluence—of memory, tourism, consumerism, paranoia, security, and kitsch—that promulgates fear to sell safety, offers prepackaged emotion at the expense of critical thought, contains alternative politics, and facilitates public acquiescence in the federal government's repressive measures at home and its aggressive political and military policies abroad.


To understand the performance of networked computer systems it is necessary to consider client, server and network components. Virtual Worlds are resource intensive interactive systems. As such they are liable to degradations in system performance which have a negative impact upon users' Quality of Experience (QoE). To efficiently use system resources it is necessary to understand when and how changes in Quality of Service (QoS) impact upon the QoE. This study investigates the factors that affect the performance of Open Virtual World Servers and how these impact upon users. It presents quantitative experimental results that establish factors which affect QoS performance and qualitative results of user QoE. The central research question asks 'to what extent can we identify easily measurable system properties that will enable us to make efficient use of server resources whilst preserving QoE? This paper identifies the Server Frame Time (SFT), the time taken by the server to create a frame, and Server Frames per Second (SFPS), the number of frames created by a server in a second, as key metrics which are easy to measure and relate directly to QoE. Most virtual world servers are allocated resources manually and this allocation is independent of the actual work load. As a result, server resources are under utilised due to variations in load. This approach causes a higher provisioning cost than is necessary. The study in this project establishes a way to determine the usability threshold. Based on this server resources can be tuned to provide appropriate QoE for users while making sure that they are utilised to their full potential.


In this paper, we present two new results of layered permutation densities. The first one generalizes theorems from H\"{a}st\"{o} (2003) and Warren (2004) to compute the permutation packing of permutations whose layer sequence is~$(1^a,\ell_1,\ell_2,\ldots,\ell_k)$ with~$2^a-a-1\geq k$ (and similar permutations). As a second result, we prove that the minimum density of monotone sequences of length~$k+1$ in an arbitrarily large layered permutation is asymptotically~$1/k^k$. This value is compatible with a conjecture from Myers (2003) for the problem without the layered restriction (the same problem where the monotone sequences have different lengths is also studied).


We investigate the spatial determinants of industrial location and productivity variation within the Auckland Urban Area. For over 300 local areas, we consider the influence on location choice and productivity of proximity to selected infrastructure, local services, and consumption amenities, and of the density and industry composition of local employment. Using data from a microdata panel of firms, we use count data methods to model the location choices of new firms, and production function estimation for productivity estimation. We identify distinct location patterns across industries but, overall, the accessibility and employment composition measures that we examine do not account for industrial location and productivity patterns within Auckland. This increases the challenges of anticipating and planning for future business location patterns.


Pseudorasbora parva (Temminck and Schlegel, 1846) is widely distributed in rivers and lakes of Turkey owing to accidental introductions. Turkey is rich in biodiversity of freshwater fish and has a high level of endemicity of native ichthyofauna, which is vulnerable to such introductions. The Gelingullu Reservoir located on the Kizilirmak drainage in Central Anatolia has rich ichthyofauna with native and introduced fish species, including endemic species. The contents of the foregut of P. parva samples collected between Summer 2003 and Summer 2005 were examined. Seasonal and ontogenetic changes in feeding intensity were determined. P. parva mainly feeds on zooplankton such as Cladocera, Copepoda, and Rotifera. Members of the Bacillariophyta and Cyanobacteria were identified in high proportions in the foregut contents of P. parva particularly during summer. The feeding traits of this invasive fish may have an influence on the establishment of a successful population in Gelingullu reservoir.


UNESCO's recent Conventions (2003 and 2005) take intangible heritage's potential into account through integrating cultural expressions, practices and traditions into development frameworks. However, how this integration should happen in the realm of the practice and what impacts would result from it is crucial in defining also the safeguarding of intangible heritage. This article will investigate how the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of Chhau dance of Purulia India, was accommodated in a development project. A critical examination of actors involved and actions of the project, through an actor-network perspective, will discuss what this meant in relation to the heritage. The article highlights that the actions of integrating intangible heritage into a development project framework translated into the revitalisation of the cultural element, considered an outdated cultural product in need of modernisation. To what extent has the traditional form of art changed in line with project and development expectations?


Localizing objects in 3D scenes based on natural language requires understanding and reasoning about spatial relations. In particular, it is often crucial to distinguish similar objects referred by the text, such as"the left most chair"and"a chair next to the window". In this work we propose a language-conditioned transformer model for grounding 3D objects and their spatial relations. To this end, we design a spatial self-attention layer that accounts for relative distances and orientations between objects in input 3D point clouds. Training such a layer with visual and language inputs enables to disambiguate spatial relations and to localize objects referred by the text. To facilitate the cross-modal learning of relations, we further propose a teacher-student approach where the teacher model is first trained using ground-truth object labels, and then helps to train a student model using point cloud inputs. We perform ablation studies showing advantages of our approach. We also demonstrate our model to significantly outperform the state of the art on the challenging Nr3D, Sr3D and ScanRefer 3D object grounding datasets.


