This exploratory study examined domain-general cognitive abilities that may serve as aptitudes for interpreting skill by comparing highly skilled sign language interpreters (those considered competent in most interpreting situations) and less skilled sign language interpreters (those considered less than competent in most interpreting situations) on various measures. Specifically, the current study examined the feasibility of predicting interpreter skill level based only on a variety of cognitive abilities and personality traits. We collected data on several cognitive measures, including processing speed, psychomotor speed, cognitive control and task switching ability, fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and mental flexibility, as well as several personality measures, including risk-taking orientation and emotion-cognition integration style, and intrinsic motivation to engage in complex cognitive tasks. Significant differences emerged between the two groups on both cognitive and personality measures suggesting that a combination of stable domain-general cognitive abilities and personality traits may be responsible for differentiating highly skilled from less skilled interpreters and may therefore be predictive of individuals' future interpreting effectiveness and skill level.


In spite of its impressive systematic unity, the market and price theory is in danger of internal contradictions which the author calls the "Paradox of the competitive price formation". Up to now no definition says what competition is, but merely describes under what conditions is exists and which are its consequences. This point is stressed by means of a dogmatic retrospective view. Competition is not a characteristic feature of one market form, but is the fundamental phenomenon of any economy, as long as it is a process; as an organization form of market process competition is, on the contrary, essentially a creature of government. In connection with the theory of economic behavior, competition can be determined as the possibility of alternatives between which the market participants can freely choose. But competition as a behavior can be active only in a state of desequilibrium, whereas in a state of equilibrium it is, per definitionem, in repose. This obviously unsatisfactory result in being analyzed from the point of view of the monopolistic theory, economic history and sociology and confronted with the theory of costs and the theory of games. Finally the author advises to leave economics open to all methods by means of the synthesis of deductive-theoretical and sociologic-historical research, instead of adjusting it simply to the mathematical theory, as in the case of mere functional analysis and model constructions there is no other way than to substitute one abstraction for an other.


Thin layer MoS2-based field effect transistors (FET) are emerging candidates to fabricate very fast and sensitive devices. Here, we demonstrate a method to fabricate very narrow transistor channel widths on a single layer MoS2 flake connected to gold electrodes. Oxidation scanning probe lithography is applied to pattern insulating barriers on the flake. The process narrows the electron path to about 200 nm. The output and transfer characteristics of the fabricated FET show a behavior that is consistent with the minimum channel width of the device. The method relies on the direct and local chemical modification of MoS2. The straightforward character and the lack of specific requirements envisage the controlled patterning of sub-100 nm electron channels in MoS2 FETs.


The article examines Islamic State's expansion into North Africa and Sahel and the subsequent rivalry between Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb − the regional Al Qaeda group. Although IS managed to establish a province in Libya from 2014 through 2016, its presence in North Africa and Sahel (Libya, Sinai, Nigeria) is fragile. AQIM in contrast has a longstanding presence in the region, which appears to be much more consolidated. The rivalry between IS and AQ in this region has incited AQ splinter-groups to unite around AQIM, and in 2016 these groups stepped up their attacks on Western targets.


BACKGROUND
In recent years, the interest in user experience (UX) evaluation methods for assessing technology solutions, especially in health systems for children with special needs like cognitive disabilities, has increased.

OBJECTIVE
Conduct a systematic mapping study to provide an overview in the field of UX evaluations in rehabilitation video games for children.

METHODS
The definition of research questions, the search for primary studies and the extraction of those studies by inclusion and exclusion criteria lead to the mapping of primary papers according to a classification scheme.

RESULTS
Main findings from this study include the detection of the target population of the selected studies, the recognition of two different ways of evaluating UX: (i) user evaluation and (ii) system evaluation, and UX measurements and devices used.

CONCLUSIONS
This systematic mapping specifies the research gaps identified for future research works in the area.


This paper proposes the study of a new computation model that attempts to address the underlying sources of performance degradation (e.g. latency, overhead, and starvation) and the difficulties of programmer productivity (e.g. explicit locality management and scheduling, performance tuning, fragmented memory, and synchronous global barriers) to dramatically enhance the broad effectiveness of parallel processing for high end computing. In this paper, we present the progress of our research on a parallel programming and execution model - mainly, ParalleX. We describe the functional elements of ParalleX, one such model being explored as part of this project. We also report our progress on the development and study of a subset of ParalleX $the LITL-X at University of Delaware. We then present a novel architecture model - Gilgamesh II - as a ParalleX processing architecture. A design point study of Gilgamesh II and the architecture concept strategy are presented.


This book addresses major modern controversies in corporate governance, clarifying the issues at stake and assessing the arguments for corporate reform. The main focus is on governance of the large organizations that employ the majority of workforces in developed economies and which account for most of the finance and refinance of the private sector. Shareholder value and shareholder primacy are now under increasing scrutiny having previously been positioned as natural precepts of governance. The book joins that debate with a critique and also with suggestions for company reform that allow for plurality within jurisdictions: the trust firm, industrial foundations, social enterprises, the 'benefit corporation', restricted voting rights, employee representation etc. The book addresses several sets of controversies in corporate governance. Part 1 places the corporate form within the context of legal constitution and governmental regulation. The second set of chapters considers corporate governance systems and their role in innovation and adaptation. The chapters in part 3 discuss labour relations and worker involvement in the governance of companies. Part 4 widens the focus to consider effects external to the firm—on consumer interests and the environment. What these issues point to is that the modern corporation is not only an economic institution but also a cultural and political one, reflecting the firm's role in civil society The overall theme is that the corporate governance agenda has been on the wrong track and needs to be fundamentally reset.


Recently, many efforts have been put into tag-aware personalized recommendation. However, due to uncontrolled vocabularies, social tags are usually re-dundant, sparse, and ambiguous. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network approach to solve this problem by mapping the tag-based user and item profiles to an abstract deep feature space, where the deep-semantic similarities between users and their target items (resp., irrelevant items) are maximized (resp., minimized). To ensure the scalability in practice, we further propose to improve this model's training efficiency by using hybrid deep learning and negative sampling. Experimental results show that our approach can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art baselines in tag-aware personalized recommendation ( 3 . 8 times better than the best baseline), and that using hybrid deep learning and negative sampling can dramatically enhance the model's training efficiency (hun-dreds of times quicker), while maintaining similar (and sometimes even better) training quality and recommendation performance.


One factor that has highlighted the role of agriculture in the economy is to make the marketing system of agricultural products more efficient. The main purpose of this study was to identify the requirements of marketing the organic pomegranate of Paveh, Kermanshah Province, Iran, from the perspective of farmers. In order to identify contributing factors, an exploratory factor analysis was used. The population of this study consisted of the pomegranate growers of Paveh (N=2000) and 320 people were selected using the Cochran formula and a proportional stratified sampling method. The main research instrument was a questionnaire that was completed by interview. Validity and reliability were con- firmed using the feedbacks of advisors through 0.78 Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The results showed that the requirements were classified in eight factors of motivational improvement such as informing, technical, policy, economic, marketing, infrastructure, management, and social– services and they could explain 87 percent of the organic pomegranate marketing variance.


First paragraphs: In a world in which agriculture is increasingly dominated by industrial farming and international trade, there is one crop that is still profitable to small farmers. It is hardy, drought-tolerant, and thrives on marginal lands. Multinational corporations have not yet hijacked its seeds, and its cultivation requires limited capital investment. Marketing poses no real problem, and farm gate prices are often an order of magnitude higher than those of the next alternative crop. Its production is still concentrated in countries of the South, where it does not benefit from any market-distorting subsidy. And while it can be consumed locally, it is mainly an export crop, bringing in much needed hard currency. It is also a magnet for Northern tourists coming to sample the produce "a la source." The catch? It is illegal. From the mountains of the Moroccan Rif to the Afghan Highlands, from the hills of Lesotho to the forests of Jamaica, the cultivation of cannabis is essential to the livelihoods of millions of people who live on marginal lands. In many southern countries it is unofficially tolerated, making it an extralegal rather than an illegal crop. Governments recognize, albeit covertly, that cannabis farming plays a crucial role in halting the massive exodus of farmers from rural areas where poverty is endemic. Take Morocco, for instance, the world's largest producer and exporter of cannabis in the world, where  kif  (the local name for cannabis) is smuggled by boat to Spain across the Mediterranean and from there to the rest of Europe. The Spanish government doesn't like it and the  Guardia  vigilantly polices Spain's coastline. But the alternative to cannabis contraband is often the smuggling of North African migrants using the same route. As one  kif  producer put it, " Kif  does not kill you, hunger does" (Martelli, 2013, para. 16), while the human toll from the illegal sea crossings keeps increasing. Similar stories are echoed in most cannabis-producing regions in the world....


Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have the potential to contribute to the energy revolution driven by the new bio‐economy. Until recently, simple reactor designs with minimal process analytics have been used. In recent years, assemblies to host electrodes in bioreactors have been developed resulting in so‐called "electrobioreactors." Bioreactors are scalable, well‐mixed, controlled, and therefore widely used in biotechnology and adding an electrode extends the possibilities to investigate bioelectrochemical production processes in a standard system. In this work, two assemblies enabling a separated and non‐separated electrochemical operation, respectively, are designed and extensively characterized. Electrochemical losses over the electrolyte and the membrane were comparable to H‐cells, the bioelectrochemical standard reaction system. An effect of the electrochemical measurements on pH measurements was observed if the potential is outside the range of −1,000 to +600 mV versus Ag/AgCl. Electrobiotechnological characterization of the two assemblies was done using Shewanella oneidensis as an electroactive model organism. Current production over time was improved by a separation of anodic and cathodic chamber by a Nafion® membrane. The developed electrobioreactor was used for a scale‐up of the anaerobic bioelectrochemical production of organic acids and lysine from glucose using an engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum. Comparison to a small‐scale custom‐made electrobioreactor indicates that anodic electro‐fermentation of lysine and organic acids might not be limited by the BES setup but by the biocatalysis of the cells.


Background: Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable diseases in the United States (US) (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015a). Despite advances in early detection and a vaccine available, it continues to affect Southeast Asian American (SEAA) women in high numbers. Multiple barriers to cervical cancer screening are seen among SEAA women, which include acculturation, age, marital status, apprehension, financial burden, access to healthcare, and knowledge about cervical cancer, screening, and preventative health (Ho & Dinh, 2010). Studies on SEAA women and cervical cancer screening primarily involve women who were born in Southeast Asia. These studies have not considered SEAA women born in the US (second-generation) who have very different lived experiences and influences than those of their mothers. There is only one study published on Thai American women and cervical cancer, and all participants were born in Thailand. Aim: The specific aims of this study are to explore the perceptions of second-generation Thai American women towards cervical cancer screening, explore how secondgeneration Thai American women make decisions about seeking cervical cancer screening services, and to initiate development of a theory, grounded in the data, regarding second-generation Thai American women and cervical cancer screening. Methods: This is a qualitative study and inspired by the constructivist approach to grounded theory. The researcher's subjectivity and involvement with constructing and interpreting data are acknowledged in constructivist grounded theory. By using detailed reflexive memoing and constant comparison, the researcher's stance and positionality is continuously integrated into the data (Charmaz, 2014). Findings: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants. Four themes emerged from the data: being proper, avoidance, realization, and feeling empowered. Participants described experiencing these themes over a period of time with influencing factors in each stage whether it be family, cultural values, society, healthcare providers, friends, the internet, or outreach programs. Implications: Cervical cancer focused educational outreach programs for secondgeneration Thai American women should occur in college or sooner. Healthcare providers need to be sensitive to the generational differences of immigrant groups, and to be aware that their needs may be different.


In recent years, the use of chromogenic media for detection of coliforms and E. coli increases as they allow fast identification of colonies directly on the plate without further confirmation steps. We obtained an atypical strain from a raw milk sample forming bright red colonies on RAPID'E.coli 2 agar, as opposed to the violet coloration characteristic for E. coli, or blue/green coloration characteristic for coliforms. API32E and MALDI-TOF analysis were used to identify isolate 2099 as E. coli. While API ID 32 E analysis resulted in a biochemical profile characteristic for E. coli, isolate 2099 was found to be phenotypically β-glucuronidase positive but β-galactosidase negative, which resulted in atypical red coloration of its colonies on RAPID'E.coli 2 agar. In order to elucidate possible causes of the β-galactosidase negative phenotype, we sequenced the lacZ gene encoding β-galactosidase. A mutation leading to a premature stop codon at amino acid position 774 was identified, rendering the polypeptide abnormally short and most likely not functional. Considering our findings, not only β-glucuronidase, but also β-galactosidase negative E. coli represent a challenge to routine diagnostic procedures screening for E. coli with chromogenic media that rely on detection of β-glucuronidase and β-galactosidase activity.


Abstract With an increasing prevalence of virtual high school programs in the United States, a better understanding of evaluative tools available for distance educators and administrators is needed. These evaluative tools would provide opportunities for assessment and a determination of success within virtual schools. This article seeks to provide an analysis and classification of instrumentation currently available. It addresses issues regarding the limited arsenal of assessments and evaluation instrumentation for virtual schools.


Yes, by understanding what consumers perceive to be unfair or deceptive practices The legal definition of an unfair or deceptive trade practice is found in the Federal Trade Commission Act. But an easier way to understand the concept is to look at practices from the customer's perspective. A practice may be unfair or deceptive when what the customer expects will happen is different from what the vendor intends will happen. Classic examples of unfair or deceptive practices include bait and switch techniques in advertising and selling; hiding important contract conditions in small print; or simply saying one thing and doing another. There are numerous examples of banking practices that consumers have considered unfair over the years. In fact, most of the bank compliance laws and regulations deal with practices that could be seen as unfair or deceptive. History furnishes a ready example. When interest rates skyrocketed in the early 1980s, lenders designed the "discounted variable rate loan." Because there was--at that time--no explicit guidance in the Official Staff Commentary to Regulation Z, lenders disclosed an APR based on 30 years at the initial discounted or "teaser" rate. As a result, borrowers had no idea what their loan would really cost. The official commentary now instructs lenders to prepare a blended-rate APR using the teaser rate for only the period of time that the loan would be discounted and the market rate for the remainder of the loan. Deposit practices have also led to compliance regulations. Again, history holds the lesson. When some banks instituted the technique of paying interest only on the investable balance of deposit accounts, both customers and Congress got angry. The Truth in Savings Act, with its ban on the investable balance practice, is the direct result. And, then, the Expedited Funds Availability Act responded to customer frustration with what they considered to be excessive holds placed on their deposits by banks. History repeats itself Why is this walk through Compliance Memory Lane important for bankers today? The industry faces rising consumer concerns about practices old and new that consumers consider unfair and deceptive. When consumers don't like a banking practice, their opposition usually generates regulations. And the industry is giving consumers reasons to be unhappy. First, as competition and the pressure to produce dividends for stockholders increase, banks are becoming increasingly creative in how products and services are designed and delivered. Second, banks are learning techniques from other business in the private sector and, unfortunately, customers don't always accept from a bank what they will accept from a grocery store or a lumberyard. Consumer concerns about banking practices are rising as fast as banks invent new products, new services, and--perhaps most important--new selling techniques. And regulators' comments--in the main those from the Comptroller's Office--are increasingly strident. How banks respond to these concerns will have everything to do with the limitation or increase of the compliance burden in the future. Attention only to the bottom line to the exclusion of customer interests will lead directly to new regulations. Effective responses to consumer concerns will keep new rules from emerging. Rules and how they are made The roots of what bankers face originates not in banking law but in something more general. The concepts of unfair and deceptive trade practices are established in the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Federal Trade Commission has the authority to identify, define, and prohibit practices that are unfair or deceptive to consumers. For the banking industry, the Federal Reserve Board has a parallel responsibility to identify unfair or deceptive practices. Whenever FTC identifies a credit practice as unfair or deceptive, the Federal Reserve Board must review the practice in the context of banking and issue a substantially similar rule if it determines that the practice is unfair or deceptive when conducted by banks. …


Block cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes are typically used to perform error detection in automatic repeat request (ARQ) protocols for data communications. Though efficient, CRCs can detect errors only after an entire block of data has been received and processed. In this work, we introduce a new "continuous" error detection scheme using arithmetic coding that provides a novel tradeoff between the amount of added redundancy and the amount of time needed to detect an error once it occurs. This method of error detection is achieved through the use of an arithmetic codec, and has the attractive feature that it can be combined physically with arithmetic source coding, which is widely used in state-of-the-art image coders. We analytically optimize the tradeoff between added redundancy and error-detection time, achieving significant gains in bit rate throughput over conventional ARQ schemes for binary symmetric channel models for all probabilities of error.


Deciphering the ultimate source of chalcophile metals (e.g., Cu, Zn, Pb) in volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits and the volatiles that help drive their formation is critical for understanding where, how, and why VMS deposits form. The southern Kermadec arc volcanic front is known to be highly hydrothermally active and host to at least three VMS deposits, whereas the associated back -arc system is apparently hydrothermally inactive, although this may simply be due to a lack of exploration in this region. We have analyzed major, trace, and volatile element concentrations in a suite of basaltic glasses and olivine-hosted melt inclusions from volcanoes, ridges, and rifts of the southern Kermadec arc volcanic front and Havre Trough back-arc basin. These data indicate clear compositional differences in the mantle beneath the arc front and the back arc, with the arc front having higher extents of prior melt extraction and enrichment in volatile and metal elements from slab-derived aqueous fluids. The magmatic budget of Pb is supplied to the mantle source by these slab-derived fluids, whereas magmatic concentrations of Zn and Cu are primarily controlled by the degree of partial melting, with a Cu-bearing residual phase required in the mantle. Consequently, the relative enrichment of chalcophile metals in the mantle-derived melts is Pb >> Cu > Zn. The magma volatile history recorded by the glasses and melt inclusions indicates that degassing during crystal fractionation is significant and, notably, leads to the reduction of sulfur in the evolving magma as oxidized sulfur degasses preferentially. The apparent absence (or retention) of volatiles (notably CO 2 and SO 3 ) in magma chambers, lack of magmatic activity, and absence of hot, mafic dikes beneath volcanoes may be important factors in inhibiting the formation of active hydrothermal venting, and by extension the potential for VMS deposition.


