Besides the celebrated Praise of Folly, Robert M. Adams has included the political "Complaint of Peace," the brutal antipapal satire "Julius Excluded from Heaven," two versions of Erasmus's important preface to the Latin translation of the New Testament, and a selection both serious and comic of his Colloquies and his letters. Adams has made these selections to emphasize the humane, rather than the doctrinaire, side of the first and arguably greatest humanist. Critical commentary is provided in essays by H. R. Trevor-Roper, R. S. Allen, J. Huizinga, Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Oskar Kristeller, and Robert M. Adams. Also included are a Chronology of Erasmus's life and a Selected Bibliography.


The last decade has seen a resurgence of parastatal crop marketing institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, many of which cite improving food security and incomes as key goals. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the welfare effects of these programs. This article considers one such program, the Zambian Food Reserve Agency (FRA), which purchases maize from smallholder farmers at a pan-territorial price that typically exceeds maize market prices in surplus production areas. Using both fixed effects and an instrumental variables approach combined with correlated random effects, we estimate the effects of the FRA's maize marketing activities on smallholder farm household welfare. Results suggest that FRA activities have positive direct welfare effects on the small minority of smallholder households that are able to sell to it. However, the results also suggest negative indirect FRA effects, as higher levels of FRA activity in a district are associated with higher levels of poverty.


The impact of a manually operated energy curtain on the recorded nighttime inside air and soil temperatures, relative humidity (RH), and daily light integrals during early-season high tunnel tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) production in central and southern New Jersey were examined. Environmental data (air and soil temperatures, RH, and photosynthetically active radiation) were collected from late March through mid-May at two New Jersey locations for the 2004 and 2005 growing seasons. The continued impact of the early use of an energy curtain was further evaluated by collecting light, temperature, and marketable fruit yield data for the remainder of both growing seasons for one of the two experimental sites. Results showed that although the use of the curtain modestly increased early season nighttime inside air and soil temperatures and RH, the curtain reduced accumulated light integral during the first 7 weeks after transplanting and resulted in a marginal early yield increase. The main benefit of the energy curtain occurred on cold nights when an early season crop might otherwise be exposed to potentially damaging low temperatures.


This paper aims to examine to what extent and how teacher education in Hungary reflects contemporary European policy and research developments with regard to the continuum of teacher education, meaning the overarching unity of initial teacher education, induction, and continuing professional development. First, the paper examines European policy documents to identify patterns and themes related to the continuum concept. Based on the specific analysis, a framework was developed to explore the continuum of teacher education and this was employed in the case of Hungary. Drawing from a content analysis of official documents and in-depth interviews with national policy experts and teacher educators as well as focus groups with teachers, the paper continues by analysing the development of teacher education in Hungary from the introduction of the Bologna reforms in 2005 to the restoration of undivided initial teacher education in 2012 and the implementation of a new system for the teacher career path in 2013. The findings indicate that while Hungary has adopted several structural elements related to the continuum which reflect European thinking, a lack of interconnections among the different phases of teacher education is apparent.


For transforming organizations and communities, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Population Health Division has embraced population health lean—a transdisciplinary management system for learning, adaptation, innovation, and continuous improvement based on the Toyota Production System (lean), collective impact and other methods. Our training focus is on lean thinking and practice. Our values include respect for people (dignity, equity, compassion, and humility) and continuous improvement (challenge, "go and see" to understand, kaizen, and teamwork).


Everyday utopias enact conventional activities in unusual ways. Instead of dreaming about a better world, participants seek to create it. As such, their activities provide vibrant and stimulating contexts for considering the terms of social life, of how we live together and are governed. Weaving conceptual theorizing together with social analysis, Davina Cooper examines utopian projects as seemingly diverse as a feminist bathhouse, state equality initiatives, community trading networks, and a democratic school where students and staff collaborate in governing. She draws from firsthand observations and interviews with participants to argue that utopian projects have the potential to revitalize progressive politics through the ways their innovative practices incite us to rethink mainstream concepts including property, markets, care, touch, and equality. This is no straightforward story of success, however, but instead a tale of the challenges concepts face as they move between being imagined, actualized, hoped for, and struggled over. As dreaming drives new practices and practices drive new dreams, everyday utopias reveal how hard work, feeling, ethical dilemmas, and sometimes, failure, bring concepts to life.


Modern Pastry and Plated Dessert Techniques is one of a series of Culinary Arts books developed to support the training of students and apprentices in British Columbia's food service and hospitality industry. Although created with the Professional Cook and Baker programs in mind, these have been designed as a modular series, and there for can be used to support a wide variety of programs that offer training in food service skills.


In recent years, several large-scale data-collection projects have produced georeferenced, disaggregated events-level conflict data which can aid researchers in studying the microlevel dynamics of civil war. This article describes the differences between the two leading conflict events datasets, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Georeferenced Events Dataset (UCDP GED) and the Armed Conflict Location Events Dataset (ACLED), including their relative strengths and weaknesses. The aim of the article is to provide readers with some guidelines as to when these datasets should be used and when they should be avoided; it finds that those interested in subnational analyses of conflict should be wary of ACLED's data because of uneven quality-control issues which can result in biased findings if left unchecked by the researcher. The article concludes that those interested in non-violent events such as troop movements have only ACLED to choose from, since UCDP has not coded such data, but again warns researchers to be wary of the quality of the data. Finally, while the creation of these datasets is a positive development, some caveats are raised in relation to both datasets about the reliance on media sources.


This qualitative study investigated how small group communication influences the development of shared mental models in a committee of public librarians addressing a problem-solving task. It examines the influence of communication themes, functions, roles, and rules on the group's development of shared mental models about the task and about team interaction. Data were collected over the course of a year from group meetings, email messages, group documents, and participant interviews and then analyzed using existing coding schemes and qualitative coding techniques. The findings indicate that within the group there was a strong superficial convergence around the task mental model and the team interaction mental model but a weaker convergence at a deeper level. Analysis of the group communication data shows that the group focused discussion on understanding the problem and identifying tasks, enacting group roles and rules that facilitated sharing information. The functions of their messages focused on task communication. The findings suggest that, in this group, communication themes most heavily influenced the development of a shared mental model about the task, while communication roles, rules, and functions were more influential toward the development of a shared mental model about team interaction. Implications for practice include adopting intentional tactics for surfacing mental models at various points in the group life and anchoring the emerging model within the collective cognition of the group through devices such as narratives, objects, or documentary materials.


Zill al-Sultan was the notorious Qajar prince who ruled Isfahan, Iran's former capital during the Safavid era, as governor from 1874 to 1907. He is remembered as a Qajar anti-hero - even a villain - to this day, based largely on his apparent exercise of absolute power and pursuit of intrigue to further his own political interests. But late 19th-century Iran was a complex place: the Anglo-Russian great power rivalry, the assertive Shi'ite militancy of leading clerics, the growing power of the merchant classes, the entrenched and jealously guarded control of the landowners and tribal leaders, the halting attempts to reach out to modernity - all of these helped to create a climate of instability through which Zill al-Sultan navigated with almost Machiavellian skills and deft ruthlessness. Heidi Walcher has produced the first, extraordinarily important study which is both a biography of one of the most colourful individuals in the history of modern Iran and a study of the social and political circumstances of late 19th-century Iran. In the process, she examines the difficult relationships between the secular and Islamic elites, the impact on Isfahan of the pivotal Tobacco Protests in 1890-92, the open trade wars against the British, suspicion of the Jews, the persecution of local Babis and Bahais, the confontation with European missionaries and the events leading up to the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. This book is a major contribution to a proper understanding of modern Iran.


While the global financial crisis was centered in the United States, it led to a surprising appreciation in the dollar, suggesting global dollar illiquidity. In response, the Federal Reserve partnered with other central banks to inject dollars into the international financial system. Empirical studies of the success of these efforts have yielded mixed results, in part because their timing is likely to be endogenous. In this paper, we examine the cross-sectional impact of these interventions. Theory consistent with dollar appreciation in the crisis suggests that their impact should be greater for countries that have greater exposure to the United States through trade and financial channels, less transparent holdings of dollar assets, and greater illiquidity difficulties. We examine these predictions for observed cross-sectional changes in CDS spreads, using a new proxy for innovations in perceived changes in sovereign risk based upon Google-search data. We find robust evidence that auctions of dollar assets by foreign central banks disproportionately benefited countries that were more exposed to the United States through either trade linkages or asset exposure. We obtain weaker results for differences in asset transparency or illiquidity. However, several of the important announcements concerning the international swap programs disproportionately benefited countries exhibiting greater asset opaqueness.


The transformative potential of genetic and cybernetic technologies to enhance human capabilities is most often either rejected on moral and prudential grounds or hailed as the future salvation of humanity. In this book, Nicholas Agar offers a more nuanced view, making a case for moderate human enhancement -- improvements to attributes and abilities that do not significantly exceed what is currently possible for human beings. He argues against radical human enhancement, or improvements that greatly exceed current human capabilities. Agar explores notions of transformative change and motives for human enhancement; distinguishes between the instrumental and intrinsic value of enhancements; argues that too much enhancement undermines human identity; considers the possibility of cognitively enhanced scientists; and argues against radical life extension. Making the case for moderate enhancement, Agar argues that many objections to enhancement are better understood as directed at the degree of enhancement rather than enhancement itself. Moderate human enhancement meets the requirement of truly human enhancement. By radically enhancing human cognitive capabilities, by contrast, we may inadvertently create beings ("post-persons") with moral status higher than that of persons. If we create beings more entitled to benefits and protections against harms than persons, Agar writes, this will be bad news for the unenhanced. Moderate human enhancement offers a more appealing vision of the future and of our relationship to technology.


