Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has extended the longevity of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals. However, this has resulted in greater awareness of age-associated diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Accelerated cellular senescence may be responsible, but its magnitude as measured by leukocyte telomere length is unknown and its relationship to HIV-associated COPD has not yet been established. We measured absolute telomere length (aTL) in peripheral leukocytes from 231 HIV-infected adults. Comparisons were made to 691 HIV-uninfected individuals from a population-based sample. Subject quartiles of aTL were assessed for relationships with measures of HIV disease severity, airflow obstruction, and emphysema severity on computed tomographic (CT) imaging. Multivariable regression models identified factors associated with shortened aTL. Compared to HIV-uninfected subjects, the mean aTL in HIV-infected patients was markedly shorter by 27 kbp/genome (p<0.001); however, the slopes of aTL vs. age were not different (p=0.469). Patients with longer known durations of HIV infection (p=0.019) and lower nadir CD4 cell counts (p=0.023) had shorter aTL. Shorter aTL were also associated with older age (p=0.026), smoking (p=0.005), reduced forced expiratory volume in one second (p=0.030), and worse CT emphysema severity score (p=0.049). HIV-infected subjects demonstrate advanced cellular aging, yet in a cART-treated cohort, the relationship between aTL and age appears no different from that of HIV-uninfected subjects.


Abstract Habitual goal-state activation may automatically elicit effects upon cognition, motivation and emotion, through influence upon processes operating outside of awareness. For example, alcohol craving may be triggered by environmental cues. This experiment considered whether priming habitual goal-states would have similar effects for adult dyslexics and non-dyslexic controls. Dyslexia may be associated with automatization deficits, which may affect habitual goal-state response. Dyslexics were compared to non-dyslexics on their reported alcohol cravings, following priming of one of two habitual goal-state conditions; studying or socializing. Within some of the exploratory analyses, a difference between dyslexics and non-dyslexics was demonstrated. However, the difference was not in the anticipated direction, as it was the dyslexics who were more affected by the primes. This suggests that dyslexics may be affected by primes differently to non-dyslexics. This research potentially helps understand the role that habitual goal-states play within substance use.


In 2015, I provided evidence at an Australian inquiry into the use of subsection 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act of 1997 by government agencies to disrupt the operation of illegal online services [1]. I stated to the Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications that mandatory metadata retention laws meant blanket coverage surveillance for Australians and visitors to Australia. The intent behind asking Australian service providers to keep subscriber search history data for up to two years was to grant government and law enforcement organizations the ability to search Internet Protocol-based records in the event of suspected criminal activity.


Weather extremes have created a considerable impact on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK during the recent years, especially on SMEs in the construction sector. Evidence in relation to the recent weather extremes have demonstrated that SMEs are some of the worst impacted by the Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) and have confirmed them as a highly vulnerable section of the UK economy to the impact of extreme weather. This is of particular importance to the construction industry, as an overarching majority of construction companies are SMEs who account for the majority of employment and income generation within the industry. Whilst construction has been perceived as a sector significantly vulnerable to the impacts of EWEs, there is scant evidence of how construction SMEs respond to such events and cope with their impact. Based on the evidence emerged from case studies of construction SMEs, current coping strategies of construction SMEs were identified. Some of the strategies identified were focused at organisational level whereas others were focused at project level. Further, some of the strategies were general risk management / business continuity strategies whereas others have been specifically developed to address the risk of EWEs. Accordingly, coping strategies can be broadly categorised based on their focus; i.e. those focused at project or organisational level, and based on the risks that they seek to address; i.e. business / continuity risks in general or EWE risk specifically. By overlapping these two aspects; their focus and risks that they seek to address, four categories of coping strategies can be devised. There are; general risk management strategies focused at business level, general risk management strategies focused at project level, EWE specific strategies focused at business level, and EWE specific strategies focused at project level. It is proposed that for a construction SME to effectively cope with the impact of EWEs and develop their resilience against EWEs a rich mix of these coping strategies are required to suite the particular requirements of the business.


Energy costs' impact on industrial competitiveness is not well known in Australia. This paper investigates this question empirically by undertaking a two-part analysis. First, the impact of energy price changes on industrial energy efficiency is tested using Australian data from 2002–03 to 2013–14. The short-term energy efficiency response is found to be small, on average, across 1-digit industries. But rather than an inefficient price mechanism, it is more a reflection of the difficulty in immediately changing energy use behaviour. The energy efficiency response is expected to be larger over longer time periods and for more energy intensive sectors, though data limitations prevented this from being tested definitively. The second part of this paper tests whether energy costs impact on export competitiveness. No discernible effect is found for a selection of 1-digit industries. However, when the focus shifts to more energy intensive manufacturing industries, a rise in energy costs is shown to have a small detrimental impact on export competitiveness, as measured by revealed comparative advantage (RCA). The significance of energy costs to export competitiveness is generally overshadowed by other factors. JEL Codes: P18, Q4


Abstract In order to face the aging of their populations governments of developed countries reformed their retirement systems during the last two decades, by discouraging early retirement and increasing incentives to work for older workers. Senior participation rates to the labor force not only differ strikingly in level from one country to another, they also differ in their reaction to retirement incentives set by governments. This paper highlights how disutility to work can influence the effectiveness of such reforms. The authors build a highly stylized model according to which the reaction of senior activity rate to monetary incentives to work depends on the properties of the specific distribution of working conditions in the country. Second, taking the quality of labor relations as a proxy for working conditions, the authors show empirically that aggregate reactions to retirement incentives depend on the distribution of labor relations at country level. They use panel data for nineteen OECD countries from 1980 to 2004. They show that the elasticity of senior male labor force participation rate to retirement incentives is stronger in countries with better and more homogeneously distributed labor relations.


Background Despite the certain role of both vitamin D and adiponectin in the regulation of insulin sensitivity, the interaction between these two agents has remained uncertain. Objective The present study aimed to determine whether vitamin D is able to change plasma adiponectin and affect glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in first-degree relatives of subjects with type 2 diabetes. Methods This randomized clinical trial was conducted at Clinic of Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Yazd, Iran, from January 25, 2012 to December 25, 2014. In this randomized, double-blinded controlled trial, 64 first-degree relatives of type 2 diabetic patients were assigned randomly to receive either vitamin D supplement (50000 IU vitamin D tablet weekly) plus lifestyle change as the intervention group (n = 32) or placebo plus lifestyle change as the control group (n = 32) for twelve weeks (three months). Results Fifty-three patients (28 in the intervention group and 25 in the control group) completed the study. Serum levels of vitamin D increased while insulin level and consequently insulin resistance (calculated by HOMA formula) significantly decreased in the case group (p-value <0.001 for all variables). Although the values of these three biomarkers showed a slight increase in control group, the changes were not statistically significant. The levels of the changes in other markers including adiponectin, Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), triglyceride, and total cholesterol remained insignificant in both study groups after completing interventions compared with before interventions. Conclusion This study showed that decreased insulin resistance is expected by administrating vitamin D supplement in first-degree relatives of the patients with diabetes mellitus. Trial Registration The trial was registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (http://www.irct.ir) with the IRCT ID: 201105176430N1. Funding The authors received no financial support for the research or publication of this article.


This work is part of the multiyear Metal Earth project carried out by MERC (Mineral Exploration Research Centre, Laurentian University, Sudbury) to refine the geological knowledge of the Abitibi greenstone belt. The project is designed to attempt to understand why greenstone belts, such as the Abitibi, have many mineral deposits, whereas belts, such as those in the Wabigoon Subprovince to the west, have fewer deposits per unit area. Given the broad similarities in rock types at surface, the answer to the question likely lies in the mid to lower crust and/or the mantle. Therefore, Metal Earth is imaging the entire crust in the Swayze area along "transects" oriented perpendicular to the strike of major units and structures, using reflection seismic, magnetotelluric and gravity surveys. Geological mapping is also being done along the transects, to provide an up-to-date base for interpretation of the geophysical surveys.


The aim of this thesis is to 'explore the links between
historicism and patriotism in French and English painting
and sculpture From 1748 to 1800. It argues that the
reaction to Rococo hedonism took the Form of an 'historical
revival' to rejuvenate European culture and society by a
return to an heroic morality for the individual and the
community. While artists generally Followed historians and
poets in their choice of themes, they managed to produce
images that defined and diffused the exemplary heroic
virtues, and to endow different periods of history with
tangibility and verisimilitude. While patriotic sentiments
antedated the artistic 'historical revival', the latter was
important in enlarging and deepening that patriotism to
include an historical ethnic nationalism.
Part I of the thesis uses a quantitative approach to
analyse the numbers,types, themes and dates of 'history'
paintings and sculptures exhibited at the Paris Salons and
London Academies until 1800, revealing that, though
'history' works are in a clear minority in relation to
'non-public' genres of art, they, and their heroic cults,
Form an influential and distinguished segment of French and
English art of the period. Part II analyses in depth the
main historical themes within some basic moral categories
of the period to reveal both the common moral framework,
and the vital stylistic and iconographical differences, ofFrench and English art. Part III charts the emergence of
different styles for different historical periods, and some
of the differences between a more literary English
medievalism and a more historical French classicism.
Finally, the role of key art critics and theorists reveals
that while the French sought to revive an earlier era of
national and artistic grandeur, their English counterparts,
riding the crest of a wave of national glory, sought to
enhance it by founding a native school of history painting
and sculpture; but both encouraged artists to pursue the
ideal of moral historicism avant Winckelmann, backed by
their respective states and Academies, and so give deeper
historical and ethnic content to a swelling civic
patriotism.


