Stereotype, as a ubiquitous and persistent social phenomenon, has been a key issue in social psychology for some ninety or so years since Lippmann introduced it into social science in 1922. However, "Stereotypes wear the black hats in social science" (Schneider, 2004:1) and, to some extent, stereotypes themselves have been stereotyped, as the traditionally held view has focused on the negative values of stereotyping and viewed it as a static factor in social perception. In this view, stereotypes were considered to be overgeneralisations, inaccurate assumptions, and the cognitive roots of prejudice even discrimination, which are best avoided.

Stereotypes have recently claimed an important place in the field of intergroup relations and intercultural communication, but reciprocal interaction between self- and other- perceptions across different ethnic groups in the cross-cultural context has gone largely un-discussed in cross-cultural pragmatic studies. This thesis is an attempt to fill the void by theoretically situating in cross-cultural pragmatics, and empirically investigating one cross-cultural pairing, i.e., British and Chinese overseas students. Moreover, this work will focus on the conventional but perennial issues in stereotype research, i.e., the accuracy, role and pragmatic functions of stereotyping as realised in an interactive context. A mixed methods research methodology has been employed as a procedure for collecting, analysing, and integrating both qualitative and quantitative data in two consecutive phases: (1) focus group interview; (2) questionnaire survey. The aim is to build a holistic perspective to illuminate the research questions.

The objectives are to probe the cross-cultural practitioners' first-hand stereotypical perceptions of self and others through their interactive practice, generate insights into the impact and pragmatic functions of stereotyping, and thereby shed light on stereotype research. This thesis serves to assess the evidence of 'kernel of truth' hypothesis and bridge the divergences between British stereotypes of Chinese people and Chinese stereotypes of themselves and vice-versa. Ultimately, therefore, the stereotyping is demonstrated as pragmatic device to assist interactants in achieving more harmonious and mutually beneficial interactions as what is perceived can help interactants predict, expect, and explain what is meant in specific cultural context.


ABSTRACT This paper explores the relations between agricultural modernization and sustainable agriculture. The point of departure is the observable decrease in the sustainability and social–ecological resilience of agricultural and food systems. We ask where, precisely, the notions of agricultural modernization and agricultural sustainability contradict each other. In more concrete terms we ask what forms of modernization makes agriculture more (or less) sustainable. Our literature review shows that while the term 'sustainable agriculture', has been extensively debated, the term 'agricultural modernization', while carrying a positive and forward-looking connotation, remains poorly defined. To address this gap, we draw on evidence from real-life cases in fourteen countries in an attempt to interpret how the two concepts are perceived in very different contexts. These case studies show that different understandings of modern and sustainable agriculture coexist and that agricultural development follows diverse pathways. We conclude that the growing demands for an agricultural and food system that is more resilient, equitable and inclusive can be met by providing more support for the many divergent trajectories of agricultural modernization that practitioners are actually pursuing: trajectories that are often more attuned to the imperatives of ecology and to changing socio–economic preferences than the classical modernization trajectory.


Scientific communities are placing an increasing emphasis on the implementation of data management protocols concerning data archiving and distribution. For instance, every proposal submitted to the European Horizon 2020 program, as well as to the National Science Foundation in the USA, requires a dedicated section that outlines project data management and accessibility. The widely adopted FAIR data guidelines identify core principles concerning modern data management conventions. The wide variety of data formats, the low data volume, and the general lack of a culture of data sharing makes that the paleomagnetic community rarely follows any of the FAIR principles. Most institutions define their own data formats and use in‐house software to analyze their demagnetization data, which are critical to Paleomagnetic research. Efforts to overcome these problems exist in the form of the MagIC database for data archiving, and the online paleomagnetic data analysis and interpretation platform Paleomagnetism.org. In this contribution, we describe the second iteration of Paleomagnetism.org: an online multiplatform open‐source environment for paleomagnetic data analysis. This update comprises a full overhaul of the application to satisfy the increasingly demanding data management requirements. The application now facilitates a workflow that aligns with FAIR guidelines by documenting data provenance. All data analyzed through the application are easily submitted to a public data library that distributes data and results through an HTTPS web service that lives up to modern data management standards.