This study is an evaluation of the 'Circle of Friends' (CoF) intervention used to support five pupils with a diagnosis of autism (the focus pupils) in their mainstream classrooms. Relevant theory and existing research is outlined before the study is described. A single case experimental design is used to evaluate the impact of the CoF intervention on the focus children's level of social inclusion (calculated from peer ratings). Results suggest that the CoF whole class meeting had an initial positive impact on all focus children's levels of peer acceptance and rejection. During the course of weekly CoF meetings, however, results suggest that this level of change was not maintained. For four of the five focus children, levels of peer acceptance and rejection generally returned to levels comparable to those observed prior to the start of the intervention. The study also reports some changes in measures taken before and after the CoF intervention. For four out of the five cases, a positive change in the focus children's happiness was observed. For three out of the five cases generally positive changes in adults' ratings of the focus children's behaviour were observed. In an attempt to understand how the CoF intervention works, attributions made by peers about one of the focus children's behaviour were explored before and after the CoF intervention though no clear overall change following the intervention was found. The results reported are examined in relation to the theory and research outlined in the Literature Review and the design, measures and procedures described in the Methodology. Limitations of the research are discussed and implications for practice and future research outlined.


In the last 5 years or so, new perception and control techniques have been developed and demonstrated which allow a to robot perform tasks in natural environments. Unfortunately, most efforts have resulted in one-of-a-kind robots, limited to research laboratories or carefully circumscribed venues. A user who would like to apply robotic technology to a particular real-world problem usually starts from scratch. The problem is that the robotic technology (i.e., the hardware and software) which might apply the user's domain exists in a diverse array of formats and configurations. For intelligent robotics to become a practical reality, an effort to standardize some aspects of robotic technology must be made. This paper proposes that this technology be thought of in ways which are similar to the standardization of personal computer technology. I envision a "plug and play" system in which a person can buy robotic hardware components from one vendor and intelligent application software from another. A final system would then be constructed by assembling "snap together" hardware and installing the software, without requiring that the user understand the inner workings of the system. This work presents some system requirements (hardware and software) and one implemented design for end-user robots. We conclude that such technology is possible today and necessary for the sharing of ideas as well as the rapid advancement of the field of intelligent robotics.


The genetics of cortical arealization in youth is not well understood. In this study, we use a genetically informative sample of 677 typically developing children and adolescents (mean age 12.72 years), high-resolution MRI, and quantitative genetic methodology to address several fundamental questions on the genetics of cerebral surface area. We estimate that >85% of the phenotypic variance in total brain surface area in youth is attributable to additive genetic factors. We also observed pronounced regional variability in the genetic influences on surface area, with the most heritable areas seen in primary visual and visual association cortex. A shared global genetic factor strongly influenced large areas of the frontal and temporal cortex, mirroring regions that are the most evolutionarily novel in humans relative to other primates. In contrast to studies on older populations, we observed statistically significant genetic correlations between measures of surface area and cortical thickness (rG = 0.63), suggestive of overlapping genetic influences between these endophenotypes early in life. Finally, we identified strong and highly asymmetric genetically mediated associations between Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient and left perisylvian surface area, particularly receptive language centers. Our findings suggest that spatially complex and temporally dynamic genetic factors are influencing cerebral surface area in our species. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Over evolution, the human cortex has undergone massive expansion. In humans, patterns of neurodevelopmental expansion mirror evolutionary changes. However, there is a sparsity of information on how genetics impacts surface area maturation. Here, we present a systematic analysis of the genetics of cerebral surface area in youth. We confirm prior research that implicates genetics as the dominant force influencing individual differences in global surface area. We also find evidence that evolutionarily novel brain regions share common genetics, that overlapping genetic factors influence both area and thickness in youth, and the presence of strong genetically mediated associations between intelligence and surface area in language centers. These findings further elucidate the complex role that genetics plays in brain development and function.


An increasing body of archaeological and genomic evidence has hinted at a complex settlement process of the Americas by humans. This is especially true for South America, where unexpected ancestral signals have raised perplexing scenarios for the early migrations into different regions of the continent. Here, we present ancient human genomes from the archaeologically rich Northeast Brazil and compare them to ancient and present-day genomic data. We find a distinct relationship between ancient genomes from Northeast Brazil, Lagoa Santa, Uruguay and Panama, representing evidence for ancient migration routes along South America's Atlantic coast. To further add to the existing complexity, we also detect greater Denisovan than Neanderthal ancestry in ancient Uruguay and Panama individuals. Moreover, we find a strong Australasian signal in an ancient genome from Panama. This work sheds light on the deep demographic history of eastern South America and presents a starting point for future fine-scale investigations on the regional level.


This article discusses the use of fast (60 frames per second) object tracking using the COGNACHROME VISION SYSTEM, produced by Newton Research Labs. The authors embedded the vision system in a small robot base to tie for first place in the Clean Up the Tennis Court event at the 1996 Annual AAAI Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition, held as part of the Thirteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Of particular interest is that the authors' entry was the only robot capable of using a gripper to capture and pick up the motorized, randomly moving squiggle ball. Other examples of robotic systems using fast vision tracking are also presented, such as a robot arm capable of catching thrown objects and the soccer-playing robot team that won the 1996 Micro Robot World Cup Soccer Tournament in Taejon, Korea.


Handling production scheduling is increasingly difficult for manyenterprises, and human involvement is necessary. The overall objective ofthis research was to gain further understanding of planners' and schedulers'work within the manufacturing industry, to elucidate how their worksituation is formed, and to explain their significance to other employees'work and company activities. Scheduling work was studied in fourcompanies in the Swedish woodworking industry; a sawmill, a parquet floormanufacturer, a furniture manufacturer and a house manufacturer. Themethod used was activity analysis which is based on the analysis of workactivities in real work situations. Data collection included 20 days'observations and 65 interviews. Cross-case analysis with British cases onplanning work was also included.The findings revealed that the schedulers' tasks lead to many activities. Twothirds of these are what can be expected. The remaining third constitutesactivities that depend on the schedulers' individual attributes and the contextin which they work. The schedulers serve as problem solvers in a number ofdomains and constitute efficient information nodes, making them animportant service function. Furthermore, they have an alignment rolebetween different organizational groups. This role is specifically remarkablein dealing with production enquiries that must be aligned with productioncapability. Here, both planners and schedulers play an essential role inlinking the manufacturing and the commercial sides and their differentfunctional logics.Planners and schedulers in daily work exert strong influence on others. Theydo not hold legitimate power. Instead their influence emanates mainly fromaccess to and control of information and their ability to apply expertise tointerpret this information and examine the impact of decisions made acrossdifferent areas of the business. Personal power related to social skills is alsosignificant.Furthermore, they facilitate others' work in continuous personalinteractions, serving the technical scheduling software system, and aligningdifferent organizational functions. In combination with expert knowledgeand developed social skills, they significantly contribute to quality operationsperformance. Finally, the schedulers influence the decision latitude of otheremployees and may indirectly promote job satisfaction, thus contributing todeveloping appropriate working conditions for others in the company.


Objective: Gastric dilatation also known as gastrointestinal obstruction or bloat is an acute and life-threatening condition in pet rabbits commonly caused by an intestinal obstruction with pellets, foreign bodies and compressed hair. Methods: In June 2014, a two years old male New Zealand white rabbit were referred to Karaj Central Veterinary hospital, Karaj, Iran with the history of acute anorexia and severe bloat. Results: Gastrointestinal obstruction was confirmed according to historical data, clinical examination and radiographic findings. Although surgery is the treatment of choice for this problem in most cases, the medical treatment was substituted for surgery due to restrictions by the owner and it was successful.


ABSTRACT Punicalagin, an essential component of pomegranate rind, has been demonstrated to possess antimicrobial activity against several food-borne pathogens, but its activity on the virulence of pathogens and its anti-quorum-sensing (anti-QS) potential have been rarely reported. This study investigated the efficacy of subinhibitory concentrations of punicalagin on Salmonella virulence factors and QS systems. A broth microdilution method was used to determine the MICs of punicalagin for 10 Salmonella strains. Motility assay and quantitative reverse transcription (RT)-PCR were performed to evaluate the effects of punicalagin on the virulence attributes and QS-related genes of Salmonella. The MICs of punicalagin for several Salmonella strains ranged from 250 to 1,000 μg/ml. Motility assays showed that punicalagin, at 1/16× MIC and 1/32× MIC, significantly decreased bacterial swimming and swarming motility, which corresponded to downregulation of the motility-related genes (fliA, fliY, fljB, flhC, and fimD) in RT-PCR assays. RT-PCR also revealed that punicalagin downregulated the expression of most of the selected genes involved in Salmonella virulence. Moreover, a QS inhibition assay indicated that punicalagin dose dependently inhibited the production of violacein by Chromobacterium violaceum and repressed the expression of QS-related genes (sdiA and srgE) in Salmonella. In addition, punicalagin significantly reduced Salmonella invasion of colonic cells (P < 0.01) with no impact on adhesion. These findings suggest that punicalagin has the potential to be developed as an alternative or supplemental agent for prevention of Salmonella infection.


