John Amos Comenius belongs to the most important thinkers in European theology, philosophy, and pedagogy. His thoughts and ideas, contained in numerous works, over the centuries have been the subject of research and study by authors all over the world and have been the basis for the development of pedagogy as a science, as well as many modern understandings about education. We especially emphasize pedagogical work Great Didactic (lat Didaktica magna) as his most significant and famous work, where is presented the whole educational system and organization of teaching, which many parts are still applied today. The most previous authors who deal with analyzing the Comenius thought, in his works mentioned comeniology, but as a phenomenon, he doesn't have clearly definition and content. Today, scientists tend to point out the need for the existence of comeniology as a science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the pedagogical thoughts and ideas of John Amos Comenius from the aspect of applying his original ideas in contemporary didactics and methodology of pedagogy. For the purpose of this study, we used the method of theoretical analysis and the historical method with the technique of analyzing the content of available pedagogical sources. The content of this paper leads us to emphasize the significant influence of Comenius on developing and the existence of methodology of pedagogy and to point out the methodology of pedagogy as a possible subject area of the comeniology as a science.


This paper uses a spatial price index based on the Fair Market Rents (FMRs) data to examine how accounting for cost of living differences across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas affects measured rates of poverty. The headcount, poverty gap, and squared poverty gap measures from the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke family of poverty measures provide comparisons of measures that vary in degree of sensitivity to changes in the income distribution of the poor. In every year since the Federal government began tracking poverty, the headcount measure has been higher in nonmetro than metro areas. The metro-nonmetro difference in poverty has been significantly less pronounced when considering the squared poverty gap measure indicating that disproportionately more of the nonmetropolitan poor subsist on incomes near the poverty line. The Fair Market Rents index is approximately 20 percent lower in nonmetro areas than in metro areas and using this index to adjust income for spatial price differences results in a complete reversal of nonmetro-metro poverty rankings over the three measures from 1991 to 2002. Classification: I32, R1, C81


We reiterate that the conclusions of our original report are based on identifiable characteristic trends in several observables with cluster size. The numerical comparison between simulated and experimental vertical detachment energies emphasized by Verlet et al. reflect quantitative limitations of our atomistic model, but, in our opinion, do not undermine these conclusions.


The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate whether the relationship between functional decisional capacity and the resulting quality of treatment posited by the informed consent theory is found in clinical practice; and (2) to describe the range of decisional impairments found in long-term psychiatric inpatients who comply with prescribed treatment. Eighty-eight long-term, compliant, psychiatric inpatients, in two public hospitals, who were prescribed antipsychotic medications were assessed. Following a formal assessment of decisional capacity, subjects were categorized according to level of impairment, using a hierarchical scheme. All subjects were evaluated for the presence of abnormal involuntary movements. The appropriateness of treatment with antipsychotic medications was determined using accepted clinical guidelines. Patients with more serious impairments of decisional capacity were more likely to receive inappropriate treatment with antipsychotic medication; and serious impairments of decisional capacity were common. The study lends empirical support to one of the bases of the doctrine of informed consent: the notion that capable patient involvement in decisionmaking plays an important role in checking the judgments of treating physicians. Remedial measures are needed to protect long-term psychiatric inpatients with impaired decisional capacity from receiving inappropriate treatment.


Abstract The paper addresses the issue of consistency between two commonly employed stated preference data—referendum contingent valuation (CV) and discrete choice modelling (CM)—with respect to estimated distributions of individual willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for non‐market goods. The policy context is that of a local externality: effective speed reduction by means of traffic‐calming in towns crossed by fast roads. In particular, data from two independent samples of the same population are contrasted. The findings show that both methods indicate that speed reduction via traffic‐calming is valued in a polarized fashion. Results from both methods are consistent with the presence of two groups of preferences: a larger group holding positive values and a smaller one with non‐positive values. While the estimates of the relative proportions of the two groups are similar across the two data sources, once the econometric analysis of the CM responses allows for polarized preferences the estimates of the distribution of individual WTP differ substantially. The results from the choice modelling survey indicate that residents are also willing to pay for other benefits from traffic‐calming, such as noise reduction and a decreased waiting time for crossing, but preferences for these are also polarized, with WTP for aesthetic improvements being positive only for those supporting effective speed control. In comparing distributions of value estimates from CM and CV, surveys practitioners should account for the effects of taste heterogeneity over externalities and take advantage of the ability to derive individual‐specific WTP estimates from panel estimation rather than simply deriving estimates for common features of the WTP distribution.


How individuals can exercise creativity in collectivities is unclear. We thus need to more thoroughly investigate the 'black box' of organizational creativity. Future research should consider creativity in a variety of organizations, rather than just those that are known for creative outputs or practices. In addition, we need to examine what I call everyday, relational, and proto-institutional forms of organizational creativity. Intra- and inter-organizational aspects can enhance or depress such organizational creativity: (1) within the organization's boundary: internal interactions among organizational members and (2) outside the organization's boundary: the surrounding organizational environment or field, which include competing or supporting organizations, other organizational actors, and the state. These two aspects pose dilemmas about how to organize that can constrain or enhance organizational creativity. In addressing these dilemmas, organizations must mediate between under- and over-organizing extremes. Organizations can enable creativity by incorporating changing interests and conditions. Organizations can eschew convention, increase rank-and-file involvement with corresponding authority, tolerate ambiguity and deviance, encourage improvisation, and support members' diverse experiences and perspectives.


Collections of black fly (Diptera: Simuliidae) larvae were made at previously unexplored lotic habitats in northern Thailand and their gut fungi identified. Eight trichomycete species were recovered, including one new species, Harpella asiana, and two possible new species: Graminelloides cf. biconica and Harpella cf. tica. Paramoebidium sp., Pennella montana Lichtwardt, Stachylina nana Lichtwardt and Stipella vigilans Leger & Gauthier are new Thailand records. The widely distributed species of gut fungus, Harpella melusinae Leger & Duboscq, that has previously been reported from Thailand, was also recovered. We have shown that trichomycetes are abundant in northern Thailand and undoubtedly many other Harpellales, beyond the taxa we report here, are present especially in unexplored regions of the country and in different hosts, habitats and times of the year. These findings correspond to 40% (6/15) of the trichomycete genera previously reported from tropical regions worldwide.


The objective of this study was to determine if crude protein varies significantly during late summer and midwinter among stands of bitterbrush ( Purshia tridentata Pursh) in southwestern Montana. A secondary objective was to determine if leaves, when present, contribute significant additional protein in the region. Nine sites with different environmental conditions within a radius of 14.5 km were studied. Bitterbrush leaves and leaders collected in August 1990 and 1991 and February 1991 were used for crude protein and leaf-to-leader ratio determinations. Crude protein differed ( P < 0.001) among sites for both leaves and leaders on individual collection dates. Crude protein in leaves was nearly twice the level found in leaders. Because few leaves were present in February, they increased crude protein in total foliage by only 0.3% over twigs alone. February crude protein levels averaged 6.8% for total foliage, which is below the estimated requirement for wintering deer.


Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognised for their potential to address both the climate and biodiversity crises. Both these outcomes rely on the capacity of NbS to support and enhance the health of an ecosystem: its biodiversity, the condition of its abiotic and biotic elements, and its capacity to continue to function despite environmental change. However, while understanding of ecosystem health outcomes of NbS for climate change mitigation has developed in recent years, the outcomes of those implemented for adaptation remain poorly understood. To address this, we systematically reviewed the outcomes of 109 nature-based interventions for climate change adaptation using 33 indicators of ecosystem health across eight broad categories (e.g., diversity, biomass, ecosystem composition). We showed that 88% of interventions with reported positive outcomes for climate change adaptation also reported benefits for ecosystem health. We also showed that interventions were associated with a 67% average increase in species richness. All eight studies that reported benefits for both climate change mitigation and adaptation also supported ecosystem health, leading to a "triple win." However, there were also trade-offs, mainly for forest management and creation of novel ecosystems such as monoculture plantations of non-native species. Our review highlights two key limitations in our understanding of the outcomes of NbS for ecosystem health. First, a limited selection of metrics are used and these rarely include key aspects such as functional diversity and habitat connectivity. Second, taxonomic coverage is limited: 50% of interventions only had evidence for effects on plants, and 57% of outcomes did not distinguish between native and non-native species. We make suggestions of how to improve assessments of the ecosystem health outcomes of NbS, as well as policy recommendations to enable the upscaling of NbS that support flourishing and resilient ecosystems, and are effective in addressing both climate and biodiversity goals.


In this paper we propose a new approach for automatic evaluation of relations in ontologies of restricted domain. In particular, we use various lexico-syntactic patterns with the aim of evaluating the class-inclusionand ontological relations that the ontology holds. Our approach focuses on a reference corpus for finding evidence of the relation validity. The approach is capable to provide an accuracy measure for each ontology evaluated, a value associated in some way with the quality of the ontology relations. This score is given with a certain degree of reliability, and it is obtained by comparing the results given by our approach against the evaluation of human experts and a baseline.