Spider silk is wonderful stuff—light as the breeze and stretchy yet stronger than steel. People can manufacture synthetic fibers, such as Kevlar, that come close but can't begin to match the process spiders use. Their silk proteins, called spidroins, rapidly convert from the soluble form to solid fibers at ambient temperatures and with water as the solvent. Not only is this beyond us, we don't even know how spiders do it. Now, in this issue of PLOS Biology, new research by Anna Rising, Jan Johansson, and colleagues shows that silk formation involves structural shifts at either end of the spidroin and that these shifts are completely different, overturning the hypothesis that these protein terminals play similar roles.

Spidroins are big proteins of up to 3,500 amino acids that contain mostly repetitive sequences, and the nonrepetitive N- and C-terminal domains at opposite ends are thought to regulate conversion to silk. These terminal domains are unique to spider silk and are highly conserved among spiders.

Spidroins have a helical and unordered structure when stored as soluble proteins in silk glands, but, when converted to silk, they contain β-sheets that lend mechanical stability. We know that there is a pH gradient across the spider silk gland, which narrows from a tail to a sac to a slender duct, and that silk forms at a precise site in the duct. However, further details of spider silk production have been elusive.

To discover the basis for the pH gradient in the silk gland, the researchers studied the orb weaver spider Nephila clavipes, which reaches 7.6 centimeters wide and spins webs up to 3 meters across. Poking ion-selective microelectrodes into the silk gland revealed that the pH fell from 7.6 to 5.7 between the base of the tail and halfway down the duct, which was as far as the electrodes fit. This pH gradient is much steeper than previously thought.

The microelectrodes also showed that bicarbonate ions rise between the base of the tail and the far end of the sac. Taken together, these ion patterns suggest that the pH gradient is due to carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme that converts carbon dioxide and water to bicarbonate and hydrogen ions. In support of this idea, a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor called methazolamide collapsed the pH gradient.

Next, the researchers investigated how the pH range across the silk gland affects silk proteins, using N- and C-terminal domains isolated from the spidroins of another orb weaver, Araneus ventricosus (Figure 1). They found that both domains undergo structural changes at the pH found in the duct. Importantly, this is also where carbonic anhydrase activity is concentrated.

Figure 1

An Araneus spider in its orb web.

The researchers also found pH had opposite effects on the two domains' stability to temperature and urea, which was a surprise given that the domains had been suggested to have a similar impact on silk formation. The N-terminal dimerized at pH 6—which is found in the beginning of the duct—and became increasingly stable as the pH dropped along the duct. In contrast, the C-terminal domain destabilized as the pH dropped, gradually unfolding until it formed the β-sheets characteristic of silk at pH 5.5.

What makes the C-terminal domain unfold? This end of the spidroin has a salt bridge joining two helices, and mutations that interfere with this bridge also destabilize the C-terminal domain. Underscoring its importance, the salt bridge is conserved in spidroins from several spider species. The researchers believe that protonating amino acids in the salt bridge would also destabilize the C-terminal domain, facilitating conversion of spidroins from helices to β-sheet fibrils.

These findings led the researchers to propose a new "lock and trigger" model for spider silk formation. Gradual dimerization of the N-terminal domains could lock spidroins into multimers, while the β-sheet fibrils at the C-terminals could serve as nuclei that trigger rapid polymerization of spidroins into fibers. Interestingly, the C-terminal β-sheets are similar to those in the amyloid fibrils characteristic of diseases such as Alzheimer disease.

This work brings us closer to unraveling the mystery of spider silk, explaining how it can form so quickly—faster than a meter per second—as well as how its formation can be confined to the spinning duct. Moreover, because the N- and C-terminal domains of spidroins are found nowhere else, this lock and trigger formation is likely unique to spider silk. Besides being essential to producing biomimetic spidroin fibers, knowing how spiders spin silk could give insights into natural ways of hindering the amyloid fibrils associated with disease.

Andersson M, Chen G, Otikovs M, Landreh M, Nordling K, et al. (2014) Carbonic Anhydrase Generates CO2 and H+ That Drive Spider Silk Formation Via Opposite Effects on the Terminal Domains. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001921


The notion of the transnational has challenged the national focus of cinema histories and has shifted the way we conceive of contemporary film and cinema industries and cultures.1 To what extent, however, is it pertinent to our understanding of the contribution of women to British cinema history? Colonial historians and postcolonial critics have long alerted us to the importance of empire to British film policy as well as British national identity in cinema.2 Film emerging at the height of the British Empire arguably links the history of British cinema inextricably with that of empire, an issue that is currently being addressed.3 By bringing the empire into the frame of British cinema, debates around national film policies, production, distribution, and exhibition become more complicated, particularly in relation to how cinema circulated internationally. British men were filming all over the world from 1896, and throughout the first half of the twentieth century film was used widely in the empire. While commercial imperatives drove a lot of these activities, British policy documents on the use of film in the empire from the mid-1920s to the 1950s show that government officials, policy makers, educators, missionaries, conscious of the effect of American films on British subjects in the empire, promoted film as an instructional and educational medium and as a form of propaganda. We know a lot about British players in the colonies: from R. W. Paul filming the South African War (1899-1902) (formerly known as the Anglo-Boer War), Basil Wright's documentary work for the Empire Marketing Board, and Alexander and Zoltan Korda's empire feature film productions. There were also those working for the Colonial Film Units operating in Africa, the West Indies, Jamaica and the Caribbean, and other parts of the empire, with the Colonial Film Unit in London headed up by William Sellers and George Pearson, who developed what became known as a primitive style of filmmaking for "adults who cannot read or write, primitive in customs and environment."4 A women's film history project in Britain and Ireland therefore needs to take these histories into account and assess what opportunities, if any, the British Empire afforded women and how British women used film to advance the colonial project.5 Revealing the extent of filmmaking activities of women in the empire is not an easy task and will require the dedication, innovative historiography, and inventive research methods that researchers have already developed for the Women and the Silent Screen and Women's Film History Project.6 But in spite of the difficulties of tracing and identifying sources and attributing authorship, it is possible to find in existing historiography evidence of women working in film within the colonial space. One of the main openings for women to work in film was with film companies in Britain producing educational, documentary, and instructional film. In the 1920s and 1930s companies such as British Instructional, then Gaumont-British Instructional, produced film not only for the home country but on a large scale for the empire. Mary Field, education manager and then a producer for British Instructional, moved to the educational unit of Gaumont- British Instructional, which made educational films, particularly for schools. While better known for her work on the Secrets of Nature (GB, 1922-33) and Secrets of Life series (GB, 1934-50), Field also counted among her credits the Secrets of India series (GB, 1934, reedited and released as the Indian Town Studies series [GB, 1937]) and the Empire Story in Cartoon series (GB, 1939), the latter made for children. She was awarded an OBE for her work in educational and children's entertainment film in 1954.7 Natalie Barkas also worked for Gaumont-British Instructional with her husband, Geoffrey Barkas, in Africa and India. They made educational films, including some produced by Mary Field in India, and they shot location footage for feature films, including Palaver (Geoffrey Barkas, GB, 1926), shot in Nigeria, Rhodes of Africa (Berthold Viertel, GB, 1936), filmed in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and King Solomon's Mines (Robert Stevenson, GB, 1937), located in South Africa, the latter starring Paul Robeson. …


Scalable data mining algorithms have become crucial to efficiently support KDD processes on large databases. In this paper, we address the task of scaling up k-medoids based algorithms through the utilization of metric access methods, allowing clustering algorithms to be executed by database management systems in a fraction of the time usually required by the traditional approaches. Experimental results based on several datasets, including synthetic and real data, show that the proposed algorithm may reduce the number of distance calculations by a factor of more than a thousand times when compared to existing algorithms while producing clusters of comparable quality.


The main objective in this pedestrian impact study is a correlation between the computer simulations and the basic pendulum test rig in order to propose solutions that may improve the compliance of the headlamps without affecting their basic performance. Firstly, a tensile test at three different velocities was conducted to study the strain caused by applying a load within a certain time over a dog-bone specimen and the strain rate dependency of polycarbonate was demonstrated. Despite creating a LS-DYNA model and a material card, the decision was to use the material card provided by JLR for conducting the numerical simulations. Later, five impact test simulations were conducted for two different scenarios. The first one was with the headlamp fixed on its four attachments but it resulted that the fracture of the mountings, even with a low impact energy of 50J. As a consequence, EPP foam is used as the support in the second scenario. Then, a pendulum test rig was designed, built and used for impact tests. Unfortunately, due to the problems with the pendulum structure, only the 50J test was conducted. Four tests were made in order to have enough data to correlate the numerical simulations with the impact tests. The pendulum was instrumented with 1kN and 5kN load cells, which were statically calibrated and connected to a data acquisition system to obtain experimental data. A correlation stage was held and it was noticed that the peak value of the impact force did not match the simulated result. This may have been partly due to the low data acquisition rate achievable in the available instrumentation. Finally, a parametric improvement study involving three different design parameters is proposed. As a valid correlation was not achieved, these improvements were not conducted and are recommended for future studies.