Menopause and the associated symptoms are a continuing challenge for a more specific therapy that presents a good benefit-risk ratio. Hormone replacement therapy remains the first treatment option, despite its present risks. It is very important to individualize the therapy, depending on age, the characteristics of the symptoms and the patient's history. Another important aspect is the choice of the most suitable pharmaceutical form for the patient.


Numerical methods are used to simulate oscillatory ignition under conditions resembling those associated with the second ignition limit for equimolar hydrogen and oxygen mixtures flowing through a well stirred reactor. The starting point is a scheme comprising 17 elementary reactions coupled to heat release and dissipation. The system of equations is then simplified without loss of the major qualitative features of the predicted time-dependent phenomena, first by eliminating the temperature change, so yielding an isothermal branching system, and then by reducing the kinetic scheme to seven elementary steps as follows: H2 + O2 → radicals, OH + H2 → H2O + H, H + O2 → OH + O, O + H2 → OH + H, H + O2 + M → HO2 + M, HO2 + H → H2O + O, HO2 → inert. This scheme constitutes the minimum viable kinetic foundation from which isothermal chain-branching oscillations are predicted in H2 + O2 under flowing conditions. Its features are analysed and the role of each reaction explained. The change in overall third-body efficiency of M leading to HO2 formation, as the composition within the reactor varies under flowing conditions, is a key kinetic prerequisite to oscillations. The interaction between H and HO2 that follows is an essential additional feature. The overall third-body efficiency is highest immediately after ignition, when the concentration of water is highest. The displacement of water by inflowing hydrogen and oxygen reduces the overall efficiency, and hence the effective rate constant of the termolecular step relative to that for the branching reactions. This condition is in complete accord with the analytical prediction of periodicity presented in the previous paper.


We propose a novel and principled hybrid CNN+CRF model for stereo estimation. Our model allows to exploit the advantages of both, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and conditional random fields (CRFs) in an unified approach. The CNNs compute expressive features for matching and distinctive color edges, which in turn are used to compute the unary and binary costs of the CRF. For inference, we apply a recently proposed highly parallel dual block descent algorithm which only needs a small fixed number of iterations to compute a high-quality approximate minimizer. As the main contribution of the paper, we propose a theoretically sound method based on the structured output support vector machine (SSVM) to train the hybrid CNN+CRF model on large-scale data end-to-end. Our trained models perform very well despite the fact that we are using shallow CNNs and do not apply any kind of post-processing to the final output of the CRF. We evaluate our combined models on challenging stereo benchmarks such as Middlebury 2014 and Kitti 2015 and also investigate the performance of each individual component.


How significant were Johnson's publishing activities in bringing Continental, and especially German, literature onto the horizon for an English readership? To begin answering this question, we need some context for English knowledge of German literature during the Romantic period. In general, both the quantity of material translated into English, and the quality of the translations, are surprisingly limited, given the blossoming of both English and German literature at the time. The bibliographic research done by B. Q. Morgan, F. W. Stockoe, and V. Stockley during the 1920s gives a picture of German works appearing in England in the late eighteenth century; it shows some sensational successes, but also some spectacular gaps. There is a rise of interest in German literature in the decade from 1795 to 1805, that hit its peak in 1799; among other things, this may have been due to a swing of opinion against France and in favour of Germany after the French Revolution, especially when England became allied with Pru ssia against the French. There were spots of local enthusiasm for German literature, manifested in the activity of isolated individuals (such as William Taylor of Norwich) and short-lived periodicals (such as the German Museum in 1800-1801), but this enthusiasm did not outlive the scholar's death or the periodical's demise. The translations that were published represented Baroque poetry and Enlightenment thought much more than the new developments in early German Romanticism, with the notable exception of The Sorrows of Young Werther, first published in English in 1779, and, in 1792, Schiller's Robbers. In the 1790s, one does see instances of German authors enjoying sensational vogue -- Schiller and Goethe, but above all the playwright Kotzebue. Interest drops off again sharply in the early years of the nineteenth century, however, this has been attributed to the effect of a campaign mounted by the Anti-Jacobin against "German" (i.e., Kotzebue's) supposed undermining of religion and morality (Morgan and Hohlf eld 52). Stael's De l'Allemagne, published in London in 1813, had a quickening effect; but British periodicals did not take notice of German literature in any sustained way until the late 1820s, largely through the influence of Carlyle. In this context, Joseph Johnson's publication of foreign literature is doubly unusual: first in the extent to which he concerned himself with it at all; secondly, in his avoidance of the few types of translations that did seem to assure popular acclaim. From 1788 onward, Johnson's journal, the Analytical Review, or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, regularly informed English readers about significant foreign-language publications, scientific and philosophical as well as literary and aesthetic. In addition, Johnson maintained contacts with his counterparts in Germany, France, and America, importing and exporting a variety of volumes for translation. Johnson's choices of Continental books to publish in English translation -- the main subject of this essay -- show some distinctive patterns that are independent of the most popular trends. Although he was aware of the commercial successes to be made, and although the Analytical Review regularly reviewed the works of Kotzebue and Goethe, Johnson s list avoids these best-selling dramas and novels (with just a few interesting exceptions). As with the rest of his list, in the area of Continental literature he is most interested in promoting the moral and philosophical element in German thought, in an age when this element is still all but unknown among the English public. A revealing contrast is provided by the bookseller James Remnant, Johnson's main conduit to the German book-selling trade during the time that Remnant ran an English-language bookstore in Hamburg (Tyson 137). After returning to London from Hamburg in 1794, Remnant continued his own German import line and chose to concentrate heavily on Goethe, Schiller, and Kotzebue, as well as Kant. …