Cell phones and the Internet have been the recipients of in-depth research on their increased and rapid integration into everyday life and the innovative appropriations associated with them in many societies. The cell phone has attracted particular attention in its perceived abilities to both enhance and destruct social relationships. Our increased access to social media and to the cell phone has taken social networking to an unprecedented level. These communication technologies are revered by many as great, all-purpose, all-positive communication devices in spite of their flaws. They are overwhelmingly bestowed with agency and superiority. Too often, they are idolized with little regard to how they affect and are affected by their users on a personal level. The mutual shaping between technology and society is not adequately acknowledged. Technologies, in spite of the seemingly endless possibilities offered by their many functions, can quite literally be sterile and useless objects outside of conscious and tangible human effort. Cell phones and the Internet, though undoubtedly capable of providing myriad beneficial opportunities for their users, need at long last to be put in their place. This book is a contribution in that regard. Kindled by her own intimate history with her cell phone and a growing curiosity about ICTs in general, this book is a culmination of Crystal Powell's thoughts, reactions to and interpretations of some of the literature on these technologies. The book draws on and critically reviews contributions by some leading authors on the social shaping of ICTs and social media to offer a more nuanced and complex understanding of technology in relation to those who use and are used by it.


2 ABSTRACT: Wireless communication has become one of the fastest growing fields in today's technological world. Growth in technology has led to unprecedented demand for high speed architectures for complex signal processing applications. In digital wireless communication system the reliability of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is limited because of the time-varying nature of the channel. To avoid the effect of ICI(Inter Carrier Interference) cyclic prefix guard intervals were introduced before each block of parallel data symbols, but these guard intervals decreases the spectral efficiency of the OFDM system. To avoid the insertion of guard intervals wavelet based OFDM (OWDM) are used which gives a fine spectral containment of the signal over a wide range of the Bandwidth.


We analyze wage developments in the East German transition process both at the macro and at the microeconomic level. At the macroeconomic level, we draw special attention to the important distinction between product and consumption wages, describe the development of various wage measures, labor productivity and unit labor costs in East Germany in relation to West Germany, and relate these developments to the system of collective wage bargaining. At the microeconomic level, we describe changes in the distribution of hourly wages between 1990 and 1997 and analyze the economic factors determining these changes by way of empirical wage functions estimated on the basis of the Socio? Economic Panel for East Germany. The paper also draws some conclusions on the likely future course of the East-West German wage convergence process.


Abstract The study analyses the institutional constraints affecting child performance in secondary schools within rural communities in Zimbabwe. A qualitative approach employing purposive sampling of participants was incorporated in the study. Eight focus group discussions (FDGs), 16 in-depth interviews and four key informant interviews were conducted in eight rural secondary schools located in Seke and Shamva districts. The general systems theory was embraced as the theoretical framework in this study. The principle of theoretical saturation was applied in both the focus group discussion sessions and interviews where they ran up until a clear pattern emerged and subsequent groups produced no new information. Data were analysed using thematic analysis techniques which systematically coded data to discover prevailing trends. The major highlight of the results is that rural learners have to grapple with a lot of challenges in trying to access education. Inadequate resources, long distances to school and demotivated teachers constitute the main highlights of the findings. The study established that there is a need to explore more issues affecting the realisation of equitable and inclusive education systems specifically for learners in rural communities. This article also posits that addressing institutional constraints that are affecting child performance in rural secondary schools is not cast in stone. Thus, this requires a holistic approach through engagement of all stakeholders involved in the drive towards quality education and leaving no one behind.


A companion to the Insight Toolkit An introduction to the theory of modern medical image processing, including the analysis of data from - X-ray computer tomography, - magnetic resonance imaging, - nuclear medicine, - and ultrasound. Using an algorithmic approach, and providing the mathematical, statistical, or signal processing as needed for background, the authors describe the principles of all methods implemented in the Insight Toolkit (ITK), a freely available, open- source, object-oriented library. The emphasis is on providing intuitive descriptions of the principles and illustrative examples of results from the leading filtering, segmentation, and registration methods. This book covers the mathematical foundations of important techniques such as: - Statistical pattern recognition, - PDE-based nonlinear image filtering, - Markov random fields, - Level set methods, - Deformable models, - Mutual information, image-based registration - Non-rigid image data fusion With contributions from: Elsa Angelini, Brian Avants, Stephen Aylward, Ting Chen, Jeffrey Duda, Jim Gee, Luis Ibanez, Celina Imielinska, Yinpeng Jin, Jisung Kim, Bill Lorensen, Dimitris Metaxas, Lydia Ng, Punam Saha, George Stetten, Tessa Sundaram, Jay Udupa, Ross Whitaker, Terry Yoo, and Ying Zhuge. The Insight Toolkit is part of the Visible Human Project from the National Library of Medicine, with support from NIDCR, NINDS, NIMH, NEI, NSF, TATRC, NCI, and NIDCD.