I. INTRODUCTION It is a common hypothetical posed to law students in criminal procedure classes: if a prosecutor comes across compelling evidence proving a person guilty of a crime of which they have already been acquitted, what can that prosecutor do? The Double Jeopardy Clause to the U.S. Constitution makes the answer patently clear: "[n]o person shall ... be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." (1) However, perhaps even more so in recent years, the criminal justice systems in the United States and abroad have struggled with the concrete notion that finality and protection of individual rights must rule the day. (2) The United Kingdom's history regarding double jeopardy prohibition started out much the same way, (3) but in 2003, the parliament passed the Criminal Justice Act, which forever changed the way double jeopardy was applied in the United Kingdom. (4) Under the Act, for certain, specified crimes, a prosecutor could appeal an acquittal and retry a defendant on the grounds that newly discovered evidence incriminated him. (5) The United States has remained steadfast in its prohibition of double jeopardy. (6) The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Maryland statute that allowed prosecutors to appeal acquittals, so even a federal statute allowing re-trial seems unlikely. (7) Further, the repeal of the Fifth Amendment seems highly unlikely. (8) However, research about actors involved in the criminal justice system demonstrates that attempts to curb prosecutorial discretion does not actually get rid of the discretion; it just shifts it to another level in the system. (9) The question in this article is whether, with respect to double jeopardy, in the absence of an express statute or constitutional provision permitting re-trials for acquitted defendants, prosecutors could "unofficially" use their discretion to form a loophole to the prohibition against double jeopardy using perjury prosecutions and subsequent civil and forfeiture proceedings used against defendants acquitted of the original charge. Although none of the United States case examples involve defendants who were "re-tried" for perjury or in civil court after authorities found new evidence against them, whether this repackaging of essentially criminal re-trials as civil cases is done with that end in mind (finding a loophole to double jeopardy) is the question that this article confronts. While it is easy to attack such an outcome as academically dishonest and against both the letter and the spirit of the Double Jeopardy Clause, it is difficult to ignore a civilized nation across the ocean such as the United Kingdom being able to retry the "acquitted but actually guilty" without having to resort to such measures. (10) In Part II, I will discuss the history of double jeopardy in the United Kingdom and how the murder of Stephen Lawrence spawned an investigative report to overturn the preexisting prohibition against double jeopardy, culminating in its first application against William Dunlop for the murder of Julie Hogg, and most recently, against Stephen Lawrence's killers. (11) Part III examines the history of double jeopardy in the United States, and examines whether concurrent federal and state prosecutions, perjury prosecutions, and civil trials or forfeiture hearings would provide an ample alternative to direct criminal prosecutions with which U.K. prosecutors may proceed. (12) Finally, Part IV concludes that each of these alternatives is insufficient to cover the "wrongfully acquitted" in any meaningful way, and more importantly, are an end run around a historically valuable constitutional right enjoyed by defendants. (13) II. THE HISTORY OF DOUBLE JEOPARDY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM While sources differ on the precise beginning of the prohibition against double jeopardy, it can be said with confidence that it has existed for at least five hundred years. (14) In the United Kingdom, while "[t]he double jeopardy doctrine appeared in cases as early as 1589," and predates case law on the issue by almost two centuries, (15) King Henry VIII passed a law allowing him to try defendants in England who committed offenses in Wales. …


A study on thalassemia intermedia and major patients in Jakarta was initiated to obtain a comprehensive picture of metabolic dysregulation, iron overload, oxidative stress, and cell damage. Data are presented from a group of 14 transfusion-dependent patients in an age range of 11-25 years (T) and another group of 9 frequently transfused (for at least 15 years) patients aged 17-30 years (L). A third group comprised 6 patients (aged 7 to 14 years) who had not yet obtained transfusions (N). The 21 controls (C) were voluntary students without diagnosis or clinical signs of thalassemia up to 30 years of age. The study was approved by the Ethical Clearance Board of the Medical Faculty and all blood samples from controls and patients were obtained on fully informed consent. Levels of antioxidants (vitamins A, C, E and beta-carotene) and reactive thiols are considerably decreased in transfused patients, whereas signs of iron overload and cell damage are increased (serum iron, ferritin, transferrin saturation, SGOT, SGPT, gamma-GT, bilirubin). Results can be summarized that non-transfused thalassemia intermedia patients exert slight signs of oxidative stress, and increased hemoglobin degradation but no significant indication of tissue or cell damage. This picture differs considerably from transfusion-dependent thalassemia major patients: highly significant decrease in antioxidants and thiols and tremendous iron overload and cell damage. The picture is even worsened in long-term transfused patients. Iron chelation after transfusion is not sufficient in Indonesia, because it is normally (with few exceptions) applied only once together with transfusion. Hence, one major reason of the bad condition of transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients in Indonesia appears to be frequent transfusions (on the average one per month) and insufficient chelation of one treatment per month together with transfusion.


Intermolecular interactions play a major role in the mixing of two polymers. In certain cases, where these interactions are particularly strong, polymer complexes with simple stoichiometrics may be formed. Many polymer mixtures of this type are insoluble and infusible, which complicates simple transmission infrared studies. In this note we present preliminary results on studies performed on polyvinyl phenol) mixtures with poly(2-vinyl pyridine) using diffuse reflectance and conventional transmission infrared spectroscopies together with thermal analysis. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy appears particularly useful in studies of these polymer complexes.


Abstract : This research examines the physical and electrical processes involved in lifecycle failure of Microelectromechanical (MEMS) Radio-Frequency (RF) cantilever beam ohmic contact switches. Failures of these switches generally occur at the contact, but complete details of performance of microcontacts are difficult to measure and have not been previously reported. This study investigated the mechanics of microcontact behavior by designing and constructing a novel experimental setup. Three representative contact materials of varying microstructure (Au, Au5%Ru, Au4%V2O5) were tested and parameters of contact during cycling were measured. The Au4%V2O5, a dispersion strengthened material developed at Lehigh University, showed the most promise of the materials tested with the longest-life contact lasting more than 15.5x106 cycles. Evidence of time-dependent deformation and contact heating during cycling was noted in all materials tested. Material hardness was not proportional to contact lifetime or adhesive forces measured during testing. Surfaces of post-cycling contact surfaces were evaluated and failures were categorized by ductile or brittle separation characteristics. Separation characteristics were correlated by contact lifetime.


In this paper, I estimate a cointegrated VAR with three long run equilibrium conditions that are consistent with the New Keynesian model. The equilibrium conditions estimated in the VAR do not provide evidence of a negative relationship between the federal funds rate and investment, or output more generally. Economic policy uncertainty, however, does have a negative and statistically significant effect on investment in the estimated model. I argue that the results support an option theory view of investment rather than the standard New Keynesian model. Also, various specifications of the model demonstrate that the findings are robust to an alternative short term nominal interest rate, the use of real interest rates rather than nominal interest rates, different classifications of investment, different measures of economic uncertainty, and a different specification of the monetary policy process. In addition, I argue that the results have implications for the weak recovery in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In particular, the results suggest that the increase in economic policy uncertainty observed after 2007 can potentially explain the weak recovery whereas the results cast doubt on the significance of the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates.


Young people attempting to access mental health services in the United Kingdom often find traditional models of care outdated, rigid, inaccessible and unappealing. Policy recommendations, research and service user opinion suggest that reform is needed to reflect the changing needs of young people. There is significant motivation in the United Kingdom to transform mental health services for young people, and this paper aims to describe the rationale, development and implementation of a novel youth mental health service in the United Kingdom, the Norfolk Youth Service. The Norfolk Youth Service model is described as a service model case study. The service rationale, national and local drivers, principles, aims, model, research priorities and future directions are reported. The Norfolk Youth Service is an innovative example of mental health transformation in the United Kingdom, comprising a pragmatic, assertive and "youth‐friendly" service for young people aged 14 to 25 that transcends traditional service boundaries. The service was developed in collaboration with young people and partnership agencies and is based on an engaging and inclusive ethos. The service is a social‐recovery oriented, evidence‐based and aims to satisfy recent policy guidance. The redesign and transformation of youth mental health services in the United Kingdom is long overdue. The Norfolk Youth Service represents an example of reform that aims to meet the developmental and transitional needs of young people at the same time as remaining youth‐oriented.


This issue of Laboratorium features a special section dedicated to street art or, more broadly, to vernacular images in the contemporary urban environment. The idea first occurred to the editors during their collaboration in the "Street Art in Contemporary Society" research group at the National Research University–Higher School of Economics, Moscow, in 2013. It took shape at a conference organized by the International Visual Sociology Association, "The Public Image" (held at Goldsmiths, University of London, July 8–9, 2013), where Natalia Samutina and Oksana Zaporozhets chaired a panel "Street Art, the City, and the Public: Changing the Urban Vision." Presenters from eight countries tried to conceptualize the place of street art in the city, considering it as a relatively new and blossoming urban phenomenon. You will find three of these articles in this issue's special section; in addition, we publish three reviews of recent books on urban imagery in the reviews section.


