Fruit development is a complex process that involves the interplay of cell division, expansion, and differentiation. As a model to study fruit development, nectarines incapable of ripening were described as slow ripening. Slow ripening fruits remained firm and exhibited no rise in CO2 or ethylene production rates for one month or more at 20 °C. Different studies suggest that this trait is controlled by a single gene (NAC072). Transcriptome analysis between normal and slow ripening fruits showed a total of 157, 269, 976, and 5.224 differentially expressed genes in each fruit developmental stage analyzed (T1, T2, T3, and T7, respectively), and no expression of NAC072 was found in the slow ripening individuals. Using this transcriptomic information, we identified a correlation of NAC072 with auxin-related genes and two genes associated with terpene biosynthesis. On the other hand, significant differences were observed in hormonal biosynthetic pathways during fruit development between the normal and slow ripening individuals (gibberellin, ethylene, jasmonic acid and abscisic acid). These results suggest that the absence of NAC072 by the direct or indirect expression control of auxins or terpene-related genes prevents normal peach fruit development.


In this paper, we describe the design and ethnographic study of a phone developed so as to allow people to glance at each other, rather than simply message or voice call. Glancephones work through having a form factor that allows them to be placed upright when a user wants to be available for glancing, and support a web-based application that allows glances, bitmap images, to be taken and sent to a remote viewer on request, via GPRS connections. Glancephones were originally invented to allow callers to see if it is appropriate to call or interrupt and thus act like normal glances in face-to-face situations. Ethnographic studies of the use indicate that people prefer using the devices not to support greeting sequences, however, but to enable others to glance at them. It was found that Glacephones were used to draw attention to oneself, not to encourage better control of interruption and greeting sequences. The paper uses this data to remark on the concepts of human expression that underscore much of the research reported in Mobile HCI, and it proposes Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and relatedly, distinction, as explanatory tools for this and other evidence about expression enabled by mobile and other technologies of communication.


Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) is subjected to various levels of biological control throughout its geographic distribution. The species complex of biological control agents attacking D. citri varies geographically but usually includes various species of ladybeetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae); syrphid flies (Diptera: Syrphidae); lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae, Hemerobiidae); and spiders (Aranae). The psyllid is attacked in Asia by two primary parasitoid species, Tamarixia radiata (Waterston) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis (Shafee, Alam & Agarwal) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). Classical biological control projects have been conducted to establish these two parasitoids in a number of countries invaded by D. citri including Mauritius, Reunion Island, and the United States (Florida). T. radiata was successfully established in the United States, but D. aligarhensis was not. T. radiata was also released for psyllid control in Taiwan and Guadeloupe. Dramatic success in reducing populations of D. citri was achieved following releases and establishment of T. radiata in Reunion Island. Good levels of biological control were reported in Guadeloupe after this parasitoid was introduced. Mediocre biological control of D. citri has been achieved by T. radiata in the United States (Florida). T. radiata has been inadvertently introduced into other areas in the United States (Texas), Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Brazil. T. radiata in India and other areas in Asia are attacked by a complex of hyperparasitoids. Entomopathogenic fungi are known to attack D. citri in some countries and may sometimes be important mortality factors. Biological control of D. citri by natural enemies in Brazil, the United States, and other areas has been considered by many growers to be insufficient in citrus for reducing the incidence and spread of huanglongbing. In such situations, natural enemies may play an important role in area-wide control of D. citri on alternate host plants in the vicinity of citrus.


PURPOSE
To describe the development of anthropometric and physical characteristics of young Swiss alpine skiers between 2004 and 2011, to compare them between age and performance-level groups, and to identify age- and sex-dependent reference values for the tests performed.

METHODS
The Swiss-Ski Power Test includes anthropometric measures and physical tests for coordination and speed, strength, anaerobic capacity, and endurance. The authors analyzed the results of 8176 tests performed by 1579 male and 1109 female alpine skiers between 2004 and 2011. Subjects ranged between regional and national level of performance and were grouped according to their competition age groups (U12, 11 y; U14, 12-13 y; U16, 14-15 y; U18, 16-17 y; U21, 18-20 y) and performance level.

RESULTS
A progressive increase in anthropometric measures and improvements in tests results with increasing age were found. For all tests, male athletes had better results than female athletes. Minor differences were observed in anthropometric characteristics between 2004 and 2011 (mostly <5%), while results of physical and coordinative tests showed significant improvements (up to more than 50% enhancement) or stability over the years. Differences between higher- and lower-level athletes were more pronounced in tests for lower-limb strength and anaerobic capacity.

CONCLUSIONS
The presented profile of young Swiss alpine skiers highlights the improvements in different physical aspects along the maturation process and chronologically over a period of 7 y. Furthermore, reference values are provided for comparisons with alpine skiers or athletes from other sports.


A common practice in preprocessing of data for use in hydrological modeling is to ignore observations with any missing variable values at any given time step, even if it is only one of the independent variables that is missing. In most cases, these rows of data are labeled incomplete and would not be used in either model building or subsequent model testing and verification. We argue that this is not necessarily an optimal approach for dealing with missing data because significant information could be lost when incomplete rows of data are discarded. Learning algorithms are affected by such problems more than physically based models because they rely heavily on data to learn the underlying input/output relationships of the systems being modeled. In this study, the extent of damage to the performance of learning algorithms due to missing data is explored in a field‐scale application. To do so, we employed two well‐known learning algorithms, namely artificial neural networks (ANNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) for short‐term prediction of groundwater levels at a well field. Performance comparison is made by subjecting these algorithms to various levels of missing data. In addition to understanding the relative strengths of these algorithms in dealing with missing data, an approach for filling the data gaps in the form of an imputation methodology is proposed and tested against observed data. The utility of the current approach is further demonstrated by analyzing model runs obtained with and without imputed data. It is shown that as the percentage of missing data increases, the forecasting accuracy of ANNs is compromised more than that of SVMs. However, ANNs also derive the greater benefit from the use of imputed data.


The first organized resistance to sexual harassment grew out of the women's movement, emerging at the intersection of activism against employment discrimination and feminist opposition to violence against women. The issue of sexual harassment brought together women's workplace concerns with resistance to male sexual aggression. In the mid-1970s two organizations formed to focus primarily on sexual harassment—Working Women United in Ithaca, New York, and the Alliance Against Sexual Coercion in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Based on archival materials and interviews, this article documents the early movement against sexual harassment, focusing particularly on the feminist activists who founded these organizations—who they were and how they shaped the movement against sexual harassment. These women made significant contributions to the public understanding of sexual harassment and the development of legal prohibitions against it.


This report addresses a number of key considerations that those managing open source software development initiatives should take into account when thinking about structure, organization, and governance. The genesis of this project involved an investigation into anecdotal reports that companies and other institutions developing open source software were facing difficulties obtaining tax exempt nonprofit status under Section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. Based on conversations with a number of constituents in the open source software development community, the authors have prepared this report to address specific questions about nonprofit status alongside questions about corporate formation and governance models more generally.
Nothing in this report should be viewed as a substitute for specific legal advice on the narrow questions facing particular organizations under particular sets of factual circumstances. But, the authors are hopeful the document provides a general overview of the complex issues that open source initiatives face when balancing a need for structure and continuity with the innovative and experimental spirit at the heart of many open source development projects.
The report has two primary parts:
• First, it addresses some formal organizational considerations that open source software initiatives should weigh, evaluating the benefits of taking on a formal structure and the options for doing so. The report provides information about different types of corporate organization that open source projects may wish to consider. And, it delves into Internal Revenue Service policy and practice and US tax law concerning questions about the tax exemptions referenced above.
• In its second half, the authors pull back to consider more broadly questions of organizational structure, offering ideas about governance models that open source organizations may wish to explore, separate from formal corporate structure, as they seek to achieve their missions.
Different considerations may inform the choice of formal, legal organizational structures (on the one hand) and governance models (on the other hand). By addressing both, the authors hope that this report will be useful to the broadest possible range of managers of and contributors to open source development initiatives.


One of the most important SARS-CoV-2 protein targets for therapeutics is the 3C-like protease
(main protease, Mpro). In our previous work1we used the first Mpro crystal structure to become
available, 6LU7. On February 4, 2020 Insilico Medicine released the first potential novel
protease inhibitors designed using a de novo,AI-driven generative chemistry approach. Nearly
100 X-ray structures of Mpro co-crystallized both with covalent and non-covalent ligands have
been published since then. Here we utilize the recently published 6W63 crystal structure of
Mpro complexed with a non-covalent inhibitor and combined two approaches used in our
previous study: ligand-based and crystal structure-based. We published 10 representative
structures for potential development with 3D representation in PDB format and welcome
medicinal chemists for broad discussion and generated output analysis. The molecules in SDF
format and PDB-models for generated protein-ligand complexes are available here and at
https://insilico.com/ncov-sprint/.Medicinal chemistry VR analysis was provided by Nanome team
and the video of VR session is available at https://bit.ly/ncov-vr.