Background Specific studies focusing exclusively on ADEs show different values in incidence and nature of the reported events. Evidence from general adverse events studies has never been analysed in Spain. Purpose To evaluate the ADEs identified in two Spanish Regional studies and the Spanish National Study of Adverse Events (ENEAS) determining their impact and preventability. Materials and methods Case series analysis. A database of 9320 records of patients taking part in three retrospective cohort studies (sharing study protocols and forms) aimed to identify Adverse Events (AE) associated directly with medical care in Spain, was searched to analyse the eight entries related to ADE per patient (error and drug category, route of administration, impact, personal involved, preventability). Descriptive statistics were used. Results A series of 271 ADEs was identified. 112 (41.5%) were considered medication errors, therefore preventable and 158 (58.5%) were classified as Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs). Errors involving drug-related clinical monitoring reached 50.0%, prescription errors 46.7%, and administration errors (more difficult to identify in medical records) 3.3%. Improper fluid replacement was responsible for 10.7% of the errors. Half of the ADEs were related to intravenous administration. 22.9% of events involved antibiotics. The ADR analysis showed 43.8% gastrointestinal AEs, 14% haematological AEs and 12% cardiovascular AEs. 234 medicines-related problems (MRP) had enough information to allow analysis. We categorised 10 "Untreated conditions", 4 "Drug use without indication", 5 "Improper drug selection", 7 "Subtherapeutic dose", 34 "Overdose", 158 "ADRs" and 16 "lack of adequate monitoring". Conclusions The most frequent problems were digestive ADRs and overdose. A large proportion were preventable errors. The difference in incidence observed with specific studies focusing exclusively on ADEs shows that little information allowing ADE identification is contained in medical records, but this register is of great value allowing the emergence of underreported errors in specific studies like those related to fluid replacement. No conflict of interest.


This book is the culmination of more than a decade of research and writing on the nature of investigative journalism as a form of social and moral inquiry. Focusing on the work of a number of award-winning investigative reporters, James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glasser punctuate their analysis of news and journalism with interviews with these writers and excerpts from their stories. Custodians of Conscience provides a powerful assessment and critique of the tensions and contradictions that characterize modern American journalism. It is a book that honors the rigor and importance of investigative journalism by showing how facts implicate values and by explaining why the future of news requires a deeper appreciation for the connection between human knowledge and human interest.


Sleep and dream are the inseparable parts of the human life, so their disturbance can affect the individuals' quality of life. Sages of Persian medicine (PM) had valued dream as a part of history taking and physical examination for diagnosis of the diseases. Recently, psychologists and psychotherapists have focused on several aspects of dream. The aim of this review study was to explain the overviews of the sages of PM about dream and its aspects. The main sources of PM including The Canon of Medicine, Kholase Al-Hekmat, Firdous al-Hikmah, Mofareh Al-Gholub, Sharhe aghsaraei and also the NOOR software was reviewed by these keywords: "khab", "roya", "navm", and "azqâth-e-ahlâm". In addition, electronic data bases including PubMed Central, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched.   Finally, the gathered information was presented.  According to PM, the potential functionality of dream contents can be exploited to shed light on the temperamental diagnosis, and there are modalities whereby dream interpretation can be useful in diagnosis. PM considers the clues from one's sleep/wakefulness ratio to discern one's temperament: where abundance of wakeful hours indicates hotness and/or dryness of temperament, too much sleep signals an indication of coldness and/or wetness of temperament. Such discerning of temperaments itself acts as a suitable prelude to proper diagnosis. In conclusion, PM sages had recommended that the individuals' dreams depend on their temperament. In this regard, it is suggested that experimental and clinical studies on dream should be designed with integration of conventional medicine and PM.


Diabetes mellitus is associated with the enhanced uptake of several nutrients. The purpose of this study was to use an established in vitro technique to examine the uptake of bile acids into jejunum, ileum, and colon of control (CON) and streptozotocin-diabetic rats (DM). When the bulk phase was stirred to reduce the effective thickness of the unstirred layer, the ileal uptake of 1.5–15 mM cholic (C), glycocholic (GC), taurocholic (TC), chenodeoxycholic (CDC), glycochenodeoxycholic (GCDC), and deoxycholic (DC) acid was similar in CON and DM. The relative values of the maximal transport rates were CDC > GC > GCDC > C > TC = DC, and similar relative values were observed for the Michaelis constants (Km). The values of and Km for each bile acid were similar in CON and in DM. In CON and at pH 7.4 an inverse linear relationship was noted between the number of hydrogen bonds in the bile acids and the natural logarithm of the permeability coefficient (Pd) times the square root of the molecular weight of the bile acid. This slope reflected the incremental change in free energy, δΔFw ← I, associated with the uptake of bile acids; the value of δΔFw ← I was similar for jejunum, ileum, and colon of CON, but was lower in jejunum of DM than CON. Thus, DM is associated with a greater relative permeability of the jejunum but not the ileum or the colon to a series of bile acids. At pH 4.2, the uptake of the bile acids was much greater than at pH 7.4, and the relative ratio of the Pd's of the bile acids was different than the values at pH 7.4, and varied between jejunum, ileum, and colon in CON and DM. Thus, diabetes has a variable effect on the uptake of bile acids, and this effect depends on the bile acid, site, and pH. The kinetics of the ileal active transport system, like those of passive uptake, are dependent upon molecular structure. The finding of different values for of the bile acids suggests that there may be more than one ileal carrier for bile acids, but the properties of these carriers are unaffected by StreptOZOtOCin diabetes in the rat.


In a previous editorial (Gelfer, 2009), I wrote about the economics of open access journal publishing. Specifically, I noted how a particular viewpoint expressed by Conley and Wooders (2009) glossed over some of the skills involved in open access publishing, and how this resulted at once in a devaluation of the publishing profession, and the co-option of free labor from academics. The outcome of this combination is that open access publishing can be seen as the privilege of those who can afford to support a volunteer economy. However, I am still an advocate of alternative publishing models, as demonstrated by JMMS being an open access journal. In this editorial I want to assume that we have made peace with the nature of volunteer economics, and offer some further practical thoughts not in the domain of journals (because this has been done in many other places), but books. Further still, I want to talk not about open access books in the increasing number of institutionally-supported open access monograph initiatives (important though they are), but genuinely independent publishing that is delivered not just online as open access content, but also via other channels such as print and Kindle. My thinking on this subject was encouraged by the idea of writing a nonacademic book about masculinity that could be written exactly as I wanted (in other words, not mediated by what a publisher believed they could sell), and that I could give away online. I was interested in the kind of impact that such a book could potentially have more than the cultural and professional capital that could be derived from a traditionally published book (whether academic or trade). With this in mind I drew up a plan for a book called The Masculinity Conspiracy (Gelfer, 2011), which I intended to give away for free online, posting each chapter as it was written and soliciting comments along the way that could directly result in the text being revised and inform the chapters that had yet to been written. I started by registering the domain name masculinityconspiracy.com with a small hosting package (which cost about $50 in total). After investigating several publishing platforms I settled on WordPress to deliver the content of the book. There are plenty of other possibilities, but I already used WordPress for a blog, so knew how it worked, and there are many people with WordPress accounts who could comment on the blog using their existing online identity. I posted the text of the first chapter online, breaking the text up across pages with somewhere between 500 and 700 words, so readers could comment on specific sections of the text rather than a whole chapter. I then went and let people know about the website, whether they be in my personal network, or by posting messages on subject-related discussion boards. From the beginning the site received a modest but steady number or readers, some of whom left interesting comments which often took the text on unexpected tangents, and some directly went on to influence the text of later chapters. Indeed, for the first four chapters, everything went exactly as I would have hoped and expected. And then the site was hacked. I was unsure if this was a random occurrence, or something aimed specifically at me, but the text and comments were all deleted, leaving pictures of skulls and "got to hell" messages. My Internet Service Provider rolled the site back to a restore point before the hack, recovering the content, but claimed this was my problem (despite the fact that I was using the WordPress software they provided). One month later the site was hacked again, this time leaving messages in Arabic and pictures of Saddam Hussein. I took this hack more personally, as it was accompanied by emails questioning the size of my penis. Clearly, someone had taken significant offense to The Masculinity Conspiracy, which was at once most annoying in terms of the hack, but also rather exciting in terms of having clearly touched a nerve in the public domain in a way that is rarely achieved by orthodox academic publishing. …


Loss of a natural hand means that the neural connections between the brain and the palm, fingers and thumb are also lost, including any feedback paths e.g. sensing temperature. Equipping an artificial hand with sensors allows for the inclusion of automatic control loops, freeing the user from the cognitive burden of object holding which is similar to the natural low level spinal loops that automatically compensate for object movement. Force, object slip and finger positions are variables that need to be measured in a hand designed for the physically impaired person. A high specification is required for any sensor design.


Corporate behaviour in both the UK and US has changed because of the change in management incentives. The result is that the savings' surplus of business is no longer a cyclical problem that will end once the animal spirits of entrepreneurs have revived. It is now a structural problem. This is ignored by those who call for an end to fiscal constraint on the grounds that deficit cutting should follow, not precede, sustained recovery. No sustained recovery can be expected without a change in policy as new problems require new solutions. The UK must change the savings' surpluses of the foreign sector by currency intervention and that of the corporate sector by changing the bonus culture.


This thesis presents a mixture of theoretical work and experimental results relating to the generation and transport of relativistic electrons in fast ignition inertial confinement fusion.