ABSTRACT Attempts to structurally transform segments of the agri-food system inevitably involve trade-offs between the priorities of actors with different incentives, perspectives and values. Trade-offs are context-specific, reflecting different socio-economic and political realities. We investigate the potential of structured boundary objects to facilitate exposing and reconciling these trade-offs within the context of multi-stakeholder social learning processes with pastoral and mixed crop-livestock communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Building on boundary objects as items flexible enough to be understood by all without having one common definition, structured boundary objects visualize actors' input in a comparable format to facilitate knowledge sharing. Stakeholders in each country used a simulation tool and board game to explore the implications of changing livestock stocking and management practices for the environment and for actors' future socio-economic priorities. Using structured boundary objects elicited trade-offs between household food and animal feed, and between livestock for income, labour, and/ or cultural functions, reflecting the context-specific and subjective evaluations actors make when attempting to plan livelihood changes. Our findings suggest to policy and decision-makers that sustainable transition plans can be developed when stakeholders in local agri-food systems employ approaches that allow shared understandings of trade-offs inherent to sustainable agriculture to emerge.


Cross‐hole ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) zero‐offset profiling (ZOP) is a well‐established technique for the measurement of the one‐dimensional (1‐D) vertical distribution of soil dielectric permittivity and has often been used in time‐lapse mode for the monitoring of natural or man‐made infiltration and soil moisture redistribution processes in the vadose zone. However, in spite of its widespread use, the quantitative interpretation of ZOPs in terms of dielectric permittivity profiles is known to be fraught with difficulties. Often a simplified approach is adopted that translates directly ZOP travel times into electromagnetic (EM) velocities and these, in turn, into dielectric permittivities and soil volumetric moisture content. This approach is known to lead to over‐smoothed moisture content profiles, which are a consequence of the ZOP measurement scale, controlled by critical refractions along fast layers and averaging effects within the first Fresnel zone. Such smooth profiles are not necessarily compatible with the true soil moisture content that should be reproduced by water flow models. In this paper we present a stochastic inversion approach that aims at solving these issues. The approach is based on a forward stochastic simulation that generates the expected travel times by means of a two‐dimensional (2‐D) full waveform modeling, thus reproducing all physical processes that contribute to profile smoothing. We first assess the robustness of this approach on synthetic data, where the true dielectric permittivity profile is known. Then we apply the technique to two different case studies, where the results of the proposed technique show supporting evidence from independent information on the sites' stratigraphy. The proposed approach proves to be capable of reconstructing sharp dielectric profiles, in addition to assigning relevant uncertainty bounds derived from the expected errors in travel time picking. These results may prove very useful in a correct assessment of the hydrological implications of the measured dielectric permittivity, and thus moisture content, profile.


Oxygen evolution electrocatalysis has received extensive attention due to its significance in biology, chemistry, and technology. However, it is still unclear how the abundant 3d-elements can be used to drive the four-electron oxidation of water as efficiently as in Nature. In this Feature Article, we will propose a design strategy concerning the optimization of the charge accumulation process based on our ongoing spectroelectrochemical study on Mn, Fe, and Ir oxygen evolution catalysts. Spectroscopic identification of the reaction intermediates showed that the activity of MnO2 and Fe2O3 was dictated by the generation of Mn3+ and Fe4+, whereas in the case of IrOx, the activity did not correlate with the valence change of Ir. The efficiency of charge accumulation through valence change is closely linked with the spin configuration of the metal center, because charge disproportionation, which was found to inhibit charge accumulation in the high-spin 3d metals, requires an electron in the eg orbital. In addition to directly increasing the overpotential through the generation of an unstable intermediate, charge disproportionation inhibits charge accumulation by dissipating the total oxidative energy of the system. A favorable charge accumulation process may also be beneficial for electrode kinetics due to the enhanced coupling between reaction rates and electrochemical driving force. The model proposed in this study may help explain why low-spin 4d/5d rare metals are often more active than the abundant high-spin 3d materials for multi-electron transfer reactions in general, and provides new insight into how active 3d-metal catalysts can be synthesized by optimizing the energetics of both bond formation and charge accumulation.


A "property clause" is a dedicated text in the written basic law of a constitutional-democratic state, addressing the question of the security of asset-holdings (and of their values to their owners) against impairment by action or allowance of the state. The clause provides a defensive guarantee against such impairments, in the form of a trumping right of every person to be protected – perhaps not absolutely and unconditionally, but not negligibly, either – against state-engineered losses in lawfully established asset-holdings or asset-values.How should someone writing a constitution for an expectantly "social liberal" state regime think about the question of a property clause? Without suggesting that there can be any one-size-fits-all sort of answer to the question of including such a clause or not, this paper confines itself to doubting sharply one sort of a reason our constitution-writers might consider for including one – namely, that a liberal constitutional bill of rights ought to contain clauses covering all classes of interests of persons that qualify in liberalism as basic rights and freedoms and the interest distinctively protected by a property clause does so qualify – and suggesting some pros and cons regarding a quite different sort of reason for inclusion that the writers will also undoubtedly ponder – namely, that the clause will serve to keep lawmakers and constitutional adjudicators properly attuned to a national foundational commitment to a system of political economy in which markets play a key role.This essay, prepared as an after-dinner talk for the Conference on Constitutional Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions held at the New School for Social Research, May 5-7, 2011, is a companion to my "Liberal Constitutionalism, Property Rights, and the Assault on Poverty," Stellenbosch Law Review (2012) (forthcoming), which treats more expansively some points made summarily here. A version of this essay will appear in Constellations 12 (2012).


In developing brain neuronal migration, dendrite outgrowth and dendritic spine outgrowth are controlled by Cdc42, a small GTPase of the Rho family, and its activators. Cdc42 function in promoting actin polymerization is crucial for glutamatergic synapse regulation. Here, we focus on GABAergic synapse-specific activator of Cdc42, collybistin (CB) and examine functional differences between its splice isoforms CB1 and CB2. We report that CB1 and CB2 differentially regulate GABAergic synapse formation in vitro along proximal-distal axis and adult-born neuron maturation in vivo. The functional specialization between CB1 and CB2 isoforms arises from their differential protein half-life, in turn regulated by ubiquitin conjugation of the unique CB1 C-terminus. We report that CB1 and CB2 negatively regulate Cdc42; however, Cdc42 activation is dependent on CB interaction with gephyrin. During hippocampal adult neurogenesis CB1 regulates neuronal migration, while CB2 is essential for dendrite outgrowth. Finally, using mice lacking Gabra2 subunit, we show that CB1 function is downstream of GABAARs, and we can rescue adult neurogenesis deficit observed in Gabra2 KO. Overall, our results uncover previously unexpected role for CB isoforms downstream of α2containing GABAARs during neuron maturation in a Cdc42 dependent mechanism.


Summary form only given. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been conducting studies on space solar power systems (SSPS) using microwave and laser beams for years since FY1998 organizing a special committee and working groups. In case of microwave based SSPS, the solar energy must be converted to electricity and then converted to a microwave beam. The on-ground rectifying antenna would collect the microwave beam and convert it to electricity to connect to commercial power grids. In the laser based SSPS, a solar condenser equipped with lenses or mirrors and laser-generator would be put into orbit. A laser beam would be sent to an Earth-based hydrogen generating device. JAXA is proposing a roadmap that consists of a stepwise approach to achieve commercial SSPS in 20-30 years. The first step is tens of kW class technology demonstration satellite to demonstrate microwave or laser power transmission. The second step is to demonstrate robotic assembly of 10 MW class large scale flexible structure in space on ISS co-orbit. The third step is to build a prototype SSPS in GEO. The final step is to build commercial GW class SSPS in GEO. This paper presents the results of these study effort of JAXA and from those results, identifies the most promising SSPS concepts, including their key technologies.


This paper presents a case study of the Honey Bee Network's decentralized model for collecting, verifying and disseminating grassroots innovations and provides a roadmap for its replication in Africa. The Honey Bee Network brings together governmental and non‐governmental institutions, members of academia, scholars and a large number of volunteers. Through the Network's activities, locally-designed solutions and traditional knowledge with the potential to be refined and scaled up are scouted and members of the Network work with the innovators to help their ideas reach their commercial or non‐commercial potential. The Network has been involved in the sharing of grassroots technology developed in India with Kenya, notably a food processing machine, seed sowing device, and a small tractor. Through these pilot programs, actors at the grassroots had a chance to collaborate and co‐design solutions adapted to the Kenyan context. This experience revealed a willingness in Kenya to further invest in grassroots innovation initiatives, and Network members identified many conditions that would make Kenya the right choice for an African network hub, such as a rich traditional knowledge system and institutional willingness and recognition of the dynamism of the informal sector. Lessons from the Network's experience in Kenya and its technology transfer program are collected and turned into recommendations for the development of a sister Network in Africa.