Within some public policy and scholarly accounts, human trafficking is increasingly understood as a technological problem that invites collaborative anti-trafficking solutions. A growing cohort of state, non-governmental, and corporate actors in the United States have come together around the shared contention that technology functions as both a facilitator and disrupting force of trafficking, specifically sex trafficking. Despite increased attention to the trafficking-technology nexus, scant research to date has critically unpacked these shifts nor mapped how technology reconfigures anti-trafficking collaborations. In this article, we propose that widespread anxieties and overzealous optimism about technology's role in facilitating and disrupting trafficking have simultaneously promoted a tri-part anti-trafficking response, one animated by a law and order agenda, operationalized through augmented internet, mobile, and networked surveillance, and maintained through the integration of technology experts and advocates into organized anti-trafficking efforts. We suggest that an examination of technology has purchase for students of gender, sexuality, and neoliberal governmentality in its creation of new methods of surveillance, exclusion, and expertise.


This article discusses the hostage tragedy in Beslan (North Ossetia) and its connection to Russia's war in Chechnya and to Vladimir Putin's domestic policies. The authors argue that Russia is embracing the war on terror, but Russia's leaders are not really interested in putting an end to the terror. They have not made an effort to find out or tell the truth about its causes, to fight the all-pervasive corruption that is an important factor in all of the latest major attacks, nor to find convincing social and political solutions in Chechnya. The current initiatives leave society with lies and terromania and strengthen those who profit from a continuation of the war on terror and the war in Chechnya.


Hormone Replacement Therapy and Cancer-Andrea R. Genazzani 2020-07-26 The clinical benefits of hormone replacement therapy in women have to be carefully balanced against the possible risks, and a particular theoretical concern relates to risks associated with various forms of female oncology. Because of conflicting reports, gynecologists and oncologists especially need a single, authoritative resource of up-to-date information. Hormone Replacement Therapy and Cancer, published in association with the International Menopause Society, provides the very consensus statement that clinicians need in this difficult and complex area. Many of the world's leading specialists have contributed important chapters that provide state-of-the-art knowledge about the effects of hormones on women and possible cancer risks. The introductory section deals with carcinogenesis, and the other main sections cover HRT and breast cancer, endometrial cancer, colon cancer, melanoma and epithelial ovarian cancer. The concluding chapters discuss the benefits and risks of sp ecific therapies. An authoritative clinical reference with extensive bibliographic references and index, Hormone Replacement Therapy and Cancer covers all aspects of HRT and cancer based on the research available up to June 2001.


We examine the problem of editing complex 3D objects. We convert the problem of editing a 3D object of arbitrary size and surface properties to a problem of editing a 2D image. We allow the user to specify edits in both geometry and surface properties from any view and at any resolution they find convenient, regardless of the interactive rendering capability of their computer. We use specially-constrained shape from shading algorithms to convert a shaded image specified by the user into a 3D geometry.


In order to achieve better road utilization and traffic efficiency, there is an urgent need for a travel information delivery mechanism to assist the drivers in making better decisions in the emerging intelligent transportation system applications. In this paper, we propose a relayed multicast scheme under heterogeneous networks for this purpose. In the proposed system, travel information consisting of summarized traffic conditions, important events, real-time traffic videos, and local information service contents is formed into layers and multicasted through an integration of WiMAX infrastructure and Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET). By the support of adaptive modulation and coding in WiMAX, the radio resources can be optimally allocated when performing multicast so as to dynamically adjust the number of data layers received by the users. In addition to multicast supported by WiMAX, a knowledge propagation and information relay scheme by VANET is designed. The experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Keywords—Intelligent Transportation Systems, Relayed Multicast, WiMAX, Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET).


Rabies. The word invokes divergent thoughts. Firstly, it is one of the oldest infectious diseases known to mankind with ancient scripts referring to the scourge of the rabid dog. Also the knowledge of how to control and prevent the disease has been understood for more than a century. Louis Pasteur showed how to prevent rabies virus infection by applying his crude nervous tissue vaccines in dogs and humans before the turn of the 20th century. Nevertheless, the question of why and how this highly fatal, but preventable, disease can then still be considered one of the most formidable zoonotic diseases in the world today is a burning one. A recent study estimated the burden of rabies globally and the figures are staggering. 1 It is estimated that approximately 59 000 human deaths can be attributed to dog-transmitted rabies, with the brunt borne in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. 1 This statistic relates roughly to a human rabies death every 10 minutes. The estimated global economic loss exceed US $ 8.6 billion with a substantial contribution due to the cost of rabies vaccines and immunoglobulin for prevention of rabies in exposed humans. 1