Polyaniline (PANI) coated Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres (h-Fe3O4@PANI) have been successfully synthesized and investigated as anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). The structure and composition analyses have been performed by employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results show a good combination between h-Fe3O4 and PANI with a conductive state. When evaluated as anode materials for LIBs, the h-Fe3O4@PANI nanocomposites exhibit excellent LIB performance with enhanced reversible capacity, good cycling performance and rate capability as compared to h-Fe3O4 and solid Fe3O4 (s-Fe3O4) nanospheres. The improved electrochemical performance of the nanocomposite is considered due to the hollow nature of the products and the coated PANI layers.


We present the design and characterization of a wide-angle optical absorber in the near infrared regime, based on an optical board embedded with periodic optical black holes using graded index photonic crystals. The implementation of the proposed system is validated within the lowest band. The finite element method is employed to simulate the electromagnetic wave propagation of the designed device. Moreover, the influences of the angles of wave incidence and periods of optical black holes on absorption efficiency are studied. The results show that the optical absorber using a thin metal coating at the bottom exhibits a high-efficiency absorption performance over a wide range of angles. Since the optical black hole is composed of the full dielectric materials, it eases the experimental fabrication.


Fast, real‐time detection of gases and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is an emerging research field relevant to most aspects of modern society, from households to health facilities, industrial units, and military environments. Sensor features such as high sensitivity, selectivity, fast response, and low energy consumption are essential. Liquid crystal (LC)‐based sensors fulfill these requirements due to their chemical diversity, inherent self‐assembly potential, and reversible molecular order, resulting in tunable stimuli‐responsive soft materials. Sensing platforms utilizing thermotropic uniaxial systems—nematic and smectic—that exploit not only interfacial phenomena, but also changes in the LC bulk, are demonstrated. Special focus is given to the different interaction mechanisms and tuned selectivity toward gas and VOC analytes. Furthermore, the different experimental methods used to transduce the presence of chemical analytes into macroscopic signals are discussed and detailed examples are provided. Future perspectives and trends in the field, in particular the opportunities for LC‐based advanced materials in artificial olfaction, are also discussed.