In this study, a physical rehabilitation system based on Kinect sensor is proposed to assist patients with movement disorders to perform the "Tai Chi" exercises at home. With the aid of skeletal tracking of Kinect sensor, each movement of the patient while performing Tai Chi exercises is well recognized and validated. More specifically, patient's movements are compared with the prerecorded movements form a coach, and further evaluated by using fuzzy logic system (FLS). The experiment was carried out according to an ABAB sequence, i.e., A represents the baseline and B represents intervention phases. Experimental results also show that the participants significantly increased their motivation for physical rehabilitation, thus improving exercise performance during the intervention phases.


A classic text now in a new edition, George Felton's Advertising: Concept and Copy is an innovative approach to advertising creativity. It covers the entire conceptual process, from developing smart strategy to executing it with strong ads-from what to say to how to say it. Part 1, Strategies, operates on the premise that the idea beneath an ad's surface determines its success. This first section shows how to research products, understand consumer behavior, analyze audiences, and navigate marketplace realities, then how to write creative briefs that focus this strategic analysis into specific advertising objectives. Part 2, Executions, explains how to put strategy into play. It discusses the tools at a copywriter's command-creating a distinctive brand voice, telling stories, using language powerfully and originally-as well as the wide variety of media and advertising genres that carry and help shape messages. But great executions are elusive. So Part 3, the Toolbox, gives advice about how to think creatively, then presents an array of problem-solving tools, a series of techniques that advertisers have used repeatedly to produce exceptional work. In brief, this book shows how to find strong selling ideas and how to express them in fresh, memorable, persuasive ways. The new edition features greatly expanded discussions of guerrilla advertising, interactive advertising, brand voice, storytelling, and the use of social media. Hundreds of ads in full color, both in the book and on an accompanying Web site, demonstrate the best in television, radio, print, and interactive advertising. Advertising: Concept and Copy is the most comprehensive text in its field, combining substantial discussion of both strategy and technique with an emphasis on the craft of writing not found elsewhere. It is truly a writer's copywriting text.


This far-ranging book presents the most recent research on small-scale bronze production of the Renaissance. The contributors to the volume - an international group of curators, art historians, and conservators - analyse the production and collecting of small bronze sculptures from the fifteenth through the early seventeenth century in both Italy and the North. They offer new assessments and attributions of these fascinating works of art, the result of an intense collaboration between artists and collectors. The book sheds light on the origins of the "household" bronze in Florence around the middle of the fifteenth century and on the groundbreaking developments in North Italy that followed. It reexamines the contribution of Donatello and his immediate followers in the first stages of bronze production as well as proposing a number of new attributions. Among the book's other topics are casting procedures, including a proposal for a method used by Donatello; the spread of technological and artistic advances from Italy into the Northern countries; the work and workshop practices of sculptors of North Italy; and the assembling of personalised collections of small bronzes by German, English, and American connoisseurs from the eighteenth century to our own.


We examine the cooling radiation from forming galaxies in hydrodynamic simulations of the LCDM model (cold dark matter with a cosmological constant), focusing on the Ly α line luminosities of high-redshift systems. Primordial composition gas condenses within dark matter potential wells, forming objects with masses and sizes comparable to the luminous regions of observed galaxies. As expected, the energy radiated in this process is comparable to the gravitational binding energy of the baryons, and the total cooling luminosity of the galaxy population peaks at z ≈ 2. However, in contrast to the classical picture of gas cooling from the ∼ 10 6 K virial temperature of a typical dark matter halo, we find that most of the cooling radiation is emitted by gas with T < 20 , 000 K. As a consequence, roughly 50% of this cooling radiation emerges in the Ly α line. While a galaxy's cooling luminosity is usually smaller than the ionizing continuum luminosity of its young stars, the two are comparable in the most massive systems, and the cooling radiation is produced at larger radii, where the Ly α photons are less likely to be extinguished by dust. We suggest, in particular, that cooling radiation could explain the two large ( ∼ 100 kpc), luminous ( L Ly α ∼ 10 44 erg s − 1 ) "blobs" of Ly α emission found in Steidel et al.'s (1999) narrow band survey of a z = 3 proto-cluster. Our simulations predict objects of the observed luminosity at about the right space density, and radiative transfer e ff ects can account for the observed sizes and line widths. We discuss observable tests of this hypothesis for the nature of the Ly α blobs, and we present predictions for the contribution of cooling radiation to the Ly α luminosity function of galaxies as a function of redshift.


In this paper we present our recent results on heterogeneously integrated InP-on-silicon tunable lasers. DBR-, DFB- and AWG-based laser structures on SOI are discussed. Emphasis is laid on electronically tunable laser types, which can allow for (sub-) nanosecond fast wavelength tuning. The discussed laser devices are expected to find application in future advanced optical networks for intra- and inter-data center communication.


The current debt crisis in many OECD countries calls for adequate strategies in budget consolidation. To regain fiscal solvency many governments base their fiscal adjustments at least partly on spending cuts. A common political claim is that spending cuts rely too much on investment thereby undermining future long-term growth perspectives. We study the effect of fiscal adjustments on economic growth, consumption and investment for a panel of 20 OECD countries during the 1970-2008 period. Our results support the idea of expansionary consolidations in the case of sizeable adjustments and through spending cuts. The effect is primarily a result of increased consumption rather than investment. While fiscal adjustments also boost private investment, this tends to be offset by a corresponding reduction in government investment. Fiscal consolidations therefore hardly affect total investment.


When estimating unknown parameters, it is important that the model is identifiable so that the parameters can be estimated uniquely. For nonlinear differentialalgebraic equation models with polynomial equations, a differential algebra approach to examine identifiability is available. This approach can be slow, so the present paper describes how this method can be modularized for objectoriented models. A characteristic set of equations is computed for components in model libraries, and stored together with the components. When an objectoriented model is built using such models, identifiability can be examined using the stored equations.


Mechanical micro deep drawing becomes a more and more industrial relevant process. But due to size effects new challenges are involved in this process compared to macro deep drawing. The size effects cause an increase of friction and thus hinder the material flow. The change of friction in mechanical micro deep drawing is subject of the presented investigations in this paper. Additionally to this, a new non-mechanical micro deep drawing process is presented, whereby a laser beam acts as a punch. This new laser deep drawing process is based on a totally different mechanism compared to thermal laser forming, e.g. forming by laser induced thermal stresses: The laser produces a pulse with an extremely high power density, which causes plasma generation at the target and thus a shock wave. The shock wave can be used as in explosive forming, but is smaller and easier to generate. Recent investigations showed that using this technology laser deep drawing is possible with a sheet metal out of Al 99.5 and a thickness of 50 μm. The deep drawing process was carried out with a die diameter of 4 mm and shows promising results.


In a previous work we presented the architecture of rCUDA, a middleware that enables CUDA remoting over a commodity network. That is, the middleware allows an application to use a CUDA-compatible Graphics Processor (GPU) installed in a remote computer as if it were installed in the computer where the application is being executed. This approach is based on the observation that GPUs in a cluster are not usually fully utilized, and it is intended to reduce the number of GPUs in the cluster, thus lowering the costs related with acquisition and maintenance while keeping performance close to that of the fully-equipped configuration. In this paper we model rCUDA over a series of high throughput networks in order to assess the influence of the performance of the underlying network on the performance of our virtualization technique. For this purpose, we analyze the traces of two different case studies over two different networks. Using this data, we calculate the expected performance for these same case studies over a series of high throughput networks, in order to characterize the expected behavior of our solution in high performance clusters. The estimations are validated using real 1 Gbps Ethernet and 40 Gbps InfiniBand networks, showing an error rate in the order of 1% for executions involving data transfers above 40 MB. In summary, although our virtualization technique noticeably increases execution time when using a 1 Gbps Ethernet network, it performs almost as efficiently as a local GPU when higher performance interconnects are used. Therefore, the small overhead incurred by our proposal because of the remote use of GPUs is worth the savings that a cluster configuration with less GPUs than nodes reports.


Feather coloration has been known to be connected with sexual selection for many years. It also provides an opportunity to study evolution, focusing on sexual selection and natural selection. Plumage is affected by both of these forces and the equilibrium is where these forces balance. The white-throated sparrow gives us a unique opportunity to observe the effects of the different strengths of these forces within a species. First, I established that there were differences in plumage characteristics between the morphs and sexes. White males had the brightest white and darkest black feathers. White females and tan males were the next brightest, with tan females having the dullest white and lightest black head stripes. Using plumage characteristics I was able to predict the morph/sex class of the bird significantly more than by chance. With the exact differences between each morph/sex class now known, I looked at the relationship between fitness and plumage. White males with higher overall contrast (brighter white, darker black) were more successful than duller white males. This was attributed to the males displaying their quality to females. Duller tan males however, were more successful than brighter tan males. With duller plumage, they may reduce predation on their nest while they are feeding their offspring. The differences in reproductive strategy changed the relative strength of natural and sexual selection between the morphs. Observing this interaction in this system will let us judge the relative strength of these forces in other systems.


In this chapter, we give a brief synopsis of each of the classic papers referred to in this collection. Where relevant, we reproduce the basic equations, recast in modern notation. Supporting works also are referred to. They are listed in the "General References" section.

Table 1 is a quick outline of the key contributions of each paper reprinted in this book.