Guignardia citricarpa, the causal agent of Citrus Black Spot, is subject to phytosanitary legislation in the European Union and the U.S.A. This species is frequently confused with G. mangiferae, which is a non-pathogenic, and is commonly isolated as an endophyte from citrus fruits and a wide range of other hosts. Recently, necrotic spots similar to those caused by G. citricarpa were observed on fruit of Citrus maxima intercepted in consignments exported from Asia. in these spots, pycnidia and conidia of a Guignardia species closely resembling G. citricarpa were observed, and therefore measures were taken for the consignments in line with the European Union legislation for G. citricarpa. To determine the identity of the causal organism on this new host, fungal isolates were subjected to DNA sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2), translation elongation factor I-alpha (TEF1) and actin genes. A combined phylogenctic tree resolved three species correlating to G. citricarpa, G. mangiferae and a previously undescribed species, Phyllosticta citriasiana sp. nov., closely related to G. citricarpa. Morphologically P. citriasiana can be distinguished from G. citricarpa by having larger conidia, longer conidial appendages, and in not producing any diffuse yellow pigment when cultivated on oatmeal agar (OA). Furthermore, it is distinguishable from G. mangiferae by having smaller conidia, with a narrower mucoid sheath. In culture, colonies of P. citriasiana can also be distinguished from G. citricarpa and G. mangiferae by being darker shades of grey and black on OA, malt extract agar (MEA), potato-dextrose agar, and cornmeal agar. Furthermore, cultures of P. citriasiana achieved optimal growth after 2 weeks at 21-27 degrees C, and ceased to grow at 30-33 degrees C. In contrast, colonies of G. citricarpa and G. mangiferae achieved optimal growth at 27-30 degrees C, and ceased to grow at 30-36 degrees C. Colonies of P. citriasiana also grew faster than those of G. citricarpa and G. mangiferae on OA and MEA. Phyllosticta citriasiana appears to be a harmful pathogen of Citrus maxima, causing a tan spot on fruit, underlining the need for further surveys and research to determine its distribution and host range.


A survey of seaweeds was made in Eritrea in December 1995 and January 1996 on some islands of the Dahlak Archipelago and the surroundings of the port town of Massawa. During our study 101 specific and infraspecific taxa were identified, including 26 Chlorophyta, 20 Phaeophyta and 55 Rhodophyta. The survey resulted in 36 new records for Eritrea (11 Chlorophyta, 7 Phaeophyta and 18 Rhodophyta). Of these Eritrean records, 26 are new for the Red Sea (5 Chlorophyta, 4 Phaeophyta and 17 Rhodophyta). Comparison of records of seaweeds from localities in Eritrea to those from other localities in Eritrea as well as from other coasts of the western Indian Ocean have revealed that the regional distribution of seaweeds in the Red Sea is very patchy and that generally the area seems to be undersampled. The comparisons have also underscored the stressful seasonal environmental conditions for macroalgae in the southern Red Sea.


Background Sexual and physical abuse have been reported from all levels of sports. Associations between abuse victimization and sports injury have not been fully investigated. Objective To examine the lifetime prevalence of sexual and physical abuse in elite athletics athletes and explore associations with prevalence of athletics injuries. Design Cross-sectional study using e-epidemiological survey methods. Setting Swedish male and female youth and adult elite athletics athletes. Participants Athletes ranked in the national top-15 with recorded email addresses (n=507) were invited. 198 (39%) athletes returned complete data. Risk factor assessment Gender, age, sexual orientation, event group, lifetime physical abuse, lifetime sexual abuse (noncontact sexual abuse (indecent exposure), contact sexual abuse without penetration, penetrating sexual abuse) within and outside sports. Main outcome measurements One-year prevalence of injury causing at least three consecutive weeks of full or partial time loss from athletics. Results 27 (14%) athletes reported lifetime exposure to sexual abuse and 36 (18%) athletes to physical abuse. More women than men (P=.005; Cramer's V=0.21) reported lifetime sexual abuse. Non-heterosexual athletes tended to more often be lifetime physical abuse victims than their heterosexual peers (P=.058). 6 (3%) athletes reported having been sexually abused in the athletics setting. The perpetrators of sexual abuse in athletics were both men and women extending from coaches to peers in mid-adolescence; two athletes reported suicidal ideation as a consequence of the abuse. The one-year prevalence of 3-week athletics injuries was higher for physical abuse victims among women (P=.021; Cramer's V=0.23), but not for male victims (P=.90). Sexual abuse was not found to be statistically associated with athletics injury. Conclusions Physical abuse victimization was associated with higher injury prevalence among female athletics athletes. Sexual and physical abuse victims are common in elite athletics and further studies of abuse, abuse victims, and abuse prevention are needed.


Causal explanations in the high-level sciences typically black-box the lowlevel details of the causal mechanisms that they invoke to account for their explananda: economists black-box psychological processes; psychologists black-box neural processes; and so on. Are these black-boxing explanatory models complete explanations of the phenomena in question, or are they just sketches of or templates for the whole explanatory story? This chapter poses a focused version of the question in the context of convergent evolution, the existence of which appears to show that underlying mechanisms are completely irrelevant to the explanation of high-level biological features, including perhaps thought and language—in which case a black-boxing model would be a complete explanation of such features rather than a mere sketch. Arguments for and against such a model's explanatory completeness are considered; the chapter comes down tentatively against.


With dramatic changes in family-related behaviours in the past 50 years, there has been an increasing awareness and acceptance of different family arrangements. Subsequently, measuring and studying people's attitudes towards issues such as commitment to marriage, acceptance of alternative family forms, parental separation and gender roles has gained a lot of attention among those working in the fields of sociology, social psychology and demography.

The majority of studies examining the relationship between family-related attitudes and behaviour have focused on either the selection or adaptation effects of attitudes, with fewer (particularly of those using British data) specifically addressing the possibility of both processes taking place. This study's main goal is to address the latter using the data of two British cohorts born 12 years apart: the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS) and the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS). The cohort's attitudes are measured by a scale consisting of three items which relate to: marriage being a lifelong commitment, a divorce being easily obtainable these days and the acceptability of parental separation. This work adopts the perspective of value orientation and life course position which implies a recursive nature of attitudes and behaviour whereby behaviour is influenced by people's values (the selection effect of attitudes) and these values, in turn, adjust following changes in people's circumstances (the adaptation effect of attitudes).

The availability of attitude statements at two time points for each cohort (at age 26 and 30 for BCS; at age 33 and 42 for NCDS) and rich partnership history data allows for such analyses to be carried out as the order of events can be established. Firstly, this research utilises bivariate and multivariate techniques to investigate the determinants of attitudes. Further, it implements regression analyses to explore the relationships between attitude scores and: a) transition to first marriage for non-cohabiting cohort members (BCS and NCDS); b) transition to first marriage of cohabiting cohort members (BCS) and c) dissolution of first marriage (NCDS).

The main findings show some evidence of both the selection and adaptation effects of attitudes in relation to marital transitions for both cohorts, indicating the importance of attitudes in shaping people's behaviour and at the same time showing the tendency of attitudes to change in line with an individual's personal circumstances.


Objective. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a fibrotic immune-mediated disease of unknown etiology. Among its clinical manifestations, pulmonary involvement is the leading cause of mortality in patients with SSc. However, the genetic factors involved in lung complication are not well defined. We aimed to review the association of the MIF gene, which encodes a cytokine implicated in idiopathic pulmonary hypertension among other diseases, with the susceptibility and clinical expression of SSc, in addition to testing the association of this polymorphism with SSc-related pulmonary involvement. Methods. A total of 4392 patients with SSc and 16,591 unaffected controls from 6 cohorts of European origin were genotyped for the MIF promoter variant rs755622. An inverse variance method was used to metaanalyze the data. Results. A statistically significant increase of the MIF rs755622*C allele frequency compared with controls was observed in the subgroups of patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) independently (dcSSc: p = 3.20E–2, OR 1.13; PAH: p = 2.19E–02, OR 1.32). However, our data revealed a stronger effect size with the subset of patients with SSc showing both clinical manifestations (dcSSc with PAH: p = 6.91E–3, OR 2.05). Conclusion. We reviewed the association of the MIF rs755622*C allele with SSc and described a phenotype-specific association of this variant with the susceptibility to develop PAH in patients with dcSSc.


A parallel finite element code with adaptive meshing was developed and used to study three dimensional, time-dependent fluid flows caused by thermocapillary convection as well as temperature and dopant distribution in fusion welding and floating zone crystal growth. A comprehensive numerical model of the three dimensional time-dependent fluid flows in a weld pool had been developed. This model considered most of the physical mechanisms involved in gas tungsten arc welding. The model helped obtaining the actual chaotic time-dependent melt flow. It was found that the fluid flow in the weld pool was highly complex and influenced the weld pool's depth and width. The physicochemical model had also been studied and applied numerically in order to simulate the surfactant adsorption onto the surface effect to the surface tension of the metal liquid in a weld pool. Another model, a three dimensional time-dependent, with adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening was applied for simulating the effect of weak flow on the radial segregation in floating zone crystal growth. The phase change equation was also included in this model in order to simulate the real interface shape of floating zone. In the new parallel code, a scheme that keeps the level of node and face instead of the complete history of refinements was utilized to facilitate derefinement. The information was now local and the exchange of information between each and every processor during the derefinement process was minimized. This scheme helped to improve the efficiency of the parallel adaptive solver.


In a study of implicit learning of an artificial L2 morphosyntactic rule, 65 adult native speakers of English were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: incidental, intentional, or control. Participants in the experimental conditions were trained on sentences containing a determiner phrase, the word order in which varied if an adjective was present. On a GJT, both experimental groups performed above chance on the simplest rule of noun-determiner ordering; only the intentional group learned the more complex adjective-determiner-noun order. No participants learned a third, generalization structure not encountered in training. Given similar findings from other experiments, we suggest that implicit L2 learning by adults may be constrained, but has an important role in a cognitive-interactionist approach to language teaching.