The cytoskeleton is a complex network of highly ordered intracellular filaments that plays a central role in controlling cell shape, division, functions, and interactions in human organs and tissues, but dysregulation of this network can contribute to numerous human diseases, including cancer. To clarify the various functions of the cytoskeleton and its role in cancer progression, in this chapter, we will discuss the microfilament (actin cytoskeleton), microtubule (β‐tubulin), and intermediate filament (keratins, cytokera‐ tins, vimentin, and lamins) cytoskeletal structures; analyze the physiological functions of the cytoskeleton and its regulation of cell differentiation; and investigate the roles of the cytoskeleton in cancer progression, the epithelial‐mesenchymal transition process (EMT), and the mechanisms of multidrug resistance (MDR) in relation to the cytoskel‐ eton. Importantly, the cytoskeleton, as a key regulator of the transcription and expres ‐ sion of many genes, is known to be involved in various physiological and pathological processes, which makes the cytoskeleton a novel and highly effective target for assessing the response to antitumor therapy in cancer. vitronectin, vimentin, smooth‐muscle actin, and FGFR2


When a towed sonar array is straight, it has the difficulty that it cannot distinguish a contact on the left from one at the same angle on the right. When the array is not straight and its shape known, we calculate the probability that the left–right ambiguity is resolved correctly, using the Neyman–Pearson hypothesis testing framework, assuming a delay-sum beamformer, a single-frequency contact, and Gaussian noise. We also initially consider the noise field to be uncorrelated and show that the evaluation of the probability of correct resolution reduces to evaluating a one-dimensional integral. We find, as expected, that the probability increases, as the signal-to-noise ratio and the lateral deviation of the array from straight increase. For demonstration purposes, we also evaluate the probability of correct resolution for two representative shapes the array might assume in practice. Finally, we consider a more realistic, correlated noise field and we show that the initial assumption of an uncorrelated noise field provides a good approximation when the lateral deviation of the array is sufficiently large.


While Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have demonstrated promising performance on multiple vision tasks, their learning dynamics are not yet well understood, both in theory and in practice. To address this issue, we study GAN dynamics in a simple yet rich parametric model that exhibits several of the common problematic convergence behaviors such as vanishing gradients, mode collapse, and diverging or oscillatory behavior. In spite of the non-convex nature of our model, we are able to perform a rigorous theoretical analysis of its convergence behavior. Our analysis reveals an interesting dichotomy: a GAN with an optimal discriminator provably converges, while first order approximations of the discriminator steps lead to unstable GAN dynamics and mode collapse. Our result suggests that using first order discriminator steps (the de-facto standard in most existing GAN setups) might be one of the factors that makes GAN training challenging in practice.


Extraction of effective features of objects is an important area of research in the intelligent processing of image data. A well-known feature in images is texture which can be used for image description, segmentation and classification. This paper presents a novel texture extraction method using the principles of geostatistics and the concept of entropy in information theory. Experimental results on medical image data have shown the superior performance of the proposed approach over some popular texture extraction methods.


There have been considerable debate and controversy about the effects of gentrification on neighborhoods and the people residing in them. This paper draws on a unique large-scale consumer credit database to examine the relationship between gentrification and the credit scores of residents in the City of Philadelphia from 2002 to 2014. We find that gentrification is positively associated with changes in residents' credit scores on average for those who stay, and this relationship is stronger for residents in neighborhoods in the more advanced stages of gentrification. Gentrification is also positively associated with credit score changes for less advantaged residents (low credit score, older, or longer term residents, and those without mortgages) if they do not move, though the magnitude of this positive association is smaller than for their more advantaged counterparts. Nonetheless, moving from gentrifying neighborhoods is negatively associated with credit score changes for less advantaged residents, residents who move to lower-income neighborhoods, and residents who move to any other neighborhoods within the city (instead of outside the city) relative to those who stay. The results demonstrate how the association between gentrification and residents' financial health is uneven, especially for less advantaged residents.