First the theoretical work is presented, which focuses on the effect that a fast electron beam has on a background plasma. The fast electron beam drives a resistive return current in the plasma, which causes Ohmic heating, leading to a pressure gradient, and a $J \times B$ force. Both of these would be expected to cause cavitation in the background plasma. In this work an analytic model has been developed which shows that the pressure gradient is the dominant force, and predicts the significance of cavitation over a range of parameters relevant to fast ignition fusion. In addition to this the timescale on which shocks can form is considered. This work was verified by the development of a one dimensional fluid code which included the effects of a resistive return current, and was used to model shock formation when the cavitation in the plasma is strong. Some results from a two dimensional version of the code are also presented.

The experimental work in this thesis focuses on an experiment which looked at the interaction of a high-powered laser with gold cone targets, similar to those that would be used in cone-guided fast ignition schemes. In this experiment, the effect of defocusing the laser upon the production of hot electrons was investigated. A copper wire was attached to the cones to act as a diagnostic for the hot electrons. A ray-tracing code was developed to better understand the change in intensity inside the cone when the laser is defocused. The results of this experiment demonstrate that the energy coupling of the laser into hot electrons is maintained when defocusing, while the spectrum of the hot electrons softens.


In wireless networks, relaying techniques have been proposed to expand the coverage of communication systems and increase the spectral and energy efficiency. In particular a typical relaying scenario consists of a source, a relay and a destination. The most applicable cooperative relaying techniques are decode and forward (DF), and amplify and forward (AF). DF is a regenerative approach and performs satisfactorily when the source-relay link is strong. Thanks to its regenerative approach, relay can change its transmission format to suit the characteristic of the channel ahead. This will allow the time durations of its receive and transmit phases to be independently adjusted. In contrast AF has less complexity as well as less cost. It's a non- regenerative scheme that performs a very simple linear processing technique at the relay. Moreover AF can provide better performance especially when the source to relay link is not reliable enough. However in the traditional AF the time durations for the relay-receive and relay- transmit phases are the same. This thesis investigates a flexible cooperative AF scheme that allows separately tuneable phase durations. The achievable rates and the outage probabilities were derived for the proposed AF cooperative protocol. The presented analysis can be used to predict the AF scheme performance and to optimise the duplexing ratio for different network topologies and SNR regions. In deep static fading channel conditions, it is likely that the transmitted message is not successfully decoded at the destination in the first transmission. In these events the performance of the system can be improved by retransmitting the message with a suitable combination of channel coding and Automatic Repeat re-Quest scheme, known as Hybrid ARQ (HARQ). In this thesis, two different HARQ strategies combined with cooperative flexible AF are analysed in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed strategies without any need for time consuming Monte Carlo based evaluation methods. Furthermore, the flexible AF scheme is extended to multiple antenna scenario. Performance of the flexible AF with multiple antennas is investigated for the case that relay has both receive and transmit channel knowledge. Since the transmit channel knowledge may not always be available at the relay and also in order to reduce the complexity a novel power allocation method based on the maximization of the mutual information of the relay link is proposed when the relay has only the receive channel knowledge.


Temperature is often used in the convergence process chamber to control the level of humidity and the mass of granulated urea formation. However, the use of the expression of absolute temperature rarely investigated in urea granulation process but is limited in previous studies are often expressed as general reading . Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine an absolute temperature readings and its impact on urea granule. Features derived of urea granule diameter consist of 2 mm to 6 mm and hardness between 2.0 kg/ grains to 4.0 kg/details. Experiments were conducted with the aid of experimental design, the One -Factor -At- A-Time (OFAT) as the initial method to determine the absolute temperature readings associated with the production of urea granule at optimum moisture and hardness. Granulation process was done experimentally using top spray fluidized bed granulator with fluidizing air profile and concentration of appropriate mechanisms commensurate with the size and hardness of the target. The information and data may be useful to study the optimization of the parameters as an inspection process and compare it with other variables to determine the optimal parameter used in the urea granulation process using Top Spray Fluidized Bed granulator ( TSFBG ).


Cyclin suppresses antitumor immunity Despite the dramatic success of cancer immunotherapy, many types of cancer do not respond. Understanding why could help us to find ways to enhance the overall responsiveness of tumors to immunotherapies. Dorand et al. report that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5), an enzyme that is highly expressed by neurons in many brain cancers, may dampen the ability of T cells to reject tumors. In a mouse model of medulloblastoma, if tumors were Cdk5 deficient, T cells were able to remove them. This heightened antitumor immunity correlated with reduced expression of the inhibitory molecule programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), a target of current cancer immunotherapies. Science, this issue p. 399 Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 expression by tumors inhibits antitumor immunity in human and mouse medulloblastoma. Cancers often evade immune surveillance by adopting peripheral tissue– tolerance mechanisms, such as the expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), the inhibition of which results in potent antitumor immunity. Here, we show that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5), a serine-threonine kinase that is highly active in postmitotic neurons and in many cancers, allows medulloblastoma (MB) to evade immune elimination. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ)–induced PD-L1 up-regulation on MB requires Cdk5, and disruption of Cdk5 expression in a mouse model of MB results in potent CD4+ T cell–mediated tumor rejection. Loss of Cdk5 results in persistent expression of the PD-L1 transcriptional repressors, the interferon regulatory factors IRF2 and IRF2BP2, which likely leads to reduced PD-L1 expression on tumors. Our finding highlights a central role for Cdk5 in immune checkpoint regulation by tumor cells.


Global climate change is causing the Mediterranean coastal area of Israel to gradually acquire tropical characteristics. Rising sea surface temperatures in the eastern Mediterranean basin have facilitated the introduction, settlement and establishment of hundreds of alien species (Zenetos et al. 2012). The vast majority of these exotic species are of Indo-Pacific origin. We report the occurrence of the genus Dichotomaria in the eastern Mediterranean on the basis of specimens identified as Dichotomaria cf. obtusata (J. Ellis & Solander) Lamarck. Tetrasporophytes with sporangial initials were identified morphologically and confirmed molecularly using plastid rbc L sequences. We also discuss possible paths of introduction of this and other alien species into the Levantine Sea.


The Obama administration attempted to build its Rebalance in Southeast Asia on three pillars: economic statecraft, military-security relations, and multilateral diplomacy. The failure of the first and the limited success of the second and third pillars leave ample room for President Trump to make his mark on US policy in Southeast Asia. This article examines the implementation of the Obama administration's policies and offers policy prescriptions for the incoming Trump administration to build on Obama's legacy.


Abstract. Mercury is a toxic element of serious concern for human and environmental health. Understanding its natural cycling in the environment is an important goal towards assessing its impacts and the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. Due to the unique chemical and physical properties of mercury, the atmosphere is the dominant transport pathway for this heavy metal, with the consequence that regions far removed from sources can be impacted. However, there exists a dearth of long-term monitoring of atmospheric mercury, particularly in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere. This paper presents the first 2 years of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) measurements taken at the Australian Tropical Atmospheric Research Station (ATARS) in northern Australia, as part of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS). Annual mean GEM concentrations determined at ATARS (0.95 ± 0.12 ng m−3) are consistent with recent observations at other sites in the Southern Hemisphere. Comparison with GEM data from other Australian monitoring sites suggests a concentration gradient that decreases with increasing latitude. Seasonal analysis shows that GEM concentrations at ATARS are significantly lower in the distinct wet monsoon season than in the dry season. This result provides insight into alterations of natural mercury cycling processes as a result of changes in atmospheric humidity, oceanic/terrestrial fetch, and convective mixing, and invites future investigation using wet mercury deposition measurements. Due to its location relative to the atmospheric equator, ATARS intermittently samples air originating from the Northern Hemisphere, allowing an opportunity to gain greater understanding of inter-hemispheric transport of mercury and other atmospheric species. Diurnal cycles of GEM at ATARS show distinct nocturnal depletion events that are attributed to dry deposition under stable boundary layer conditions. These cycles provide strong further evidence supportive of a multi-hop model of GEM cycling, characterised by multiple surface depositions and re-emissions, in addition to long-range transport through the atmosphere.