We present a novel solution technique for the blind subspace deconvolution (BSSD) problem, where temporal convolution of multidimensional hidden independent components is observed and the task is to uncover the hidden components using the observation only. We carry out this task for the undercomplete case (uBSSD): we reduce the original uBSSD task via linear prediction to independent subspace analysis (ISA), which we can solve. As it has been shown recently, applying temporal concatenation can also reduce uBSSD to ISA, but the associated ISA problem can easily become `high dimensional' [1]. The new reduction method circumvents this dimensionality problem. We perform detailed studies on the efficiency of the proposed technique by means of numerical simulations. We have found several advantages: our method can achieve high quality estimations for smaller number of samples and it can cope with deeper temporal convolutions.


We provide new theory and evidence on the role of consumption access in understanding the agglomeration of economic activity. We combine smartphone data that records user location every 5 minutes of the day with economic census data on the location of service-sector establishments to measure commuting and non-commuting trips within the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area. We show that non-commuting trips are frequent, more localized than commuting trips, strongly related to the availability of nontraded services, and occur along trip chains. Guided by these empirical findings, we develop a quantitative urban model that incorporates travel to work and travel to consume non-traded services. Using the structure of the model, we estimate theoretically-consistent measures of travel access, and show that consumption access makes a sizable contribution relative to workplace access in explaining the observed variation in residents and land prices across locations. Undertaking counterfactuals for changes in travel costs, we show that abstracting from consumption trips leads to a substantial underestimate of the welfare gains from a transport improvement (because of the undercounting of trips) and leads to a distorted picture of changes in travel patterns within the city (because of the different geography of commuting and non-commuting trips).


Apart from their contribution in the water balance of Lake Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, subaquatic springs are also expected to affect the water quality. A simple experiment was developed and applied to subaquatic spring in Kalista region (south-east of Kalista village, in the north-western part of the Lake) and at the spring at Veli Dab (eastern side of the Lake) based on physicochemical spring water properties. Different sampling methods were established with the aim of uncovering a more suitable way of sampling pure subaquatic spring water. The goal was to test these findings and adapt them for further analysis with higher temporal and measurement related resolution. Measurements were also aimed at gathering additional knowledge and methodology for characterizing the hydrogeology of the watersheds. Of interest was information on the general chemical composition of spring water, interactions between aquifer and groundwater and on the origins of groundwater. Integration of this knowledge adds to a better understanding on how and what kind of groundwater is delivered to Lake Ohrid. The obtained results show that the examined springs are rich in nutrients and, comparing to Lake water, exhibit temporal variations in temperature, pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen. Investigated springs have a very constant flow, as well as water quality.


Food-derived bioactive peptides are being used as important functional ingredients for health-promoting foods and nutraceuticals in recent times in order to prevent and manage several diseases thanks to their biological activities. Bioactive peptides are specific protein fractions, which show broad applications in cosmetics, food additives, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antithrombotic, and angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory ingredients. These peptides can preserve consumer health by retarding chronic diseases owing to modulation or improvement of the physiological functions of human body. They can also affect functional characteristics of different foods such as dairy products, fermented beverages, and plant and marine proteins. This manuscript reviews different aspects of bioactive peptides concerning their biological (antihypertensive, antioxidative, antiobesity, and hypocholesterolemic) and functional (water holding capacity, solubility, emulsifying, and foaming) properties. Moreover, the properties of several bioactive peptides extracted from different foods as potential ingredients to formulate health promoting foods are described. Thus, multifunctional properties of bioactive peptides provide the possibility to formulate or develop novel healthy food products.


Research into court interpreting has shown that interpreters can have an impact on the case in many different ways. However, the extent to which this occurs depends on several factors, including the interpreter's competence, ethics and specialized training in court interpreting, as well as working conditions. One little explored aspect is whether use of consecutive vs. simultaneous interpreting can impact jurors' perception of a witness or other interpreted party. This paper reports on the results of a large-scale experimental study, with a simulated trial run in different conditions, involving a total of 447 mock jurors. The aim was to identify any differences in the way jurors in Australian courts might assess the evidence of an accused called as a witness, in a monolingual hearing as well as when interpreted consecutively and simultaneously from Spanish to English. Overall, jurors' recollection of case facts did not differ significantly for the three conditions, though it was lower for consecutive during the afternoon. Jurors also found consecutive more distracting; on the other hand, the consecutive mode was associated with significantly more favourable perception of the accused's evidence than simultaneous interpreting or monolingual communication. Although jurors found the prosecution to be less convincing when the accused's evidence was interpreted consecutively compared to the other proceedings, the interpretation mode made no difference to the verdict.


Sensitive research presents particular challenges for the qualitative researcher because it involves topics that are stressful and may cause emotional pain for both the participants and researcher (McCosker & Berber, 2001). This paper presents challenges I have experienced in researching with registered nurse participants, who like me, had cared for a dying family member in palliative care. The research was inspired by my curiosity about what it was like for other nurses living within their family and community as a nurse and how they managed the complexities caring for a dying family member brought to their lives.

Face to face interviews with these nurses made me aware of the participants' vulnerability, and my own, in sharing experiences about loss and bereavement. As the interviews progressed I realized how much I shared the participants' culture; linguistically, relationally and experientially (Harper, 2003). While shared identities and experiences give qualitative nurse researchers particular skills and insights (Leslie & McAllister, 2002), my relationship to the topic, and with the participants, had to be made explicit in writing up the research. The term reflexivity describes this process of explaining how the researcher's experience has influenced the research.

As the research progressed I realized that I was having trouble asking the 'hard to ask' questions in the research interviews. Counselling, undertaken as part of the ethics approval for the research, reflected my own words and actions back to me. It allowed me to see how the idea of vulnerability and a desire to avoid harm had preoccupied my thinking about the participants. I was turning the audio-tape off the moment participants became distressed and backing away from exploring sensitive issues.

Reflexivity involves being able to think critically about the self and others, with a robust and open curiosity about how we find ourselves situated in events and interpret the behaviour of other people and ourselves (Coles, 1992). It creates deeper insight and understanding of what it means to be a researcher by facilitating awareness of the effects of my own actions and values in gathering data and making decisions in the research (Harper, 2003).


Abstract Researchers in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts within Australia are frequently faced with the challenges of working in an intercultural space where channels of communication are garbled with interference created by the complexities of misunderstood worldviews, languages, values and expectations. A concern of many researchers in these contexts is to ensure that the voices of research participants in remote communities are not only accurately represented, but are allowed to transcend the noise of dominant paradigms, policies and practices. This article brings together the experiences of four non-indigenous researchers in the space of remote vocational education and training. The authors present two vignettes from research in the context of health, employment and education. These vignettes highlight some of the conundrums for researchers as they attempt to harmonize the aims of research with the expectations of organizations involved. The purpose of the article is to explore the utility of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Indigenist methodologies, culturally responsive methodologies and those positioned at the 'cultural interface' (Nakata 2007). In so doing this article makes some assessments about the fit of CRT methodologies for such contexts.


Mathematics and Science education is very important for any nation to realise meaningful economic development. Most studies looking at this important aspect of education focus on post primary to tertiary education leaving the primary level which is a foundation for those levels making the story incomplete. This study explored the dynamics of primary school teaching of Mathematics and Science with respect to the subject matter content knowledge for Mathematics and Science by the pre-service and in-service primary school teachers in Lesotho. The study assessed the Mathematics and Science subject content of 85 first-year pre-service teachers at the College of Education and 22 in-service as reflected in their scores in the national examinations at three levels: Primary School Leaving Education, Junior Certificate and Cambridge School Certificate. This was followed by a questionnaire to assess their views on subject specialisation as a remedy for poor performance. The results revealed that there are some teachers who have never passed Mathematics and Science at any level of education examined nationally, thus making it difficult and uncomfortable for these teachers to teach these subjects effectively as demonstrated by 14% of the in-service teachers. A large majority (77%) recommended the introduction of subject specialisation to commence at primary school level in order to improve Mathematics and Science performance.


We consider a production system in a general configuration with a new control strategy: the push mechanism for the part transport and the kanban technique for the work-in-process (WIP). The production system is composed of many stations such as an entrance station, a set of work stations, a central station, and an exit station, that are arranged in a general configuration. The push mechanism is followed for transporting a part from a station to a destination station. The kanban technique is adopted for controlling the WIP in a work station. The production system is modeled by a closed queuing network in a general configuration with a Markov part sending mechanism and a machine no blocking (MNB) technique. An optimal part sending policy that maximizes the expected system throughput is formulated into a long run average semi-Markov decision process. Three solution approaches are developed for obtaining optimal or suboptimal solutions. Numerical examples are given to evaluate the quality of the solutions obtained by the solution approaches.