The instrument choice debate has been a fixture of environmental law for much of the last three decades. While this debate has led to a much sharper focus on the relative merits of different regulatory tools in confronting environmental problems, it has also left the field unprepared to conceive and implement an adequate response to complex, multifaceted challenges such as climate change. Using the case of emissions trading, this Article investigates how the instrument choice debate has impoverished our conception of government and limited our capacity to respond to the climate crisis. The central claim is that the overly abstract theory of instrument choice that has underwritten widespread enthusiasm for emissions trading and other forms of carbon pricing over the last three decades has led to a sharply diminished view of public engagement and government problem solving. In advancing this claim, the Article makes three main contributions. First, it provides a critical intellectual and institutional history of emissions trading that, for the first time, situates it within a broader history of instrument choice in law, economics, and political science. Second, it uses this history to develop and demonstrate a more reflexive and critical theory of policy instruments and government problem solving, showing how the mainstream instrument choice debate has constrained our conceptions of the regulatory state and its capacity for climate action in jurisdictions around the world. Third, and finally, it advances a series of normative claims that seek to rethink and reimagine a more responsive and expansive approach to government problem solving in the face of the looming climate emergency.


Title of dissertation: "BACKING AWAY FROM THE CLIFF": A THEORY OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE POSTSECONDARY CLASSROOM Jessica Belue Buckley, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Stephen John Quaye, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University and Dr. Julie J. Park Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, University of Maryland Despite growing efforts for Education for Sustainability (EfS), little empirical research documents EfS in the postsecondary classroom and the ways in which sustainability is defined in these classrooms. The purpose of this study was to provide a theory of EfS in the postsecondary classroom in the United States. I sought to understand how postsecondary educators understand sustainability, how they engage in EfS in the classroom, and what contexts influence their work in EfS. Using a constructivist, grounded theory methodology, I selected three institutions – East State University, Liberal Arts College, and Religious University – for this study given both their diversity of mission and their commitment to EfS. I observed 27 different courses, comprising a total of 67 class meetings, and interviewed a total of 42 individuals, 29 of whom were educators, 11 of whom were students, and 2 who were primarily administrators. Findings revealed that a macro-narrative of sustainability in the classroom concerns (a) the relationship between humanity and the environment, including relationships between communities that are mediated by the environment; (b) the ways in which people come to understand those relationships; and (c) the responsibilities individuals have because of those relationships. Educators described that the term sustainability is complex but also invites dialogue. Variations of EfS in the classroom existed along two continua, one concerning the role of sustainability (whether fundamental or supplemental) and another concerning the teaching framework (practical or theoretical). When used together, these continua created a typology of courses that helped students conceptualize, operationalize, contextualize, or synthesize sustainability. Although variations of EfS existed, a number of pedagogical characteristics were similar in EfS classrooms, including educators' desire to teach beyond content, multiple sources of knowledge, the use of pedagogical partnerships, invitation to conversation among disciplines, and values orientations. These characteristics together demonstrate a path from knowledge to practice in an EfS classroom. Findings provide a theory for understanding sustainability within the context of a postsecondary classroom and possible variations for EfS in the classrooms. They reveal implications for educators – both inside the classroom and within the co-curriculum – as they provide an empirically grounded theory for EfS. "BACKING AWAY FROM THE CLIFF": A THEORY OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN THE POSTSECONDARY CLASSROOM by Jessica Belue Buckley Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014


The research brings together elements from two disciplines, the sociology of education and film studies, to investigate the relevance of 'reel' world teacher representations to the real world lives of teachers, and to explore how the former offer opportunity for reflection on professional development and change. Media texts are utilised as an unconventional resource as either a replacement for and/or enhancement of educational theory, and teachers drawn from different stages of the teaching life cycle provide empirical data via their writing aspects of teacher culture in response to the stimulus of each text. In an age of visual culture, educational research which explores the medium of film is an important resource for professional development and change is an original contribution to knowledge at a time when current concerns are largely related to the repercussions of the ongoing implementation of government reforms. The research identifies the charismatic teacher who inspires loyalty and admiration in his/her students, forming a special relationship with them in a way which no other colleague can. A more complex analysis suggests that there are four varieties of the charismatic teacher: the eccentric, the resilient, the romantic and the enduring. Responses to such characters reveal that real world teachers reflect on the uncinematic bureaucracy of their everyday work compared with energised settings where student problems and cynical colleagues are overcome by 'reel' world teachers unfettered by pre-set agendas. A real/'reel' overlap occurs as real world teachers re-examine the personal and professional relationships which underpin their everyday work. Through watching examples from screen culture, they reflect on what the demands and rewards of teaching are, and how these impinge on a teacher's health and private life; the development of relationships with both students and colleagues; and the influence of those outside classroom and staffroom, both at local and government levels.


Post-admission hematoma expansion in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) comprises a simultaneous major clinical problem and a possible target for medical intervention. In any case, the ability to predict and observe hematoma expansion is of great clinical importance. We review radiological concepts in predicting and observing post-admission hematoma expansion. Hematoma expansion can be observed within the first 24 h after symptom onset, but predominantly occurs in the early hours. Thus capturing markers of on-going bleeding on imaging techniques could predict hematoma expansion. The spot sign observed on computed tomography angiography is believed to represent on-going bleeding and is to date the most well investigated and reliable radiological predictor of hematoma expansion as well as functional outcome and mortality. On non-contrast CT, the presence of foci of hypoattenuation within the hematoma along with the hematoma-size is reported to be predictive of hematoma expansion and outcome. Because patients tend to arrive earlier to the hospital, a larger fraction of acute ICH-patients must be expected to undergo hematoma expansion. This renders observation and radiological follow-up investigations increasingly relevant. Transcranial duplex sonography has in recent years proven to be able to estimate hematoma volume with good precision and could be a valuable tool in bedside serial observation of acute ICH-patients. Future studies will elucidate, if better prediction and observation of post-admission hematoma expansion can help select patients, who will benefit from hemostatic treatment.


This paper begins by tracing a path through salient developments in semiotic theory regarding the visual. It examines the political functions of cultural and discursive semiotic systems through which graphic images and gestures are appraised, interpreted and given significance: it is not about what they mean, but rather how they construct meanings and how such meanings accrue importance. I consider the simultaneous material and social nature of both vision and representation. My primary focus is with the visual and social performance of the image of Che Guevara as derived from Alberto Korda's famous 1960 photograph, El Guerrillero Heroico. Using this image as a heuristic in the case of Che Guevara's image in East Timor during the time of Indonesia's dictatorship and independence struggle, I will outline how the performative aspect creates a space of "ethical possibility" through visualizations. I will tease out anthropologist Alfred Gell's (1997) radical notions of the agency of art and explore the possibilities of Donald Preziosi's (2003) elaboration of Roman Jakobson's addition of a fourth sign type, namely artifice. The inclusion of artifice is underwritten by an understanding of A. J. Greimas'(1987) semiotic square as a way to introduce complexity into binary or dual forms. I posit the square is as a dynamic, fractal-like construction. Building on this foundation, I articulate possible connections between artifice and the notion of the virtual as described by a philosophers and academicians from C.S. Peirce to Rob Shields, as a contribution to this theorizing and explore its relevance to the Che image phenomenon. Overall, it is the desire to find ways to speak about the Guerrillero Heroico's social and political activity and resonance that drives the theoretical contributions in this piece.


Finnish forests and swamps are bulging wild berries but only a fraction is picked each year. Finland is a remarkable source and exporter of wild berries and to meet the increasing commercial wild berry demand, foreign migrant wild berry pickers were introduced into Finland in mid-2000. The change has been challenging for the Kemijarvi native wild berry pickers and the phenomenon of migrant pickers has raised numerous social and ecological concerns among natives.

The aim of this thesis was to conduct an ethnographic study to understand the wild berry picking culture from Kemijarvi natives' perspective. This thesis examines natives wild berry pickers' lifeworld and the reasons for creating and maintaining the interest towards wild berry picking. This research also aim to understand how native wild berry pickers see the declining interest towards wild berry picking and how they experience the phenomenon of migrant wild berry pickers.

The research shows that the wild berries are closely related to natives' lifecycle and the kinship formation affects to the creation of interest towards wild berry picking culture. The wild berry picking field has an impact on natives' perception of the world and reality creating differences in the perception of social responsibility. The migrant pickers are perceived as diligent workers but in the confrontation on the swamps and forest, their position in the wild picking society are seen less worthy and picking areas are causing conflicts. The study concludes that the long tradition, inherited culture, and the natives' position in the field enforce and strengthen the tendency to see wild berries and picking positively.
The experiences of the participants in this study provide important pointers to some of the driving forces behind their perceptions and opinions.


FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is expressed in human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) but its role during embryogenesis is unclear. In acute myeloid leukemia (AML), internal tandem duplication (ITD) of FLT3 at the juxtamembrane (JMD) and tyrosine kinase (TKD) domains (FLT3-ITD(+)) occurs in 30% of patients and is associated with inferior clinical prognosis. TKD mutations (FLT3-TKD(+)) occur in 5% of cases. We made use of zebrafish to examine the role of flt3 in developmental hematopoiesis and model human FLT3-ITD(+) and FLT3-TKD(+) AML. Zebrafish flt3 JMD and TKD were remarkably similar to their mammalian orthologs. Morpholino knockdown significantly reduced the expression of l-plastin (pan-leukocyte), csf1r, and mpeg1 (macrophage) as well as that of c-myb (definitive HSPCs), lck, and rag1 (T-lymphocyte). Expressing human FLT3-ITD in zebrafish embryos resulted in expansion and clustering of myeloid cells (pu.1(+), mpo(+), and cebpα(+)) which were ameliorated by AC220 and associated with stat5, erk1/2, and akt phosphorylation. Human FLT3-TKD (D835Y) induced significant, albeit modest, myeloid expansion resistant to AC220. This study provides novel insight into the role of flt3 during hematopoiesis and establishes a zebrafish model of FLT3-ITD(+) and FLT3-TKD(+) AML that may facilitate high-throughput screening of novel and personalized agents.