The urban areas are growing, in Norway as in the rest of Europe. The main urban areas in Norway expect a population increase of about 30 per cent until 2030. This is a substantial challenge for the capacity of the transport system, especially in the peak period. In addition are the conclusions from most policy documents that the increased transport demand should be managed by public transport and walking/cycling. This is a very demanding target, and what are the consequences for a public transport system that already struggles with capacity constraints? The road traffic will also face the capacity constraints, with increased congestion, and possibly improved competition for public transport. In total congested traffic and crowded vehicles will become a more significant problem in future transport planning and there will be a need to discuss the implications on public transport demand. This paper will evaluate the effect of punctuality and crowding on passenger demand, based on a stated preference study in the Oslo area among 2300 respondents. This is a follow up from two earlier studies in 1992 and 2002, with both standard attributes (access time, in-vehicle time, waiting time, interchange) and additional attributes like punctuality and crowding. The main findings from this survey indicate more demanding customers, with a higher value of time and quality compared to the earlier studies. This is a natural impact of increased income level in the region. More important is the high valuation of punctuality and travel comfort. The passengers want to have a seat and they hate overcrowded vehicles and delayed departures! The value of travel time delays is 5 to 6 times higher than in-vehicle time. And the passengers are willing to pay between 2 and 3 euro per trip to avoid overcrowded vehicles. It is not possible, or cost efficient, to reduce all crowding in the vehicles. But the problem is that overcrowding and punctuality are neglected in most transport models when the authors investigate the effect on transport demand. For instance will priority measures, like bus lanes, be evaluated based on the travel time reduction and not increased punctuality and possible increased timetable frequency? And increased frequency, like new buses, will be evaluated based on reduced waiting time and not increased seating capacity and reduced crowding. There has been a significant increase in public transport demand in Norwegian cities during the last years, and even more than growth in the city of Oslo. On the other hand the estimated effect of public transport measures on the most recent transport plans is modest, even for rather strong measures. One reason might be that the transport plans introduce the wrong measures. Another reason might be that the transport models underestimate the demand for public transport. This paper will present a study from Oslo and Bergen indicating that the estimated effect of public transport measures can be more than doubled if the authors include more qualitative elements in the demand function. The demand function is based on the new value of time and quality from the Oslo study, with revealed preference data as scaling factor for overall demand, for two examples in Oslo and Bergen A comparison of the results with standard service elasticities indicates that: 1. In Oslo: The travel time elasticity increased from -0,28 with basic travel time effects, to -0,6 if the authors include punctuality and up to -0,98 with full synergy effect of increased timetable frequency; 2. In Bergen: The service elasticity (vehicle km) increased from 0,3 to 0,46 if the authors include the new higher value of time from this survey and up to 0,52 if the authors include seating comfort. This is very much in line with earlier studies of service elasticities. Both findings will depend on the level of crowding and punctuality in the area, and the value of time and quality among the public transport passengers. Oslo has a higher market share for public transport and more problems with punctuality and crowding compared to Bergen. The paper will present the value of time study and the demand model used for the comparison between cities and different market segments. It will also discuss the implication of urban growth on public transport demand models.


Several studies suggest that uncertainty assessments of software development costs are strongly biased toward overconfidence, i.e., that software cost estimates typically are believed to be more accurate than they really are. This overconfidence may lead to poor project planning. As a means of improving cost uncertainty assessments, we provide evidence-based guidelines for how to assess software development cost uncertainty, based on results from relevant empirical studies. The general guidelines provided are: 1) Do not rely solely on unaided, intuition-based uncertainty assessment processes, 2) do not replace expert judgment with formal uncertainty assessment models, 3) apply structured and explicit judgment-based processes, 4) apply strategies based on an outside view of the project, 5) combine uncertainty assessments from different sources through group work, not through mechanical combination, 6) use motivational mechanisms with care and only if greater effort is likely to lead to improved assessments, and 7) frame the assessment problem to fit the structure of the relevant uncertainty information and the assessment process. These guidelines are preliminary and should be updated in response to new evidence.


Why, despite decades of high levels of foreign aid, has development been so disappointing in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to rising numbers of poor and fueling political instabilities? While not ignoring the culpability of Africans in these problems, Carol Lancaster finds that much of the responsibility is in the hands of the governments and international aid agencies that provide assistance to the region. The first examination of its kind, Aid to Africa investigates the impact of bureaucratic politics, special interest groups, and public opinion in aid-giving countries and agencies. She finds that aid agencies in Africa often misdiagnosed problems, had difficulty designing appropriate programs that addressed the local political environment, and failed to coordinate their efforts effectively. This balanced but tough-minded analysis does not reject the potential usefulness of foreign aid but does offer recommendations for fundamental changes in how governments and multilateral aid agencies can operate more effectively.


During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talk-in-interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002) issues relating to context and understanding within the local production of interactional order are discussed. The paper argues that the use of omni-relevant devices and associated 'recognition work' provide a means of empirically documenting how 'extra-textual understanding' and 'background expectancies' are made retrospectively apparent within the contours of membership work and alignment in story telling practices. To this extent we argue that an understanding of omni-relevance and membership categorization practices is central to debates concerning category, sequence and context within empirical studies of talk-in-interaction.


Unlike existing nonparametric Bayesian models, which rely solely on specially conceived priors to incorporate domain knowledge for discovering improved latent representations, we study nonparametric Bayesian inference with regularization on the desired posterior distributions. While priors can indirectly affect posterior distributions through Bayes' theorem, imposing posterior regularization is arguably more direct and in some cases can be much easier. We particularly focus on developing infinite latent support vector machines (iLSVM) and multi-task infinite latent support vector machines (MT-iLSVM), which explore the large-margin idea in combination with a nonparametric Bayesian model for discovering predictive latent features for classification and multi-task learning, respectively. We present efficient inference methods and report empirical studies on several benchmark datasets. Our results appear to demonstrate the merits inherited from both large-margin learning and Bayesian nonparametrics.


Abstract The global potential for wind power generation is vast, and the number of installations is increasing rapidly. We review case studies from around the world of the effects on raptors of wind-energy development. Collision mortality, displacement, and habitat loss have the potential to cause population-level effects, especially for species that are rare or endangered. The impact on raptors has much to do with their behavior, so careful siting of wind-energy developments to avoid areas suited to raptor breeding, foraging, or migration would reduce these effects. At established wind farms that already conflict with raptors, reduction of fatalities may be feasible by curtailment of turbines as raptors approach, and offset through mitigation of other human causes of mortality such as electrocution and poisoning, provided the relative effects can be quantified. Measurement of raptor mortality at wind farms is the subject of intense effort and study, especially where mitigation is required by law, with novel statistical approaches recently made available to improve the notoriously difficult-to-estimate mortality rates of rare and hard-to-detect species. Global standards for wind farm placement, monitoring, and effects mitigation would be a valuable contribution to raptor conservation worldwide.


OBJECTIVE
To elucidate the species and biovariants of Pasteurellaceae isolated from clinically normal bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) or bighorn sheep with evidence of respiratory disease.

SAMPLE
675 Pasteurellaceae isolates from 290 free-ranging bighorn sheep in Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming.

PROCEDURES
Nasal and oropharyngeal swab specimens were inoculated onto selective and nonselective blood agar media. Representatives of each colony type were classified via a biovariant scheme. The association of respective β-hemolytic isolates with respiratory disease was evaluated via χ(2) analyses.

RESULTS
Bacterial isolates belonged to 4 species: Histophilus somni, Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, and Bibersteinia (Pasteurella) trehalosi. Within the latter 3 species, 112 subspecies, biotypes, and biovariants were identified. Bibersteinia trehalosi 2 and B trehalosi 2B constituted 345 of 675 (51%) isolates. Most (597/618 [97%]) isolates from adult sheep were from clinically normal animals, whereas most (47/57 [82%]) isolates from lambs were from animals with evidence of respiratory disease. Twenty-two Pasteurellaceae biovariants were isolated from sheep with respiratory disease; 17 of these biovariants were also isolated from clinically normal sheep. The ability of isolates to cause β-hemolysis on blood agar was associated with respiratory disease in adult bighorn sheep (OR, 2.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.10 to 6.07).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Bighorn lambs appeared more susceptible to respiratory disease caused by Pasteurellaceae than did adult sheep. β-Hemolytic Pasteurellaceae isolates were more likely to be associated with respiratory disease than were non-β-hemolytic isolates in adult sheep. Identification of Pasteurellaceae with the greatest pathogenic potential will require studies to estimate the risk of disease from specific biovariants.


FANTINA, RICHARD. Ernest Hemingway: Machismo and Masochism (New York, NY: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005). 206 pp. $65.00. Richard Fantina's book is the latest offering in what has become something of a cottage industry: reassessments of Ernest Hemingway's narrative inscription of gender. It is hard to think of another modernist writer whose reputation in the past two decades has changed so dramatically and on so many fronts, with reconsiderations of Hemingway's impulse toward androgyny (Mark Spilka's Hemingway's Quarrel with Androgyny [1990]), his homoeroticism (Debra Moddelmog's Reading Desire: In Pursuit of Ernest Hemingway [1999]), his relationship to a variety of unconventional expressions of gender and sexuality (Nancy Comley and Robert Scholes's Hemingway's Genders [1994]), his fetishism (Carl Eby's Hemingway's Fetishism [1999]), and his sense of masculinity as a performance (my own Hemingway's Theaters of Masculinity [2003]). Fantina's book is a worthy addition. It makes a convincing case that a structure of masochistic desire--understood broadly as a desire to submit to a dominant woman and recognized primarily through the sexual practice of sodomy--appears throughout Hemingway's work alongside a more obvious expression of tough masculinity. "Hemingway's machismo," as Fantina puts it, "coexists with an alternative, masochistic sexuality" (1). As with many successful new approaches, Fantina's book often seems strongest when reminding us of what we have always known but neglected to put together into a coherent pattern. Fantina points to biographical details suggesting Papa Hemingway's willingness to submit sexually to at least three of his wives (a revelatory moment in Mary Hemingway's diary has Papa professing sodomy as one of his favorite sports [79]). Better still, Fantina points to numerous episodes in Hemingway's work that imply a masochistic consciousness at work: Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms appears in what seems to be a "dominatrix outfit" (55); Jake Barnes of The Sun Also Rises wallows in his misery (59); and, still more interesting because the novel generally receives so little attention, Renata and the Colonel in Across the River and Into the Trees embody "several of the qualities of the dominatrix and her slave" (61). Fantina saves his most thorough and convincing analysis for the manuscript version of The Garden of Eden, that linchpin of so many recent forays into Hemingway's inscription of gender and sexuality, showing how Barbara and Nick (excised in the published version) replay the role reversals and masochism so startlingly clear in the relationship between David and Catherine Bourne. Larger issues are never far from Fantina's analysis. Quite properly, Fantina spends some time examining the question of the progressive potential of Hemingway's brand of masochistic masculinity since, to scholars such as Gilles Deleuze and Kaja Silverman, "[m]ale masochism represents a clear threat to patriarchal notions of gender relations" (8). Fantina is ultimately content with a compromise: Hemingway's descriptions of male masochism counter his infamous macho pose, but they are tempered by his "simultaneous championship of so much that upholds and even exaggerates traditional masculinity" (161). "Hemingway's bedroom consciousness," as Fantina says, "does not readily translate into social ideology" (35). That same balanced approach also characterizes Fantina's later discussions of Hemingway's attitudes toward race and colonialism. Employing the notion of masochistic masculinity to counteract the rather one-sided analyses of Hemingway and race expressed by Toni Morrison (Playing in the Dark [1992]) and Susan Gubar (Racechanges [1997])--a forbidden sensuality, not a desire for "Africanization," lies behind David and Catherine's obsession with tanning themselves darker, he argues--Fantina nonetheless has to admit that in the end Hemingway cannot escape his own or his culture's sexual and racial imperialism. …