If there were a Richter scale for the impact of low interest rates on various banking functions, recent rate trends would barely register for cash management. While low rates have challenged banks' deposit, investment, and lending operations (see the special report in this issue), bank cash management service executives say their business has been affected very little. "It's pretty much been business as usual," says John Rodelli, senior vice-president-product management, at Chicago's Continental Bank. The executives and other experts in the field say cash management service has become so ingrained in corporations' way of doing modem business that usage has little to do with the level of rates anymore. "Even in this environment, there are still advantages to getting cash in earlier," says Jack M. Meckler, president of cash management consultants Phoenix-Hecht, Research Triangle Park, N.C. Besides, Meckler says, "I think everybody realizes this is probably a temporary phenomenon." The high rates of past years enticed more corporations to adopt cash management techniques, and they have stuck around. "It was the high rates that drove banks to the wide array of products we have today," says Cornelia Foster, senior vice-president in the global payment services product management section at San Francisco's Bank of America. Now, Foster continues, the value of cash management is as much a matter of control as return. "We're telling our customers where their payables and receivables are in the cycle of payment," she explains, "and the control aspect holds no matter what the interest-rate environment is." As evidence of this, Foster points out that corporations used to resist use of the automated clearinghouse for payments. They felt the ACH robbed them of float. Since then, the rising cost of handling checks and the increased control granted by electronics encourages them to make the switch. Quest for efficiency. More and more, corporations are looking to cash management service as a means of improving internal efficiency. In many cases, this is a matter of tapping banks as a replacement for internal resources. Companies have discovered that many treasury department functions can be outsourced, according to David D. Fox, partner in the Greenwich Associates consulting firm, Greenwich, Conn. "Overall, there's a lot of talk about `right-sizing' the company," says Fox. "People are looking to wring costs out of the treasury operation to become more competitive," says James S. Wolf, a certified cash manager who is first vice-president and national sales director for Mellon Bank's global cash management service. Functions that outsiders can automate while spreading costs among many users are a particular target, says Wolf. Take reconcilement. Wolf says the advent of desktop copiers and related technology has made check fraud easier and more widespread. The prevalence of faked corporate checks not only exposes the customer to losses, but adds to the burden of reconcilement. Wolf says bank services that produce lists of suspect checks trim losses and staff time. Larger customers "are very focused on reducing back-office cost," says William M. Fenimore Jr., executive vice-president at Philadelphia National Bank, a subsidiary of CoreStates Financial Corp. He refers to a recent day spent with a large Chicago corporate customer. "They are typical of most of the Fortune 1,000 companies," he says. The firm has wrung virtually all the excess out of its balance sheet already and has explored means of automating employee-intensive functions. "The challenge to banks is going to be replacing customers' staffs with our resources while still making a profit," says Fenimore. Impact on banks. Corporations' desire for increased efficiency hasn't always worked to each bank provider's advantage. Some providers get dropped, and even the winners may find themselves facing thinner returns on what they've won. …


Citrus essential oils (EO) are potential antimicrobials, first described as such in 1949 by Piacentini. Due to their acceptability in terms of fragrance and flavour characteristics, they lend themselves to use both in food and in clinical practice. Lemon (Citrus limon) or sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) or bergamot (Citrus bergamia) essential oils and their components (limonene, linalool, citral, hersipidin and neoericitrin) and vapours at different temperatures and pHs were tested for their anti-microbial activity against vancomycin-sensitive Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis. Lemon essential oil alone or blended and orange EO alone were not as effective as citral or linalool alone or bergamot blends with inhibition diameters of > 9cm. The ranges established for differences in inhibition of growth were; 5-15°C, 20-25°C, 30-45°C and 50°C (p ≤ 0.005) and pHs 4.5-6.5, pH 7.5, and pHs 8.5 —10.5 (p ≤ 0.001). A blend of 1:1 (v/v) orange/bergamot EO was the most effective with MICs at 25°C and pH 5.5 of 0.25% - 0.5% (v/v) and an MID of 50mg/i at 50°C at pH 7.5, under these conditions viable counts were reduced by 5.5 - 10 log10 cfu/ml (p ≤ 0.001). The mechanisms by which a blend of orange/bergamot EO and its vapour bring about their antimicrobial effect were assessed. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images established morphological changes as well as suggesting EO blend uptake into the cell. The permeability of the cell increased by x2 after being subjected to the EO and by x40 after exposure to the vapour. There were decreases of 1.5 in intracellular pH, 20 a.u. in membrane potential and 18 pmol/mg protein of intracellular ATP. The application of the EO blend impregnated into wipes reduced surface microbial load of vancomycin resistant and vancomycin susceptible E. faecium and E. faecalis by up to 4 log10 compared with control wipes (p ≤ 0.00 1). The use of the EO blend vapour on surfaces resulted in a 2.5 log10 reduction over 24 hours, whilst the vapours (15mg/L air) showed a microbial reduction of up to 4 log10 on cucumber skin and lettuce leaf after 45 seconds exposure via a heat diffuser at 25°C (p ≤ 0.001). Sensory tests demonstrated that there were no changes to the taste of the foodstuff after treatment with the EO blend vapour compared with untreated controls. Investigations into the applications of the EO blend showed no significant difference in effect of EO blend between vancomycin resistant and vancomycin susceptible strains. The results of this study suggest that the use of a citrus essential blend both in oil and vapour form could be a potential alternative to chemical based antimicrobial


Evaluation of real‐time rainfall forecast at the hobli (village cluster ∼10 km2) level from an atmospheric mesoscale model over Karnataka (located at southwest India, with nearly 56% of the workforce engaged in agricultural activities) for the southwest (June–September) and northeast (October–December) monsoon seasons of 2011 is presented in this study. The forecast system has been operationally implemented through data assimilation from a number of local observatories for effective applications as well as for proof of concept. A highlight of the study is the validation of the rainfall forecasts against observations at comparable resolution established by Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, Government of Karnataka (KSNDMC). An evaluation of the forecast skill against daily observed rainfall is presented. A number of statistical evaluations show that the forecasts have enough skill to be useful for end users. A few areas of systematic bias and relatively higher forecast error were identified for further improvement in forecast skill.


A great deal of work has been done recently on developing techniques for proving deadlock freedom for wormhole routing algorithms. One approach has been to restrict the class of routing algorithms for which the proof technique applies. The other approach is to provide a generic method that can be applied to all routing algorithms. Although this latter approach offers clear advantages, a general technique must deal with many complications. Foremost among these is the issue of irreducible cyclic dependencies that cannot result in deadlock. Such dependencies have been referred to alternatively as unreachable configurations and false resource cycles. In this paper, we apply the notion of unreachable cyclic configurations to oblivious routing algorithms. An oblivious routing algorithm is thus constructed that is deadlock-free, even though there are cycles in the channel dependency graph. The idea of unreachable configurations is then further developed to show various restrictions on when such configurations cart exist with oblivious routing algorithms. Finally, the example is generalized to allow the construction of larger networks with unreachable cycles. One benefit of characterizing when unreachable cyclic configurations can occur is that proving deadlock freedom is simplified for networks in which unreachable cycles cannot exist. Another contribution of this work is a first step toward a more formal model of unreachable cycles in wormhole-routed networks.


Objectives: To investigate the association of left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction with blood coagulation, platelet activity and inflammatory response in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and sinus rhythm. Patients and main outcome measures: In 42 patients with HCM with sinus rhythm, including 16 patients with resting LVOT obstruction (gradient ⩾30 mm Hg) and 29 age- and sex-matched controls, markers of thrombin generation (thrombin–antithrombin complex (TAT), prothrombin fragment 1+2 (F1+2)), platelet activation (soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), β-thromboglobulin (β-TG), P-selectin) and inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)6, tumour necrosis factor-α (TNFα)) were determined. Results: Thrombin, platelet and inflammatory markers were higher in the entire HCM group than in controls (p<0.005 for all compared parameters). Compared with non-obstructive HCM, obstructive HCM was associated with increased thrombin formation (TAT, F1+2), platelet activation (sCD40L, β-TG, P-selectin) and both CRP and IL6 levels. Only the level of TNFα was similar in both forms of HCM. In contrast, a comparison of non-obstructive HCM with controls showed that all these variables (except for P-selectin) were similar; P-selectin was higher in non-obstructive HCM. The LVOT gradient correlated positively with all the raised blood markers (r from 0.39 to 0.73; p<0.05), except for TNFα. In multiple regression analysis models, the LVOT gradient was the only independent predictor of TAT (R2 = 0.61; p<0.001), sCD40L (R2 = 0.59; p<0.001), F1+2 (R2 = 0.55; p = 0.002), P-selectin (R2 = 0.49; p = 0.004) and β-TG (R2 = 0.38; p = 0.005) in patients with HCM. Conclusions: LVOT obstruction is independently associated with enhanced thrombin generation and platelet activity in patients with HCM with sinus rhythm.