Focusing ethnographically on astronomers engaged in "look back studies" of cosmic evolution, this essay considers how they make telescopic observations at an optical observatory in the context of their epistemic work at other sites. Foucault's notion of a heterotopia captures key aspects of how the observatory is set apart from astronomers' work with digital data elsewhere. However, visual practices of interpreting telescopic exposures in the observatory's control room do reach across this divide and inform later epistemic work, such as when scientists use these exposures retrospectively as windows into the functioning of telescopes and detectors. Visiting astronomers remark that witnessing the emergence of exposures in the control room asserts to them the reality of the cosmic objects they study. I interpret this as being grounded in their understanding of semiosis. [Keywords: Anthropology of science, scientific observation, scientific practice, place and space]


In "The Near Northwest Side Story", Gina M. Perez offers an intimate and unvarnished portrait of Puerto Rican life in Chicago and San Sebastian, Puerto Rico - two places connected by a long history of circulating people, ideas, goods, and information. Perez's masterful blend of history and ethnography explores the multiple and gendered reasons for migration, why people maintain transnational connections with distant communities, and how poor and working-class Puerto Ricans work to build meaningful communities. Perez traces the changing ways that Puerto Ricans have experienced poverty, displacement, and discrimination and illustrates how they imagine and build extended families and dense social networks that link San Sebastian to barrios in Chicago. She includes an incisive analysis of the role of the state in shaping migration through such projects as the Chardon Plan, Operation Bootstrap, and the Chicago Experiment. "The Near Northwest Side Story" provides a unique window on the many strategies people use to resist the negative consequences of globalization, economic development, and gentrification.


Disaster reduction for small- and medium-sized reservoir projects is considered for two specific types of dam failure: 1) during extremely high floods, and 2) when severe reservoir silting negates reservoir utility and exposes downstream areas to environmental disaster. Safeguarding a dam against failure due to high floods is achieved by satisfactory design of the spillway. But economical protection against dam failure also includes a considerably less expensive emergency spillway for operation only when the flood exceeds a 500- or 1,000-year recurrence interval. Conventional dam and reservoir design with an overflow spillway is conducive to storing most of a reservoir's incoming sediment. Lower capacity-inflow ratio reservoirs suffer the most. Water flowing over the spillway is relatively sediment free, and it scours the downstream bed and banks. Sediments in the reservoirs cause recycling of nutrients and pollutants associated with them. Gradual sediment buildup reduces effective reservoir storage capacity and adversely impacts the uses for which the reservoir was originally designed. In the case of dam failure, all the sediments will be sluiced out, covering lands downstream and causing a severe environmental disaster. To minimize sediment deposition, however, requires a conservation-oriented and environmentally desirable dam and reservoir design.


The Philippines is a country with a lot to offer within the tourism sector. With its 7107 islands, it offers diversity in culture and a wide range of tourism destinations. However, tourism development in the Philippines has not been as successful as its neighbouring countries. In order to develop the country as an attractive destination, collaboration is needed. The cooperation of different stakeholders as well as the importance of trust and reciprocity is vital for an effective collaboration. Destination development within the tourism industry is seen as a collaboration or cooperation between different stakeholders who in part have something to gain in joining the collaboration. The relationship among the stakeholders may be based on previous interactions. In addition, concerning their respective involvement within the collaboration, theories argue that stakeholders do not necessarily exercise equal participation. With the use of the WOW Philippines campaign as an example of collaboration involving several stakeholders, the theories within collaboration shall be examined. At the same time, the theories will aid in researching the factors that may or may not be responsible for the advancements of thecampaign. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the different theories within collaboration with the WOW Philippines campaign as an example of a collaborative endeavour. This thesis is addressed to students within the discipline of tourism development for future studies. The researcher has utilized the hypothetico-deductive method which entails the examination of three theories within collaboration. Three hypotheses formulated from these theories will be either confirmed or dismissed in the end of the study. With the help of the hypotheses, the researcher has concluded that aspects of trust and reciprocity within collaboration are vital in its success. Although in this case, it refers to a country's perception of trust and reciprocity. The problem domain i.e. destination development aiming on increasing inbound tourism cannot be said to be the main reason for the achievements of the campaign. It is a contributing factor, as well as, the involvement of the stakeholders. The theories are acceptable in different levels with regard to the WOW Philippines campaign i.e. they cannot be either taken as individual reasons for its advancements or proclaimed as false. These theories are intertwined which means their relevance to each other is important in the case of tourism development in the Philippines.


Pinch Analysis, in the broadest sense, is concerned with the optimal use of resources (material or energy) in a multi-process system. Pinch Analysis based techniques have emerged for water systems over the past decade. A major assumption that has been made in applying these techniques is that a process system can be segregated into a set of process streams and a set of water streams. With this distinction in place, only the water streams are considered in the Pinch Analysis with the process streams represented implicitly. This approach has obvious limitations in situations where a clear distinction between process streams and water streams cannot be made. The chlor-alkali process is an example of a system in which the clear distinction between process streams and water streams cannot be made. Water is intrinsically involved in the process, serving as a carrier medium for raw materials and eventually becoming part of the products produced by the complex. Hydrochloric acid and caustic soda are reagents which are both used within and produced by the complex. These reagents are required by the process at a range of concentrations and the concentrated reagent is diluted to the required concentrations using demineralised water. Within the chlor-alkali complex, a number of effluents containing the reagent species are available and are typically sent to drain. It is conceivable that these effluents might be recovered and used for dilution purposes instead of demineralised water. This would bring about a reduction in the amount of water and concentrated reagent used and the amount of effluent produced by the complex. Given the economic value of these reagents relative to water, their recovery, if feasible, is likely to dominate the optimal water-use and effluent generation strategy. Current Water Pinch Analysis theory relies on the distinction being made between process streams and water streams and does not consider the recovery of reagents or the presence of desirable species within the system. In addition, the assumption is made that species are non-reactive; reactive species such as hydrogen chloride and sodium hydroxide, fall outside the scope of the current theory. The objectives of this study have included the development of an approach which is able to address these limitations of the existing theory. This approach, termed Combined Water and Materials Pinch Analysis seeks to identify optimal use strategies for raw materials and reagents, in addition to water-use and effluent generation. The approach combines mathematical programming with conceptual insights from Water Pinch Analysis. The approach is based on the optimisation of a superstructure which represents the set of all possible flow configurations for water, reagents and raw materials between the various ii operations within the process system; this problem is solved as a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem using standard optimisation tools. The application of the developed approach to the Sasol Polymers chlor-alkali complex at Umbogintwini, south of Durban, has been a further objective of this study. Given the variety of process operations present within the complex, which differ both in terms of their physical structure and function, individual process models for these operations were required. These models were described in terms of four basic functional elements, namely, mixing, flow separation, component separation and reaction, and incorporated into the superstructure. Given the complexity of the problem, the process system was divided into three subsystems which were optimised in isolation from each other. These results were subsequently integrated to reflect the performance of the subsystems in combination with each other. The results showed a potential reduction of 14% in water-use and 42% in effluent production by the complex, relative to the existing operating configuration. Amongst other savings in material use, the results indicated a 0.2% reduction in the use of salt, a 1.6% reduction caustic soda use and an 8.3% reduction in the use of hydrochloric acid. Economically, the potential saving identified was R 945 727 per annum, based on operating costs in the year 2000. The final objective of this study was the interpretation of the pinch as it relates to the Combined Water and Materials Pinch Analysis problem. A general definition of the pinch was proposed; according to this definition, the pinch corresponds to that constraint or set of constraints which limits the performance of the system, that is, prevents it from further improvement. For the Combined Water and Materials Pinch Analysis problem, this performance is measured in terms of the operating cost. This definition is thus a departure from its usual thermodynamic interpretation of the pinch; in addition, the pinch is defined in terms of a constraint or a set of constraints instead of a point. These constraints are identified by an analysis of the marginal values provided by the optimisation algorithm. Marginal values are also used as a means of identifying process interventions which may be effected such that the performance of the system may be improved further.


The application of 3D woven composites in advanced structural components is limited by a lack of understanding of the influence of weaving parameters on the final architecture and mechanical properties of composites. This paper investigates the effect of fundamental and easily adjustable weave parameters (pick density and float length) on the mechanical properties (tension, compression and flexure) in 3D woven warp interlock layer-to-layer carbon/epoxy composite structures. The purpose of this paper is to establish a link between the textile and composite performance within this 3D weave architecture. The 3D fabrics, manufactured using a Jacquard loom, are fabricated in three different pick densities: 4, 10 & 16 wefts/cm, with a constant end density of 12 warps/cm from T700S-50C-12k carbon fibre. The pick density with the best mechanical properties is then used for the float length change iteration. The aim is to keep end and pick densities constant in the two float length variation specimens. The mechanical properties of the specimens are affected by the fibre content, tow waviness, misalignment of the load carrying tows and the distribution/size of resin rich areas. This paper depicts a link between the pick density/float length, mechanical properties and failure mechanisms in 3D woven layer-to-layer carbon/epoxy composites.