Robert Hooke, "Potentia Restitutiva, or Spring" (Oxford, 1678)

The article by Robert Hooke, "Potentia Restitutiva, or Spring," contains the statement of the proportional relation between stress and strain universally referred to as Hooke's law. Although the English language has evolved somewhat since 1678, the article does not require translation. Hooke describes a variety of experiments, accompanied by illustrations, confirming the stress/strain relation over a wide range of applied loads. He emphasizes the great generality of his results.

Based on his experimental work from 1660 onward, Hooke first published his law in 1676 in the form of an anagram in Latin,

which he later revealed to be "ut tensio sic vis." Roughly translated, this means "as the force, so is the displacement" (Love, 1911; Boyce and DiPrima, 1976).

In his treatise, Hooke examined the behavior of springs, so his first casting of the equations dealt with the restoring force on a spring, for a given displacement:


MOK and SUNG: Syncope in Children in Hong Kong. Objectives: Syncope is a common event in children. The objective of this study was to review the aetiologies and their relative frequencies in the paediatric patients in a general hospital in Hong Kong. Methods: This is a retrospective study of paediatric patients admitted to our hospital between 1987 and 1996 with a presenting complaint of syncope. Their hospital notes were retrieved and reviewed. The syncopal event and the circumstances together with the clinical assessment as well as the subsequent investigations were analyzed in order to establish the respective aetiology for syncope. Results: Altogether 146 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 10.4 years. Vasovagal syncope accounted for 54.1% of patients presented with syncope. Seizure disorder accounted for 25.3%, while cardiac cause accounted for another 3 patients (2.1%) with 2 patients having paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia and 1 patient having frequent hypoxic spells due to complex cyanotic heart disease. In 13.7% of patients, the cause of syncope was unknown. One patient belonging to the seizure group died with autopsy finding revealing diffuse glioma at frontal region. Conclusions: Syncope is a common presentation in the paediatric population and vasovagal syncope accounts for over half of the cases. Although most cases of syncope are benign, it is important not to miss those cases in whom a life-threatening condition is present. (J HK Coll Cardiol 2002;10:7-10)


Plant-derived phenolic acids (PAs) are small molecules with antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and pro-coagulant properties. Their chemistry enables facile potential incorporation into biomaterial scaffolds to provide naturally-derived functionalities that could improve healing outcomes. While PAs have been previously characterized, their structure-property relationships in terms of antioxidant and antimicrobial properties are not well-understood, particularly in the context of their use in medical applications. To that end, a library of PAs with varied pendant groups was characterized here. It was found that increasing the number of radical-scavenging hydroxyl and methoxy groups on PAs increased antioxidant properties. All PAs showed some antimicrobial activity against the selected bacteria strains (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis (native and drug-resistant), and Staphylococcus aureus (native and drug-resistant)) at concentrations that are feasible for incorporation into polymeric biomaterials. In general, a trend of slightly decreased antimicrobial efficacy with increased number of pendant hydroxyl and methoxy groups was observed. The carboxylic acid group of a selection of PAs was modified with a polyurethane monomer analog. Modification did not greatly affect antioxidant or antimicrobial properties in comparison to unmodified controls, indicating that the carboxylic acid group of PAs can be altered without losing functionality. These results could be utilized for rational selection of phenolic moieties for use as therapeutics on their own or as part of a biomaterial scaffold with desired healing outcomes.


We present an experience with the development and evaluation of AppsGate, an eco-system for the home that can be programmed by end-users. We show the benefits from using the homes of the project team members as real-life living-labs. In particular, we discuss the first person perspective experience as an effective way to conduct longitudinal experiments in real world settings. We conclude that a programmable habitat is desirable provided that attention cost is minimized.


Camera relocalisation is an important problem in computer vision, with applications in simultaneous localisation and mapping, virtual/augmented reality and navigation. Common techniques either match the current image against keyframes with known poses coming from a tracker, or establish 2D-to-3D correspondences between keypoints in the current image and points in the scene in order to estimate the camera pose. Recently, regression forests have become a popular alternative to establish such correspondences. They achieve accurate results, but must be trained offline on the target scene, preventing relocalisation in new environments. In this paper, we show how to circumvent this limitation by adapting a pre-trained forest to a new scene on the fly. Our adapted forests achieve relocalisation performance that is on par with that of offline forests, and our approach runs in under 150ms, making it desirable for real-time systems that require online relocalisation.


Many structured prediction problems admit a natural loss function for evaluation such as the edit-distance or $n$-gram loss. However, existing learning algorithms are typically designed to optimize alternative objectives such as the cross-entropy. This is because a na\"{i}ve implementation of the natural loss functions often results in intractable gradient computations. In this paper, we design efficient gradient computation algorithms for two broad families of structured prediction loss functions: rational and tropical losses. These families include as special cases the $n$-gram loss, the edit-distance loss, and many other loss functions commonly used in natural language processing and computational biology tasks that are based on sequence similarity measures. Our algorithms make use of weighted automata and graph operations over appropriate semirings to design efficient solutions. They facilitate efficient gradient computation and hence enable one to train learning models such as neural networks with complex structured losses.


A facile route for the synthesis of tetrasubstituted imidazole has been developed; the one pot synthetic protocol allows the efficient synthesis of biologically important scaffolds. By using alkyne as the key starting material, which was oxidized in situ to get active carbonyl species? The key reaction involved in this synthesis is formic acid catalyzed oxidation, I2 mediated oxidation and Silica supported cyclization to give tetrasubstituted imidazole.


Homo oeconomicus has dominated mainstream Economics during the last century. One of the main assumptions of this model is that humans maximise their own utility functions. In other words, homo oeconomicus, before taking action, considers the consequences on their own future interests, which are generally assumed to be monetary. This thesis provides experimental results showing that human behaviour often differs from that of homo oeconomicus, particularly in environments where trust and reciprocity are salient concerns. To be precise, this dissertation analyses the employment relationship, focusing particularly on the importance of trust and the role of direct reciprocity in the relationship between managers and workers. Reciprocity is an important contract enforcement device in the presence of incomplete labour contracts. By reciprocity between employer and employee, what is meant is a predisposition, within the institutional context of defined employment tasks, to cooperate with the other party even at personal cost, and a willingness to punish the other party if they violate cooperative norms, even when punishment is costly to the individual. The original contribution of this thesis goes beyond this result and shows the impact of informal employment rules on reciprocity. In particular, it uses experimental methods to identify two distinct governance patterns for employment relationships: the rigid governance structure and the flexible governance structure. The former is characterised by task-centred rules and defines the boundaries of jobs in a much more specific way than the latter, which is characterised by function-centred rules, and gives rise to a more flexible and discretionary model of employment relationships. The most important original experimental result of this thesis is that rigid governance characterised by taskcentred rules and low reciprocity is better suited to one-shot transactions, whereas flexible governance characterised by function-centred rules and a high level of reciprocity is better suited to repeated transactions.


Violent lone offenders such as school shooters and lone actor terrorists pose a threat to the modern society but since they act alone or with minimal help form others they are very difficult to detect. Previous research has shown that violent lone offenders show signs of certain psychological warning behaviors that can be viewed as indicators of an increasing or accelerating risk of committing targeted violence. In this work, we use a machine learning approach to identify potential violent lone offenders based on their written communication. The aim of this work is to capture psychological warning behaviors in written text and identify texts written by violent lone offenders. We use a set of features that are psychologically meaningful based on the different categories in the text analysis tool Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). Our study only contains a small number of known perpetrators and their written communication but the results are promising and there are many interesting directions for future work in this area.


Mortgage loans are a striking example of a persistent nominal rigidity. As a result, under incomplete markets, monetary policy affects decisions through the cost of new mortgage borrowing and the value of payments on outstanding debt. Observed debt levels and payment to income ratios suggest the role of such loans in monetary transmission may be important. A general equilibrium model is developed to address this question. The transmission is found to be stronger under adjustablethan fixed-rate contracts. The source of impulse also matters: persistent inflation shocks have larger effects than cyclical fluctuations in inflation and nominal interest rates. JEL Classification Codes: E32, E52, G21, R21.


The family Carabidae (ground-beetles, including tiger-beetles) is composed of over 3000 species distributed among 1927 genera worldwide. Carabids occupy most land habitats on nearly all continents. These beetles are abundant in the field and attract attention with their peculiar shape and coloration. As a family, Carabidae are sensitive to their environment and are commonly used as biological indicators to evaluate the diversity of life in ecological systems, indicate the influence of landscape changes, evaluate environmental health, predict the effect of climate changes, select habitats for nature conservation, and characterise forest soil. They can also be used to control pest insects (e.g., caterpillars) In the future, ground-beetles may become more commonly used in biological control, e.g., as natural control agents against harmful insects, especially soil pests, or as control agents of weeds, especially their seeds. In New Zealand, conservation biologists have listed many, often large-sized carabids, as rare or threatened and worthy of protection. This Fauna of New Zealand contribution is aimed at specialists and non-specialists; it should greatly facilitate identification and information gathering. Its purpose is to provide for the first time a review of all New Zealand carabids above the species level, including: comparative descriptions for subfamilies, tribes, subtribes, genera, and subgenera; identification keys for subfamilies, tribes, and genera; habitus (whole body) drawings, geographic range, habitat, and collecting techniques for all genera; the most relevant publications for all included carabids; an updated list of species and a summary of all changes since the 2001 carabid catalogue, Fauna of New Zealand No 43. Three genera and one species are described as new for science; many new names are introduced to comply with current scientific knowledge


Previous measurements of the spectral variation of the photosensitivity of visual purple solutions have been extended into the far ultra-violet. The products have been found to be the same as in the visible. Dark adaptation curves, produced by various observers, including one with an aphakic eye, were of the same type at 365 as at 546 mμ. The limiting scotopic sensitivity (the reciprocal of the potential retinal illumination in quanta/sec./sq. mm. which is just sufficient to excite vision) of normal eyes at 365 mμ is more than ten thousand times smaller than that to be expected from the photosensitivity at this wave-length, a fact which is attributed to the presence of light absorbing substances in front of the retina. The scotopic sensitivity of the aphakic eye was, however, as expected, indicating the absence of absorbing substances. Indeed the aphakic eye was practically as sensitive at 365 as it was at 546 mμ. The limit of vision in the ultra-violet was accurately determined and, for normal eyes, found to correspond to the threshold of absorption of the lens, 309 mμ. The limit for the aphakic eye (no lens) corresponded to the threshold of absorption of the cornea, 298 mμ.