Introduction: Critical systems heuristics (CSH) draws on the substantive work and philosophy of C. West
Churchman, a systems engineer who, along with Russell Ackoff during the 1950s and 1960s, defined operations research in the United States. Churchman later pioneered developments in the 1970s of what is now known as 'soft' and 'critical' systemic thinking and practice in the domain of social or human activity systems. Churchman died in 2004. His legacy lies in signalling the importance of being alert to value-laden boundary judgements when making evaluations. Boundaries are what we socially construct
in designing and evaluating any human activity system of interest (e.g., any situation of concern from a kinship group, an organisation, or a larger entity such as a national health system). The primary boundary of any human activity systems is defined by 'purpose'. Churchman's work is characterised by a continual ethical commitment to the overarching purpose of improved human well-being. In order
to fulfil such purposeful activity, there is always a need to broaden inquiry from the particular system of focus so as to appreciate what Churchman calls the total relevant system. The effectiveness and efficiency of a system of interest depends on the actual boundary judgements associated with that system of interest. Churchman first identified 9 conditions or categories (including the category 'purposei?½) associated with any purposeful system of interest in his book The Design of Inquiring
Systems [1, 2]. He later extended these to 12 categories in a book provocatively entitled The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, significantly taking into account 3 extra factors (i?½enemiesi?½) that lie outside the actual system of interest but which can be affected by, and therein have an effect on, the performance of the system [1, 2]. In the early 1980s a doctorate student of Churchman from Switzerland, Werner Ulrich, translated Churchman's 12 categories into an operational set of 12 questions which he called critical systems heuristics [3]. Ulrich returned to Switzerland and worked with CSH as a public health and social welfare policy analyst and program evaluator [4].
Section 2 introduces the basic toolbox of CSH, along with suggestions on when to use it and the benefits of its use. Section 3 will guide you through a suggested operational use of CSH questions in a process of evaluation. Section 4 provides a summary of an extensive case study in which CSH was used for evaluating the role of public participation in natural resource-use planning. Section 5 provides
some advice for the practitioner in developing skills on using CSH for evaluation.


Coherentism maintains that coherent beliefs are more likely to be true than incoherent beliefs, and that coherent evidence provides more confirmation of a hypothesis when the evidence is made coherent by the explanation provided by that hypothesis. Although probabilistic models of credence ought to be well-suited to justifying such claims, negative results from Bayesian epistemology have suggested otherwise. In this essay we argue that the connection between coherence and confirmation should be understood as a relation mediated by the causal relationships among the evidence and a hypothesis, and we offer a framework for doing so by fitting together probabilistic models of coherence, confirmation, and causation. We show that the causal structure among the evidence and hypothesis is sometimes enough to determine whether the coherence of the evidence boosts confirmation of the hypothesis, makes no difference to it, or even reduces it. We also show that, ceteris paribus, it is not the coherence of the evidence that boosts confirmation, but rather the ratio of the coherence of the evidence to the coherence of the evidence conditional on a hypothesis.


Movement-based interaction design is increasingly popular, with application domains ranging from dance, sport, gaming to physical rehabilitation. In a workshop at CHI 2016, a set of prominent artists, game design-ers, and interaction designers embarked on a research journey to explore what we came to refer to as "aesthetics in soma-based design". In this follow-up work-shop, we would like to take the next step, shifting from discussing the philosophical underpinnings we draw upon to explain and substantiate our practice, to form our own interaction design theory and conceptualisations. We propose that soma-based design theory needs practical, pragmatic as well as analytical study -- otherwise the felt dimension will be missing. We will consider how such tacit knowledge can be articulated, documented and shared. To ground the discussion firmly in the felt experience of our own practice, the work-shop is organised as a joint practical design work session, supported by analytical study.


The ways in which states are connected to each other through regional and broader international systems has had a profound impact on patterns of state resilience and state fragility in the developing world. The Crisis States Research Centre is studying how regional and global institutions and axes of confl ict affect processes of state collapse and reconstruction. We present some initial fi ndings on the role that regional organisations play in peace and security, recent research on international involvement in security sector reform, and an innovative study on the long-term impact of military interventions.


Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of secondary tasks on the driving performance of individuals with mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Background: Studies suggest detrimental impacts of driving with TBI or while distracted but the impact of driver distraction on TBI drivers is not well documented. Method: Bayesian regression models were used to estimate the effect of relatively simple secondary tasks on driving performance of TBI and healthy control (HC) drivers. A driving simulator was used to develop prior distribution of task effects on driving performance for HCs. An on-road study was conducted with TBI and HC drivers to generate effect estimates for the posterior distributions. The Bayesian models were also compared to frequentist models. Results: During a coin-sorting task, all drivers exhibited larger maximum lateral acceleration and larger standard deviation of speed than in a baseline driving segment. There were no significant driving performance differences between the TBI and the HC drivers during the tasks. Across all tasks, TBI drivers spent more time looking at the tasks and made more frequent glances toward the tasks. Conclusions: The findings show that even drivers with mild TBI have significantly longer and more glances toward the tasks compared to the HCs. Application: This study demonstrates a Bayesian approach and how the results differ from frequentist statistics. Using prior distributions in a Bayesian model helps account for the probabilities associated with otherwise unknown parameters. This method strengthens the Bayesian parameter estimates compared to that of a frequentist model.