Flow heterogeneity within capillary beds may have two sources: (1) unequal distribution of red blood cell (RBC) supply among arterioles and (2) unique properties of RBC flow in branching networks of capillaries. Our aim was to investigate the capillary network as a source of both spatial and temporal heterogeneity of RBC flow. Five networks, each supplied by a single arteriole, were studied in frog sartorius muscle (one network per frog) by intravital video microscopy. Simultaneous data on RBC velocity (millimeters per second), lineal density (RBCs per millimeter), and supply rate (RBCs per second) were measured continuously (10 samples per second) from video recordings in 5 to 10 capillary segments per network for 10 minutes by use of automated computer analysis. To quantify heterogeneity, mean values from successive 10-second intervals were tabulated for each flow parameter in each capillary segment (ie, portion of capillary between successive bifurcations), and percent coefficient of variation (SD/mean.100%) was calculated for (1) spatial heterogeneity among vessels (CVs) every 10 seconds and for the entire 10-minute sample and (2) temporal heterogeneity within vessels for every capillary segment and for the mean flow parameter. Analysis of these data indicates that (1) capillary networks are a significant source of both spatial and temporal flow heterogeneity, and (2) continuous redistributions of flow occur within networks, resulting in substantial temporal changes in CVs, although a persistent spatial heterogeneity of perfusion still exists on a 10-minute basis. In most networks, CVs decreased as supply rate within the network increased, thus indicating that rheology plays a significant role in determining the perfusion heterogeneity.


While we observe a growing interest in the role of market information in new product development (NPD), existing research has still largely ignored quality of market information that is a crucial issue in the era of the information society. What does affect quality of market information in new product development projects and how does this quality influence new product financial performance? In this paper we address these questions and hypothesize that sources of information (e.g. customers, competitors) influence the quality of market information and this quality affects new product financial performance through market predictability as a mediator. We test these hypotheses using data about 287 new product projects of medium-high and high technology firms from Poland. Our findings indicate that the key sources that influence market information quality are customers and competitors. More intensive collection of market information from these two sources, and especially from customers, will result in a higher quality of this information. Surprisingly, gathering market information from other market entities (e.g. suppliers, distributors) has no effect on market information quality. We also find that an important consequence of high quality market information available in NPD is high new product financial performance. Additionally, market information quality positively influences market predictability that in turn has a positive impact on the new product performance. Our results support a partial mediation effect of market predictability between the quality of market information and NPD financial performance. Based on these findings, the author discusses theoretical and managerial implications of this work and proposes paths for future research. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.1.13405


Cell growth and differentiation require the presence of optimal concentrations of polyamines. Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) catalyses the first and rate-controlling step in polyamine synthesis. In studies using cultures of Ehrlich ascites-tumour cells, we have shown that the expression of ODC is subject to feedback regulation by the polyamines. A decrease in the cellular polyamine concentration results in a compensatory increase in the synthesis of ODC, whereas an increase in polyamine concentration results in suppression of ODC synthesis. These changes in ODC synthesis were attributed to changes in the efficiency of ODC mRNA translation, because the steady-state amount of ODC mRNA remained constant. We now show that the number of ribosomes associated with ODC mRNA is low, and that the increase in ODC mRNA translation takes place without a shift in the distribution of ODC mRNA towards larger polysomes. This finding indicates that the polyamines regulate the efficiency of ODC mRNA translation by co-ordinately affecting the rates of initiation and elongation. By analysing ODC mRNA translation in vitro, using a rabbit reticulocyte lysate, polyadenylated RNA from a cell line with an amplified ODC gene, and a monospecific anti-ODC antibody, we also show that spermidine, but not putrescine, exerts a direct regulatory effect on ODC synthesis.


Decision-Making in Special Education: A Structuration Analysis of Individualized Education Program Meetings for Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities Taylor David Richman Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor James A. Banks College of Education Parental participation in Individualized Education Program (IEP) team meetings has been a contested topic since the enactment of federal law granting parents of students with disabilities the right to help develop their child's IEP. The literature suggests that parents are commonly passive members of IEP teams and routinely excluded from IEP decisionmaking. The sparse literature on parents of color in IEP meetings contends that many parents of color also experience challenges to full engagement in the process related to their racial, ethnic, and cultural identity. In this qualitative case study, I use direct observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate how one highly skilled special educator conducted IEP meetings for middle school students identified as having emotional/behavioral disabilities. I also examine the IEP meeting experiences of seven parents of his students, including two parents of color. In total, twenty people participated in this study. I observed four IEP meetings over one school year and conducted five interviews with members of these IEP teams. The results of this study indicate that special educators retain disproportionate decision-making power and influence in IEP meetings and that parents are largely excluded from making meaningful contributions during this process. However, unlike previous research, I found that parents were highly participatory in other aspects of IEP meetings. I analyze these findings across four emergent themes: parental participation; the distribution and enactment of power and authority; building parent-teacher relationships; and defining, developing, and enacting the purpose of IEP meetings. I employ structuration theory (Giddens, 1984; Sewell, 1992) to examine how participants' behavior reinforced or challenged special education and IEP meeting structures, and I critique the IEP meetings using legal analysis. I discuss implications of my findings for research and practice. I argue that greater theoretical diversity is needed in the research literature to more deeply understand the mechanisms that push parents to the periphery of IEP decision-making. I suggest that understanding these mechanisms can help special educators and school administrators to more fully embrace and effectively capitalize on the spirit of collaboration and parent involvement intended by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.


This study aims to characterise the unique elements of a Management Practicum Programme in teacher education and to explore how the programme enables pre-service teachers to study the school as an educational organisation as part of their development as teacher-leaders. The study was conducted in a qualitative approach. The participants were 17 pre-service teachers learning for a B.Ed. in the Department of Education SystemsManagement at an academic college of education in Israel. A qualitative-interpretive content analysis of 34 reflective diaries, syllabus of the Department of Education System Management and a syllabus of Management Practicum Programme was performed. The results illustrate unique elements of the programme which allowed the pre-service teachers to study school as a dynamic and complex educational organisation. No longer class-teachers but teacher-leaders who perceive their role,their class and school in a systemic approach, leading towards pedagogical growth and preparing their pupils as value-oriented and educated graduates.


Islands are the most vulnerable and fragile of tourism destinations and will experience even more pressure as the combined impacts of economic, social and environmental change accelerate in the future. In order to understand the process of island tourism development, response to change and challenges and their journey to sustainability, this book provides insights and instruction on topics including social, cultural, environmental and economic aspects of island tourism.


Lake Nemi is an interesting case of anthropogenic overexploitation which has caused its progressive environmental deterioration in the past decades. On this lake historical data about the trophic situation are available from 1975 to 1984. The research performed in 2002-03, about ten years after the diversion of urban waste waters, concerned a biological investigation on the phyto- and zooplanktonic communities, integrated with a physico-chemical analysis. The aims of our study are to evaluate the current water quality of the lake and compare it with the water quality observed in 1982-1983, when all biotic and abiotic components indicated a heavily compromised hypereutrophic condition. The water quality data and the comparison with a previous study point out that the biological aspects have partially changed (increased number of Cyanobacteria and phytoplanktonic taxa, particularly Clorophyta and Dinophyta; zooplankton composition changed at a species level, with the appearance of taxa associated to light trophic conditions), and the physico-chemical conditions significantly improved. The mean transparency, dissolved oxygen, nutrients and chlorophyll-a concentrations have all improved. Mean annual temperature at different depths increased, probably due to differences in climatic period and the lowering of the lake surface level (from 32.5 to 27.5 m in 1982 and 2002, respectively). Our results indicate a general improving trend in water quality is taking place since the diversion of waste water discharges. The present abiotic characteristics of the lake allow the phytoplankton to distribute itself in the whole epilimnion, and the zooplankton in the whole water column. A possible further improvement is hypothesized, and the constraints represented by excessive water level lowering and water temperature increasing are also discussed.