The aim of this article is to provide an empirical and theoretical background in support of the thesis that in contemporary Polish public higher education institutions, especially in the massified sector of teaching-oriented disciplines, one of the side effects of the growing enrolment (between 2004-2012) in doctoral programmes has been a decrease in the internal labour costs of institutions. The instrumentalization of these enrolments by public institutions has clearly had negative effect on the lives and career paths of doctoral candidates, understood here as a deprivation of their capabilities for work and for having a voice, mediated through their ambiguous "in-between" status. In the final part of the article a qualitative case study of a doctoral programme in Education, at one of the medium-size, medium-prestige universities in the North of Poland is presented and analysed. The article concludes that the status of doctoral candidates should be determined one way or the other (as workers or students) – this is a task for empirically-informed higher education policy in Poland in the years to come.


While incomplete information is ubiquitous in all data models - especially in applications involving data translation or integration - our understanding of it is still not completely satisfactory. For example, even such a basic notion as certain answers for XML queries was only introduced recently, and in a way seemingly rather different from relational certain answers.
 The goal of this paper is to introduce a general approach to handling incompleteness, and to test its applicability in known data models such as relations and documents. The approach is based on representing degrees of incompleteness via semantics-based orderings on database objects. We use it to both obtain new results on incompleteness and to explain some previously observed phenomena. Specifically we show that certain answers for relational and XML queries are two instances of the same general concept; we describe structural properties behind the naive evaluation of queries; answer open questions on the existence of certain answers in the XML setting; and show that previously studied ordering-based approaches were only adequate for SQL's primitive view of nulls. We define a general setting that subsumes relations and documents to help us explain in a uniform way how to compute certain answers, and when good solutions can be found in data exchange. We also look at the complexity of common problems related to incompleteness, and generalize several results from relational and XML contexts.


We develop Lagrange multiplier and likelihood ratio statistics to test hypotheses on subsets of the structural parameters in an instrumental variables regression model. The asymptotic distributions of these statistics are robust to instrument quality. A key assumption is, however, that the instruments are valid for the remaining endogenous variables. We show that the statistics lead to 95 confidence sets for the return on education in data from Card (1995) that are considerably different from the confidence sets that result from the 2SLS Wald statistic, which is the common statistic used in the literature.


Background: Egypt has the highest prevalence of adult HCV infection in the world, averaging 15%-25% in rural communities. Sustained virological response in genotype 4 Egyptian patients treated with PEG-IFN alfa-2a and ribavirin was estimated around 60%. It is of major interest for both patient care and economic approach to predict failure of response. Several factors have been shown to influence response to antiviral treatment. Cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis, progression and treatment outcome of HCV infection.
Aim: The current study was designated to assess serum interleukin-10 and interleukin-12 levels in CHC genotype 4 patients and investigate their benefit as predictors of antiviral response.
Methods: This study was conducted on a total number of 70 participants admitted to Hepatology and Gastroenterology Department in NHTMRI (National Hepatology & Tropical Medicine Research Institute). The participants of this study were divided into two groups as following; Group I: 20 healthy subjects (as controls), while the cases in Group II: 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) genotype 4. Results: Our results showed that IL-12 and IL-10 levels were higher in patients with HCV infection than in control participants and were significantly higher in the group of the sustained responders, compared with non-responders. Serum IL-10 level showed a sensitivity and specificity of 76.7% and 73.3% respectively while serum IL-12 level showed sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 75% respectively.
Conclusion: These results demonstrate the beneficial role ofIL-10, IL-12 in achieving an SVR during IFN-alpha and ribavirin therapy


Colistin, a cationic polypeptide antibiotic that belongs to the polymyxin family, has been revived as a last-line therapy for life-threatening infections over the last decade due to resistance to all current antibiotics. To minimise resistance to colistin, there is an urgent need to optimise its dosage regimens. However, colistin can cause nephrotoxicity which is a major dose-limiting factor. The nephrotoxicity rate in patients receiving currently recommended dosage regimens is high (up to 50%). Therefore, understanding the mechanism of colistin-induced nephrotoxicity becomes crucial to optimise for clinical use. In this thesis, a rat model was developed to investigate colistin-induced nephrotoxicity. The nephrotoxicity was assessed by measuring the plasma creatinine concentration and urinary N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) excretion and histological examination. A range of intravenous dosage regimens were examined. It was revealed that colistin-induced nephrotoxicity was dose- and time-dependent. The dosage regimen used to induce reproducible nephrotoxicity was identified (a cumulative dose of 36.5 mg/kg administered over 7 days). Rats treated with this dosage regimen showed a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the plasma creatinine concentration and urinary NAG excretion compared to the baseline and the control group. Histological examination results showed renal tubules injuries including tubular dilatation, casts and necrosis. This rat model was employed to examine the potential protective effect of co-administration of antioxidants, melatonin and ascorbic acid, against colistin-induced nephrotoxicity. Rats treated with both colistin and melatonin (10 mg/kg/day) or ascorbic acid (400 mg/kg/day) showed significant decrease in urinary NAG excretion (p < 0.05) compared to those treated with colistin alone. Additionally, kidney tissues of rats treated with both colistin and melatonin or ascorbic acid showed normal morphology under histological examination. Colistin-induced apoptosis was examined in rats after 5 days of treatment and in vitro using rat renal proximal tubular cells (NRK-52E) over 24 h with and without melatonin or ascorbic acid. With immunohistochemical examination, it was demonstrated that colistin-induced apoptosis in vivo and in v itro with apoptotic cell percentages of 30.6 ± 7.8% and 51.8 ± 2.0%, respectively. Melatonin and ascorbic acid protected against colistin-induced apoptosis. In addition, the effect of co-administration of antioxidants on colistin pharmacokinetics was also investigated. Melatonin and ascorbic acid altered colistin pharmacokinetics; the total body clearances in colistin/antioxidant-treated groups were lower than in the colistin group. Microarrays were employed to examine the regulation of gene expressions associated with colistin-induced nephrotoxicity. Administration of colistin resulted in up- and down-regulation of gene expressions which play important roles in cell growth/death, cellular functions, inflammation, immune response, angiogenesis and apoptosis. Co-administration of antioxidants, melatonin and ascorbic acid, prevented the alteration of the gene expressions associated with the nephrotoxicity of colistin. Additionally, these antioxidants also altered gene expressions that play important roles in cellular defence system against oxidative stress. Two metabolic pathways were identified in both in vivo and in vitro colistin groups: complement and coagulation cascades and the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. Both pathways play key roles in regulation of various cellular actions, such as proliferation, differentiation, inflammation and apoptosis. This thesis is the first study to investigate the nephrotoxicity associated with colistin treatment in a validated rat model, examine the potential nephroprotective effect of co-administration of antioxidants, and explore the mechanisms of colistin-induced nephrotoxicity. Importantly, this is the first study that highlights the potential of co-administering an antioxidant to widen the therapeutic window of this very important last-line antibiotic.


Self-leadership has been recognised as a fundamental competency for effective learning and job performance. The primary goal of this study was to validate the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire on a South African sample. Numerous questionnaires have been developed to measure self-leadership, with the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire being the most widely used questionnaire. However, the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire has been deemed too long; hence, the authors abbreviated the measure. Therefore, there is a need to assess the reliability and construct validity of the abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire on a South African sample. A non-probability sample consisting of 400 students drawn from a university in the Western Cape was used. The reliability of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire was evaluated using SPSS, while construct validity was assessed via confirmatory factory analyses in the LISREL program. Moderate levels of reliability were found for the subscales of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire. Reasonable model fit with the data was found for the first-order measurement model. The study contributes to the requirements of the Amended Employment Equity Act of South Africa (Republic of South Africa, 1998) which promotes the use of reliable and valid instruments in South Africa by confirming the psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire.


The purpose of this study, first, to know the motivation of employees in the production company of Lawang Malang.second for find Weaving diligent employee performance of the production in Weaving Diligent company of Lawang Malang, Third to determine whether the effect motivasimempunyai significant impact on employee performance of the company's production Weaving Rajin Lawang Malang.The funtion this research to provide positive feedback for the company's last company Weaving diligent of Lawang Malang, about the influence of motivation on employee performance of production Analyst tools used in this study are using scale range and multiple linear regression. Scale analysis results can be known that motivation isinclude the encouragement of employees fiologis requirement needs is obtained by 223.67, 220 for safety and security needs, social needs amounting to 221.33, self-realization and fulfillment size223, 33 are included in the category very high, while for variable need self-esteem is very high in the same category with the value of the Scale analysis showed that the entry in the category of very high while for the variable self-esteem needs into the high category with a value of 215.33. Based on the analysis of employee performance, including completion of all work which are the responsibility of employees, quality products in accordance with the established standards and set a target date Weaving company Diligent of Lawang Malang very well fall into that category with an average score of 225.67 included in the range 178-219. Based on the results of multiple linear regression analysis using the F test to prove that the motivation that includes encouragement of physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, self-realization and fulfillment together have a significant influence on the performance of the employees of the Company production Weaving Radjin of Lawang Malang. This is evidenced by the value of F test> Ftable (75.166> 2.420). company advice given to company management that is expected to loom for the industrious poor mace provide salaries appropriate and timely given to all employees so that they can meet all your needs. It is expected that the company is also considering varieabel another motivation, in this case because the other varieabel also a positive influence on employee performance of produksi.company can actualize itself in good and fair in all forms capabilities expected the company to be owned by its employees in a given work in the company. The leadership companies need to accept the existence? Presence of employees as members of the working group, doing good work and the intention of creating a harmonious working relationship


The Effect of Response Modality on Task Performance When Using an Interactive Voice Response System for Older and Younger Adults by Nicole T. Howie The purpose of this experiment was to gain a greater understanding of how setlevel compatibility affects task performance of older adults while using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System. Set-level compatibility effects occur when differences in response time are obtained due to characteristics shared between a stimulus and response set. The current study used banking and healthcare IVR tasks to investigate whether manipulating set-level compatibility would differentially affect performance between younger (18 39 years old) and older (65 years and older) adults. As expected, subjects performed better in the high set-level compatibility conditions. However, no interaction between set-level compatibility and age was found, which can possibly be attributed to task differences, IVR design and real world context of the task. Overall, the primary contributions of this research are the design guidelines that were created to develop an IVR that suppressed age effects.