This paper presents the Congestion Management (CM) methodologies and how they get modified in the new competitive framework of electricity power markets. When the load on the system is increased or when some contingency occurs in the system, some of the lines may become overloaded. Thus, the loadability of the system should be increased by generating and dispatching the power optimally for the secure operation of power system. In this paper, the CM problem is solved by using the optimal rescheduling of generating units and load demands, and the Swarm intelligent techniques are used to handle this problem. Here, the CM problem is solved by using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Fitness Distance Ratio PSO (FDR-PSO) and Fuzzy Adaptive-PSO (FA-PSO). First, the generating units are selected based on sensitivity to the over-loaded transmission line, and then these generators are rescheduled to remove the congestion in the transmission line. This paper also utilizes the demand response offers to solve the CM problem. The effectiveness of the proposed CM methodology is examined on the IEEE 30 bus and Indian 75 bus test systems.


Indoor optical wireless communication systems have been shown to be viable
alternatives to radio systems for indoor networks because optical wireless systems
offer a huge unlicensed bandwidth, high data rates, secure connectivity, immunity to
electromagnetic interference and prevention from multipath fading. However, optical
wireless systems are subject to multipath distortion and are governed by eye safety
standards. Therefore, a modulation scheme is required that is capable of providing high
speed and good immunity to multipath dispersion on indoor optical channels. In this thesis, a critical review of optical wireless systems and suitable modulation
schemes has been presented. A new modulation scheme called dual header pulse
interval modulation (DH-PTh1) is presented. A comprehensive theoretical analysis
supported by computer simulations has been carried out to study characteristics of
DH-PTh1. Novel expressions for the DH-PTh1 pulse train, symbol length, bandwidth
requirement, packet transmission rate, transmission capacity, Fourier transform, power
spectral density, slot and packet error rates and power requirement and penalty due to
multipath propagation have been presented. Results from the analyses have been compared with OaK, PPM and DPTh1 modulation
schemes. It has been shown that DH-PTh1 is a viable alternative scheme for indoor
optical wireless communications, due to its built-in symbol synchronisation and
relatively easy slot synchronisation. Compared with PPM and DPIM, DH-PIM offers
shorter symbol lengths, improved transmission rates, increased transmission capacity,
improved bandwidth requirement and better immunity to multipath dispersion when
the dispersion is high. However these features are at the expense of a slightly higher
optical power requirement and increased probability of error. The proposed scheme is
suitable for applications where there is a need for high throughput.


The purpose of this study is to determine types of games that middle school students play in their daily lives and analyze the effects of various variables such as gender, available technology, grade in school and parents' education levels on their game preferences. The sample consisted of a total of 464 grade 5-8 students (212 girls and 252 boys). The study was conducted in Spring 2015 and the data were collected using a two-part survey. The first part of the survey included questions about demographic information and the second part asked students to draw a picture of their favorite games. The results of this study showed that girls mostly preferred to play outdoor games whereas boys mostly preferred to play digital games. Participant students preferred to play games with rules outdoors and symbolic games indoors, and in digital environment, girls preferred to play mini-games whereas boys preferred to play sports games. CHAID analysis was used in determining the relationships between the variables and game preferences. Gender was a prominent factor in identifying the preferences; that is, girls' game preferences were mainly influenced by having a computer and those of boys were affected by having an available Internet connection. This study also found that parents' education level is not related to children's game preferences. At the end of the study, suggestions were made for gamification and digital game design.


We study the problem of multiple description (MD) coding of stationary Gaussian sources with memory. First, we compute an approximate rate distortion region for these sources, which we prove to be asymptotically tight at high rates: this region generalizes the standard MD rate distortion region for memoryless sources. Then we develop an algorithm for the design of optimal biorthogonal filter banks for MD coding. Finally. We present some experimental results, where we measure the deviation from optimality of our proposed system. For almost uncorrelated sources the gap between the performance of our proposed system and the ideal bounds is quite high, on the other hand for highly correlated sources this gap is reduced, due to the ability of our system to take advantage of the memory in the source. In this case, in realistic scenarios where finite complexity/delay is an issue, the subband coding approach is competitive with other approaches such as the decorrelating transform followed by MD scalar quantizers.


Abstract We analyze non-price advertising by retail firms, when the firms are privately informed about their respective costs of production. In a static advertising game, an advertising equilibrium exists in which lower-cost firms select higher advertising levels. In this equilibrium, informed consumers rationally employ an advertising search rule in which they buy from the highest-advertising firm since lower-cost firms also select lower prices. In a repeated advertising game, colluding firms face a trade-off: the use of advertising can promote productive efficiency, but only if sufficient current or future advertising expenses are incurred. At one extreme, if firms pool at zero advertising, they sacrifice productive efficiency but also eliminate current and future advertising expenses. Focusing on symmetric perfect public equilibria for the repeated advertising game, we establish conditions under which optimal collusion entails pooling at zero advertising. More generally, full or partial pooling is observed in optimal collusion. Such collusive agreements reduce consumer welfare, since they restrict informed consumers' ability to locate the lowest available price in the market.