Bisphenol A (BPA), a monomer that is polymerized to manufacture polycarbonate plastic products and resins that are used in every day products, has raised alarm in the public health community .  Research has shown that BPA may cause detrimental developmental effects in the female reproductive system .  This review examines the current literature and presents the effects of BPA in rodent models .  The wealth of data shows that there is convincing evidence that BPA acts as an estrogen-disrupting compound by binding to the estrogen receptor (ERα and ERβ) in different tissues in the female reproductive tract. Most often this results in disruption of the neuroendocrine axis, which de-synchronizes the production of hormones and steroids that are essential for normal reproductive function .  The de-regulation of the neuroendocrine axis causes degradation of the genetic quality of gametes, deprivation of healthy and mature antral follicles, acceleration of the onset of puberty, and morphological changes to the reproductive tissues resulting in cancers and low fecundity/fertility .  It is of vital importance to elucidate the harms of small dose and persistent exposure to this pervasive chemical in our environment .  Public health practitioners must work to reduce the amount of BPA circulating in the environment to ensure that the current population, as well as future generations, does not exhibit adverse reproductive alterations.


The paper develops a model in which a country with better technology for abatement of Green House Gas (GHG) emission (the North) commits to an international protocol to keep the global GHG emission within a specified limit while it helps the mitigation effort in the other country (the South) with unconditional transfer of abatement technology. It finds out in the autarkic ('no trade') equilibrium the technology transfer offer from the North is always accepted by the South. The North may offer either a partial or a complete technology transfer. If partial technology transfer is offered it finds out the determinants of the extent of technology transfer. Then it compares the autarkic equilibrium with equilibrium where trade with complete specialization occurs and finds out that trade limits the scope of technology transfer as an instrument for mitigation of global GHG emission.


Based on Thomas Mann's story about an aging novelist's fateful obsession with an adolescent boy, Benjamin Britten's opera Death in Venice artfully dramatizes Mann's story of repressed sexuality masked as creative inhibition. Aschenbach's introductory monologue, beginning "My mind beats on and no words come," alludes to the psychosexual roots of his dilemma. The music itself even sounds blocked, as do his words, which not only describe his problem, but also are inhibited syntactically and semantically. In order to discover how music and text blend to portray Aschenbach's writer's block, this article examines the opening monologue using a combination of tools: musical-theoretical and grammatical, to discern how Aschenbach's block "structures" the music and text; psychoanalytical, to uncover the causes of his crippling inhibition; and cognitive-linguistic, to ground the analysis in certain conceptual blends that permeate notions of creativity, sexuality, language, and music in this opera. keywords: Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, Conceptual Blending, Opera, Benjamin Britten, Thomas Mann, Lawrence Zbikowski, Creativity, Homoeroticism, Der Tod in Venedig url: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/2008_johnso01.shtml I. Aschenbach's Self-introduction In the opening scene of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice (1973), Gustav von Aschenbach, an aging novelist, finds himself at a loss for words. While woodwinds quietly but insistently juxtapose erratic rhythms, Aschenbach obsesses over his confusing loss in a way that nevertheless situates the listener squarely within his dilemma. The music spills out in fits and starts, mimicking his frustration, and sweeping us directly into the center of an inward and paradoxical struggle about words formulated in words. He will go on to seek relief from his writer's block in Venice, a place of inspiration for many artists. There he will find himself aesthetically attracted to a youth who inspires the few words Aschenbach manages to write. Becoming obsessed with the youth, though, Aschenbach will stay in Venice too long, ignore the warnings about a cholera plague threatening Venice, and succumb to the sickness. In this article, I will consider how Aschenbach's self-introductory monologue provides listeners with a wealth of information about his dilemma and its probable outcome. As I will suggest, we immediately know that the nature of Aschenbach's problem is: 1. sonic: both music and textual sounds exhibit aural symptoms of blockage 2. psychosexual: music and text imply an underlying libidinal problem rooted in a mind/body conflict that drives Aschenbach's artistic struggle 3. linguistic: Aschenbach's words about his block are themselves syntactically and semantically blocked As I will show, the addition of music helps deliver this information effectively. As Sandra Corse (1987) writes, "The music becomes a substitute for [Aschenbach's] perception and for his subconscious; thus, the audience gets a better view of Aschenbach than the reader of the novella does-and a better view than he has of himself" (p. 132). The monologue itself suggests a combination of tools that I will be using to show how the opera communicates so much information so effectively in just its first few minutes: 1. music-theoretical, to examine how Aschenbach's block "structures" the music 2. psychoanalytical,1 to uncover the causes of his crippling inhibition, particularly 3. drawing on Freudian notions, which permeate Thomas Mann's novella, Der Tod in Venedig (1912), upon which Britten's opera is based.2 3. cognitive-linguistic, to ground the analysis in certain conceptual complexes that permeate all of the above, especially focusing on the image of flow that facilitates our understanding of creativity, sexuality, language, and music in this opera. Various changes of texture and mood shape this monologue and suggest several subdivisions (coincident with rehearsal numbers in the score); audits of these sections and the symptoms they present (writer's block, fatigue, insomnia, etc. …


Historically, residential energy and carbon saving efforts have targeted conventional end uses such as water heating, lighting and refrigeration. The emergence of new household appliances has transformed energy use from a few large and easily identifiable end uses into a broad array of ''miscellaneous'' energy services. This group of so called miscellaneous appliances has been a major contributor to growth in electricity demand in the past two decades. We use industry shipment data, lifetimes, and wattage and usage estimates of over 90 individual products to construct a bottom-up end use model (1976-2010). The model is then used to analyze historical and forecasted growth trends, and to identify the largest individual products within the miscellaneous end use. We also use the end use model to identify and analyze policy priorities. Our forecast projects that over the period 1996 to 2010, miscellaneous consumption will increase 115 TWh, accounting for over 90 percent of future residential electricity growth. A large portion of this growth will be due to halogen torchiere lamps and consumer electronics, making these two components of miscellaneous electricity a particularly fertile area for efficiency programs. Approximately 20 percent (40 TWh) of residential miscellaneous electricity is ''leaking electricity'' or energy consumed more » by appliances when they are not performing their principal function. If the standby power of all appliances with a standby mode is reduced to one watt, the potential energy savings equal 21 TWh/yr, saving roughly $1-2 billion annually. « less


This study is concerned with the roots of environmentalism in young people in Britain and in particular the role parents play in the formation of deep green political attitudes in their children. Using a series of multiple logistic regressions on a pooled sample of children aged 11 to 16 (n=6,590) it is observed that compared to any other political party the odds of a child choosing the Green Party are greater if the father or the mother is also partisan to the green party. Contrary to other empirical research there is no significant difference found between the size of the effects of mothers and fathers on their children and provided the parent is more likely to be politically aligned with ideals of ecologism, this study observes an increased probability in their children's choice of the Green Party compared to the average child.


Older adults who require assistance with their own self-care most likely need assistance with pet care. These pet care tasks are likely taken on by their family caregivers (i.e., informal caregivers). However, the potential impact of an older adult's pet on caregivers' emotional experiences has not been explored. Role theory was used to model the impact of a care recipient's pet (i.e., number of pet care tasks performed and the perceived costs of care recipients' pet ownership) on caregivers' levels of caregiving burden, satisfaction, and mastery. The moderating role of the perceived bond between the care recipient and their pet, the caregiver's closeness to the pet, and mutuality in the caregiver-care recipient relationship were also examined. Forty-nine caregivers who did not consider themselves to be co-owner of their care recipients' pet completed a one-time on-line survey. Path analyses controlling for perceptions of inadequate help were conducted separately for each outcome variable using the maximum likelihood for missing values. The perceived costs of the care recipients' pet ownership were directly associated with lower caregiving mastery. The perceived bond between the care recipient and their pet moderated the association between the number of pet care tasks and satisfaction. The caregivers' closeness to the pets moderated the association between the perceived costs and satisfaction. Caregiver-care recipient mutuality moderated the relationships between pet care tasks and burden, pet care tasks and mastery, and costs and mastery. Care recipients' pets are likely to have an impact on the subjective experiences within the role of caregiver. These impacts are likely qualified by the human-animal bond, and to a larger extent, the caregiver-care recipient relationship.


This collection gathers together the expertise of scholars in several disciplines in order to examine the manner in which financial and economic arguments were expressed in pamphlets, broadsides, and longer works of literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to assess to what extent the political realities of the day were informed by these debates or, alternatively, shaped the rhetoric.The contributors to the volume draw upon an extensive variety of contemporary sources and modern analyses of the formative years of the financial revolution to reexamine many of the existing conventional ideas about the relationship between money, power, and print, and to suggest that the subject is far more complex and interrelated than most studies up to now have indicated. Particular attention is paid to the fact that the financial revolution did not occur in London in isolation from the various regions of the British Isles. Charles Ivar McGrath is lecturer in History at University College Dublin. Chris Fauske is associate dean in the School of Arts and Sciences at Salem State College.


Abstract Mobilities are shaped by social inequalities and spatial unevenness as demonstrated in a range of existing studies across disciplines. These inequalities are manifest at different scales, from the very local spaces of everyday life to global spaces of accelerated mobilities. Mobile spaces, however distant, are connected through common everyday practices and the sociocultural contexts in which they are produced. In this paper, we argue that researching these interconnectivities and commonalities requires a particular methodological approach that accounts for the situatedness of experience. Our focus is on the ways in which inequalities according to gender and generation are generated through urban designed spaces. We suggest that drawing in to a shared material and 'border' object, the urban bench, provides a point of reflection on these distant yet parallel expressions of mobile inequality.