CASE DESCRIPTION This case analysis examines the process of developing and implementing a disaster recovery plan. The case (1) discusses some of the inherent problems that large organizations face in developing an effective disaster recovery plan, and (2) highlights the challenges of implementing a disaster recovery plan in the face of real world events that vary from the plan's initial assumptions. This material is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses in risk management, information systems, and business continuity planning. The case is designed to supplement a general discussion of disaster recovery planning, and disaster risk management. CASE SYNOPSIS Developing a disaster recovery plan is a challenging process for most organizations, requiring plan developers to strike an appropriate balance between breadth and detail. In 2001, the Chief Financial Office organization began a disaster recovery process that was completed in the early part of September 2001. This case reviews the process used by Merrill Lynch's CFO organization to develop a disaster recovery plan, and the challenges faced in implementing this plan following the events of September 11, 2001. INTRODUCTION A broad scope of disasters can incapacitate a company's operations. The "disaster spectrum" can range from natural catastrophes, such as a tornado or hurricane, to "man-made" tragedies such as terrorist attacks. Developing a plan that can handle the gamut of possible events is particularly challenging, because plan developers must weigh the benefits of broad applicability against the need for sufficient detail to be useful in the event of a disaster. Given that it would be infeasible to formulate specific responses for the entire disaster spectrum, plan developers often struggle to devise a plan that strikes the appropriate balance between sufficient plan detail and broad based applicability. If the plan is too focused, the company may find itself with a well formulated plan that does not apply to the disaster at hand. Conversely, if the plan is too broadly developed its usefulness may be limited in the event of an actual disaster. It is therefore imperative that companies frame their business continuity planning parameters to ensure some flexibility, while at the same time providing a detailed enough framework to be effective across the broad spectrum of possible disasters. One of the most critical aspects in developing a comprehensive disaster plan involves choosing the parameters and assumptions to use during plan development. These elements define the ultimate structure of the plan and, therefore, its elasticity and effectiveness. A number of situational factors will often influence this choice. A company's location in southern California, for example, may make it particularly susceptible to earthquakes; a business site close to the North Carolina coast, on the other hand, may make hurricanes more pertinent. Aside from explicit spectrum considerations, however, corporate culture or employee biases and attitudes may also drive the parameters and implicitly affect the assumptions. It is important for developers to consciously recognize these influences so that they can evaluate what areas on the disaster spectrum are vulnerable. STRUCTURING DISASTER RECOVERY PLANS A common error that many companies make in developing a disaster recovery plan is that they focus on developing detailed protocols at the expense of plan flexibility. These "structured plans" outline in detail the actions that business units and individuals must take in the event of a disaster. They often include implicit or explicit assumptions about the nature of the disaster event, which directly influence the design of disaster protocols and recovery procedures. However, the usefulness of the plan could be severely diminished if the observed conditions vary significantly from the plan assumptions. While the functionality of "structured plans" can be limited by their lack of flexibility, plans that are developed with insufficient depth can be equally problematic. …


Early career teaching is a difficult phase to navigate with many newly qualified teachers choosing to leave the profession within the first few years. The professional identities of these and other teachers are shaped by challenging and unanticipated experiences. The schools where this teaching takes place also have profound influence on these teachers' individual responses to their new roles. This paper reports on how the contexts and professional environments of fourteen early career teachers contributed to the establishment of three distinct trajectories of teacher identity: the emergent, tenuous and distressed. An examination of their developing identities revealed the influential experiences and individual responses that were connected to how the novice teachers understood and explained themselves with and through influential others. These descriptions and representations of themselves shaped their future actions and evolving beliefs. These were then implicated in their identity trajectories, which in turn contributed to their professional traction or early exit from the profession.


This article endeavours to elucidate on the intellectual property (IP) audit and focuses on comprehensive procedure of the same, not only from an organization's perspective but from an auditor's perspective as well. The article also dwells on India specific IP audits, which are tad different from the audits in developed economies, although incorporating a few steps from the standard audits would yield enhanced outcome. The second part of the article endows with the factual scenario of IP audits in India. While generation of IP has become a routine affair, the technique of its management and protection continues to remain unidentified by most businesses. Thus IP audit plays a significant role in serving the purpose of reaping benefits from the IP generated. Additionally, it plays a key role in a circumstance which involves private/public funded research. In such a research deriving profits, protecting IP generated and commercialization of the same cannot be disregarded given the magnitude of the investments involved. Although ensuring a return on investment from IP has become a norm in today's economy, there still are entities whose primary focus is not generation and commercialization of their IP, but mitigating plausible risks that may arise due to negligence. IP audits have a pertinent role to play in such entities, as mitigating IP related risk is as important as its protection and management. One should also note that an IP audit is an optimum level exercise and seeks a high level focus for a profitable result. An uninformed mind coupled with non-co-operation from the entity in whole or part could not only cripple the effect of a sound/upright audit but also make it an expensive affair. Generally, an institution or the entertainment industry, like in the case studies illustrated in the article, may usually perform an audit every six months where generation of IP is frequent, while a technology based company can go for an audit once in two to three years based on their need/objective. Keyword: IP audit, intellectual property, IP policy, IP audit process, intangible assets


Over the years, there has been global interest in the energy sector and its mechanism especially the huge and irreversible capital outlay ploughed into this industry. This interest has been strengthened by pivotal roles played by most energy (oil) producing countries of the world such as Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Nigeria etc in world economics as well as the advancement in the study of Petroleum Economics. This thesis examines the future of the West African Gas Pipeline Project on Gas Market development in the West African Sub Region exploring issues of pricing, third party access, finance and financing risk. I study the characteristics of gas market as a natural monopoly and proceeded to an overview of the nature of the gas industry in some European countries. Subsequently, I look at the theoretical approach to increasing gas supplies with a view to study how there could be varying incentive to invest in new gas capacity and new gas projects. Bearing in mind the role of finance in all this, the financing risk issues are discussed at great length while specific risks in gas projects are brought to light. The West African Gas Pipeline is also given prominent attention exploring all the issues that could arise during the course and after project completion. I conclude that if the pipeline company has access to supplies from more than one source, it would at least in the simplest cases buy only the cheapest source and the cost of gas from the next cheapest source would effectively put a limit on how much the cheapest supplier could get for his gas.


Despite the efficacy of behavior therapy for human anxiety disorders, extinction-like treatments require repeated cue exposures and are vulnerable to reversal by a number of environmental factors, particularly stress. The endocannabinoid system has recently emerged as important in the regulation of extinction learning and in the regulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Here, we aimed to examine the involvement of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) in inhibitory avoidance (IA) conditioning and extinction and to test whether cannabinoid activation would reverse the effects of stress on these memory processes. The synthetic full agonist of the CB1/CB2 receptor WIN55,212-2 [R-(+)-(2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-[(4-morpholinyl)methyl]pyrol[1,2,3-de]-1,4- benzoxazin-6-yl)(1-naphthalenyl) methanone monomethanesulfonate] (5 μg/0.5 μl) microinjected into the BLA had no effect on IA conditioning or extinction by itself. However, microinjecting WIN55,212-2 into the BLA before exposing the rats to a stressor reversed the enhancing effects of the stressor on IA conditioning and its impairing effects on IA extinction. Importantly, WIN55,212-2 microinjected into the BLA reduced stress-induced elevations in corticosterone levels. Control experiments demonstrated the following: (1) the effects of WIN55,212-2 could not be attributed to sensorimotor deficits, because these parameters seemed unchanged by WIN55,212-2 microinjected into the BLA; and (2) the CB1 receptor in the BLA is crucially involved in the extinction of IA, because the CB1 receptor antagonist AM251 [N-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-5-(4-iodophenyl)-4-methyl-N-1-piperidinyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide] (6 ng/0.5 μl) microinjected into the BLA significantly blocked extinction. Together, our findings may support a wide therapeutic application for cannabinoids in the treatment of conditions associated with the inappropriate retention of aversive memories and stress-related disorders.


. We construct a homogeneous subspace of 2 ω whose complement is dense in 2 ω and rigid. Using the same method, assuming Martin's Ax-iom, we also construct a countable dense homogeneous subspace of 2 ω whose complement is dense in 2 ω and rigid.


Inequality in earned wages is in our western society on the increase. Social mobility is on the decrease. The contribution of education to equality of opportunity is decreasing, because education adapts more slowly to the increasing complexities of our societies than the home and social environment of the upper class and the upper part of the middle class. These are the forewarnings of a meltdown of the nuclear fusion reactor providing the energy of our societies: trust between social groups and hope of social betterment now and in the future for the next generation. Can meltdown be prevented by education, by a renaissance of social mobility and what social engineering would be needed to bring this about? This is the main question we address here, focused on K-12 (as well as Early Childhood Development), against a substantiation of the above background. We address this question in the context of the transition from high school to postsecondary education. This paper is written for a seminar-session on the transition of youngsters through the education system, from ECD through K-12 from the perspective of the potential future participation in higher education and from the prospects of children for a future, solid position in society, which always starts with the position on the labour market.


BACKGROUND
Inflammatory biomarkers, including C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, and the systemic immune-inflammation index, have been proposed as prognostic factors diverse pathologies. However, their application for deep neck infections has yet to be clarified.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We performed a retrospective study of 163 adult patients with diagnosis of deep neck infections with the aim to evaluate the association between serological biomarkers with complications and outcomes of patients with DNI. Studied variables included demographic data, complications of DNI, outcomes, complications and death of the included subjects. The evaluated serological biomarkers were hemoglobin, leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, glucose, creatinine, albumin, CRP, and ESR. NLR, PLR, and SIII index were estimated.