Although psychophysical evidence for object-based attention has been reported, corresponding studies with event-related potentials (ERPs) are scarce. Here subjects were presented with perceptual fields containing two superimposed objects (transparent surfaces generated by two sets of dots in rigid rotation around fixation, each set of a different color and direction of motion) or only one object (the same dots but either at rest or all rotating in the same direction). Brief (150-msec) rectilinear displacements affected either of the sets at random ISIs of 350 to 550 msec. Attention was directed to one set of dots, guided by color, in order to discriminate the direction of their displacement. Motion-onset ERPs elicited by these displacements were compared for attended and unattended dots. When the perceptual field consisted of two objects, strong suppression of P1 and N1 was obtained in the ERPs associated with the unattended object. No suppression was found with the field containing a single object, although an enhanced selection negativity was found in ERPs associated with attended dots (selected by color). Since the two objects occupied the same region of visual space, the suppression of P1/N1 cannot be explained by the space-based mechanisms but is consistent with object-based attentional selection at early stages of vision. The results highlight the role of perceptual organization in enabling alternative attentional mechanisms.


The habitat arborescent matorral with Ziziphus (5220*) was included in the Habitats Directive of the European Commission. These plant formations represent the maximum potential vegetation in a very restrictive arid environment, since it encompasses endemic, tropical, or Maghrebian floristic elements, and from other areas of the ancient Thetis Sea. In fact, the version of this community with Gymnosporia senegalensis (Lam.) Loes. [=Maytenus senegalensis (Lam.) Exell] constitutes extraordinarily singular flora formations in the Iberian southeast. These are unique communities in Europe and ecologically extremely valuable and, however, have been included among the Europe's most endangered habitats. The vast economic development experienced in South Spain based on the remarkable transformation of traditional farming patterns into a highly profitable agriculture that uses industrial production methods and the groundwater intensively (agriculture intensification and land-use change), in addition to urbanization without sustainable land planning, determines that European G. senegalensis populations are seriously threatened by severe habitat destruction and fragmentation.


This article is a retrospective analysis of liquefied natural gas development (LNG) in Gladstone, Australia by using the structure of the risk governance framework developed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). Since 2010 the port of Gladstone has undergone extensive expansion to facilitate the increasing coal export as well as the new development of three recently completed LNG facilities. Significant environmental and socio‐economic impacts and concerns have occurred as a result of these developments. The overall aim of the article, therefore, is to identify the risk governance deficits that arose and to formulate processes capable of improving similar decision‐making problems in the future. The structure of the IRGC framework is followed because it represents a broad analytical approach for considering risk assessment and risk governance in Gladstone in ways that include, but also go beyond, the risk approach of the ISO 31000:2009 standard that was employed at the time. The IRGC risk framework is argued to be a consistent and comprehensive risk governance framework that integrates scientific, economic, social, and cultural aspects and advocates the notion of inclusive risk governance through stakeholder communication and involvement. Key aspects related to risk preassessment, risk appraisal, risk tolerability and acceptability, risk management, and stakeholder communication and involvement are considered. The results indicate that the risk governance deficits include aspects related to (i) the risk matrix methodology, (ii) reflecting uncertainties, (iii) cumulative risks, (iv) the regulatory process, and (v) stakeholder communication and involvement.


China began its economic reforms in the end of the 1970s, which have successfully transformed the country into an important trading nation and manufacturing centre in the world over the past three decades. Despite China's recent economic slowdown, the IMF forecasts that China will continue to be the largest contributor to global GDP growth. In addition, the rate of return for holding RMB over the past ten years has been one of the highest, which explains the strong portfolio capital inflows since 2004. Probably the only remaining issue is about China's capital control, especially over the flows of portfolio investment. The progress of RMB internationalization helps facilitate the short term capital flows, and is believed to have a new interactive effects on the exchange rate expectation and capital flows nexus. This paper intends to employ the asset portfolio balance model to explore the effect of RMB exchange rate expectation on RMB internationalization. In particular, we empirically explore the relationship between RMB exchange rate expectation, RMB internationalization and short-term capital flow by using SVAR model and the monthly data from February 2004 to November 2014. The results indicates that RMB exchange rate appreciation could increase the demand of foreign investors for RMB and RMB denominated bonds and vice versa, and also attract short-term capital inflow through reducing the capital flow cost. This paper implies that, associated with the rapid RMB internationalization, the central bank needs to pay more attention to the short term capital flow as its destabilizing effect may cause panic to the financial system.