ACTIVE COMMUNICATIONS, INC., is the publisher of two tabloids, the Active Voice and the Weekly Farce. The company was founded in 1988 by two brothers in their 20s, Ken and Ron McEntee, both graduates of Berea High School. The Weekly Farce, introduced in Feb. 1988, is a publication devoted entirely to local and national humor, spoofing current news, politics, sports, and media. All of the material is original and is written by the two brothers. In spite of its title, it is published monthly. The Active Voice is billed as a "forum for free speech," an "unedited and uncensored soundstage." It is comprised of submissions and contains such items as opinion pieces, news, short fiction, poetry, and historical articles. Located in BEREA, Active Communications, Inc., reported circulation of its combined papers at approx. 10,000 per month in 1995.


In Barrett's esophagus (BE), the normal squamous lining of the esophagus is replaced by specialized columnar epithelium. Endoscopic surveillance with autofluorescence imaging (AFI) and molecular biomarkers have been studied separately to detect early neoplasia (EN) in BE. The combination of advanced-imaging modalities and biomarkers has not been investigated; AFI may help detecting biomarkers as a risk-stratification tool. We retrospectively evaluated a cohort of patients undergoing endoscopy for EN in BE with AFI and correlated five biomarkers (HPP1, RUNX3, p16, cyclin A, and p53) in tissue samples with AFI and dysplasia status. Fifty-eight samples from a previous prospective study were selected: 15 true-positive (TP: AFI-positive, EN), 21 false-positive (FP: AFI-positive, no EN), 12 true-negative (TN1; AFI-negative, no EN in sample), 10 true-negative (TN2: AFI-negative, no EN in esophagus). Methylation-specific RT-PCR was performed for HPP1, RUNX3, p16, and immunohistochemistry for cyclin A, p53. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Bonferroni correction was used for multiple comparisons. P16, cyclin A, p53 correlated with dysplasia (P < 0.01, P = 0.003, P < 0.001, respectively). Increased p16 methylation was observed between TP versus TN2 (P = 0.003) and TN1 versus TN2 (P = 0.04) subgroups, suggesting a field defect. Only p53 correlated with AFI-status (P = 0.003). After exclusion of EN samples, significance was lost. Although correlation with dysplasia status was confirmed for p16, cyclin A and p53, underlining the importance of these biomarkers as an early event in neoplastic progression, none of the investigated biomarkers correlated with AFI status. A larger prospective study is needed to assess the combination of AFI and a larger panel of biomarkers to improve risk stratification in BE.


Many emerging and future communication applications require a significant amount of high throughput data processing and operate with decreasing power budgets. This need for greater energy efficiency and improved performance of electronic devices demands a joint optimization of algorithms, architectures, and implementations.
Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) decoding has received significant attention due to its superior error correction performance, and has been adopted by recent communication standards such as 10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Currently high performance LDPC decoders are designed to be dedicated blocks within a System-on-Chip (SoC) and require many processing nodes. These nodes require a large set of interconnect circuitry whose delay and power are wire-dominated circuits. Therefore, low clock rates and increased area are a common result of the codes' inherent irregular and global communication patterns. As the delay and energy costs caused by wires are likely to increase in future fabrication technologies new solutions dealing with future VLSI challenges must be considered.
Three novel message-passing decoding algorithms, Split-Row, Multi-Split and Split-Row Threshold are introduced, which significantly reduce processor logical complexity and local and global interconnections. One conventional and four Split-Row Threshold LDPC decoders compatible with the 10GBASE-T standard are implemented in 65 nm CMOS and presented along with their tradeoffs in error correction performance, wire interconnect complexity, decoder area, power dissipation, and speed. For additional power saving, an adaptive wordwidth decoding algorithm is proposed which switches between a 6-bit Normal Mode and a reduced 3-bit Low Power Mode depending on the SNR and decoding iteration.
A 16-way Split-Row Threshold with adaptive wordwidth implementation achieves improvements in area, throughput and energy efficiency of 3.9x, 2.6x, and 3.6x respectively, compared to a MinSum Normalized implementation, with an SNR loss of 0.25 dB at BER = 10-7. The decoder occupies a die area of 5.10 mm2, operates up to 185 MHz at 1.3 V, and attains an average throughput of 85.7 Gbps with early-termination. Low power operation at 0.6 V gives a worst case throughput of 9.3 Gbps–above the 6.4 Gbps 10GBASE-T requirement, and an average power of 31 mW.


BACKGROUND
The education of intensive care professionals can influence the number of transplantable organs. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to estimate the attitude and knowledge of intensive care staff as about organ donation.

MATERIAL/METHODS
The self-completed questionnaire was completed at the Congress of the Hungarian Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy in 2011. Data, including attitudes about donation, attendance in an organ donation course, donation activity, self-reported knowledge of donor management, legislation, transplantation, and aftercare were collected from intensive care specialists (n=179) and nurses (n=103).

RESULTS
An organ donation course was attended by 53.6% of physicians and 16.7% of nurses (p=0.000); the 59% of doctors and 64.7% of nurses who did not participate in education were not willing to do so. Older staff were more likely to attend the course (p<0.01). Organ donation activity was not influenced by age or type of staff (physician or nurse), but it was higher among staff who attended training (p<0.01). Independently from accepting the presumed consent legislation (91.1%), 66% of intensive care professionals supported the practice of requesting the consent of family for organ retrieval. Self-reported knowledge regarding the Eurotransplant, donor management, the law and ethics of donation, transplantation, and after care for transplanted patients was influenced by age, donation activity, education, type of staff (p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Education, including knowledge concerning brain death, donor management and communication with family, needs to be part of the specialist training of intensive care professionals, with a refresher course every fifth year.


This study examines the susceptibility of hot carrier effects on various Heterostructures Silicon Germanium P-Channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (SiGe PMOSFET) such as Strained SiGe Channel and Strained SiGe Source/Drain PMOSFET. The results were compared with Si Channel PMOSFET.

The hot carrier effect of these structures was investigated in the aspect of material, structural and mobility via impact ionization. Simulations were performed with ATLAS/BLAZE 2D to design the device structures and to simulate the hot carrier effects indicated by substrate and gate current.

The SiGe heterostructure PMOSFETs have higher hot carrier effects as verified by substrate current with an increase of 131% for Strained SiGe Channel PMOSFET and 199% for Strained SiGe Source and Drain PMOSFET with 25% Ge fraction respectively as compare to the Si PMOSFET. The increase of hot carrier effects in SiGe structure is due to higher impact ionization rate approximately an order of magnitude in SiGe as compared to Si.

The incorporation of Si-cap in the SiGe heterostructure enhanced the suppression of hot carrier injected into the gate. However the buried layer of Strained SiGe channel PMOSFET suppresses the impact ionization rate to a certain level of thickness. Beyond that impact ionization increases with the Ge content as verified by substrate current. On the other hand the increase of Ge content suppressed further the hot carrier injection into the gate due to higher valence band energy between the SiGe channel and the Si-cap.

As a thicker layer of p+SiGe in the drain region is fabricated in the Strained SiGe Source and Drain PMOSFET result shows an enhancement in the hot carrier effect. This is caused by a higher impact ionization rate in SiGe and also most area of impact ionization is covered as the thickness of SiGe layer is increased.

In the aspect of mobility, the high mobility SiGe channel PMOSFET enhanced further the hot carrier effects through the enhancement of current drive whereas hot carrier effects decreases in the Strained SiGe Source and Drain PMOSFET despite setting a higher low field mobility in the p+ SiGe source and drain region. In fact the current drive in Strained SiGe Source and Drain PMOSFET is lower than Si Channel PMOSFET due to the valence band discontinuity that causes a higher barrier height for holes flowing from source to drain. This indicated that the hot carrier is also affected by current drive.


The consequences of Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation are seismic. Justice Kavanaugh, replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, completes a new conservative majority and represents a stunning Republican victory after decades of increasingly partisan battles over control of the Court. The result is a Supreme Court whose Justices are likely to vote along party lines more consistently than ever before in American history. That development gravely threatens the Court's legitimacy. If in the future roughly half of Americans lack confidence in the Supreme Court's ability to render impartial justice, the Court's power to settle important questions of law will be in serious jeopardy. Moreover, many Democrats are already calling for changes like court-packing to prevent the new conservative majority from blocking progressive reforms. Even if justified, such moves could provoke further escalation that would leave the Court's image and the rule of law badly damaged.

The coming crisis can be stopped. But saving the Court's legitimacy as an institution above politics will require a radical rethinking of how the Court has operated for more than two centuries. In this Feature, we outline a new framework for Supreme Court reform. Specifically, we argue for reforms that are plausibly constitutional (and thus implementable by statute) and that are capable of creating a stable equilibrium even if initially implemented using "hardball" tactics. Under this framework, we evaluate existing proposals and offer two of our own: the Supreme Court Lottery and the Balanced Bench. Whether policymakers adopt these precise proposals or not, our framework can guide their much-needed search for reform. We can save what is good about the Court—but only if we are willing to transform the Court.