Freedom of expression is one of democracy's fundamental values. Its importance takes on special connotations in nations where the separation of powers is fragile. This is particularly true in many Western Hemisphere nations-in transition from long years of dictatorships-that have political systems characterized by weak judicial and legislative branches which fail to provide effective counterweights to an all-powerful executive branch.Argentine social scientist Guillermo O'Donnell has characterized such systems as "delegative democracies," where a charismatic figure assumes the presidency after relatively free elections, and then governs without the traditional counterweights normally associated with a representative democracy. Inherent in such "delegative democracies" is a risk of backsliding into authoritarianism. Faced with serious problems with no easy solutions, the popular enthusiasm that leads to the election of such charismatic leaders is tempered by subsequent disillusion.Since judicial and legislative powers in these nations are so weak, freedom of expression-essential to every society-functions as the fundamental counterweight. It allows information to be gathered and disseminated, strengthens civil society, and facilitates individual participation in the democratic process.


Plums, which have a high water content level, are highly perishable and it is necessary to find alternatives to minimize product deterioration. Osmotic dehydration is one of these effective alternatives. Besides water removal from the product, the process also promotes solid gain due to high concentration of solute. In this study, the effect of different osmotic agents (sugar and sugar-glycerol) was reported. The Magee model could satisfactorily describe the solid gain and water loss during osmosis. Drying was conducted at 45, 55 and 65°C. Osmotic dehydration followed by air drying reduces the drying period. Osmotic dehydration resulted in a decrease in total convective dehydration time. The osmotic dehydration in sugar and sugar-glycerol solution reduced approximately 240 and 120 minutes as compared to the osmo-convective dehydration time of lye-treated plums at 65°C. The drying rate curves contained no constant rate period and showed a linear falling rate throughout the drying process.


Few publications on oil bodies or oleosomes seem concerned about their quality (chemical and physical) ex-vivo. This work attempts to identify the main factors (processing and pre-processing) that affect the quality/integrity of sunflower seed oil bodies recovered through a wet-milling process. The physical state of seeds during wet milling had a significant impact on the quality of the oil body suspension. Pre-soaking for 6 hours before wet milling and multiple washing with alkaline buffer (0.1M sodium bicarbonate) was performed to isolate high quality oil body suspensions. It was evident from different physical measurements such as particle size, ζ-potential and light microscopy that pre-soaking had a positive influence on the quality of oil body suspensions with no significant signs of aggregation or coalescence. It was also observed that the resultant washed oil body suspensions were highly surface charged (-28.4 ± 1.2 mV) indicating very stable suspension phase behavior. Washing oil bodies not only removes non-integral, extraneous proteins (derived from the seed matrix) but enriches the lipid content including Tocopherol (α-tocopherol: 491.6 mg/kg of washed oil bodies compared with 252.6 mg/kg crude oil bodies). Changes in the composition of oil bodies after washing have been observed before, but this research also monitored the size of oil bodies after washing, and our results indicate that certain factors can shift the distribution of droplet size. It is believed that any change in average size of droplets indicate the presence of disrupted oil bodies whose surface chemistry has changed enough to compromise their integrity on washing. The retention of droplet size on washing may, therefore, be diagnostic for the recovery of intact oil bodies. An assessment of the integrity of oil bodies recovered from sunflower seeds after accelerated aging (5 months) was carried out. Free fatty acid was more pronounced in oil rather than oil bodies, this could be due to the elimination of some of the free acid bound to oil body during washing. Although some minor variation was observed during seed aging, however, the oil bodies remained stable in the final suspension. The results indicate that oil body membrane was extremely robust under extreme conditions and the integrity of oil bodies was preserved. In addition, oil bodies obtained in this study were resistant to oxidation due to the presence of naturally occurring antioxidants (including vitamin E) associated with them.. The results indicate that the physical barrier of surface membrane protein (oelosin) protect oil bodies against pro-oxidants.


In this article, we perform a robust analysis of the determinants of U.S. swap spreads using a wide range of theoretically motivated candidate factors. We conduct an analysis by taking into consideration the interdependence between the candidate factors, as well as the time frequency under which the factors affect the spread. We find that the suggested variables can to a fair degree explain movements in the swap spread. The results suggest that the mortgage-backed security holders' demand for swap rates strongly influences the U.S. swap spread. Importantly, our analysis of the interdependence between the explanatory variables indicates that the underlying initiator of these activities is changes in the shape of the yield curve. Among other things, we find that Treasury and stock market volatility as well as the activity of the mortgage-backed security holders have strong effects on the U.S. swap spread.


Decision makers use public opinion as an indicator of social acceptance for land use changes. However, public opinion is informed by, inter alia, the media, which tends to "frame" issues of public interest in terms of social conflict rather than the substantive details of the issue. Previous research about the influence of conflict on public opinion about politics has yielded contradictory results about the effect of this "conflict framing." Some studies have shown that conflict framing polarises public opinion, whereas others have found that it moderates public opinion. Similarly, there is no clear understanding of how conflict framing may affect public opinion about the social acceptance of land use changes. This study presents an experimental survey with a quota sample of the Australian population (n = 1,147) where fictional land use change headlines were manipulated to represent three levels of conflict framing (no conflict; conflict; and conflict between identified parties). The results showed that heightened conflict framing led to the strength of support or opposition for land use changes to become weaker. Importantly, these findings show that perceived social conflict can shape public opinion on land use change. As a consequence, public opinion may not represent genuine social acceptance of land use change in cases where conflict is pronounced in the media. This raises the need for attentiveness to disentangling the influence of conflict framing from the substantive issues of land use change.


The aim of this study is to evaluate the cytotoxicity of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), PEDOTcollagen and PEDOT nanostructured coatings for neural electrodes. Incorporation of cell growth factors and the structuration of supporting material are two strategies to improve cell adhesion and biocompatibility in order to produce better and more specific neural implants. PEDOT coat, PEDOT-collagen coat, PEDOT nanotubes and PEDOT aerogel were tested for biocompability using the standard ISO 10993-5. PEDOT and PEDOT-Collagen coats were deposited via galvanostatic electropolymerization from a NaPSS micellar dispersion. In addition PEDOT nanotubes were obtained by hard polycarbonate template and PEDOT aerogels were chemically produced through a soft starch template. PEDOT samples were studied for biocompatibility, characterized by LCRmeter and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Biocompatibility test verified the absence of cytotoxic effects in all the PEDOT samples.


Purpose: Direct vision internal urethrotomy (DVIU) is the most common surgical intervention for anterior urethral strictures. We evaluated the long-term outcome and success rate of optic urethrotomy in patients treated in our hospital who had recurrent anterior urethral strictures, according to different predisposing causes and stricture sites. The aim is to find the success rate of optic urethrotomy in patients treated who had recurrent anterior urethral strictures. Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective chart review. From January 2000 to August 2017, 232 patients received internal optic urethrotomy for anterior urethral strictures in our hospital. A retrospective chart review of all patients involved in the study was performed. Median follow-up period after receiving the first urethrotomy procedure was 91 months (range: 8–204 months). The Kaplan–Meier method was used to analyze the success rate of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth urethrotomy procedures. Results: Of the 232 patients who underwent at least two procedures of urethrotomy, 150 (64.65%) were included in the study. The success rate of the first urethrotomy procedure was 0%, with a mean time to recurrence of 20 months. For the second urethrotomy, the success rate was 53%, with a mean time to recurrence of 22.5 months. For the third urethrotomy, the success rate was 40%, with a mean time to recurrence of 16.1 months. For the fourth and fifth urethrotomy procedures, the success rate was 39% and 18%, with a mean time to recurrence of 17.9 and 10.2 months, respectively. Patients who had anterior urethral stricture related to previous surgery (surgery-related) had a better outcome (success rate, 87.3%) than patients with strictures stemming from other causes (P = 0.003). No association was found between preoperative infection, the age of the patient, and the site of the strictures and the success rate of the procedure. Conclusion: The patient population was older and had a longer-term follow-up, compared with previous studies, but even with repeated DVIU, the surgery-related stricture group had a higher success rate of urethrotomy than the groups with different etiology. In patients with pelvic fracture or infection, repeated urethrotomy may not be recommended as first-line treatment for recurrent anterior urethral stricture.