Contemporary societies are characterised by new and more flexible working patterns, new family structures and widening social divisions. This book explores how these macro-level changes affect the micro organisation of daily life, with reference to working patterns and gender divisions in Northern and Western Europe and the United States.


Abstract

The measurement of ankle joint dorsiflexion is an important component of the clinical examination
of the foot and is also an outcome measure often employed in research. Diagnosis of ankle equinus
or limited ankle dorsiflexion is based solely on this measurement. Although a great majority of
research papers in this field utilise normal clinical goniometers for obtaining the maximum ankle
dorsiflexion angle (MADA) and important clinical decisions are based on these findings, there is
overwhelming evidence that this method is highly unreliable. Thus this thesis aimed to investigate
alternative methods of measuring ankle dorsiflexion and various issues that affect the MADA in
order to obtain a clear picture of foot segment movement from which an Ankle Goniometer could be
consequently designed and validated.

Ten different techniques were identified that included various apparatuses designed specifically
for measuring ankle dorsiflexion. However, during validation, their methodological quality would
have benefitted from the use of an actual patient population and comparison with a reference
standard, which caused papers to score poorly on methodological quality assessment. It was
concluded that issues affecting this measurement and that needed to be researched further include:
foot posture, the amount of moment applied and the stretching characteristics of the calf muscle
tendon unit.
Experiments within this study indicated that in adults, the mean maximum pronated angles were
always higher than in other postures, with 8.27o difference between the pronated and supinated
postures (p=0.032) and 5.78o between pronated and neutral (p=0.000). However, the reported
difference between neutral and supinated (mean angle of 2.49o) is of little clinical significance.
It was observed that the forefoot always travels through a greater angle than the hindfoot in all 3
foot postures, while the hindfoot to forefoot angle increases during the application of a moment,
indicating that the 'midtarsal joint locking mechanism' cannot be applied to passive dorsiflexion
of the foot. In adolescents, there are no significant differences in the mean MADA between the 3
postures, implying that this measurement technique may be performed in any of these postures. It
was also concluded that there is no need to control moment applied during this measurement
procedure to produce consistent results between raters and that the calf muscle tendon unit does
not stretch significantly following brief repetitive passive stretching.

ii

An ankle goniometer that measured purely hindfoot movement by eliminating forefoot influence and
that increased reliability by holding the foot in the chosen posture, was consequently designed.
This was validated by synchronizing with an electrogoniometer and an optoelectronic motion capture
system. Reliability testing, with the foot held in a supinated posture as opposed to the
traditional Rootian method of placing the foot at subtalar joint neutral position, spanned a number
of different trials, including intra-tester and inter-tester reliability studies utilising both
controlled and uncontrolled conditions, in convenience samples of healthy participants and a random
sample of patients. Reliability testing between 4 raters with little experience on the utilization
of this device was finally conducted. It has been shown that the Ankle Goniometer is a valid and
reliable device for measuring ankle joint complex dorsiflexion both in healthy adults and in a
patient population.


In this context, the distinction between fronthaul and backhaul transport networks blurs as varying portions of functionality of 5G points of attachment (5GPoAs) might be moved towards the network as required for cost efficiency reasons. The traditional capacity overprovisioning approach on the transport infrastructure will no longer be possible with 5G. Hence, a new generation of integrated fronthaul and backhaul technologies will be needed to bring capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) to a reasonable return on investment (ROI) range. Also, for cost reasons, the heterogeneity of transport network equipment must be tackled by unifying data, control and management planes across all technologies as much as possible. A redesign of the fronthaul/backhaul network segment is a key point for 5G networks as current transport networks cannot cope with the amount of bandwidth required for 5G. Next-generation radio interfaces, using 100 MHz channels and squeezing the bit-per-megahertz ratio through massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) or even full-duplex radios, require a ten-fold increase in capacity, which cannot be achieved just through the evolution of current technologies.


Superficial basal cell carcinoma is a distinct variant of basal cell carcinoma not only histological- ly but also biologically. Its indolent growth and occasionally misleading clinical presentation can sometimes pose a diagnostic challenge to clinicians. In this report, we describe three lesions of super-ficial basal cell carcinoma in two Taiwanese patients.Their clinical appearances were drastically dif-ferent from each other. The histopathology of the three lesions varied in the aspects of the tumor islands and the components of peritumoral stroma. The diverse clinicopathological pictures of superfi-cial BCC demonstrate the complex and conditioned pathogenesis of the tumor. In addition, immuno-histochemical studies with Ki-67 and bc1-2were performed on our cases and two cases of trichoep-ithelioma as well. Ki-67 is epressed in a random fashion within the tumor nests of superficial BCC, while trichoepithelioma is barely positive with Ki-67. Diffuse staining of bc1-2 is seen on the tumor nests of superficial BCC. In contrast, only the periphery of the tumor nests is bc1-2 positive in tri-choepithelioma. The differential immunostaining profile of the two lesions reflects their respective biological behaviors and may be of value in separating the two conditions in certain problematic cases.