Information spreads across social and technological networks, but often the network structures are hidden from us and we only observe the traces left by the diffusion processes, called cascades. Can we recover the hidden network structures from these observed cascades? What kind of cascades and how many cascades do we need? Are there some network structures which are more difficult than others to recover? Can we design efficient inference algorithms with provable guarantees?

Despite the increasing availability of cascade data and methods for inferring networks from these data, a thorough theoretical understanding of the above questions remains largely unexplored in the literature. In this paper, we investigate the network structure inference problem for a general family of continuous-time diffusion models using an l1- regularized likelihood maximization framework. We show that, as long as the cascade sampling process satisfies a natural incoherence condition, our framework can recover the correct network structure with high probability if we observe O(d3logN) cascades, where d is the maximum number of parents of a node and N is the total number of nodes. Moreover, we develop a simple and efficient soft-thresholding network inference algorithm which demonstrate the match between our theoretical prediction and empirical results. In practice, this new algorithm also outperforms other alternatives in terms of the accuracy of recovering hidden diffusion networks.


In this short paper, (Kulatilaka 1988) model of FMS management is reinterpreted as a real options dynamic programming (DP) version of traditional Cost Volume Profit (CVP) analysis. Computational aspects of the Bellman DP algorithm solution are investigated and some simple solutions are suggested for computing both the value function and operational mode boundaries through the whole life of the investment project. A GAUSS code has been written and it is reported and commented in the text for both pedagogical and practical uses. Numerical examples replicate results reported in chapter 4 example 1.H. and chapter 7 of (Dixit and Pindyck 1994). Moreover, a different version of (Kulatilaka 1988) numerical example is analyzed. Results include not only the value of the flexible plant, decomposed into its base value and the value of the flexibility options (namely abandonment option, production mode switching option, mothballing option and waiting to invest option), but also mode bounds (threshold curves). In conclusion, this paper shows how much powerful is Kulatilaka's General Real Option Pricing Model (GROPM) in reaching through simple numerical methods results that others, (e.g. Dixit and Pindyck 1994), get through very difficult symbolic stochastic algebra. For this reason it is very much likely that GROPM would become widely applied to real business problems and, as a consequence, taught in business school classes where stochastic calculus is not a prerequisite. For the same reason GROPM could be "easily" extended to higher degrees of sophistication (and applicability to real business problems) which are unmanageable with symbolic stochastic calculus.


Mycobacterium ulcerans causes Buruli ulcer, a neglected tropical skin disease manifesting as chronic wounds that can leave victims with major, life‐long deformity and disability. Differently from other mycobacterial pathogens, M ulcerans produces mycolactone, a diffusible lipid factor with unique cytotoxic and immunomodulatory properties. Both traits result from mycolactone targeting Sec61, the entry point of the secretory pathway in eukaryotic cells. By inhibiting Sec61, mycolactone prevents the host cell's production of secreted proteins, and most of its transmembrane proteins. This molecular blockade dramatically alters the functions of immune cells, thereby the generation of protective immunity. Moreover, sustained inhibition of Sec61 triggers proteotoxic stress responses leading to apoptotic cell death, which can stimulate vigorous immune responses. The dynamics of bacterial production of mycolactone and elimination by infected hosts thus critically determine the balance between its immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive effects. Following an introduction summarizing the essential information on Buruli ulcer disease, this review focuses on the current state of knowledge regarding mycolactone's regulation and biodistribution. We then detail the consequences of mycolactone‐mediated Sec61 blockade on initiation and maintenance of innate and adaptive immune responses. Finally, we discuss the key questions to address in order to improve immunity to M ulcerans, and how increased knowledge of mycolactone biology may pave the way to innovative therapeutics.


On March 18, 2016, and March 22, 2016, a jury awarded Terry Bollea (a.k.a Hulk Hogan) a total of $140 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Gawker Media for posting less than two minutes of a video of Hulk Hogan having sex with his best friend's wife. The award was based upon a finding that Gawker intentionally had invaded Hulk Hogan's privacy by posting the video online. The case has been receiving extensive media coverage because it is a tawdry tale involving a celebrity, betrayal, adultery, sex, and the First Amendment. The case likely will be remembered by most people for: 1) the shockingly high verdict amount of $140 million awarded to a celebrity adulterer who was filmed having sex with his best friend's wife, and 2) the battle between what constitutes the outer boundaries of what is considered "news" under the First Amendment and a celebrity's right to privacy. The case also should be remembered, however, for the lesson it provides business owners: instead of facing a damage award that forced Gawker to file for bankruptcy and to now seek relief on appeal, Gawker actually could have avoided paying any portion of the damage award. How could Gawker have obtained that result? Insurance. This article debunks the conventional wisdom that insurance does not cover intentional torts such as invasion of privacy or punitive damage awards and that it is against public policy to allow insurance to cover intentional torts and punitive damages. Consequently, if Gawker had purchased appropriate insurance, then it may have been able to avoid paying any portion of the ultimate damage award.


This report summarizes a NEAMS (Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation) project focused on sensitivity analysis of a fuels performance benchmark problem. The benchmark problem was defined by the Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling working group of the Nuclear Science Committee, part of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD ). The benchmark problem involv ed steady - state behavior of a fuel pin in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). The problem was created in the BISON Fuels Performance code. Dakota was used to generate and analyze 300 samples of 17 input parameters defining core boundary conditions, manuf acturing tolerances , and fuel properties. There were 24 responses of interest, including fuel centerline temperatures at a variety of locations and burnup levels, fission gas released, axial elongation of the fuel pin, etc. Pearson and Spearman correlatio n coefficients and Sobol' variance - based indices were used to perform the sensitivity analysis. This report summarizes the process and presents results from this study.


Butch Jackie wants a holiday, so four women set off to the island of Lesbos. However a lost suitcase, along with a white knuckle ride on the resort's banana boat not only put one woman's back out but results in the women having a major fallout. Set against the backdrop of adversity 'A Twist of Lemon' highlights the courage, strength and humility of young lesbians and lesbians living in the North East and gives audiences a rare opportunity to witness the stories of a minority that, in the main part, are invisible to the rest of society. Like heterosexuals they fall in and out of love, experience the trials and tribulations of bringing up children, but their lives bear the imprint of a world where they, and their children, experience prejudice and discrimination. It takes time for change, but how slow does this clock have to tick? Open Clasp say it's time to wind it up.


A new traveling sand pluviator to reconstitute small specimens for laboratory tests was developed in joint research between the Research Center of the Italian National Electricity Board (ENEL CRIS) of Milano and the Department of Structural Engineering of the Politecnico di Torino. The pluviator proved satisfactory in reconstituting small-size specimens because it provided a very high degree of spatial uniformity of density and grain-size distribution. Furthermore, it was shown that a traveling pluviator is preferable to a stationary one even in reconstituting large-size specimens to achieve a higher degree of spatial uniformity. The above advantages were mainly evident when dealing with well-graded silty sands. A noteworthy feature of the new traveling pluviator that sets it apart from existing ones is its ability to accommodate pluviation under evacuated conditions.


We reconsider the effects of long-run economic growth on relative factor prices across cones of specialization. We model economic growth as exogenous technical change. Allowing for capital biased technical change with a sector bias and for endogenous commodity prices, we find that economic growth may increase or decrease factor price differences across cones. For a neutral demand side and capital biased growth in the most capital intensive sector, we find that economic growth encourages less factor price diversity across cones.


Socially competent entrepreneurs are likely to gain access to more or better information, generate enthusiasm among venture capitalists, or attract employees or customers. Our study examines the perceptions entrepreneurs have about their own social competence and compares these perceptions to assessments of outsiders. Sixty-six entrepreneurs seeking funding from venture capitalists completed a self-assessment of their own social skills, and they were videotaped as they presented their business plans. Results indicated that entrepreneurs showed a typical "self-serving bias," rating their own social skills and persuasion skills higher than did experts who viewed the videotapes. We conclude by discussing implications for entrepreneurs, educators, and consultants assisting entrepreneurs.