The insulator/ferromagnet interface system of hexagonal boron nitride on Ni111 was investigated with spin- and angle-resolved inverse photoemission and spin-polarized secondary electron emission. We identified the theoretically predicted boron nitride BN interface state at 1.7 eV above the Fermi level. The interface state is found to be influenced by the ferromagnetic substrate, which is reflected in a magnetic exchange splitting of 130 50 meV. Parallel to the surface, it shows a free-electron-like Ek dispersion with an effective mass of 1.1 0.2me. Furthermore, we found a spectral feature at 2.2 eV above the Fermi level, which we attribute to indirect transitions into a region of high density of BN-induced states.


This monograph examines the religious and mythological concepts of Zeus from prehistoric times until the Early Archaic period. The research was performed as an interdisciplinary study involving the evidence of the Homeric poems, archaeology, linguistics, as well as comparative Indo-European material. It is argued that Greek Zeus, as a god with certainly established Indo-European origins, was essentially a god of the open sky and the supposed progenitor of everything, a supreme, but not ruling deity; initially, he must have been distinct from the god of storms, who, for unknown reasons, completely disappeared from Greek religion and mythology by as early as the Late Bronze Age. From the time of Homer, Zeus-Father appeared as a storm-god, the autocratic ruler of the universe, and an offspring of elder deities, on the level of mythology. Such a concept does not correspond to the traditional Indo-European patterns and seems to have been formed under the influence of Near-Eastern concepts of the supreme almighty god, on the one hand, and the Cretan-Minoan concept of a young god/divine child, on the other. However, the Homeric concept of Zeus was adopted by his practising cults much later, only from the Late Archaic period.


Colour Image Processing (CIP) is useful for inspection system and Automatic
Packing Lines Systems. CIP usually needs expensive and special hardware as well as
software to extract colour from image. Most of CIP software use statistical methods to
extract colours and some system use Neural Network such as Counter-Propagation and
Back-Propagation .
Some researchers had used Neural Network methods to recognize colour of
Commission Internationale de L'Ec1airage (CIE) Models either L *u *v or L *a *b.
CIE colour components need special and expensive devices to extract their
values from an image. However, this project will use RED, GREEN, BLUE (RGB)
colour components, which can be read from an image. In this research, RGB values are used to represent the colour. RGB values are
used in two forms. The first form is the actual values that are used in PPM File Format
within (0,255) and the second form is normalized RGB values within (0, I ). Back-Propagation
Neural Network is used to recognize colour in RGB values.
It is found that RGB is useful when used with Neural Network and the Normalized
RGB value is faster in the learning of neural network.


Background Exhaled nitric oxide is an easy noninvasive test, which is used for monitoring of different airway diseases. The aim of this study is to assess the usefulness of the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in patients with chronic or recurrent coughing. Methods In this cross-sectional case- controlled observational study; we measured the (FeNO) level among children suffering from different chronic airway diseases (Asthma and Bronchiectasis). The study was conducted on 40 patients (5 years and up, both males and females) diagnosed clinically and radiologically as bronchial asthma (n = 20) and lung bronchiectasis of different aetiology (n = 20) compared to 40 age-and sex-matched controls. FeNO was measured using NO breath® instrument (I. D. NBR022714, Bedfont Scientific Ltd, UK). It was significantly elevated in children with asthma compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001). FeNO was significantly lower in patients with bronchiectasis compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001). FeNO levels in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) (n = 3) were very low whereas the differences between congenital bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis levels were not significant. Conclusion The study concluded that FeNO measurement is an important diagnostic test and screening biomarker for chronic paediatric airway diseases. Although FeNO can't differentiate between causes of bronchiectasis, It can be used as a diagnostic test in PCD as it has significantly low levels.