RESULTS
The patients' mean age was 40.6 ± 15.3 years. Complications of DNI were observed in 19.6% (n=32) patients, being the need for tracheostomy due to airway obstruction (11%, n=18) and mediastinitis (8.6%, n= 14) the most common. Evaluated subjects had an increased value of serological biomarkers (SII index 2639.9 ± 2062.9, NLR 11.3 ± 8.5, PLR 184.1 ± 108.5, CRP 12.6 ± 8.9 mg/dL, ESR 20.7 ± 9.1 mm/h). Patients with complications had a significantly higher value of all inflammatory parameters (p < 0.05). A SII index cut-off value of 2975 was selected from a ROC curve analysis. A sensitivity of 93.8%, specificity of 86.3%, a positive predictive value of 62.5%, and a negative predictive value of 98.3% are reported. The SII index was found to have an increased positive predictive value compared to NLR, PLR, and CRP for DNI complications.

CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis concluded that the SII index, NLR, and PLR are valuable biomarkers to assess the risk of complications from DNI. SII index showed a high accuracy for prediction of DNI complications with a cut-off value of 2975.


Ethnographic research is one of the most in-depth research methods possible. Because the researcher is at a research site for a long time and sees what people are doing as well as what they say they are doing – an ethnographer obtains a deep understanding of the people, the organization, and the broader context within which they work. Ethnographic research is thus well suited to providing information systems researchers with rich insights into the human, social, and organizational aspects of information systems. This article discusses the potential of ethnographic research for IS researchers, and outlines the most important issues that need to be considered in selecting this method.


This haunting collection of photographs reflects the surreal vision of the New York collector W.M. Hunt. The photographs have a common theme the gaze of the subject is averted, the face obscured or the eyes firmly closed and range from Andre Breton's self-portrait with eyes closed to Ruth Snyder in the electric chair in 1928 and from Weegee's multi-imaged portrait of Andy Warhol in sunglasses to Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs of the artist Alice Neel with her eyes closed. The pictures present a catalogue of anti-portraiture, characterized at first glance by what its subject conceal, not by what the camera reveals. The continuous plate section, broadly ordered as a portrait of humanity from birth to death, has a commentary by Hunt running through it, in which he offers his own intense and perceptive responses to the images he has gathered over many years, as well as insights into the psychology of collecting.


The long-term proposal to license building practitioners, a reality from 1 st March 2012, marks a significant retreat from the strong pioneering tradition of self-help building that historically has been a significant element in small-scale construction within New Zealand. The Licensed Building Practitioner's Scheme (LBP) is another government initiative prompted by criticism of the systemic deficiencies within the NZ building industry by the 2002 Hunn Report. Its implementation restricts most design and construction of residential buildings to licensed personnel. The Government views the Licensed Building Practitionersscheme as part of an ongoing process to increase trade skill levels and building quality within the industry. It is also part of a process toshiftresponsibility for building oversight from the public to private industry, and hencelessen the financial burden to the New Zealand tax and ratepayer from poor supervision and decision makingpractices on the part of local government. This paper will provide a brief history of the controversy surrounding building under performance. It will examine the role proposed for the Licensed Building Practitioner and the role LBP's will play within the building industry. Submissions on the merits of the scheme, made in response to a request for feedback to the Building Act Review in 2010, are examined, evaluated and compared toan industry survey completed six months after the scheme's introduction in March of 2012. The paper supports the view that the transfer of responsibility, of which the LBP is a part, runs the risk of failure unless legislative and educational systems supporting the intended role have had time to coalesce and prove their effectiveness.


The objective of this retrospective study was to estimate using magnetic resonance imaging the size range of the pituitary gland in cats who had no evidence of pituitary disease. The pituitary gland was measured from transverse and sagittal magnetic resonance postgadolinium T1-weighted images in 17 cats. The cats were 0.83 to 15 years of age and weighed between 2.9 and 6.5 kg. Linear pituitary measurements were performed on a dedicated workstation using electronic calipers. Mean (+/- standard deviation) pituitary gland length was 0.54 cm (+/- 0.06 cm) and mean width was 0.50 cm (+/- 0.08 cm). Mean pituitary gland height measured on sagittal images was 0.34 cm (+/- 0.05) and measured on transverse images was 0.32 cm (+/- 0.04 cm). Mean pituitary volume was 0.05 cm3 (+/- 0.01 cm3). There was no significant correlation between cat weight (kg) and pituitary volume or age and pituitary volume. The pituitary gland appearance varied on pre- and postcontrast T1-weighted images. On the precontrast images, the majority of pituitary glands had a mixed signal intensity. On postcontrast images, uniform pituitary gland enhancement was seen commonly.


One-dimensional single crystal nanostructures have garnered much attention, from their low-dimensional physics to their technological uses, due to their unique properties and potential applications, from sensors to interconnects. There is an increasing interest in metallic titanium nanowires, yet their single crystal form has not been actualized. Vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) and template-assisted top-down methods are common means for nanowire synthesis; however, each has limitations with respect to nanowire composition and crystallinity. Here we show a simple electrochemical method to generate single crystal titanium nanowires on monocrystalline NiTi substrates. This work is a significant advance in addressing the challenge of growing single crystal titanium nanowires, which had been precluded by titanium's reactivity. Nanowires grew non-parallel to the surface and in a periodic arrangement along specific substrate directions; this behavior is attributed to a defect-driven mechanism. This synthesis technique ushers in new and rapid routes for single crystal metallic nanostructures, which have considerable implications for nanoscale electronics.


We present a dark current analysis in waveguide-coupled germanium vertical p-i-n photodetectors. In the analysis, a surface leakage current and a bulk leakage current were separated, and their activation energies were extracted. The surface leakage current originating from the minority carrier generation on the Ge layer sidewalls, governed by the Shockley-Read-Hall process and enhanced by the trap-assisted-tunneling process, was identified as the main contribution to the dark current of vertical p-i-n photodiodes at room temperature. The behavior of this surface leakage current as a function of temperature and reverse bias voltage is well reproduced by using the Hurckx model for trap-assisted-tunneling.


The rapidly growing amount of power harmonics injected by power electronic converter interfaced loads and distributed generator systems may cause serious power quality problems in the electrical power systems, such as harmonic losses, resonances, device malfunction, and even entire system instability. Power harmonics induced by power electronics converters usually concentrate on some specific frequencies. For instance, single-phase H-bridge converters mainly produce (4k ± 1) (k = 1, 2, . . . )-order power harmonics, while n-pulse (n = 6, 12, ...) converters, such as in high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems, mainly produce (nk + 1) (k = 1, 2, .. . )-order power harmonics [1-7], and also diode rectifiers loads used in many applications disturb the grid. As discussed in Chapter 2, the IMP-based fundamental periodic controllers fail to optimally compensate power harmonics with high control accuracy, while maintaining fast dynamic response, guaranteeing robustness, and being feasible for implementation. To address these issues, this chapter will explore advanced IMP-based PC technologies [8] for optimal power harmonics compensation. The general design methodology also comprises an internal model for selective power harmonic signals and synthesis methods for plug-in PC systems. These advanced PC schemes not only exploit the periodicity of reference/disturbance, but also account for its harmonic frequency distribution. The relationship between fundamental periodic controllers and advanced ones will be demonstrated.


Funding organisations commissioning their own open access publishing platforms is a relatively recent development in the OA environment, with the European Commission following the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation in financing such an initiative. But in what ways, for better or worse, do these new platforms disrupt or complement the scholarly communications landscape? Tony Ross-Hellauer, Birgit Schmidt and Bianca Kramer examine the ethical, organisational, and economic strengths and weaknesses of funder OA platforms to scope the opportunities and threats they present in the transition to OA. While they may help to increase OA uptake, control costs, and lower the administrative burden on researchers, possible unintended consequences include conflicts of interest, difficulties of scale, or potential vendor lock-in.


Accompanying the major BBC TV series, Richard Miles' "Ancient Worlds" tells the epic story of civilization, and the cities that made us who we are. The path of human progress is one of enlightenment and cruelty, achievement and bloodshed, creation and destruction. Here Richard Miles reaches back into our distant past to bring alive its most glorious and terrible people and places: from the first ever city in Mesopotamia to the death cults of Egypt, from the Phoenician seafarers who invented the alphabet to the brutal Assyrian empire, and on to the great city-states of Athens and Rome. By choosing to live together with strangers in vast urban settings, Miles shows, humans harnessed the very best and the worst of ourselves, setting civilization in motion and forging the modern world. "Epic and compelling". ("Daily Mail"). "An epic, spanning five millennia and half the globe". ("Daily Telegraph"). "Engaging ...full of interesting things about the radical social experiment of the city-state, and the new ways of living it permitted". ("Independent"). ""Ancient Worlds" really does put flesh on the bones of history and Richard Miles brings long lost cities to life". ("Observer"). Richard Miles is the author of "Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization". A six-part TV series of "Ancient Worlds" was broadcast on BBC2 in 2011. He teaches classics at the University of Sydney and was previously a Newton Trust Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics and Fellow and Director of Studies at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.


Experiments were done on sink flow turbulent boundary layers over a wide range of streamwise pressure gradients in order to investigate the effects on the mean velocity profiles. Measurements revealed the existence of non-universal logarithmic laws, in both inner and defect coordinates, even when the mean velocity descriptions departed strongly from the universal logarithmic law (with universal values of the Kármán constant and the inner law intercept). Systematic dependences of slope and intercepts for inner and outer logarithmic laws on the strength of the pressure gradient were observed. A theory based on the method of matched asymptotic expansions was developed in order to explain the experimentally observed variations of log-law constants with the non-dimensional pressure gradient parameter (Δp=(ν/ρU3τ)dp/dx). Towards this end, the system of partial differential equations governing the mean flow was reduced to inner and outer ordinary differential equations in self-preserving form, valid for sink flow conditions. Asymptotic matching of the inner and outer mean velocity expansions, extended to higher orders, clearly revealed the dependence of slope and intercepts on pressure gradient in the logarithmic laws.