Sure, automation is great because it can give you a whole bunch of information really fast. And yeah, it is a big pain because it gives you a whole bunch of information really fast. Sometimes the amount is too much to process, but you know you need to look because there might just be an important failure in the pile that has to be fixed. What if it was possible to predict your decision before you read it? How could that save time? How could that help your team focus on important work first rather than dig through a huge pile of data. This paper will talk about experiments the author has executed in the Microsoft Office team using machine learning to predict outcomes for failures found by massive automation suites. It will talk about the methodology, the problems involved with evaluating such results, the potential discovered in the experiments and some of the inherent challenges, difficulties and risks in trusting such decisions to a machine.


Simultaneous recordings of many neurons embedded within a recurrently-connected cortical network may provide concurrent views into the dynamical processes of that network, and thus its computational function. In principle, these dynamics might be identified by purely unsupervised, statistical means. Here, we show that a Hidden Switching Linear Dynamical Systems (HSLDS) model— in which multiple linear dynamical laws approximate a nonlinear and potentially non-stationary dynamical process—is able to distinguish different dynamical regimes within single-trial motor cortical activity associated with the preparation and initiation of hand movements. The regimes are identified without reference to behavioural or experimental epochs, but nonetheless transitions between them correlate strongly with external events whose timing may vary from trial to trial. The HSLDS model also performs better than recent comparable models in predicting the firing rate of an isolated neuron based on the firing rates of others, suggesting that it captures more of the "shared variance" of the data. Thus, the method is able to trace the dynamical processes underlying the coordinated evolution of network activity in a way that appears to reflect its computational role.


In this paper I present a new perspective on narratives in university lectures by suggesting criteria for categorizing narratives in relation to the preceding and following context. Based on an analysis of the narratives in four Japanese university lectures on Buddhism, Statistics, Eastern European History and Education, I address the questions of how narratives in university lectures are introduced, how they function and how they relate to the preceding and subsequent discourse. I categorized the narratives in my data into 4 types and 3 subtypes based on their textual and interpersonal functions: (1) Illustration, (2) Elaboration (a. Detail, b. Review/Preview, c. Epitome), (3) Presentation of Topic/Problem, and (4) Rapport. Illustration narratives are preceded by an abstract idea and provide an explanation for or give an example related to that idea. Elaboration narratives provide important details that create the very content of the lecture, and can be further divided into three types: Detail, Review/Preview and Epitome. Presentation of Topic/Problem narratives introduce a topic or provide a problem to be interpreted subsequently in the lecture. Finally, in Rapport narratives, the professor relates his/her personal experiences in order to help bring the professor and students together. By analyzing the discourse organization in which the narratives are embedded, I demonstrate how the narratives connect to and contribute to the lecture content.


Nucleation of intragranular cracks during low cycle fatigue is governed by various micro-structural phenomena. Complex dislocation arrangements and rearrangements have been identified in several experimental studies carried out on cyclically loaded steel specimens. Different dislocation structures, such as vein, ladder, and/or cell structures, have been observed. They are related to an inhomogeneous localization of plastic strain, which is mostly accommodated by the ladder structures of dislocations, also named persistent slip bands. These regions of intensive slip generate on the material surface intrusions and extrusions, called persistent slip markings. The emergence of this rough relief leads to the initiation of fatigue cracks and can be considered as the first sign of fatigue damage. For a better comprehension of crack nucleation in 316LN stainless steel, low cycle fatigue tests and numerical simulations were performed. Specimens of 316LN steel with polished shallow notches were cycled with constant loading amplitude. In situ observations with a long distance microscope and scanning electron microscopy and electron back scattered diffraction analyses were used to observe fatigue crack initiation. Persistent slip markings have been identified. In parallel, a three-dimensional finite element model of crystalline plasticity, named Cristal-ECP, has been developed in both ABAQUS™ and CAST3M™ finite element codes. The numerical studies performed on various polycrystalline aggregates of 316LN steel have shown a heterogeneous localization of strain in bands. For a more precise computation and to introduce a grain size effect, geometrically necessary dislocations directly related and computed with the lattice curvature have been introduced in Cristal-ECP. The first simulations have shown a real influence of the geometrically necessary dislocations on the hardening slope and more heterogeneous mechanical fields.


Is there one correct way for the people of God to worship him? It turns out that Scripture offers many models and forms for worship, all of which are acceptable but not necessarily appropriate or functional in a particular setting. Barry Liesch, a professor of music at Biola University, helps his readers to grasp that fact and it's implications for worship in the church today. This is a one-of-a-kind book for many kinds of readers in all kinds of churches. It offers biblical perspective, historical awareness, musical and artistic sensitivity, authentic reverence, and creative stimulation for worship leaders, church musicians, study groups, pastors, worship committees, and a host of others who are interested in appreciating and renewing worship according to biblical models. Within each of the twenty chapters the author shares many suggestions for enhancing and transforming worship in the church today. Not only does he present the various biblical models and offer a wealth of suggestions, he takes up some of the major concerns of worship leaders, planners, and participants -- concerns such as the role of music, uses of symbolism, the appropriateness of dance, modes of celebration, expressions of reverence, and many others.


Background: To determine the antitumor effects and its mechanism of n-butanol fraction from aril of Torreya grandis (BFAT) on H22mice models of liver cancer. Materials and Methods: Sixty ICR male mice were used to establish H22mice models of liver cancer and then randomly divided into six groups, the normal control group, the model control group, the positive group (cyclophosphamide [CTX]), the BFAT-treated group (high, 4 g/kg, medium, 2 g/kg, and low, 1 g/kg). The animals were sacrificed 15 days after oral administration, and tumors were taken out for the tumor weights and antitumor rates, while thymus and spleen were taken for thymus index and spleen index. Blood in eyeball was collected for the determination of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), albumin (Alb), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase enzyme (GSH-Px), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-2 (IL-2), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and IL-10 in serum. Sections of tumor tissue were prepared, and morphological changes in tumor tissue cells were observed using hematoxylin and eosin staining technique. Results: Compared with the model control group, the tumor inhibition rate of the high-dose administered group is 60.15%, which is quite closed to the effect of CTX. Moreover, the tumor weight is decreased, the indexes of spleen, thymus were increased significantly. Furthermore, the administration of BFAT significantly enhanced the activities of TNF-α, IL-2, SOD, and GSH-Px and reduced the levels of AST, ALT, MDA, Alb, TGF-β1, and IL-10 (P < 0.01). Conclusions: The results demonstrated that n-butanol fraction from aril of T. grandis showed out antitumor activity without obviously liver damage through potentiating immunologic function and antioxidant activity of tumor-bearing mice and which may become one potential as anticancer drug alternatives or supplements. Abbreviations used: DDP: Cisplatin; CTX: Cyclophosphamide; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; Alb: Albumin; MDA: Malondialdehyde; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; GSH-Px: Glutathione peroxide enzyme; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; IL-2: Interleukin-2; TGF-α1: Transforming growth factor-α1; IL-10: Interleukin-10; HE: Hematoxylin and eosin; PBS: Phosphate- buffered saline; PFAT: Petroleum ether fraction from aril of Torreya grandis; EFAT: Ethyl acetate fraction from aril of Torreya grandis; BFAT: N-butanol fraction from aril of Torreya grandis.


Dear Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, It is a great pleasure and privilege to welcome you on behalf of the International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine to our 9th International Congress. First, I would like to express my gratitude to the president of the Congress, Professor David Serr, for inviting our Society to hold the 9th International Congress in Jerusalem, and to the organizational committee of International Ltd in Tel Aviv who made this vision a reality. I further want to extend my appreciation to Doctor Marsden Wagner of the World Health Organization who gave our society moral support and brought WHO to this Congress as co-organizer. Finally, I also want to thank on behalf of our society, the College of Continuing Medical Education, Israel Medical Association and Tel Aviv University under whose auspices this Congress is being held. When we remember that our Judeo-Christian roots were grounded here in Israel, then it is certainly a fitting location for our "encounter." I ask you, dear friends and colleagues, to regard this Congress as a dichotomy which is synchronous. In other words, two parallels which are mutually essential, valid and inter-dependent. First of all, think of the dichotomy of the encounter. It is certainly appropriate that the title of this Congress is "Encounter with the Unborn." How can we ever hope to surmount the obstacles which face us just within our own individual cultures if we have trouble with the encounters which we may experience here at this Congress? We shall attempt to tackle problems and questions which reach to the very core of the human race and overcome any prejudices which we carry with us. Hopefully the encounters which we experience at our Congress will not be troublesome.We will encounter the prenatal being fully, optimistically and with deep faith. The next phase we should ponder is the dialogue between us and the dialogue which exists between the unborn child and its mother. Think of the dialogue we shall have here, our inter-dependence each on the other, the developing and nourishing of ideas and the eventual trust and kinship which will be our bond. Will that be any different from the dialogue between the living fetus and its mother? The dependence of both on the other, physical and psychological, the nourishment of both relying on the other for their individual fruition, growth, birth and rebirth. And the ultimate goal of this Congress will be the bond which will be formed here between us complementing the bond formed between parents and the newborn. Finally, we must consider our human life as an indivisible continuity, a dialectic process of encounters and dialogues. We know that the different developmental stages of our lives cannot be seen independent from each other, and that there is an ongoing mutual dependency of all our functions. Discontinuity on the other hand, has become a more serious problem today given the spread of health, ecological, psychological and social disturbances. We are very much aware of the dangers of discontinuity which can generate within the unborn and the newborn. We can parallel our work here in the Society where only continuity can guarantee we fully reach our goals. Please keep in mind during the next four days that we are all in the same fetal position and without each other we cannot survive! And with each other working in continuity, not only do we survive, we thrive. Now that I have presented an overall view of my aspirations for this Congress, I would like to discuss some more tangible areas by first telling you about the strides we have made over the years. Ever since the 7th Congress of our society in 1983 in Dusseldorf, when I was elected president, one of the main objectives I put forth was to further develop ISPPM, to internationalize it and give it a more interdisciplinary profile. This was our approach to the 8th International Congress in Badgastein in 1986. …