Objective

An ongoing controversial issue is the developmental delay of infants associated with methadone treatment during pregnancy. Previous studies focused on Caucasian population, and most did not use a comprehensive assessment tool. This study used an appropriate assessment tool to evaluate these infants in a Taiwanese population.

Methods

The study proceeded from July 2006 to March 2010 in a large teaching psychiatric hospital in Taiwan. Three domains of the Bayley Scale of Infant Development, 3rd edition (Bayley-III) was used to evaluate the development of infants with histories of prenatal exposure to methadone. The evaluations were performed together by the same child psychiatrist and psychologist at the same month but the social-emotional rating relied on reports of the caregivers.

Results

Eight children and their mothers participated. Five of eight children showed significant developmental delay; three had developmental delay in language composition, three had developmental delay in cognitive composition, but no developmental delay was seen for the social-emotional portion. Parental neglect was noticed in most cases.

Conclusions A substantial number of infants showed developmental delay. The use of methadone and a chaotic life-style associated with illicit drugs use during pregnancy both contributed to this developmental delay. Large studies are needed to clarify the risk of methadone for developmental delay in infants.


Research shows that competency is a better indicator of employee potential than intelligence alone. This 5-page fact sheet outlines ten competency areas relevant to Extension county faculty, as well as examples of how Extension faculty might embody these qualities in their work. Written by Amy Harder, and published by the UF Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, September 2015.
AEC574/WC236: Priority Competencies Needed by UF/IFAS Extension County Faculty (ufl.edu)


Background: Individual parturients experience pain differently, and it is unknown how these differences affect their requirements for labor analgesics. Materials and Methods: Cuff algometry of the upper limb was used to determine the pain thresholds and temporal summation of pain scores in nulliparous women about to undergo induction of labor. Analgesia was provided, upon request, with a patient controlled epidural analgesia infusion of bupivacaine and fentanyl. Nurse-administered epidural boluses of bupivacaine or lidocaine were given for breakthrough pain. Partial Spearman correlations were used to correlate the cuff algometry measurements with the amount of analgesic medication required by the patient. Results: There was no significant correlation between any of the algometry measurements and the number of patient or nurse administered bupivacaine boluses. There was a correlation of 0.7 (P = 0.001) between the temporal summation scores and the hourly number of nurse-administered epidural lidocaine boluses; however, this was based on only 3 patients who required lidocaine boluses. Conclusions: The use of pre-labor cuff algometry of the upper limb does not correlate with the patient epidural analgesic requirements and subsequent analgesia administration.


Abstract This research was motivated by the author's personal experiences with various breathing methods as well as meaningful breathing experiences reported by clients, colleagues and friends. The meaning of breathing is discussed in relation to consciousness, bodiliness, spirituality, illness prevention and health promotion. Experiencing the meaning of breathing is to experience more meaning in life itself. Experiential vignettes confirm that breathing skills may be regarded as an original method of survival, energy control, improving quality of life, preventing illness and promoting health.


Locke defined a person as 'a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places" (Essay, II, xxvii, 2). To many who have been excited by the same thought as Locke, continuity of consciousness has seemed to be an integral part of what we mean by a person. The intuitive appeal of the idea that to secure the continuing identity of a person one experience must flow into the next experience in some 'stream of consciousoness" is evidenced by the number of attempts in the so-called constructionalist tradition to explain continuity of consciousness in terms of memory, and then build or reconstruct the idea of a person with these materials. The philosophical difficulty of the idea is plain from the failure of these attempts. Hindsight suggests this was as inevitable as the failure of the attempt (if anyone ever made it) to make bricks from straw alone—and as a failure just as uninteresting. Which is not to deny that the memory theorist might get from it a sense that some of the difficulties in his programme have arisen from his leaving flesh and bones, the stuff of persons, out of his construction.