The influence of trailing-edge separation on the dynamic stall
characteristics of a typical rotor section is at present
unclear. Although previous research has given a fundamental
understanding of the unsteady stall process, the variety of
aerofoils tested has made it difficult to isolate the effect
of trailing-edge separation. Further investigation into this
field may be carried out by testing two similar aerofoils
which differ only in their trailing-edge separation
characteristics. The early part of the work concentrated on
the development of a numerical method whereby the theoretical
pressure gradient over the trailing-edge upper surface of a
given aerofoil may be modified to either enhance or reduce
such separation. Since previous work at the University of
Glasgow had included a detailed unsteady aerodynamic study of
a NACA 23012 aerofoil, this was the appropriate profile for
modification. The above technique was applied to this aerofoil
with the objective of modifying the geometry in such a manner
that would retain the leading-edge pressure distribution
whilst forcing an earlier and more gradual trailing-edge
separation growth. The subsequently designed aerofoil,
designated the NACA 23012(A), was shown to display an
enhancement of the trailing-edge separation characteristics
via both boundary-layer calculations and oil-flow
visualisation tests.
On comparison with unsteady data previously collected for the
NACA 23012, several systematic methods of estimating the effects of trailing-edge separation on the dynamic stall
process are presented. During oscillatory tests the NACA
23012(A) displayed a more stable damping characteristic which
was attributed to the enhanced trailing-edge separation
producing an earlier pitching-moment break. Based on the
analysis of pressure-time histories obtained during ramp
tests, it was deduced that a consequence of significant
trailing-edge separation was to delay the initiation of the
dynamic stall vortex. Detailed analysis of hot-film data led
to the conclusion that aerofoils which display a tendency to
stall in steady conditions, via separation growth from the
trailing-edge, will experience vortex initiation by the
breakdown of a thin layer of reversed flow travelling upstream
beneath a stable shear layer which remains in close proximity
to the aerofoil's surface contour.


The potential of obtaining incremental diagnostic information using a parallel assay is attractive. Herein, a novel parallel determination platform was developed for the simultaneous determination of hormones, including human growth hormone (GH), prolactin (PRL), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). Polystyrene was used as a support material and the device comprised an antibody capture area, a connecting channel, and an isolating bar. After immobilizing antibodies in the antibody capture area, 50 μL antigens and 1.5 mL of HRP-labelled antibodies were mixed and bound to the capture antibodies by flowing in the connecting channel continually. After adding chemiluminescence substrates, the isolating bar enabled the connecting channel to enter into the detection site in a 1 : 1 ratio. Fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) was used as an internal standard. The developed method was validated in terms of limits of detection (LOD), linearity, recovery and precision. The LOD were 0.01 mIU L−1, 0.01 IU L−1, 0.03 mIU L−1, 0.05 mIU L−1, and 0.01 IU L−1 for GH, FSH, TSH, PRL, and LH, respectively. The assay was linear up to 230 mIU L−1 for GH (r2 = 0.995), 300 IU L−1 for FSH (r2 = 0.991), 100 mIU L−1 for TSH (r2 = 0.997), 8000 mIU L−1 for PRL (r2 = 0.994), and 260 IU L−1 for LH (r2 = 0.992). The mean recoveries were calculated at two concentration levels and the values were found to be between 90.5% and 108.3%. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were <10% and <11%, respectively. The method was successfully applied to determine serum sample (n = 120) and the results were strongly correlated with the Siemens and Abbott immunoassay, showing a bias offset of 1.7 mIU L−1, 2.4 IU L−1, 0.1 mIU L−1, 7.6 mIU L−1 and 1.5 IU L−1 for GH, FSH, TSH, PRL, and LH. This sensitive and cost-efficient platform is expected to be a powerful tool to measure combinations of various biomarkers.


Abstract
Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been prepared from PtCl62− ions through a facile ionic liquid (IL)-assisted method and used for methanol oxidation. 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium (BMIM) with four different counter ions (PF6−, Cl−, Br−, and I−) has been tested for the preparation of Pt/IL/CNT nanohybrids, showing the counter ions of ILs play an important role in the formation of small sizes of Pt NPs. Only [BMIM][PF6] and [BMIM][Cl] allow reproducible preparation of Pt/IL/CNT nanohybrids. The electroactive surface areas of Pt/[BMIM][PF6]/CNT, Pt/[BMIM][Cl]/CNT, Pt/CNT, and commercial Pt/C electrodes are 62.8, 101.5, 78.3, and 87.4 m2 g−1, respectively. The Pt/[BMIM][Cl]/CNT nanohybrid-modified electrodes provide higher catalytic activity (251.0 A g−1) at a negative onset potential of −0.60 V than commercial Pt/C-modified ones do (133.5 A g−1) at −0.46 V. The Pt/[BMIM][Cl]/CNT electrode provides the highest ratio (4.52) of forward/reverse oxidation current peak, revealing a little accumulation of carbonaceous residues.


With the population of 13.4% of the world and a land area of 15%, Africa has only 2% of the world's industrial capacity. Its per capita income is only 15% of the world average and only consumes 3% of world energy. Many sub-Saharan and sub-Equatorial African countries are poor and have limited electricity infrastructures. A survey of energy resources conducted by the World Energy Council (WEC) in 2004 shows that Africa has more than enough to satisfy all its energy requirements. These include 7.1% of the world's known oil reserves, 7.5% of the gas, 10.6% of the coal and 13% of the hydro. Due to the high cost for the construction of UHV/EHV transmission lines, there are needs to develop a balanced distributed generation strategy which takes into account future integration with small, midsize and large regional projects. This paper recommends a bottom up approach through an evaluation of autonomous or non-autonomous modified microgrids concept to provide electricity to local residents and which serve as basic building blocks for future system expansion. Issues regarding to the control associated with the integration of micro grids to larger systems are addressed


Practical experience and scientific research show that there is scope for improving the performance of inventory control systems by taking into account the discrepancies between the actual physical inventory levels and those recorded in the information system (IS). Such discrepancies, which are often referred to as inventory (record) inaccuracies, are a major concern in contemporary supply chains where commitments to orders are usually made based on IS records only. Empirical data obtained in two case studies motivate the development of a multiperiod inventory control model that explicitly accounts for the differences between physical inventory levels and IS stock records. Numerical experiments help derive some key managerial insights. We find that previous important results on the behavior of the optimal order quantity in the retailing environment do not necessarily apply in an e‐retailing/Business‐To‐Business (B2B) context. We adjust and apply the zero balance walk technique to the e‐retailing/B2B case and deduce a simple and efficient learning mechanism about the errors' distributions. We close with an agenda for further research in this area.


Abstract
Angelica archangelica, Tanacetum cinerariaefolium and Chelidonium majus are valuable medicinal plants for which there is no comprehensive information about their seed germination in review of literatures. With regarding of the importance of simple propagation of medicinal plants and the role of seed in production of these plants, this study was set out in order to analyzing of the effects of cold stratification (control, 2, 3 and 4 weeks) and acid gibberellic (control, 100, 150, 250, 350, 450, 500 and 1000 ppm) treatments on seed germination of these species. Treatments were arranged seperately in a Completely Randomized Design with 3 replicates. The results showed that the highest mean germination (percentage and rate) was observed in 3 and 4 weeks (40%) and 4 weeks (1.8 seeds per day) cold stratification for Angelica archangelica seeds, 3 weeks (42.67%) and 4 weeks (6.17 seeds per day) cold stratification for Tanacetum cinerariaefolium seeds, and 100 and 350 ppm (100%) and 500 ppm (5.22 seeds per day) GA3 solutions for Chelidonium majus seeds.

Keywords: Germination, Cold stratification, Gibberellic acid, Angelica archangelica, Tanacetum cinerariaefolium, Chelidonium majus


This study analyses what kind of conceptions teacher students and engineering students have about the function concept, and how these conceptions differ between the two groups. The study was conducted through questionnaires, and 34 students at a Swedish university participated. The function concepts of the students have been classified according to modified versions of models presented by Vinner & Dreyfus, Sfard and DeMarois & Tall. The result of the study shows that the students primarily have operational concepts of function, with only a couple of students having anything resembling a structural function concept. The study also shows distinct differences between prospective compulsory school teachers and engineering students, where the former have less developed functional concepts.


Comparative genomics of several strains of Erwinia amylovora, a plant pathogenic bacterium causal agent of fire blight disease, revealed that its diversity is primarily attributable to the flexible genome comprised of plasmids. We recently identified and sequenced in full a novel 65.8 kb plasmid, called pEI70. Annotation revealed a lack of known virulence-related genes, but found evidence for a unique integrative conjugative element related to that of other plant and human pathogens. Comparative analyses using BLASTN showed that pEI70 is almost entirely included in plasmid pEB102 from E. billingiae, an epiphytic Erwinia of pome fruits, with sequence identities superior to 98%. A duplex PCR assay was developed to survey the prevalence of plasmid pEI70 and also that of pEA29, which had previously been described in several E. amylovora strains. Plasmid pEI70 was found widely dispersed across Europe with frequencies of 5–92%, but it was absent in E. amylovora analyzed populations from outside of Europe. Restriction analysis and hybridization demonstrated that this plasmid was identical in at least 13 strains. Curing E. amylovora strains of pEI70 reduced their aggressiveness on pear, and introducing pEI70 into low-aggressiveness strains lacking this plasmid increased symptoms development in this host. Discovery of this novel plasmid offers new insights into the biogeography, evolution and virulence determinants in E. amylovora.


Satellite communication is a major spin off from the space programs whose objective is to establish a reliable and global communication. The communication satellites are a crucial factor throughout telecommunications infrastructure and have made contribution to the pattern of international communications. As an artificial body which is moving around a celestial body such as planet Earth, satellites are put into desired orbits and have payload depending on the intended application. During revolving of satellites around the Earth, their performance is affected significantly by Doppler shift. This phenomenon represents receiving higher or lower frequencies with respect to original transmitted frequency which is caused by relative speed disparity between transmitter and receiver. The purpose of this study is to survey in a precise manner the outcome of Doppler shift in satellite communication. Further with a combination of satellite communication fundamental and mathematical methods, the effect of Doppler shift in highly elliptical orbits are investigated.


Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of deaths in women worldwide. 5-flourouracil (5-FU) is a classic chemotherapeutic drug that has been widely used in the treatment of breast cancer patients. In this study, using several biochemical techniques, we studied the global effects of 5-FU treatment on MCF7 breast cancer cells. The dose-response curve obtained after the treatment of MCF7 cells with 23 different 5-FU concentrations for 48 hours showed an atypical bimodal or biphasic curve, thus indicating a plausible dual mechanism of action for 5-FU. After 48 hours of treatment with 5-FU, the cells were found to be apoptotic, with a distinct reduction in the cell size, compromised anchorage ability but no significant alteration in the cell cycle progression. These findings provided evidence of the global inhibitory effects of 5-FU on human breast cancer cells in vitro and warranted further evaluation to study the molecular basis of aberrant expression of protein-coding genes previously reported after 5-FU treatment. We hypothesized that microRNAs (miRNAs), the newly identified class of small regulatory RNAs, might play a mediator role in inducing the cytotoxicity of 5-FU, by regulating the expression of its target genes. Using a combined advanced microarray and quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) technology, we found for the first time that 5-FU significantly altered the global expression profile of miRNAs in MCF7 breast cancer cells. After 48 hours of treatment with a low dose (0.01µM), 42 miRNAs were differentially expressed in MCF7 cells (23 up-regulated, 19 down-regulated). A majority of these miRNAs have been previously associated with cancer development, and were predicted to potentially target many oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. To further understand the connection between miRNA dysregulation and 5-FU therapy, we investigated the dose- and time-dependent modification in the miRNA expression levels after 5-FU treatment. Eleven miRNAs (let-7g, miR-10b, miR-15a, miR-16, miR-21, miR-27a, miR-365, miR-374b, miR-483-5p, miR-574-3p and miR-575) previously identified in the microarray as differentially expressed after treatment were selected to analyze their responsiveness to eight different 5-FU dosages (0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.1, 0.7, 1, 5 and 10µM). Of these, miR-10b, miR-21, miR-365 and miR-483-5p were shown to be significantly regulated in a beneficial way. Time-response data was also generated for miR-10b, miR-21, miR-483-5p, miR-574-3p and miR-575 following 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 hours treatment with 0.1, 0.7 and 10µM 5-FU. The data obtained suggested that miRNA expression in MCF7 cells is sensitive to 5-FU therapy at low doses and shorter treatment durations. The down-regulation of an important oncomir, miR-21; and alteration in the expression of three new miRNAs with no previous breast cancer association, miR-483-5p, miR-574-3p and miR-575 indicates that miRNA might play an important role in 5-FU therapy. In conclusion, miRNAs were shown to play an important regulatory role in 5-FU induced cytotoxicity and fit in perfectly in the intricate network of 5-FU activity.


Annuities are a vital aspect of a growing number of reformed pension systems around the world, and will be of increasing relevance in Europe as reform of generous social security schemes gathers pace. This paper addresses the regulation of annuities, essential to ensure integrity of the system, from three sides; prudential regulation of insurance companies, conduct of business regulation of insurance companies and the regulation of annuities within the overall pension system. We also consider some broader systemic issues that may arise. It is highlighted that the main risks in annuities are traditionally held to relate to errors in mortality and interest rate assumptions, but increasingly credit and broader systemic risks are also coming to the fore. Thematically, we suggest that research into the appropriate response of regulation to the dynamics of competition among annuity providers and the implications of ageing warrant particular study. Further issues bearing directly on regulatory regimes are raised by the Equitable Life debacle and the Japanese experience of life company failure.


The purpose of this article is to evaluate whether those provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 and of the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995 relating to warrantless searches and seizures that are not incidental to arrest are consistent with the spirit, object and purport of the South African Constitution. This raises the question: do such warrantless searches and seizures conform to the new legal order demanded by the constitution, or, do they still reflect the values of the old apartheid order, and as such, are in conflict with the Constitution and therefore invalid? The authore, therefore, turns to the law of foreign jurisdictions for guidance - at the same time taking heed of the warning against too readily importing foreign law.


Abstract People experiencing poverty and inequality will be affected first and worst by the impacts of climate change to infrastructure and human settlements, including those caused by increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events and natural disasters. They have the least capacity to cope, to adapt, to move and to recover. Community service organisations (CSOs) play a critical role in supporting individuals, families and communities experiencing poverty and inequality to build resilience and respond to adverse changes in circumstances. As such, the services they provide comprise a critical component of social infrastructure in human settlements. However, very little is understood about CSOs own vulnerability to – or their role in managing and mitigating risks to their clients and the community from – climate change impacts to physical infrastructure. The Extreme Weather, Climate Change and the Community Sector – Risks and Adaptations project examined the relationship between physical and social infrastructure (in the form of CSO service provision). Specifically, the ways in which the climate-driven failure of CSO service delivery worsens risks to the individuals and communities they serve and, on the other hand, how preparedness may reduce vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather impacts to human settlements and infrastructure. The research comprised a comprehensive and critical scoping, examination and review of existing research findings and an audit, examination and judgment-based evaluation of the current vulnerabilities and capacities of CSOs under projected climate change scenarios. It employed three key methods of consultation and data collection. A literature review examined research conducted to date in Australia and comparative countries internationally on the vulnerability and climate change adaptation needs of CSOs. A program of 10 Community Sector Professional Climate Workshops consulted over 150 CSO representatives to develop a qualitative record of extreme event and climate change risks and corresponding adaptation strategies specific to CSOs. A national survey of CSOs, which resulted in the participation of approximately 500 organisations, produced a quantitative data set about the nature of CSO vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather impacts to infrastructure, whether and how CSOs are approaching the adaptation task and key barriers to adaptation. While the methods employed and the absence of empirical data sets quantifying CSO vulnerability to climate change impacts create limitations to the evidence-base produced, findings from the research suggest that CSOs are highly vulnerable and not well prepared to respond to climate change and extreme weather impacts to physical infrastructure and that this underlying organisational vulnerability worsens the vulnerability of people experiencing poverty and inequality to climate change. However, the project results indicate that if well adapted, CSOs have the willingness, specialist skills, assets and capacity to make a major contribution to the resilience and adaptive capacity of their clients and the community more broadly (sections of which will be plunged into adversity by extreme events). Despite this willingness, the evidence presented shows that few CSOs have undertaken significant action to prepare for climate change and worsening extreme weather events. Key barriers to adaptation identified through the research are inadequate financial resources, lack of institutionalised knowledge and skills for adaptation and the belief that climate change adaptation is beyond the scope of CSOs core business. On the other hand, key indicators of organisational resilience to climate change and extreme weather impacts include: level of knowledge about extreme weather risks, past experience of an extreme weather event and organisational size. Given its size, scope and the critical role the Australian community sector plays in building client and community resilience and in assisting communities to respond to and recover from the devastating impacts of extreme weather events and natural disasters, the research identifies serious gaps in both the policy frameworks and the research base required to ensure the sector's resilience and adaptive capacity – gaps which appear to have already had serious consequences. To address these gaps, a series of recommendations has been prepared to enable the development and implementation of a comprehensive, sector-specific adaptation and preparedness program, which includes mechanisms to institutionalise knowledge and skills, streamlined tools appropriate to the needs and capacity of a diverse range of organisations and a benchmarking system to allow progress towards resilience and preparedness to be monitored. Future research priorities for adaptation in this sector have also been identified.


Sex, or the Unbearable is a dialogue between Lauren Berlant and Lee Edelman, two of our leading theorists of sexuality, politics, and culture. In juxtaposing sex and the unbearable they don't propose that sex is unbearable, only that it unleashes unbearable contradictions that we nonetheless struggle to bear. In Berlant and Edelman's exchange, those terms invoke disturbances produced in encounters with others, ourselves, and the world, disturbances that tap into threats induced by fears of loss or rupture as well as by our hopes for repair.

Through virtuoso interpretations of works of cinema, photography, critical theory, and literature, including Lydia Davis's story "Break It Down" (reprinted in full here), Berlant and Edelman explore what it means to live with negativity, with those divisions that may be irreparable. Together, they consider how such negativity affects politics, theory, and intimately felt encounters. But where their critical approaches differ, neither hesitates to voice disagreement. Their very discussion—punctuated with moments of frustration, misconstruction, anxiety, aggression, recognition, exhilaration, and inspiration—enacts both the difficulty and the potential of encounter, the subject of this unusual exchange between two eminent critics and close friends.