Bolivia and Ecuador are considered examples of post-neoliberal regimes: both have left governments which have been supported by strong social movements, and have been legitimized in a radical democratic process. Both regimes have enacted innovative constitutions which recognize autonomy and political participation for indigenous people, strong protection of the environment and a universal social welfare system. In the economic arena, both regimens have blamed neoliberalism for their poor economic conditions, and have promoted nationalization of the hydrocarbon sector and a more equal distribution of wealth. However, these economic policies have been criticized from the right and from the left political spectrum. The neoliberal critique argues that these economic reforms are driven by populism; they threat international investment and reduce the possibilities to obtain economic development. On the other hand, the critique from the left asserts that there was not nationalization in reality, and most important, these countries still depend on the extractive industry and foreign capital.The critique from the left is especially relevant because it denies the idea that there is something really "post" in the post-neoliberal economic policy of Bolivia and Ecuador. This argument can explain why in these countries still indigenous people are affected by dispossession of their land, resulting in a contradiction with the social improvements recognized legally. Likewise, this critique points out how economic dependence is perpetuated by institutional and economic constraints. This essay will focus on this critique to explain the economic policies in both countries and the social conflicts triggered by their implementation. The first part will analyze the political economy in Bolivia in a historical perspective, the real meaning of the nationalization of the hydrocarbon sector, and the limitations and critiques of Morales' agenda. Then, it will analyze the political economy of Ecuador, the dependence on oil extraction, the attempts to change the pattern of economic development, and the change in the political discourse and praxis in Correa's administration. Finally, it will argue that the essence of the political economy in both countries is the dependence on extractives industries resulting in accumulation by dispossession of indigenous communities.


In this paper, we first present the results of a synchronic corpus study of the determiner irgendein and the pronoun irgend jemand in German and identify four main uses: ignorance effect in specific uses (spU), ignorance effect under epistemic modals (epiU), narrow-scope existential meaning in �negative� contexts (NPu), free choice effect under deontic modals (deoFC). Then we sketch a formal account in the framework of a Dynamic Semantics with Conceptual Covers along the lines of Aloni and Port (2011) and Aloni (2012). This enables us (i) to derive the obligatory ignorance effect irgend -indefinites induce in specific uses and under epistemic modals, (ii) to account for the NPu and deoFC uses, and (iii) to explain the different behavior of the indefinite under different modals.


This paper illustrates the building procedure of a firm-level panel dataset that merges several sources of information concerning the various activities of business firms. The aim of this work is to achieve a detailed dataset able to shed light on firm demographics, in terms of survival, entry and exit processes, distinguishing between "voluntary" and "involuntary" exits. Moreover, the derived dataset allows to monitor the innovation activities of the firms and also to capture complementarities between two instruments of intellectual property rights (IPRs), namely granted patents and registered trademarks. We assess the validity of the proposed procedures resorting to the virtual universe of Italian limited liability companies as provided by Bureau van Dijk (BvD). The dataset covers more than 1 million companies operating in both manufacturing and service sectors and contain financial and economic information, as well as, among the others, the ownership structure and administrative procedures undergone by the firms, which may lead to firm exit. The main purpose of the paper is to provide a unified set of procedures to help the researcher dealing with the vast amount of information available on corporate firms and of ever increasing size. This will also facilitate the replication of empirical analyses, across researchers working on dataset with similar characteristics, although from different countries or data providers.


Overall, IS research provides powerful tools that allow understanding individual acceptance and use of systems. However, researchers are increasingly concerned that it provided very little indications about how user adaptive strategies to IT influence IT adoption and success. Drawing on the Coping Model of User Adaptation (CMUA) (Beaudry and Pinsonneault 2005) and on the Information Systems Success Model (ISM) (DeLone and McLean 2003), we elaborate a research model for gaining further knowledge into the influence of user adaptive strategies on IS success. The four generic adaptive strategies of CMUA are posited to moderate the influences of information and system quality on intention to use and user satisfaction. A longitudinal quantitative research design is then presented. It deals with individuals adaptation to new Cloud Computing IT in a large, 6,500 employee French corporation. Expected contributions for research and practice are presented.


We perform full elastic wave-field simulations within the Taipei basin by using a three-dimensional (3D) discontinuous finite-difference method. The 3D Taipei basin model is determined from a seismic reflection study. Two major subsurfaces, the Songshan formation (surface soil layer) and the basin basement, are constituted in the model. A parallel-based composite grid technique, a containing scalene grid and a discontinuous grid, is developed in this study to deal with the possible numerical prob- lem of thin depth and low velocity of the Songshan formation. Taking advantage of the composite grid, the resolution of the subsurface structure can be reached to 20 m, and a higher frequency (up to 3 Hz) of the synthetic waveform can be achieved. In our strong ground motion simulations, we assume a constant velocity in each subsurface. Three different types of models are considered in the study: the Songshan formation with a basement structure model, a basin basement model, and a layered half-space model. Results indicate that only the model with both the Songshan formation and the basement structure can produce the apparent basin amplification effects. First, the surface wave generated after the primary S wave is trapped at the shallow part of the basin. Then, when the wave propagates through the deepest part of the basin, most of the energy is reflected from the boundary and focused back into the basin. In addi- tion, part of the seismic wavefront turns and follows the shallow basin edge resulting in further amplification. Our study indicates that the complex Taipei basin geometry and fairly low velocity of the Songshan formation dominate the amplification and wave propagation behavior that result in extraordinary strong shaking patterns in the Taipei metropolitan region.


Event synopsis: Terra Firma draws attention to well-trodden terrain: the dominant, the safe, the familiar and the reassuring. organisational discourse analysis has firmly established itself in the past two decades as a topic of interest, an analytical perspective informing a variety of theoretical approaches, and a methodology for organisational research.

Through Terra Firma, while we welcome papers that engage with these core debates and theories, in this 11th conference we also wish to attract papers that reflect more critically on the contribution that organisational discourse analysis can offer.

We call for greater scrutiny of the dominant and the institutionalised in our theoretical approaches and in the worlds which we research and inhabit. We welcome papers that question what might be viewed now as the solid ground of orthodox and established discursive approaches in organisation studies. Equally, we encourage papers that call into question the firm ground of hegemonic or deep-seated discourses, to explore the processes whereby certain meanings and forms of representation become institutionalised.

Terra Nova casts our attention to issues of novelty and emergence. We call for papers, firstly, that consider new empirical sites, new issues, new theoretical approaches, and new methodologies for the discursive analysis of organisations.

Additionally, through the theme of Terra Nova, we encourage papers that scrutinize and question the discourse of 'newness' and its relationship with aspects of social, organisational or discursive change. Such papers could focus on either contemporary or historical examples of apparent discursive novelty. In doing so, we emphasise the power effects of discourses to question how particular worlds are made possible through the invoking of certain discourses.

Terra Incognita traditionally marks the part of a map left empty, denoting the undocumented or the unchartered, and in popular myth depicted by the expression "here be dragons". We use the term to draw attention to the hidden, marginalised, excluded bodies, silent voices and submerged meanings, or the ways in which organisations operate to maintain the obscurity of certain meanings and identities. We also point to more unorthodox, risky, possibly iconoclastic approaches and understandings of social phenomena.

Through Terra Incognita we invite consideration of issues and ways of understanding that move beyond the conventional in discourse analysis, drawing perhaps on critical praxis, new forms of intervention, and more effective ways of linking academia to different communities. Finally, we draw attention here to the recursive and interconnected nature of meaning and to how one person's incognita may be another person's terra firma.

These three sub-themes should be viewed as indicative rather than exhaustive. All papers are invited that have an interest in language and discourse in different aspects of organizing or on processes of discursive production and re-production in constituting different types of social worlds and social actors.


A phenomenon that passengers are getting sleepy is often found in running cars or trains. If a mechanism can reproduce this phenomenon, it is feasible to put insomnia patients or infants to sleep without any harmful effects. This will bring extreme benefit for insomnia patients or parents of babies. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the sleep-inducing factors of running cars or trains, and the final goal is to develop a machine which reproduces the environment to put people to sleep. For the first step of this study, we investigated the relationship between sleepiness and vibrations on several trains. The sleepability of each train is discussed by the ratio of sleeping people. After vibration analyses, the results suggest that comfortable vibration for sleep has mainly low-frequency (~2Hz) vibration with particular fluctuation. Small jerks also contribute the sleepability.