Abstract. Contaminant gas dispersion in atmospheric boundary layer is of great concern to public health. For the accurate prediction of the dispersion problem, the present study numerically investigates the behavior of plume dispersion by taking into account the atmospheric stability which is classified into three types; neutral, stable, and convective boundary layers. We first proposed an efficient method to generate spatially-developing, thermally-stratified boundary layers and examined the usefulness of our approach by comparing to wind tunnel experimental data for various thermal boundary layers. The spreads of plume in the spanwise direction are quantitatively underestimated especially at large downwind distances from the point source, owing to the underestimation of turbulence intensities for the spanwise component; however, the dependence of the spanwise spreads to atmospheric stability is well represented in a qualitative sense. It was shown that the large-eddy simulation (LES) model provides physically reasonable results.


We analyse the distributional impact of lowering social security contributions and compensating the revenue loss by an increase in indirect taxes. We empirically assess the distributional consequences of this shift by using two Belgian microsimulation models: MODETE for the tax benefit system, and aster for the indirect tax part. Since the underlying micro database of the tax benefit system does not contain expenditures, we first impute detailed expenditures in the income data survey, by means of semiparametric Engelcurves. The currently living generation of pensioners belongs to the losers by such a reform: They do not profit from the reduced tax on labour income, but pay higher consumption prices. Less obvious, also part of the working population loses. Even not all those who leave unemployment after the reform are gainers. We also investigate the sensitivity of the results w.r.t. the choice of welfare measure to assess the combined change in disposable income, consumer prices and - in the case of flexible labour supply - leisure. We show how the specific choice and parameters of the welfare measure will influence the conclusions, possibly even more than the predictive model for assessing the behavioural reactions in labour supply.


Abstract This article provides an explanatory framework for the electoral performance of populist parties, using the Netherlands as a case study. The Netherlands is an ideal case, as several populist parties have entered the political scene in recent years with varying levels of electoral success. The most notable cases are the List Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders' Freedom Party. Whereas the former party did not sustain, Geert Wilders has, so far, managed to remain an important force in Dutch politics. The article argues that the performance of populist parties is dependent on a combination of causal conditions: the availability of the electorate, the responsiveness of established parties and the supply of credible populist challengers. As will be argued, especially this latter factor is vital to the (long-term) performance of populist parties. Further research should, therefore, not refrain from taking the agency of populist parties themselves into account.


Time-varying congestion on Internet paths and failures due to software, hardware, and configuration errors often disrupt packet delivery on the Internet.Many aproaches to avoiding these problems use multiple paths between two network locations. These approaches rely on a path-independence assumption in order to work well; i.e., they work best when the problems on different paths between two locations are uncorrelated in time.This paper examines the extent to which this assumption holds on the Internet by analyzing 14 days of data collected from 30 nodes in the RON testbed. We examine two problems that manifest themselves---congestion-triggered loss and path failures---and find that the chances of losing two packets between the same hosts is nearly as high when those packets are sent through an intermediate node (60%) as when they are sent back-to-back on the same path (70%). In so doing, we also compare two different ways of taking advantage of path redundancy proposed in the literature: mesh routing based on packet replication, and reactive routing based on adaptive path selection.


It's the end of the world as we know it...Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are. And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"--while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy. If you think this can't happen, you haven't been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn--the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world--shows to devastating effect. The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope. Mark Steyn's America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny--but it will also change the way you look at the world.


Abstract This article undertakes a critical analysis of counter-trafficking measures in Italy, particularly the Social Protection Program introduced under the 1998 Migration Law for victims experiencing violence and "extreme exploitation", in relation to the experiences of Nigerian sex workers in the city of Turin. The experiences of Nigerian sex workers in Turin are diverse and complex, as most of the women are undocumented, making them highly vulnerable to exploitative debt and labor contracts, as well as abuse and violence from employers, clients and government authorities. This research found that while the protection program has been fortunate for some beneficiaries, it fails to address the vulnerabilities faced by migrant sex workers. One of the shortcomings of the program is that it protects victims only if they suffer severe forms of violence, provide information that helps in the arrest of traffickers, and tell a "convincing story" that underscores their role as "innocent victims." It ignores the complexity of the experiences of undocumented migrants who engage in commercial sex work and the multiple challenges they face. It overemphasizes a particular and narrowly defined form of victimization while rendering other forms of victimization invisible. Counter-trafficking measures may offer a modicum of protection for a specific and small group of undocumented migrants in the sex industry. However, when combined with increasing restrictions on migration and sex work, the counter-trafficking measures actually increase the vulnerability of the majority of migrant sex workers, and strengthen the networks of traffickers.


Edamame are an emerging crop in Arkansas, with 2013 planting estimates at 680 hectares. Although edamame are the same species as conventional soybeans grown in Arkansas, differences in use, maturity, and harvest may require creation and implementation of insect pest management approaches that differ from those used in conventional soybean production systems in order for a quality crop to be produced. Studies were conducted to determine a green stink bug damage-density relationship for edamame. Cages were used to confine green stink bugs on field-planted edamame at densities of 0, 2, 6, or 12 green stink bugs per cage (0, 0.55, 1.64, or 3.28 green stink bug adults per row meter) for 7 days. No differences were found among stink bug densities in terms of damaged pods, average pod weight or yield. Studies were also conducted to evaluate insect abundance in edamame compared to conventional soybeans. Insects were sampled by sweep netting and clipping plants (for thrips) in both conventional soybeans and edamame. Of all insects sampled, only bean leaf beetle, grape colaspis and threecornered alfalfa hoppers occurred at numbers great enough to be analyzed. No differences were detected in numbers of these three insects' densities between conventional soybean and edamame. Although the data collected from these studies were not enough to determine an economic threshold for green stink bug on edamame or to know which species contribute the most to feeding guilds, the studies provided insight on how future tests should be designed to establish economic thresholds on edamame.


Practices and techniques of listening were at the core of recent social movements that explicitly espoused horizontal direct democracy: 15M, Occupy Wall Street, and Nuit Debout. These movements sought to imagine nonhierarchical structures through which large groups of strangers could speak and listen to each other, considering seriously the coconstruction of communicative form and political values. Drawing on participant observation; 23 long-form interviews with social movement actors in Paris, Madrid, and New York City; and texts such as video documentation and "best practices" literature, this article performs a comparative analysis of internal assembly communications—particularly bodily mediated methods of transmitting and perceiving spoken language—and their relationships to deliberation and decision making. All of these movements struggled to reconcile the mandate to listen with the material and infrastructural challenges of autonomous public space. Nuit Debout's strong commitment to accommodating those who could not comfortably participate in an occupation (day laborers, sans-papiers , disabled, etc.) caused its internal communication practices to differ in its attempts to conserve time and to prioritize translation.


A new air supply terminal based on confluent jets was installed on a workbench, in vicinity of a CNC machine, of an industrial space. The flow pattern and temperature field was carried out by CFD calculations and infrared camera imaging technique. A main goal of this technique is to save energy therefore the jet should distribute the air where it is desired. This is possible because the confluent jets system uses the benefits of both mixing (high momentum for better spreading of the air jet) and displacement (cleaner air in occupied zone). The results show that thermal comfort and air quality analysis relies on consistent facts and is in good agreements with the existed standards. It was shown that the supply terminal is able to spread the fresh air to the needed work area. This is an advantage of the high momentum air distribution system used in this investigation.


This thesis addressed the relationship between the environmental movement in America and Protestant Christianity. Currently, there is an assumption that Christians tend to have attitudes that are adverse to environmentalism. This study investigated the origins of the current narratives while analyzing the various factors that have contributed to changes in this dynamic over time. This was done through an analysis of various primary sources from the late 1960s and 1970s, a critical period of time in which environmentalism and Protestant Christianity became inextricably connected. In 1967, amidst a growing environmental movement, Lynn White Jr. released an essay that criticized the role of Christian theology in leading to ecological destruction. This historical piece was incredibly influential and in many ways helped shape the general perception that Christian theology is not concerned with environmental protection. It was also significant in that it elicited a response from leading Christian theologians and scholars of the time. In the years to follow, significant names and entities within Protestantism such as Francis Schaeffer, Christianity Today and The Christian Century engaged with White's thesis, presenting various stances on the matter. The numerous articles written in response to Lynn White Jr. provided useful, relevant sources for analysis. An examination of these sources, contextualized within broader political and theological movements of the time, revealed that the Christian response to environmentalism was far more complex and nuanced than commonly assumed. Additionally, the sources analyzed in this thesis were indicative of the divided nature of Protestantism during this era. Despite theological differences, both conservative and liberal Christians were surprisingly receptive and sympathetic to the environmental movement. These revelations imply that a division between Christianity and environmentalism, whether perceived or actual, historical or contemporary, is not the result of theological differences, but is instead shaped by cultural, social, and political factors.