Climate change is resulting in an increased frequency and severity of droughts in countries such as Senegal and Ethiopia. For smallholder farmers who are dependent on rainfed agriculture and have limited protection from climate impacts, climate change has the potential to devastate livelihoods, perpetuating the cycle of poverty in rural communities. Climate-smart agriculture offers the potential to increase the adaptive capacity of farmers while increasing incomes. However, climate-smart investment entails risks and costs that oftentimes risk-exposed farmers are unwilling or unable to manage. Along with climate-smart agriculture, index-based insurance has attracted considerable attention and shown promise as a tool to help reduce investment risk. The two work in complementary ways, and insurance has the potential to reduce investment risk under certain conditions. The conditions under which insurance incentivizes climate-smart investment, however, have not been adequately addressed in the existing body of literature. Informed by lessons learned from two projects in Senegal and Ethiopia, we posit that the appropriate combination of tools for reducing investment risk depends on a range of factors, including 1) weather and basis risk, 2) the technology's cost, profitability, and protection, and 3) risk exposure and loss. Using Index Insurance to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture 2 We developed an interactive risk analysis framework that simulates the farmer's decisionmaking process for various investment options given a set of parameters, using stylized inputs based on approximate costs and prices for a smallholder farmer in Senegal. The model confirms that insurance's ability to de-risk investment depends largely on the interaction between the three aforementioned factors. At lower levels of climate risk, farmers may not need both technology and insurance to cover productive risk. In such a case, subsidizing technology rather than insurance may be more effective. At higher levels of climate risk, farmers may need both technology and insurance to manage productive risk. Under these conditions, it may be better to subsidize insurance rather than technology, and insurance may function to mitigate the residual risk that technology is unable to mitigate. Using Index Insurance to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture


According to Johan Huizinga (1949), as a Homo Ludens, man developed play (game) element in our culture during evolution. Roger Caillois (1961) categorized play into four groups: Agon (competition), Alea (probability), Mimicry(roleplaying), and Ilinx (altered perception). Current video/computer games are comprised of one or more of them combined. As these sociologists of game assert, game is one of the most basic and fundamental elements of our culture. However, some gamers become highly immersed in playing games, even to the degree of addiction. In 2013, National Assembly of Korea proposed a bill that would help alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling addicts and video game addicts. This caused huge social debates among experts and lay people. While some experts say that gaming addiction is not a truly existing phenomenon, some people say that we need law to regulate gaming in order to help prevent the addicts. These issues have become a problem of technological governance. This article analyzes 80 researches or so that may help us to learn about the problems and answers of the internet addiction, gaming addiction, and internet game (online game) addiction, or computer games for the youth in general. In order to maintain a well performed technological governance, first we need to know the characteristics of the issue. The author hopes that this article may be a ground study to start the scholastic discussion about the gaming governance in Korea.


The Yamanaka factors (Oct4, sox2, Klf4, cMyc) used to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have become a staple of stem cell biology and ChIP-seq studies have led to an understanding of the genomic landscape of how these as well as other recently discovered factors transduce their effects to form iPSC. A conundrum that previously existed was that the Sox family has high homology and yet various members drive completely different cell fates. My lab in collaboration with Larry Stanton's lab at the Genome Institute of Singapore unraveled part of the mystery by identifying and validating a single residue within the hmg domain of the Sox family responsible for a specific interaction with Oct4 (pou5F1 domain) which then decides specific cell fates. In addition a novel genomic motif was discovered which has a single base difference between the Oct4 and Sox binding sites. Using this knowledge we were able to transform the function of pluripotent Sox2 into an endodermal TF and endodermal Sox17 into a pluripotent TF. In fact the mutated Sox17 TF was even more efficient in forming iPSC (compared to Sox2) which was not expected. Recently we investigated the C-terminal activation domains of these Sox family members and discovered that they play a major role in the level of activation of iPSC. Conversion of Sox17 into a Pluripotency Reprogramming Factor by re-engineering its Association with Oct4 on DNA. Ralf Jauch, Irene Aksoy, Andrew Paul Hutchins, Calista Keow Leng Ng, Xian Feng Tian, Jiaxuan Chen, Paaventhan Palasingam, Paul Robson, Lawrence W. Stanton and Prasanna R Kolatkar. Stem Cells. 2011. Jun;29(6):940-51. Oct4 switches partnering from Sox2 to Sox17 to reinterpret the enhancer code and specify endoderm. Aksoy I, Jauch R, Chen J, Dyla M, Divakar U, Bogu GK, Teo R, Leng Ng CK, Herath W, Lili S, Hutchins AP, Robson P, Kolatkar PR, Stanton LW. EMBO J. 2013. 32(7): 938-53. Sox transcription factors require selective interactions with Oct4 and specific transactivation functions to mediate reprogramming. Aksoy, I., Jauch, R., Eras, V., Bin, A.C-W., Chen, J., Divakar, U., Ng, C. K-L., Kolatkar, P.R., Stanton, L.W. Stem Cells. 2013.


Variable voltage and variable frequency conversion of electrical energy from an AC source to an AC load is done in traditional power converters via a DC-link where an energy storage element (electrolytic capacitors) is situated. Despite its well-known benefits, it has the disadvantage of being bulky and to limit the converter lifetime. On the other hand Direct Power Conversion (DPC) is an attractive concept, which doesn't need an energy storage buffer, but has two main disadvantages: reduced voltage transfer ratio (<0.86) and low immunity to voltage supply disturbances. This paper proposes a new approach to perform the power conversion by mixing various standard topologies of well-known power converters in order to improve their performance/behavior. Simulation and experimental results prove that the hybrid structures are able to boost the output voltage capability (some above unity) and/or to fully compensate unbalanced voltage supply.


Considering the most innovative neuropsychological findings (Damasio, 1995, Damasio, 2003; Ramachandran, 2006) there is no doubt that cognitive and emotional functions coexist and cooperate in our mental processes, and consequently are embedded in our learning processes.
This interdisciplinary research involve two disciplines, pedagogy and didactic of mathematics, with the goal of designing, developing and subsequently implementing and assessing activities for the elementary school, aimed at improving the social and emotional skills of children, underline the importance of these skills in school and develop cognitive and meta-cognitive skills in mathematics.
We have tested specifically designed activities that show how social and emotional education could promote the learning of mathematics, and vice versa. We believe that, in order to succeed in school, SEL skills such as:
- considering different points of view,
- persisting,
- recognizing your emotions,
are necessary to manage. Similarly, well designed activities in mathematics may be able to enhance these students' skills, also offering valuable educational opportunities for the generalization of these skills in other areas.
After one year of implementation, we present here our preliminary results that show how, in order to support students' learning process, it is also important to consider their feelings when they facing a mathematical problem. Moreover, we have found that it would be very important for a teacher to consider how his attitude, his "emotional way" to present an activity (e.g. a geometric problem) has a strong influence on the motivation and the perseverance that the students will show during the process of resolution.
We believe that the future educational programs will have to take into account the relationship cognition-emotion, paying attention at the same time to the content you want to teach, to the way you teach it, but also to the emotional experience of your students while they are learning.


This doctoral thesis is about knowledge and knowing. It considers how the medium by which knowledge is stored and shared influences perceptions about the value and validity of knowledge. The analysis is based on the idea that the unique material composition of the knowledge media of the time, rather than being merely a conduit for transmitting ideational content, deeply influences beliefs about knowledge. A number of theorists (Eisenstein, 2013; McLuhan, 1962, 1969, 1994; Postman, 2005; Ong, 1977a, 2004, 2012) have analysed how the material composition of mass-print has influenced perceptions of knowledge. Walter Ong (2004) conducted an extensive analysis of early forms of textbooks. In this analysis he found that textbooks have profoundly influenced epistemological beliefs since the Enlightenment, but their influence arose not as a result of good pedagogical design, but as an unintended consequence of the unique affordances and constraints of the highly mechanised production cycles associated with mass-printed texts. As a result of the mechanical processes associated with mass-printing beliefs about knowing and knowledge were based on representations of the world laid out on the printed page (Ong, 2012). Until approximately 35 years ago the Western world used mainly the same primary media for representing, storing and disseminating pedagogical knowledge that had been used for the previous 500 years. In other words the material composition of the media by which knowledge has been transacted has been stable. But it is clear that a period of intense change is occurring as knowledge media are increasingly digitised at all stages of their production, distribution and consumption cycles. As a result of the processes of digitisation knowledge media are more multimodal, increasingly dispersed beyond one certified knowledge medium and increasingly located outside the nexus of the classroom. Media ecologists, particularly McLuhan (1994) and Ong (1977a, 2004, 2012), have speculated about the epistemological changes that the digitised knowledge environment would bring, but they tended to take a hypothetical approach to considering these changes. This research seeks to bring a more fine-grained methodological approach to these speculations by developing a media-based methodology (or lens) that shows how knowledge seekers' incremental sensory interactions with the modal composition of knowledge media are mediating changes to beliefs about knowledge. This research compares three specific examples of knowledge media diachronically along the material axes of time, space and the extent to which the authentic voice of the 'others' who are mutually engaged in the knowledge transaction can be heard. The three media are: a 1960s classroom textbook—Vernon, A. (1965). Human interaction: An introduction to sociology. New York, NY: The Ronald Press Company; a classroom textbook from 2010—Carl, J. (2010). Think sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; and the Wikibook— Introduction to Sociology (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology). The research finds that, as knowledge media are becoming increasingly digitised, a number of subtle epistemological changes are emerging: knowing is increasingly becoming a process of emotional connection with others rather than intellectual engagement with complex analytic categories; personal stories are becoming valued as a way of coming to know; and interpersonal connectedness and trust are increasingly perceived as valued sources of authority. MAKING SENSE OF PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE MEDIA v In other words, the digitised knowledge environment is, rather serendipitously, increasingly facilitating more constructivist beliefs about knowledge. Despite this increased capacity for digitised knowledge media to mediate more constructivist personal epistemological beliefs, this research finds, rather alarmingly, that there are parallels between Ong's (2004) findings and the current epistemological period: new knowledge media are being incorporated into classroom practice with limited attention to the influence that their modal composition is having on beliefs about knowledge and knowing. This inattention has significant implications for learning and teaching at this time of large-scale investment in new knowledge media. The research provides insight into how the characteristics of the 'packaging' of knowledge shapes perceptions of it. It provides a lens to help teachers, educational policy makers and planners avoid sleepwalking into the 21 century with 19th century perceptions (McLuhan, Fiore & Agel, 1967), and to advance academic consideration of these matters.