This is an article about how disputes over virtual world items, such as virtual money, Second Life islands, and even sex beds, can inform property law generally. Rights in these virtual world items, like rights in software and many other intangible assets, are transferred by standard-form agreements that are often designated as licenses. For many readers, virtual worlds need no definition; it has been hard to read a major newspaper in the past several years without encountering an article about virtual worlds. In the past several years, Second Life and other virtual worlds were featured in numerous articles in major American newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Virtual worlds have captured the attention of legal and other scholars. The legal literature tends to focus on the application of real world laws to the virtual environment. Some have discussed how our property laws should apply in virtual worlds; others have questioned whether virtual worlds need their own governance institutions. In this article, I will take another approach. Rather than asking whether real world laws can or should apply to virtual worlds, I will discuss the ways in which the study of virtual worlds can contribute to real world law. Specifically, I will explain what the study of virtual world assets can do for property law.In this paper, I argue that virtual world assets are significant because they graphically illustrate the different rights that persons can hold in an intangible asset. Once we see that intangible assets encompass the very same rights that are embodied in tangible assets, we can understand that the law should not permit the unfettered customization of property rights in intangible assets by standard form agreements, just as the law does not permit the unlimited customization of property rights in tangible assets and real property. My thesis is that a study of virtual world assets can help us understand why the numerus clausus principle should be more rigorously applied to rights in intangible assets and that the numerus clausus can, in turn, assist us interpreting the standard-form agreements that convey rights in these assets.


Dinoflagellate population growth is inhibited by fluid motion, which is typically characterized by some average flow property, regardless if the flow is steady or unsteady. This study compares the effect of fully characterized steady and unsteady flow on net population growth of the red tide dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum. The unsteady flow fields were generated using oscillatory laminar Couette flow and characterized analytically to provide complete knowledge of the fluid shear exposure over space and time throughout the chamber. Experimental conditions were selected so all cells experienced a similar shear exposure regardless of their position within the chamber. Unsteady flow with maximum shears of 6.4 s−1 and 6.7 s−1 and an average absolute shear of 4 s−1, comparable with levels found at the ocean surface on a windy day, resulted in higher levels of growth inhibition than for steady Couette flow with shears of 4 and 8 s−1. Over the parameter space studied, growth inhibition increased with increasing treatment duration (5–120 min) but was insensitive to oscillation period (60–600 s) or whether the unsteady flow changed in direction. These results indicate that over the parameter space studied, unsteady flow is more inhibitory to net growth than steady flow, for the same average flow conditions, and demonstrate that flow characterization on the basis only of average flow properties is inadequate for comparing population growth in unsteady and steady flows.


Design has a history of violence. It can be an act of creative destruction and a double-edged sword, and yet professional discourse around design has been dominated by voices that only trumpet its commercial and aesthetic successes. Violence, defined here as the power to alter circumstances against the will of others and to their detriment, is ubiquitous in history and in contemporary society. In recent years, moreover, technology has introduced new threats and added dramatically to the many manifestations of violence. Design and Violence is an exploration of the relationship between the two that sheds light on the complex impact of design on the built environment and on everyday life, as well as on the manifestations of violence in contemporary society. Published to accompany an online experiment launched by The Museum of Modern Art in Autumn 2013, it brings together controversial, provocative, and compelling design projects with leading voices from a variety of fields. Each invited author responds to one object chosen by the curators ranging from an AK-47 to a Euthanasia Rollercoaster, from plastic handcuffs to the Stuxnet digital virus and invites dialogue, comments, reflection, and active, occasionally fierce, debate. Examples of questions posed include: Can we design a violent act to be more humane? How far can the state go to protect its borders from immigration before it becomes an act of violence? Is violence male? These experimental and wide-ranging conversations bring together voices from the fields of art and design, science, law, criminal justice, ethics, finance, journalism, and social justice, making Design and Violence an invaluable resource for lively discussions and classroom curricula.


Abstract The present article examines the relationship between community forest management policies on the one hand, and income and unemployment in rural areas of Nepal on the other, by modeling the effect of forest management constraints on community forest use. Current government policy dictates the use of all community forestland for environmental conservation and limited timber production, and provides little scope for fodder and firewood production. Based on data from 259 households in 6 community forest user groups in 3 hilly districts (Dolakha, Kavre, and Nuwakot), the results show that the resources available from private lands and community forests under current policies are inadequate to fully utilize the family labor force of many rural households, and are insufficient to generate a bare subsistence income for the poorest households. The study shows that a policy change to community forest management using a more flexible agroforestry model could overcome rural unemployment problems and increase incomes while ensuring sustainable resource use from the forests.


The interfacial region of aqueous systems also known as the electrical double layer can be characterized on the molecular level with second harmonic and sum-frequency generation (SHG/SFG). SHG and SFG are surface specific methods for isotropic liquids. Here, we model the SHG/SFG intensity in reflection, transmission, and scattering geometry taking into account the spatial variation of all fields. We show that, in the presence of a surface electrostatic field, interference effects, which originate from oriented water molecules on a length scale over which the potential decays, can strongly modify the probing depth as well as the expected intensity at ionic strengths <10–3 M. For reflection experiments this interference phenomenon leads to a significant reduction of the SHG/SFG intensity. Transmission mode experiments from aqueous interfaces are hardly influenced. For SHG/SFG scattering experiments the same interference leads to an increase in intensity and to modified scattering patterns. The predicted sca...


This Ph.D. project as a landscape research practice focuses on the less widely studied aspects of urban agriculture landscape and its application in recreation and leisure, as well as landscape beautification. I research on the edible landscape planning and design, its criteria, possibilities, and traditional roots for the particular situation of Iranian cities and landscapes. The primary objective is preparing a conceptual and practical framework for Iranian professions to integrate the food landscaping into the new greenery and open spaces developments. Furthermore, finding the possibilities of synthesis the traditional utilitarian gardening with the contemporary pioneer viewpoints of agricultural landscapes is the other significant proposed achievement.
Finished tasks and list of achieved results:
• Recognition the software and hardware principles of designing the agricultural landscape based on the Persian gardens
• Multidimensional identity of agricultural landscape in Persian gardens
• Principles of architectural integration and the characteristics of the integrative landscape in Persian gardens
• Distinctive characteristics of agricultural landscape in Persian garden
• Introducing the Persian and historical gardens as the starting point for reentering the agricultural phenomena into the Iranian cities and landscape
• Assessment the structure of Persian gardens based on the new achievements and criteria of designing the urban agriculture
• Investigate the role of Persian gardens in envisioning the urban agriculture in
Iranian cities' landscape.


Precise control of media delivery to cells in microfluidic systems in a simple and efficient manner is a challenge for a number of cell-based applications. Conventional syringe pumps can deliver culture media into microfluidic devices at precisely controlled flow rates, but they are bulky and require a power source. On the other hand, passive microflow-generating systems cannot maintain continuous, controllable and long-term delivery of media. We have developed an on-chip microflow control technology that combines flow rate control and passive, long-term delivery of media to microwell tissue culture chambers. Here, a passive flow is initiated using the siphon effect and a yarn flow resistor is used to regulate the flow rate in the microchannel. Using the yarn flow resistor, the medium flow rate into the microfluidic cell culture system is made adjustable to a few hundred microliters per hour. To evaluate the effects of controlled flow on microfluidic cell culture properties (feasibility test), we measured the cell alignment and cytoskeletal arrangement of endothelial cells cultured in a microwell array inside the microfluidic channel.


High power and high energy density are important requirements for advanced energy storage systems in mobile electronic devices, electric vehicles, and military-grade high-rate energy storage systems. However, achieving both high power and high energy in a single device is very challenging because high power density usually leads to a tradeoff with low energy density in devices that rely on a single ion storage mechanism. In this work, we designed a hybrid energy storage device consisting of an intercalative battery cathode and a capacitive supercapacitor anode. As a proof-of-concept, we used LiFePO4 (LFP) nanoparticles on an aluminum (Al) leaf current collector as the battery electrode and a free-standing reduced graphene oxide/carbon nanotube (RGO/CNT) nanocarbon membrane as the supercapacitor electrode. The hybrid device possesses outstanding features including (1) an asymmetric electrode configuration; (2) an ultra-lightweight current collector for the cathode; (3) a current collector free anode; (4) a quasi-solid-state gel polymer electrolyte. Compared with conventional supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries, our hybrid device exhibits superior performance with both high energy density (180 W h kg−1) and high power density (218 W kg−1), and enhanced safety imparted by the quasi-solid-state gel electrolyte, representing one new direction for developing high-energy/high-power energy storage devices.


Background Pain is a common symptom related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In addition to abdominal pain, pain can also be an extraintestinal manifestation of IBD. Pain treatment is challenging and a substantial part of IBD patients are treated with opioids. Therefore, a better knowledge on pain symptoms is crucial for a better therapeutic approach to this clinical problem. Methods Patients of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS) (n = 2152) received a questionnaire regarding pain intensity, pain localization and impact of pain on daily life and social activities. Furthermore, the questionnaire investigated the use of pain-specific medication. Results A vast majority of patients (71%) experienced pain during the disease course. For a substantial part of patients (49% in UC and 55% in CD) pain is a longstanding problem (>5 years). Pain in UC was of shorter duration compared to CD (p < 0.01). Abdominal pain (59.5%) and back pain (38.3%) were the main pain localizations. 67% of patients took pain medication; 24% received no pain treatment. The general quality of life was significantly lower in patients suffering of pain compared to those without pain (38 vs. 77; (-100 very bad; 100 very good) p<0.0001). Conclusions Prevalence of pain is high in patients of the SIBDCS. It is a longstanding problem for the majority of the patients affected. Pain was found to be undertreated in the SIBDCS and was significantly associated with health-related quality of life. Thus, an increased awareness is mandatory to address this frequent complication in the course of IBD.