Subject Areas: Global financing strategies; Pricing new bond issues; Political risk. Case Setting: June 1997, Hong Kong. Situation: In June 1997, Hutchison Whampoa Finance Ltd. was preparing the offering circular for a US$1 billion bond offering. Until now, the company had drawn on short- and medium-term loan facilities underwritten by banking syndicates for external financing. But with Hutchison Whampoa's diverse and expanding operations, the needs of the group were beginning to extend beyond the local banking community. The need for long-term financing was also prompted by the recent reorganization of the Cheung Kong (Holdings) group which resulted in Hutchison Whampoa acquiring an 84.58 per cent interest in Cheung Kong Infrastructure. Moreover, the time was ripe to increase the ratio of fixed-rate funding at prevailing yields which were currently attractive. But Group Managing Director, Canning Fok, and Group Finance Director, Bill Shurniak, both wondered what the reception would really be for a Hong Kong-based bond issue at the time of the Handover to China. The primary objective of the case is to expose students to the importance of international financial markets for long-term corporate financing. The students learn about the institutional aspects of the global debt issuance process, in general, and the U.S. Yankee bond market, in particular. Another objective of the case is to evaluate factors that may affect the pricing of bond offerings, such as maturity, credit rating and after-market liquidity in the international context. A final objective is to highlight how political factors can influence the outcomes of securities offerings in foreign countries.


The nature and frequencyof mental disorders affectingboth husband and wife are relevant to the possibility of assortative mating with respect to certain of these disorders.

Eleven couples admitted to the Ontario Hospital, London, Canada, during the past few years, have been studied, and the results compared with those of a similar investigation by Penrose (1944).

It is concluded that a variety of factors may be responsible for the unexpectedly high frequency of admission of both marital partners to mental hospital. Observed similarities in diagnosis of spouses admitted at different times, however, suggest a true increase in the frequency of similar disorders in the spouses of certain patients, which may be at least partly attributable to assortative mating among those predisposed to these disorders.


Guerriero and Cairns (2009) recently estimate that contaminated sites and improper waste management result in 848 excess deaths per year in the provinces of Naples and Caserta in Southern Italy, 403 of which are fatal cancers. In the absence of estimates of the Value of a Prevented Fatality (VPF) in Italy or specific to the hazardous waste context, they use figures recommended by DG-Environment. Contrary to their claims, estimates of the VPF are available for Italy that are specific to the hazardous waste context, and for causes of death that have been linked to contaminated site exposures. We review them in this paper. We also produce new estimates of the cancer VPF using data from a recent survey conducted in Milan, Italy, in late November to mid-December 2008. The evidence points to much higher VPF figures than the ones used by Guerriero and Cairns, and hence to much larger estimates of the reduced mortality benefits of remediating the hazardous waste in the Naples and Caserta areas. We also examine the importance of the discount rates, since the mortality benefits of remediation begin in 20 years and are assumed to continue over 30 years.


This paper develops theory about the conditions under which cultural diversity enhances or detracts from work group functioning. From qualitative research in three culturally diverse organizations, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity: the integration-and-learning perspective, the access-and-legitimacy perspective, and the discrimination-and-fairness perspective. The perspective on diversity a work group held influenced how people expressed and managed tensions related to diversity, whether those who had been traditionally underrepresented in the organization felt respected and valued by their colleagues, and how people interpreted the meaning of their racial identity at work. These, in turn, had implications for how well the work group and its members functioned. All three perspectives on diversity had been successful in motivating managers to diversify their staffs, but only the integration-and-learning perspective provided the rationale and guidance needed to achieve sustained benefits from diversity. By identifying the conditions that intervene between the demographic composition of a work group and its functioning, our research helps to explain mixed results on the relationship between cultural diversity and work group outcomes.

http://web.mit.edu/cortiz/www/Diversity/Ely and Thomas, 2001.pdf


The concern on the effective inclusion of indigenous languages in the school curriculum has been central to educational discussions among scholars and stakeholders. It is true that language as a medium of communication is very vital for sustainable growth in any society. However, the level of implementation of the policy of multilingualism in classrooms in Cameroon poses so many pedagogical challenges. While the Government is collaborating with private agencies such as PROPELCA(Cameroon National Language Association) in introducing the teaching of national languages in primary schools, and though the Government through the Ministry of Basic Education has also created an inspectorate in charge of the introduction of indigenous languages in Primary schools, there still exist some resistance from stakeholders to introduce the teaching of native languages in the curriculum of schools despite recommendations made in the 1995 education forum and the provision in article 4 section 5 of the 1998 Education Law. The study argues that, since the introduction of multilingualism as curriculum policy in Cameroon, its implementation is still at the pilot stage. Using the Historical analytic approach, data was collected from primary and secondary sources in establishing the level of use of the curriculum policy of multilingualism as a guide to teaching and learning in schools in Cameroon. Policy Article Loveline; JESBS, 33(6): 26-35, 2020; Article no.JESBS.58358 27