The world of smart shoes, appliances, and phones is already here, but the practice of user experience (UX) design for ubiquitous computing is still relatively new. Design companies like IDEO and frogdesign are regularly asked to design products that unify software interaction, device design and service design -- which are all the key components of ubiquitous computing UX -- and practicing designers need a way to tackle practical challenges of design. Theory is not enough for them -- luckily the industry is now mature enough to have tried and tested best practices and case studies from the field. Smart Things presents a problem-solving approach to addressing designers' needs and concentrates on process, rather than technological detail, to keep from being quickly outdated. It pays close attention to the capabilities and limitations of the medium in question and discusses the tradeoffs and challenges of design in a commercial environment. Divided into two sections, frameworks and techniques, the book discusses broad design methods and case studies that reflect key aspects of these approaches. The book then presents a set of techniques highly valuable to a practicing designer. It is intentionally not a comprehensive tutorial of user-centered design'as that is covered in many other books'but it is a handful of techniques useful when designing ubiquitous computing user experiences.In short, Smart Things gives its readers both the "why" of this kind of design and the "how," in well-defined chunks. * Tackles design of products in the post-Web world where computers no longer have to be monolithic, expensive general-purpose devices* Features broad frameworks and processes, practical advice to help approach specifics, and techniques for the unique design challenges* Presents case studies that describe, in detail, how others have solved problems, managed trade-offs, and met successes


1.High grading by removing the majority of trees with superior timber quality has led to loss of productivity and biodiversity in forests. Typically, after high grading, little attention is given to tree regeneration. Thus, undesirable understory vegetation often dominates for a long time, leading to stagnation in forest recovery and so-called arrested succession. In such settings, managing understory vegetation using topsoil removal through scarification has been proposed as a restoration tool to encourage tree regeneration.

2.We investigated the effectiveness of topsoil removal as a restoration technique in high-graded Nothofagus old-growth forests in the Chilean Andes. In these forests, high grading often leads to understories being dominated by dense thickets of native bamboo, Chusquea culeou. These understory conditions typically delay succession by preventing tree regeneration.

3.T-tests were used to compare vegetation development in areas with topsoil removal against those without. Non-parametric multiplicative regression (NPMR) was used to investigate which environmental variables were mainly related to regeneration of different plant groups (short and long-lived early and late-seral tree species) and C. culeou abundance in areas with and without topsoil removal.

4.Topsoil removal improved the regeneration of early-seral tree species and constrained C. culeou. In areas without topsoil scarification, higher abundances of C. culeou were reflected in a higher transmitted radiation and litter cover. In these areas, the presence of early-seral tree species was related to higher soil water content and transmitted radiation. However, topsoil removal altered these response patterns for early-seral trees. For instance, the interaction between higher soil water content and more exposed mineral soil was reflected in a higher likelihood of finding early-seral tree seedlings.

5.Synthesis and applications. Topsoil removal was a successful restoration tool for overcoming arrested succession in Nothofagus old-growth forests in the Chilean Andes by encouraging the regeneration of early-seral trees in high-graded forests. Contrasting environmental conditions of pre- and post-topsoil removal allowed insights into the processes and mechanisms responsible for forests with arrested succession and for succession progression. This understanding provides guidance regarding the range of conditions under which topsoil removal can be used as a successful restoration practice.

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In The Antibiotic Era, physician-historian Scott H. Podolsky narrates the far-reaching history of antibiotics, focusing particularly on reform efforts that attempted to fundamentally change how antibiotics are developed and prescribed. This sweeping chronicle reveals the struggles faced by crusading reformers from the 1940s onward as they advocated for a rational therapeutics at the crowded intersection of bugs and drugs, patients and doctors, industry and medical academia, and government and the media.During the post-World War II "wonder drug" revolution, antibiotics were viewed as a panacea for mastering infectious disease. But from the beginning, critics raised concerns about irrational usage and overprescription. The first generation of antibiotic reformers focused on regulating the drug industry. The reforms they set in motion included the adoption of controlled clinical trials as the ultimate arbiters of therapeutic efficacy, the passage of the Kefauver-Harris amendments mandating proof of drug efficacy via well-controlled studies, and the empowering of the Food and Drug Administration to remove inefficacious drugs from the market. Despite such victories, no entity was empowered to rein in physicians who inappropriately prescribed, or overly prescribed, approved drugs. Now, in an era of emerging bugs and receding drugs, discussions of antibiotic resistance focus on the need to develop novel antibiotics and the need for more appropriate prescription practices in the face of pharmaceutical marketing, pressure from patients, and the structural constraints that impede rational delivery of antibiotics worldwide. Concerns about the enduring utility of antibiotics-indeed, about a post-antibiotic era-are widespread, as evidenced by reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, academia, and popular media alike. Only by understanding the historical forces that have shaped our current situation, Podolsky argues, can we properly understand and frame our choices moving forward.


About the book: Texture – the quality that makes a text 'hang together' as a text – is a key focus of investigation in discourse analysis. This volume provides a systematic overview of recent research on textual resources that are used to construct texture, and on the ways in which these resources are deployed differently in different text types. Theme is the major resource that is explored in the first part of the book. The opening papers set out the current understanding of Theme and explore aspects of the concept which remain controversial in the field. This is followed by an examination of thematic choices in a range of text types. Issues raised include the different kinds of meanings appearing in Theme which are particularly significant for each genre, the ways in which these relate to the broader socio-cultural context, and the ways in which thematic choices interact with other kinds of texturing. In the second part of the collection, the scope widens to include an examination of other resources, particularly the contribution to texture made by patterns of interpersonal choices, in Theme and more broadly across texts as a whole. The volume closes with an overview and illustration of a methodological approach by which our understanding of texturing can be further extended.


The project is following the concept of Co-designing Actions and Facilitating Discussions In Transition (Peter Checkland & John Poulter, 2006) which affords the possibility to learn through changing the system with its own foot print. It is not about a singular or multiple problem-solving project, but about working with a situation rather than defining problems to solve. (Denis Loveridge, 2008) The project aims to create a different state of mind within the context of transition and influencing the social system with participatory approaches as a fundamental element of dignified reception. By capacity building and raising self-awareness (NORCAP, 2016), the project is meant to motivate the asylum seekers to recall their competences and wishes towards self-efficacy which affect every area of human endeavor by determining the beliefs a person holds regarding his or her power to affect situations. Consequently, the process of recalling, planning and taking collective actions based on available resources inside the reception center, builds dignity, self-esteem and self-reliance among people. Such approaches could lift mitigating tensions and conflict in the reception facility and build bridges between different groups. In addition, the inhabitants of each center would co-develop towards a self-initiated future based on their abilities and hopes. This achievement will also remove the false hope of necessarily ending up in the host country and enrich their abilities to bring them broader horizons regardless of the answer they will get from the authorities.


Multicellular glands in the amphibian integument represent a signifi cant evolutionary advance over those of fi shes. Bufonids have parotoid glands, symmetrically disposed in a post-orbital position. Their secretion may contribute to protection against predators and parasites. This study provides a re-evaluation of the morphology of the Bufo ictericus parotoid glands. The parotoid gland integument of the medial surface shows rounded depressions with small pores that connect with the duct openings of the larger granular glands. Under light microscopic evaluation the integument is constituted by typical epidermis, supported by dermis subdivided into a spongious dermis, a reticular dermis, and a compact dermis. The Eberth-Katschenko layer is identifi ed as a basophilic material scattered throughout the superfi cial spongious dermis. The parotoid gland is an integument region, in which three exocrine glandular types occur: mixed glands, smaller granular glands and larger granular glands. The mixed gland is formed by mucous and serous cells while the small granular glands contain a homogene acidophilic intake. The larger granular glands produce a basophilic and alcianophilic material, and are responsible for the macroscopic protuberances designed as parotoid glands. Thus, the end product released by the parotoid glands is a mix of secretions produced by the three glands.


A series of studies tested whether people underestimate the likelihood that others will comply with their direct requests for help. In the first 3 studies, people underestimated by as much as 50% the likelihood that others would agree to a direct request for help, across a range of requests occurring in both experimental and natural field settings. Studies 4 and 5 demonstrated that experimentally manipulating a person's perspective (as help seeker or potential helper) could elicit this underestimation effect. Finally, in Study 6, the authors explored the source of the bias, finding that help seekers were less willing than potential helpers were to appreciate the social costs of refusing a direct request for help (the costs of saying "no"), attending instead to the instrumental costs of helping (the costs of saying "yes").


In this paper, we consider the scattering losses of single-mode fibers that are caused by microdeformations such as microbends of the fiber axis and random fluctuations of the fiber core diameter. Since very little is known about the statistics of microdeformations of actual fibers, we assume that the autocorrelation functions of random bends and random core diameter fluctuations are Gaussian, characterized by the rms deviation and the correlation length of the random function. We consider single-mode fibers with step, parabolic, and triangular (linear) refractive-index profiles and reach the following conclusions: (1) Whereas for equal (large) mode radii the microbending losses of all three fiber types are the same, losses due to random core diameter fluctuations can be three times as high in step-index fibers as in triangular-index fibers. Since triangular-index fibers have sometimes been observed to have lower scattering losses than step-index fibers, one might conclude that, in these cases, excess losses may be caused by random radius fluctuations rather than by microbends. (2) Radial refractive-index ripples, which tend to be present in the deposited claddings of single-mode fibers, seem unlikely to be a major source of microdeformation losses. (3) The wavelength dependence of microdeformation losses depends strongly on the value of the correlation length of the Gaussian autocorrelation function of the fiber deformations. If the correlation length is of the same order of magnitude as the fiber radius, the losses are only slightly wavelength dependent. For very long correlation lengths the losses are very much smaller (for the same rms variation of the random functions), but they become strongly wavelength dependent, increasing sharply with increasing wavelength.