Corporations present an interesting illustration of the authority versus accountability dilemma. Shareholders elect the directors of the corporation and the law vests those directors with almost unlimited authority to manage the corporation. Yet, shareholders have few effective means for holding directors accountable for their decisions other than through shareholder derivative litigation. In such litigation, the business judgment rule serves as the mechanism by which courts attempt to balance directors' authority to make decisions for the corporation against shareholders' right to hold directors accountable for those decisions. As this Article discusses, numerous theories exist as to the proper formulation of the business judgment rule. At the core, such theories reflect differing perspectives on the proper balancing of authority and accountability in corporations. A broad and diverse literature examines the authority versus accountability dilemmas presented in other areas of law, yet corporate scholars have not examined the insights this literature offers for corporate law. This Article fills that void by examining this literature and applying it to the corporate context. It then analyzes the current balancing of authority and accountability in shareholder derivative litigation as well as scholars' proposals to shift that balance. After rejecting such proposals, the Article concludes by proffering a better approach for resolving the authority versus accountability dilemma in shareholder derivative litigation.


Radiographers' role in radiological reporting: a model to support future demand 317 Jeffery M Peereboom 318 Tony N Smith Experienced physiotherapists as gatekeepers to hospital orthopaedic outpatient care 318 Caroline A Brand, Richard H Osborne, Ian P Wicks, Richard N de Steiger 319 Leonie B Oldmeadow, Harvinda S Bedi, Hugh T Burch, Jenni S Smith, Edmund S Leahy, Miron Goldwasser Lack of consistency in safe-sleeping messages to parents 319 Sarah J Buckley 319 Roger W Byard, Glenda Cains, Helen Noblet, Maxine Weber In my day 320 Sara L Barnes


Sulforaphane (SFN), a compound found at high levels in broccoli and broccoli sprouts, is a potent inducer of phase 2 detoxification enzymes and inhibits tumorigenesis in animal models. SFN also has a marked effect on cell cycle checkpoint controls and cell survival and/or apoptosis in various cancer cells, through mechanisms that are poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that SFN acts as an inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC). In human embryonic kidney 293 cells, SFN dose-dependently increased the activity of a -catenin-responsive reporter (TOPflash), without altering -catenin or HDAC protein levels. Cytoplasmic and nuclear extracts from these cells had diminished HDAC activity, and both global and localized histone acetylation was increased, compared with untreated controls. Studies with SFN and with media from SFN-treated cells indicated that the parent compound was not responsible for the inhibition of HDAC, and this was confirmed using an inhibitor of glutathione Stransferase, which blocked the first step in the metabolism of SFN, via the mercapturic acid pathway. Whereas SFN and its glutathione conjugate (SFN-GSH) had little or no effect, the two major metabolites SFN-cysteine and SFN-N-acetylcysteine were effective HDAC inhibitors in vitro. Finally, several of these findings were recapitulated in HCT116 human colorectal cancer cells: SFN dose-dependently increased TOPflash reporter activity and inhibited HDAC activity, there was an increase in acetylated histones and in p21, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed an increase in acetylated histones bound to the P21 promoter. Collectively, these findings suggest that SFN may be effective as a tumor-suppressing agent and as a chemotherapeutic agent, alone or in combination with other HDAC inhibitors currently undergoing clinical trials.


Cochlear implants provide users with limited spectral and temporal information. In this study, the amount of spectral and temporal information was systematically varied through simulations of cochlear implant processors using a noise-excited vocoder. Spectral information was controlled by varying the number of channels between 1 and 16, and temporal information was controlled by varying the lowpass cutoff frequencies of the envelope extractors from 1 to 512 Hz. Consonants and vowels processed using those conditions were presented to seven normal-hearing native-English-speaking listeners for identification. The results demonstrated that both spectral and temporal cues were important for consonant and vowel recognition with the spectral cues having a greater effect than the temporal cues for the ranges of numbers of channels and lowpass cutoff frequencies tested. The lowpass cutoff for asymptotic performance in consonant and vowel recognition was 16 and 4 Hz, respectively. The number of channels at which performance plateaued for consonants and vowels was 8 and 12, respectively. Within the above-mentioned ranges of lowpass cutoff frequency and number of channels, the temporal and spectral cues showed a tradeoff for phoneme recognition. Information transfer analyses showed different relative contributions of spectral and temporal cues in the perception of various phonetic/acoustic features.


For clustered data in the medical sciences, disease is present when one or more of the observations in the cluster has the disease condition. This paper focuses on estimation of periodontal disease prevalence defined as the probability that one or more tooth sites have disease in a randomly selected subject. The prohibitive exam time and monetary cost of the full-mouth examination makes partial-mouth recording protocols attractive alternative methods to assess chronic periodontitis. In particular, Beck et al. (2006) proposed the random site selection method (RSSM), which pre-specifies a fixed number of tooth sites to be selected randomly from each subject. RSSM could reduce the examination time, but standard estimators that define an individual's disease status solely in terms of selected sites tend to underestimate disease prevalence. We define each mouth as a cluster and disease status (presence or absence) at each tooth site as a binary variable. We describe a prevalence estimator based on the conditional linear family (CLF) of correlated binary distributions under the working assumptions of equal site-level means and exchangeable pairwise correlation for all within-cluster pairs of sites. We derive a variance estimator for the CLF-RSSM prevalence estimator by the delta method. Using simulated data, our prevalence estimator and its variance estimator have small to negligible bias and confidence intervals for prevalence have coverage near the 95% nominal level when the working model is correct. Taking missing teeth into consideration, the CLF-RSSM prevalence estimator has approximately 90% coverage in our simulations. Given a more realistic unequal means and dental correlation structure, the CLF-RSSM prevalence and its standard deviation estimator do not perform well under model misspecification. While the overall approach to the estimation of disease prevalence at the cluster level using partial cluster sampling is promising, new estimators that incorporate more realistic distributional assumptions of correlated binary data (e.g. tooth surfaces in a mouth) may be needed according to the application. Prevalence Estimation at the Cluster Level for Correlated Binary Data Using Random Partial-Cluster Sampling by Rujin Wang and John S. Preisser Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


We construct an invertible normalised 2 cocycle on the Ehresmann Schauenburg bialgebroid of a cleft Hopf Galois extension under the condition that the corresponding Hopf algebra is cocommutative and the image of the unital cocycle corresponding to this cleft Hopf Galois extension belongs to the centre of the coinvariant subalgebra. Moreover, we show that any Ehresmann Schauenburg bialgebroid of this kind is isomorphic to a 2-cocycle twist of the Ehresmann Schauenburg bialgebroid corresponding to a Hopf Galois extension without cocycle, where comodule algebra is an ordinary smash product of the coinvariant subalgebra and the Hopf algebra (i.e. $\C(B/#_{\sigma}H, H)\simeq \C(B\#H, H)^{\tilde{\sigma}}$). We also study the theory in the case of a Galois object where the base is trivial but without requiring the Hopf algebra to be cocommutative.


The development of bifunctional catalysts for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial for facile hydrogen production via water splitting and reducing oxygen to promote electrochemical energy conversion in fuel cells. Here, we prepare a unique concave octahedral Pd@PdPt electrocatalyst, which integrates three structural types, core–shell, concave and alloy structures, using an ethylene glycol system. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) line-scan, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses reveal that the concave octahedral Pd core is surrounded by a PdPt alloy shell. Through some control experiments, a possible mechanism for the formation of the nanostructure is proposed. The as-prepared Pd@PdPt NCs exhibit a superior enhanced bifunctional electrocatalytic performance for both the ORR and the HER, even better than that of 20% Pt/C. When used in the ORR, the concave octahedral Pd@PdPt NCs exhibit a superior half-potential of 0.91 V (vs. RHE), a large mass activity of 0.95 A mgPt−1, and a superior stability over 1000 cycles in 0.1 M KOH. When used in the HER, these NCs present a positive onset potential of −5 mV (vs. RHE), a small Tafel slope of 38 mV dec−1, a lower overpotential of ∼39 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a long-term durability over 4000 cycles in 0.5 M H2SO4. This study enables the design of multi-structural bifunctional electrocatalysts for the renewable energy field.