Cite this article: Begum S, Banerjee A, De B. Analysis of Antioxidant Activities, Phenolic and Other Metabolites of Some Biomass Waste (Leaves) of India. Free Radicals and Antioxidants. 2018;8(2):102-10. ABSTRACT Background: Antioxidants have important role on human health as well as in food industry. Natural antioxidants are preferred to synthetic antioxidants. Objective: In this study attempt was made to explore the leaf biomass, generally wasted and burnt, as sources of important antioxidant compounds. Methods: Extracts of leaves from five plants e.g. Artocarpus heterophyllus, Haldina cordifolia, Magnolia champaca, Mimusops elengi and Syzygium cumini were analyzed for their antioxidant properties by four different systems of assays. Identification and quantification of important components were performed using GC-MS. Results: All the extracts scavenged DPPH radical, superoxide radical, and chelated metal. S. cumini showed strongest antioxidant activities in all systems of assays. Many important phenols and other metabolites were identified. Correlation between activity and metabolite profile helped to identify important antioxidant compounds in the extracts. Important phenolic antioxidants identified were catechin, epicatechin, protocatechuic acid (from S. cumini), gallic acid, myricetin (from S. cumini, M. elengi), arbutin, 4-hydroxycinnamic acid (from M. elengi). Conclusion: Thus, the leaf biomass may be used as an alternative source of these important phytochemicals having antioxidant activity.


Platelet-activating factor (PAF) causes pulmonary hypertension and lung edema in animals and isolated perfused lungs by poorly understood mechanisms. Because oxidative mechanisms have been implicated in PAF-mediated cellular injury, we tested the hypothesis that superoxide anion (O2-.) contributes to PAF-induced lung injury by determining whether superoxide dismutase (SOD) could prevent the lung injury. Isolated rabbit lungs were perfused with PAF (100 nM) at a dose that caused transient hypertension and mild edema. Lungs pretreated with Cu,Zn SOD (100 U/ml) for 10 min developed persistent pulmonary hypertension and more lung edema formation in response to PAF. Enhanced responses to PAF also were observed in lungs perfused with 200 U/ml Cu,Zn SOD, but not with 10 or 40 U/ml Cu,Zn SOD. The higher doses of SOD also decreased thromboxane B2 levels in the perfusate. Potentiation of the PAF effect by Cu,Zn SOD was eliminated if the enzyme was inactivated or if the lung was treated with an anion channel blocker. The augmented PAF response in the presence of SOD was not altered by catalase (200 U/ml) or by nitric oxide synthase inhibitor. The data suggest that excessive Cu,Zn SOD enzyme activity potentiates PAF-induced injury in perfused rabbit lung presumably by overscavenging extracellular O2.- generated from intercellular sources. The augmented responses to PAF are not directly attributable to increased hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide-related products, or thromboxane A2 production. These results suggest the new hypothesis that a balance between O2-. production and its metabolism determines vascular and endothelial responses to PAF.


Objective: The objective of the present study is to describe the process of building closer patient-nurse relationships in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient care. Nurses play important roles in psychiatric inpatient care for children and adolescents, and their care can affect every facet of their daily life. The efficacy of treatment depends on the nurses' ability to build intimate patientnurse relationships.
Methods: A qualitative methodology, based on the tenets of grounded theory approach, was taken. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 expert nurses and analyzed using a constant comparative method.
Results: 'Developing emotional attachment' was identified as the core category, substantiated by four interrelated stages: 'Becoming a target of attachment'; 'Forming an attachment'; 'Expanding the target of attachment'; and 'Preparing to be a target of attachment'. We found that in developing emotional attachments with inpatient children or adolescents, expert nurses achieved a balance between appropriate psychological distance from - and their own increased attachment to - those inpatients.
Conclusions: The "expert" nurses become a target of attachment for their patients and then successfully extend that to other nurses during professional nursing intervention.


This is a revised and updated edition of the highly successful first edition. In the intervening period the procedures used in the description of soils and rocks have continued to develop and evolve and this new edition incorporates changes in the national and international standards, BS 5930:2015 and EN ISO 14688 and 14689 and makes close comparison with US practice in description (ASTM D2488) and classification (ASTM D2487).

 In addition, changes in definitions, naming procedures, and new terms are all included and explained. More detailed guidance is given for several procedures including identification of minerals in the process of naming rocks, comparisons of terminology between engineering geology and the other geosciences and alignment of the classification approach to that proposed for earthworks in line with EN 16907.

 The book continues to provide invaluable practical guidance in carrying out engineering geological logging of soil and rock samples and exposures in the field. The systematic and codified approach are laid out in detail to ensure the defined descriptors are used in a consistent format, rendering mistakes less likely and the necessary communication from field to design more successful.

 The procedures, techniques and tips within this book continue to serve and guide young practitioners learning their craft, but also their seniors and mentors, including responsible experts who sign off the logs and report on behalf of their company. More than ever the need to be aware of current practices in order to avoid costly mistakes is paramount.


Paramagnetic lanthanide(III) complexes that contain hyperfine-shifted exchangeable protons offer considerable advantages over diamagnetic molecules as chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) agents for MRI. As part of a program to investigate avenues to improve the sensitivity of such agents, the CEST characteristics of europium(III) macrocyclic complexes having appended hydroxyethyl groups were investigated. The CEST spectrum of the asymmetrical complex, EuCNPHC3+, shows five distinct peaks for each magnetically nonequivalent exchangeable proton in the molecule. The CEST spectra of this complex were fitted to NMR Bloch theory to yield exchange rates between each of six exchanging proton pools (five on the agent plus bulk water). Exchange between the Eu3+-bound hydroxyl protons and bulk water protons was slow in dry acetonitrile but accelerated incrementally upon stepwise addition of water. In pure water, exchange was too fast to observe a CEST effect. The utility of this class of europium(III) complex for CEST imaging applications is ultimately limited by the small chemical shifts induced by the hydroxyl-appended ligands of this type and the resulting small Deltaomega values for the exchangeable hydroxyl protons.


ABSTRACT Most child care programs, preschools, and day care centers are public accommodations and cannot discriminate against children on the basis of disability. However, it is not always clear what constitutes a disability or how to make a reasonable accommodation for a child with a disability. Many cases in this area are settled without extensive litigation, benefitting both children who might suffer harm as a result of lengthy litigation and child care centers attempting to curb rising childcare costs. This article summarizes the current law in this area, including available settlement information and Department of Justice policies. I. INTRODUCTION In the United States prior to the 1960s, a trend existed which segregated individuals with disabilities from the rest of society. In the 1960s, a change in the philosophy of the nation began to occur that reflected an idea that all individuals should be able to realize their potential and should not be segregated or separated because of their differences. As we turned away from separation in a racial context, we began to look at other groups we segregated from the mainstream of society and began to attempt to integrate them as well. The Rehabilitation Act was passed in 1973 and was the first federal statute providing for nondiscrimination on the basis of disability. It provided that the federal government, federal contractors, and recipients of federal financial assistance could not discriminate on the basis of disability. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed by Congress (now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA1). This act reflected court decisions about equal protection and due process when educating children with disabilities in the public school system and addressed questions of procedural safeguards and funding in that context. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, providing much more comprehensive coverage for individuals with disabilities.2 The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation and telecommunications.3 The ADA incorporated many of the areas covered under the Rehabilitation Act. Most actions against child care centers or private schools can be brought under Title III of the ADA, which covers public accommodations. Title III states that: No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.4 Several different categories of public accommodation are defined, specifically including nurseries, private schools, and day care centers.5 Under Title III, public accommodations must comply with basic nondiscrimination requirements prohibiting exclusion, segregation and unequal treatment. Title III does not apply to private child care programs that are controlled or operated by religious organizations, although it does apply to programs that operate on the premises of religious organizations but are not operated by the religious organization (for instance, a child care program that leases space from a church).6 However, many such programs receive federal financial assistance in the form of school lunch programs. Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, recipients of federal financial assistance are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of disability against otherwise qualified individuals. Between coverage under the ADA, and the coverage that remains under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, IMAGE FORMULA10almost all child care centers are prohibited by law from discriminating against children with special needs or disabilities. …


The law purports to disapprove of dishonesty. But not all species of dishonesty are created equal, and not all contexts are equivalent when it comes to the law's intolerance of dishonest conduct. This article distinguishes among three types of dishonesty: lies, deceit, and bullshit. Lying is a statement that the speaker projects as true, while believing it to be false. Deceit depends on altering the hearer's state of mind to believe something the speaker believes to be false, regardless of whether the deceitful statement is true or false. Bullshit, following the work of philosopher Harry Frankfurt, is a statement made without regard to its truth or falsity. The article touches on such areas of law as perjury, making false statements to government agents, fraud, pleading requirements, as well as political speech.