ABSTRACT A pilot-scale process for continuous in-flow microwave processing of foods, designed and implemented at SP Food and Bioscience, was evaluated for heat treatment of a homogeneous model food for high-temperature short-time (HTST) conditions, at constant total input microwave power, at 2450 MHz. The microwave system has three consecutive cavities, one excited by the TM020 microwave mode that heats primarily in the tube centre, and two TM120 mode cavities that heat primarily in the tube periphery. The temperature uniformity of the homogeneous model food after microwave heating is here evaluated in terms of spatial distribution, for different set-ups of input microwave power in each cavity and for different order of the placement of the cavities, while maintaining the total input microwave power. The microwave heating uniformity is evaluated, based on measured and calculated radial temperature profiles. Combined TM020 and TM120 heating was found to result in more uniform heating by means of spatial temperature uniformity over the tube cross section. Furthermore, appropriately selected microwave power distribution between the centre and periphery heating cavities results in a stable heating profile in the studied food, that differs only about 10 °C or less between highest and lowest average values directly after microwave heating.


Evolutionary transitions between sex‐determining mechanisms (SDMs) are an enigma. Among vertebrates, individual sex (male or female) is primarily determined by either genes (genotypic sex determination, GSD) or embryonic incubation temperature (temperature‐dependent sex determination, TSD), and these mechanisms have undergone repeated evolutionary transitions. Despite this evolutionary lability, transitions from GSD (i.e. from male heterogamety, XX/XY, or female heterogamety, ZZ/ZW) to TSD are an evolutionary conundrum, as they appear to require crossing a fitness valley arising from the production of genotypes with reduced viability owing to being homogametic for degenerated sex chromosomes (YY or WW individuals). Moreover, it is unclear whether alternative (e.g. mixed) forms of sex determination can persist across evolutionary time. It has previously been suggested that transitions would be easy if temperature‐dependent sex reversal (e.g. XX male or XY female) was asymmetrical, occurring only in the homogametic sex. However, only recently has a mechanistic model of sex determination emerged that may allow such asymmetrical sex reversal. We demonstrate that selection for TSD in a realistic sex‐determining system can readily drive evolutionary transitions from GSD to TSD that do not require the production of YY or WW individuals. In XX/XY systems, sex reversal (female to male) occurs in a portion of the XX individuals only, leading to the loss of the Y allele (or chromosome) from the population as XX individuals mate with each other. The outcome is a population of XX individuals whose sex is determined by incubation temperature (TSD). Moreover, our model reveals a novel evolutionarily stable state representing a mixed‐mechanism system that has not been revealed by previous approaches. This study solves two long‐standing puzzles of the evolution of sex‐determining mechanisms by illuminating the evolutionary pathways and endpoints.


Toward the end of the last century Cicero's work came under attack from several angles. His political stance was sharply criticized for inconsistency by Theodor Mommsen and others, his philosophical works for lack of originality. Since then scholars have come to a better understanding of the political conditions that informed the views of Mommsen and his contemporaries about Caesar and Cicero, and as a result Cicero's writings have been restored to a more appropriate position in the literature and history of the Roman Republic. At the same time recent years have seen an intensive study of Hellenistic philosophy, and this has shown more clearly than before that, even while following Greek models, Cicero nonetheless pursued his own political and, in the ethical works, moralistic agenda.Composed in haste shortly before Cicero's death, "de Officiis "has exercised enormous influence over the centuries. It is all the more surprising that Andrew R. Dyck's volume is the first detailed English commentary on the work written in this century. It deals with the problems of the Latin text (taking account of Michael Winterbottom's new edition), it delineates the work's structure and sometimes elusive train of thought, clarifies the underlying Greek and Latin concepts, and provides starting points for approaching the philosophical and historical problems that "de Officiis" raises.A work of major importance for classicists, philosophers, and ancient historians, this "Commentary "will be an invaluable companion to all readers of Cicero's last philosophical work.Andrew R. Dyck is Professor of Classics, University of California, Los Angeles.Publication of this volume is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.


. The distribution and occurrence of a species in its habitat are inevitably linked to its ecology. To successfully monitor and protect species, it is important to investigate which species-specific factors influence its interactions with the environment. In this study, we focus on patterns in habitat use of the Sand Lizard ( Lacerta agilis ). Differences in seasonal as well as sex and size class-dependent habitat use have been reported from the edges of this species' range. To verify such trends in the core area of its distribution, we analyzed the habitat factors weather, microclimate, microhabitat structures, and time dependence, which may have an impact on the use of space of the Sand Lizard. Using generalized linear models, hypervolumes, density estimations, and Chi-squared tests, we found that the movement patterns of individuals can neither be described by time differences, climatic conditions, or habitat composition, nor do they show habitat- or weather-related differences of movement between sexes or size. Here we demonstrate that in the case of a population from the core of this species' distribution area in the Dellbrücker Heide (Germany), habitat use is solely influenced to a low degree by differences related to the ontogeny of Sand Lizards and does not depend on any of the other evaluated factors. These results are in enormous contrast to findings in populations from the periphery of their distribution, i.e., the United Kingdom, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Pyrenees. This implies that seasonal habitat shifts are more extreme at the edges of the range of L. agilis , serving to compensate deteriorating habitat conditions in the periphery.


Sorghum is a promising crop for the animal feed and fuel ethanol production. Presence of cyanide in its biomass, particularly in the tips of young leaves, carries some risk of toxicity to livestock and microbes, especially when at an immature stage of growth, its application may be restricted. The study was carried out at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi with nine forage sorghum cultivars to determine cyanide content and its detoxification and fermentation. The cyanide content in sorghum biomass varied with the development stages and plant height. It ranged from 5.41 to 6.65 mg/100g at heading (50 to 82 cm height) and gradually decreased at flowering stage (82 to 175 cm height) from 2.75 to 3.46 mg/100 g. The minimum cyanide content was observed at milking (1.68 to 2.66 mg/100g) and dough stage (1.49 to 2.75 mg/100g) when the height was 175 to 220 cm.Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain, NCIM, 3186 was used to carry out fermentation of sorghum juice and found capable of detoxification and reduction of the cyanide content up to 84.6% improving the ethanol yield and fermentation efficiency by 91.8%. Thus, the utilization of sorghum cultivars at milking and dough stage could be considered safe to be for feed and fuel ethanol production.

 Key words: Cyanide, detoxification, sorghum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ethanol yield.


A comparative study was carried out on the functional feeding behavior of the infaunal clam Mulinia edulis and the epifaunal mussel Mytilus chilensis from Yaldad Bay, southern Chile, in response to broad fluctuations in quantity and quality of seston. A number of physiological variables were quantified and compared, including clearance, filtration and ingestion rates; pseudofeces production and pre-ingestive selection efficiency. Relative sizes of the ctenidia and labial palps were measured for both species to determine if the size of the organs was related to their capacity for filtration and pre-ingestive particle selection. Both species showed high rates of clearance at lower seston concentrations (<3 to 5 mg l -1 ). Above these concentrations, both species regulated both the quantity and quality of material ingested. When the seston concentration was relatively low and/or its quality high, regulation of food ingested was accomplished primarily by reduction in clearance rate, while at high seston concentrations and/or low quality, this parameter was regulated primarily by the expulsion of pseudofeces with a lower content of organic matter. Ingestion regulation was higher in M. chilensis. In general, both species showed a capacity for pre-ingestive particle selection, which increased with seston concentration and the proportion of organic matter present. In diets containing more than 60 % organic matter, selection efficiency in M. chilensis became slightly reduced, while in M. edulis it remained stable; this observation is explained by the larger relative size of the labial palps in Mulinia edulis. Generally, feeding rates of M. chilensis were higher than those of M. edulis; this may be attributable to the former's larger-sized ctenidia, which are able to filter more food.


The Kurds in Syria, Turkey and Iraq face complex challenges. Among the current Kurdish realities, the emergence of Kurdish self-governing areas in northern Syria controlled by what is considered to be the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) generates considerable uncertainty. The complex civil war in Syria and antagonism between the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and a fragmented Kurdish political spectrum generate many questions as to the future of these Kurdish areas in Syria. In the case of Turkey, old and new internal and regional factors have threatened the dialogue under way between Turkey and the PKK. These include the lack of clear state policies to resolve the conflict, Turkey's current internal crisis, the complications of cross-border dynamics, and the mutual impact of the Kurdish questions in Syria and Turkey. In Iraq, tensions continue between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the country's central administration. The consolidation of Kurdish autonomy – with new elements such as the energy agreement between Erbil and Ankara – continues to generate uncertainty in a context where many issues remain unresolved.


This article presents the results of a piece of research on the languages used in places of worship carried out in the Kuala Lumpur area (Malaysia). Seven different places of worship were selected (a mosque, a Sikh gurdwara, two churches, a Chinese temple, a Hindu temple and a Theravada Buddhist temple) and brief interviews were carried out involving people with an official position within those institutions, while at the same time digital pictures were taken of all the signs present within the compounds where the places of worship were located. A brief survey was also carried out to gauge the believers' attitudes towards the languages used in the signs photographed. After a general introduction on Malaysia and its linguistic repertoire and on the religions found in the country, the methodology employed is described in detail and the results are presented. There follows an in-depth discussion of the results and some general remarks on official language policies and the position of English.