The aim of this systematic review was to compare the root-coverage outcomes of using a partially exposed connective tissue graft (CTG) technique with a fully covered CTG technique for root coverage. An electronic search up to February 28th , 2017, was performed to identify human clinical studies with data comparing outcomes of root coverage using CTG, with and without a partially exposed graft. Five clinical studies were selected for inclusion in this review. For each study, the gain of keratinized gingiva, reduction of recession depth, number of surgical sites achieving complete root coverage, percentage of root coverage, gain of tissue thickness, and changes of probing depth and clinical attachment level were recorded. Meta-analysis for the comparison of complete root coverage between the two techniques presented no statistically significant differences. A statistically significant gain of keratinized tissue in favor of the sites with an exposed CTG and a tendency of greater reduction in recession depth were seen at the sites with a fully covered CTG. Based on the results, the use of a partially exposed CTG in root-coverage procedures could achieve greater gain in keratinized gingiva, while a fully covered CTG might be indicated for procedures aiming to reduce recession depth.


Isolated compact groups (CGs) of galaxies present a range of dynamical states, group velocity dispersions, and galaxy morphologies with which to study galaxy evolution, particularly the properties of gas both within the galaxies and in the intragroup medium. As part of a large, multiwavelength examination of CGs, we present an archival study of diffuse X-ray emission in a subset of nine Hickson compact groups (HCGs) observed with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. We find that seven of the groups in our sample exhibit detectable diffuse emission. However, unlike large-scale emission in galaxy clusters, the diffuse features in the majority of the detected groups are linked to the individual galaxies, in the form of both plumes and halos likely as a result of vigourous star formation or activity in the galaxy nucleus, as well as in emission from tidal features. Unlike previous studies from earlier X-ray missions, HCGs 31, 42, 59, and 92 are found to be consistent with the LX–T relationship from clusters within the errors, while HCGs 16 and 31 are consistent with the cluster LX–σ relation, though this is likely coincidental given that the hot gas in these two systems is largely due to star formation. We find that LX increases with decreasing group H i to dynamical-mass ratio with tentative evidence for a dependence in X-ray luminosity on H i morphology whereby systems with intragroup H i indicative of strong interactions are considerably more X-ray luminous than passively evolving groups. We also find a gap in the LX of groups as a function of the total group specific star formation rate. Our findings suggest that the hot gas in these groups is not in hydrostatic equilibrium and these systems are not low-mass analogs of rich groups or clusters, with the possible exception of HCG 62.


Transportation plays a significant role in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, accounting for approximately a third of the United States' inventory. In order to reduce CO2 emissions in the future, transportation policy makers are looking to make vehicles more efficient and increasing the use of carbon-neutral alternative fuels. In addition, CO2 emissions can be lowered by improving traffic operations, specifically through the reduction of traffic congestion. This paper examines traffic congestion and its impact on CO2 emissions using detailed energy and emission models and linking them to real-world driving patterns and traffic conditions. Using a typical traffic condition in Southern California as example, it has been found that CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to almost 20% through three different strategies: 1) congestion mitigation strategies that reduce severe congestion, allowing traffic to flow at better speeds; 2) speed management techniques that reduce excessively high free-flow speeds to more moderate conditions; and 3) shock wave suppression techniques that eliminate the acceleration/deceleration events associated with stop-and-go traffic that exists during congested conditions.


African boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum Solanaceae) is a Weed of National Significance in Australia. It is particularly problematic in Victoria and is thought to not only threaten native wildlife but also provide important habitat, particularly to birds, when there is no native alternative. In a wetland ecosystem such as a saltmarsh, boxthorn has the potential to increase structural complexity because it can stand as an emergent above surrounding vegetation. We compared bird assemblages and behaviour in saltmarsh vegetation with and without boxthorn in a coastal wetland in south-east Australia. Species assemblage, but not richness, changed with the presence of boxthorn. The presence of singing honeyeaters (Lichenostomus virescens) and white-fronted chats (Epthianura albifrons), the two most common native bird species (based on numerical and spatial dominance), appeared to drive these differences; singing honeyeaters preferred boxthorn while white-fronted chats avoided it. The presence of boxthorn increased the seasonal availability of fruit and flowers, which was reflected by a high frequency of foraging for fruit and nectar where boxthorn was present. In saltmarshes without boxthorn, there was a higher frequency of foraging for insects. Some, but not all, species responded to increased structural complexity and fruit/floral resources provided by boxthorn. Consequently, management by reducing boxthorn is likely to alter bird communities and the usage of sites by some native species, thus management success should consider fine-scale biodiversity objectives, such as managing for particular types or species of birds.