The arena of intellectual property encompasses streams that often interrelate and overlap in protecting different aspects of intellectual property. Australian commentators suggest that 'one of the most troublesome areas in the entire field of intellectual property has been the relationship between copyright protection for artistic works under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and protection for registered designs under the Designs Act 1906 (Cth).' [McKeough, J., Stewart, A., & Griffith, P. (2004). Intellectual property in Australia (3rd ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Butterworths.] [Ricketson, S., Richardson, M., & Davison, M. (2009). Intellectual property: Cases, materials and commentary (4th ed.). Chatswood, NSW: LexisNexis Butterworths.] This overlap has caused much confusion for both creators of artistic works and industrial designs, as there is an uncertainty of whether protection against infringement is afforded under the Copyright Act 1988 (Cth) or whether the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) will apply. In Australia, there is limited precedent that examines the crossover between copyright and designs. Essentially, the cases that have tested this issue remain unclear as to whether a design applied industrially will invoke copyright protection. The cases demonstrate that there is an inconsistency in this area despite the aims of the new provisions of the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) to close the loopholes between copyright and designs. This paper will discuss and evaluate the relationship between copyright protection for artistic works and protection for registered designs with respect to the Designs Act 2003 (Cth).


In sentiment analysis (SA) of product reviews, both user and product information are proven to be useful. Current tasks handle user profile and product information in a unified model which may not be able to learn salient features of users and products effectively. In this work, we propose a dual user and product memory network (DUPMN) model to learn user profiles and product reviews using separate memory networks. Then, the two representations are used jointly for sentiment prediction. The use of separate models aims to capture user profiles and product information more effectively. Compared to state-of-the-art unified prediction models, the evaluations on three benchmark datasets, IMDB, Yelp13, and Yelp14, show that our dual learning model gives performance gain of 0.6%, 1.2%, and 0.9%, respectively. The improvements are also deemed very significant measured by p-values.


Human alteration of the nitrogen cycle has led to increased riverine nitrogen loads, contributing to the eutrophication of lakes, streams, estuaries, and near-coastal oceans. These riverine nitrogen loads are usually less than the total nitrogen inputs to the system, indicating nitrogen removal during transport through the drainage network. A two-year monitoring study quantified the ammonium, nitrate, and organic-N inputs, outputs, and inferred in-stream processes responsible for nitrogen transformations and removal in a 1900 m reach of a drainage canal located in a managed pine plantation. Total nitrogen inputs to the canal section were 527.8 kg in 2001 and 1422.7 kg in 2002. Total nitrogen discharge at the outlet was 502 kg in 2001 and 1458 kg in 2002. The mass balance of nitrogen inputs and outputs indicated a loss of 25.8 kg (5.1%) of total nitrogen from the system in 2001, and a gain of 35.3 kg (2.4%) of total nitrogen to the system in 2002. Variability in the input and output estimates was high, especially for groundwater exchange. Different hydrologic and nitrogen inputs and outputs were identified and quantified, but measurement variability obscured any potential nitrogen removal from the system.


This comprehensive guide embraces all modern design's numerous manifestations: graphics, products, interiors, furniture, industrial and architectural design. In over 500 entries, this book examines not only the work of important designers worldwide, but also the many dramatic changes that have influenced design and its uses in the 20th-century. Thus political and ideological concepts, such as feminism and green design, are defined and explained as are new technological advances, new materials and techniques and influential movements in modern culture. The text incorporates extensive cross-referencing and full bibliographic notes, along with a chronological chart of design highlights since 1900. This encyclopaedia provides a companion for students and everyone with an interest in design.


Self-localization is an essential component of any autonomous mobile robot system. This paper presents a fast and robust feature-based approach to mobile robot on-the-fly global localization in dynamic environments. A robust feature extraction and correspondence algorithm was introduced to extract the landmarks of the environment and to triangulate the robot's positions. The approach take into account the hard real time constraint and the partial observability of the environment. On-line localization is performed by matching candidate landmarks from the robot's local view to the tracked landmarks. Experimental validation in the context of middle size league RoboCup was carried out in a real environment with the mobile robot Jiaolong which equips a laser range finder (LRF).


A genetic link between the Lauterbrunnen migmatites (LM) of the Innertkirchen-Lauterbrunnen Crystalline Zone (ILC) in the Aar massif and the nearby 303 ± 4-Ma Gastern granite is indicated by chemical similarities as well as spatial proximity. The new U-Pb zircon ages of 289 ± 9 Ma (igneous zircon, nearly concordant) and 304.4 ± 1.2 Ma (metamorphic zircon, concordant) for the LM in this study indicate that the LM and Gastern granite are also coeval. The relatively mafic composition of the LM sample that yielded the nearly concordant U/Pb ages is interpreted to reflect intrusion of a parental magma into the LM, which would have been too mafic to reflect in situ partial melting of the mid-level crust at geologically reasonable temperatures. Highly discordant U-Pb zircon ages for other LM samples are interpreted to reflect mixing of the intruded magma and country rocks. The new U/Pb age data provide the evidence for a temporal link of the LM to the Gastern granite, which is interpreted to belong to the same Variscan-age magmatic event that formed the LM.


Abstract. Glyphosate-tolerant (GT) cotton offers a multitude of benefits such as broad-spectrum and cost-effective weed control, simple weed management, and reduced impact on the environment. However, high adoption rates of GT cotton have led to overreliance on glyphosate in weed management and have decreased the use of other herbicide options and non-chemical weed-management strategies, possibly leading to the emergence of many resistant weeds. Previous surveys in 2006 and 2011 in the cotton-growing regions of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland, Australia, indicated changes in weed populations over the period and increased prevalence of several weeds. These two surveys indicated increased dominance of Conyza bonariensis, Echinochloa colona, and Chloris virgata in these regions. Periodic weed surveys are necessary to assess weed population dynamics and shifts due to overreliance on glyphosate for weed management. A survey was carried out in the cotton-growing regions of NSW and Queensland in 2014–15, covering 135 fields. Survey results indicated the emergence of volunteer GT cotton as the most common weed present across all of the cotton-growing regions, occurring in 85% of fields, followed by E. colona (67% of fields surveyed), and C. bonariensis and Sonchus oleraceus, which were present in 51% of fields. The most prevalent grass weed after E. colona was C. virgata (37%). Broadleaf weeds Ipomoea lonchophylla and Amaranthus mitchellii were present in 40% and 37% of fields, respectively. Regional-level analysis indicated greater prevalence of Sesbania cannabina and Parthenium hysterophorus in Emerald region of Queensland. Lolium rigidum was present in the Griffith and Warren area of NSW during summer, even though it is a winter weed. The results of this study indicate integration of diversified weed-management options and inclusion of both non-chemical and chemical options because many major weeds observed in this study are tolerant to glyphosate and have already evolved resistance to glyphosate.


Efficiently and inexpensively converting solar energy into chemical fuels is an important goal towards a sustainable energy economy. An integrated tandem cell approach could reasonably convert over 20% of the sun's energy directly into chemical fuels like H2 via water splitting. Many different systems have been investigated using various combinations of photovoltaic cells and photoelectrodes, but in order to be economically competitive with the production of H2 from fossil fuels, a practical water splitting tandem cell must optimize cost, longevity and performance. In this short review, the practical aspects of solar fuel production are considered from the perspective of a semiconductor-based tandem cell and the latest advances with a very promising technology - metal oxide photoelectrochemical tandem cells - are presented.


Background/Context Despite burgeoning racial and ethnic heterogeneity within the United States, many students grow up in racially homogeneous schools and neighborhoods. This lack of interracial interaction appears to play a substantial role in shaping students' racial attitudes and world views upon entering college. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The aim of the study was to examine the relationships among multiple forms of precollege exposure to racial/ethnic diversity and racial attitudes (e.g., perceptions of workplace discrimination) upon entering college. Research Design A quantitative survey examined attitudes, precollege environments, and other indicators among 3,924 entering first-year college students (with approximately equal numbers of Asian Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites) at 28 U.S. colleges and universities. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted on the full sample as well as several racial/ethnic groups separately. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings indicated that exposure to racial/ethnic difference in students' precollege neighborhoods and schools predict high school interracial friendships, which in turn predict their complex racial attitudes. The multigroup analyses further demonstrate that the relationships between interracial friendships and multiple racial attitudes are nonsignificant among White students, but significant for all other groups. These findings have implications for the promotion of meaningful curricular and cocurricular diversity interventions both before and during college.


Objectives: The aim of the present study is to assess the specific needs of female substance abusers in the treatment of addiction, in order to contribute to the development of plans and policies aimed at improving services to the mentioned group. Method: 62 women with substance dependence and three service providers, from "Chitgar" and Khaneh Khorshid" treatment centers, participated in this qualitative study. The participants were interviewed during seven sessions of focused group discussion as well as 23 sessions of in-depth individual interviews. Data were gathered using a directory list, and the topics of the list were established based on discussions with the authorities of the mentioned centers, as well as text assessment. The problems of addicted females were divided into general problems, problems related to the treatment period, and post-treatment problems. Also, two separate lists were designed for single and married women. Sessions and interviews were continued to the point of data saturation. Results: Most women considered social stigma, humiliation, family rejection and severe poverty as their major problems. More than one fourth of the subjects were homeless and more than half had experienced physical or sexual abuse in the past. Insufficient numbers of female physicians and the lack of health consultation and education, unsafe environment and inadequate health and welfare facilities, were among the most important limitations. There was also a shortage of psychosocial services, including shelters, vocational activities and care for children in both centers. Conclusion: The expansion of services specifically geared to women's needs in general, and psycho-social services in particular, is an absolute necessity for the successful treatment of addiction in women.