Chronic overnutrition creates chronic hyperglycemia that can gradually induce insulin resistance and insulin secretion impairment. These disorders, if not intervened, will eventually be followed by appearance of frank diabetes. The mechanisms of this chronic pathogenic process are complex but have been suggested to involve production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress. In this review, I highlight evidence that reductive stress imposed by overflux of NADH through the mitochondrial electron transport chain is the source of oxidative stress, which is based on establishments that more NADH recycling by mitochondrial complex I leads to more electron leakage and thus more ROS production. The elevated levels of both NADH and ROS can inhibit and inactivate glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), respectively, resulting in blockage of the glycolytic pathway and accumulation of glycerol 3-phospate and its prior metabolites along the pathway. This accumulation then initiates all those alternative glucose metabolic pathways such as the polyol pathway and the advanced glycation pathways that otherwise are minor and insignificant under euglycemic conditions. Importantly, all these alternative pathways lead to ROS production, thus aggravating cellular oxidative stress. Therefore, reductive stress followed by oxidative stress comprises a major mechanism of hyperglycemia-induced metabolic syndrome.


We study the problem of a decision-maker having to select one of many competing alternatives (e.g., choosing between projects, designs, or suppliers) whose future revenues are a priori unknown and modeled as random variables of known probability distributions. The decision-maker can pay to test each alternative to reveal its specific revenue realization (e.g., by conducting market research), and her goal is to maximize the expected revenue of the selected alternative minus the testing costs. This model captures an interesting trade-off between gaining revenue of a high-yield alternative and spending resources to reduce the uncertainty in selecting it. The combinatorial nature of the problem leads to a dynamic programming (DP) formulation with high-dimensional state space that is computationally intractable. By characterizing the structure of the optimal policy, we derive efficient optimal and near-optimal policies that are simple and easy-to-compute. In fact, these policies are also myopic -- they only consider a limited horizon of one test. Moreover, our policies can be described using intuitive `testing intervals' around the expected revenue of each alternative, and in many cases, the dynamics of an optimal policy can be explained by the interaction between the testing intervals of various alternatives.


An optimal control approach is used to solve the problem of routing in sensor networks where the goal is to maximize the network's lifetime. We show that in a fixed topology case there exists an optimal policy consisting of fixed routing probabilities which may be obtained by solving a set of relatively simple Non-Linear Programming (NLP) problems. An alternative problem is also considered where, in addition to routing, we also allocate a total initial energy over the network nodes with the same network lifetime maximization objective. We prove that the solution to this problem is given by a policy that depletes all node energies at the same time and that the corresponding energy allocation and routing probabilities are obtained by solving a single NLP problem. Numerical examples are included to contrast the maximum lifetime we obtain to that resulting from alternative routing policies.


This study was conducted to assess the factors that affect pig litter size, proportion of live pigs at birth, number of inseminations per conception, and efficiency of artificial insemination. The main factors assessed were sow breed (n = 2), sire breed (n = 3), sow parity (n = 7) and insemination method (n = 2). The sow breeds used were Landrace, LL (n = 27) and Landrace × Pietran crossbreds, LP (n = 37); boar breeds used were Landrace (LL), Pietran (PP) and Landrace × Pietran crossbreds (LP). Sows were randomly inseminated either by boar or artificially, with semen freshly imported from Belgium to Rwanda. Landrace (LL) sows had significantly smaller (P 0.05) affect the number of inseminations per conception, litter size, and proportion of piglets born live. Sow parity was found to have a linear relationship with a mean litter size at birth of 6.9±0.43 piglets for primiparous sows and 15.2±1.12 piglets for a sow of parity 7. However, the number of piglets born dead increased with parity, peaking at 3.0±0.66 (parity 7), while it was only 0.2±0.2 for parity 1. Therefore, the LP crossbred sows and Pietran sires are recommended. Artificial insemination should be promoted since it performed as well as natural insemination but provides other advantages such as African swine fever and inbreeding prevention, and avoids boar management costs.

 Key words: Breeding, genetic merit, performance, Pietran, pigs.


Abstract Understanding the physical and chemical properties of carbonate minerals at extreme conditions is important for modeling the deep carbon cycle, because they represent likely hosts for carbon in the lower mantle. Previous high-pressure studies have identified a structural and electronic phase transition in siderite using X-ray diffraction and X-ray emission spectroscopy. The Fe end-member of the carbonate group, siderite (FeCO3), exhibits unique high-pressure behavior that we investigated using a combination of in situ Raman spectroscopy, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, and theoretical methods. In this Raman spectroscopy study, we observed the appearance of a new CO3 symmetric stretching mode at 20 cm−1 lower frequency beginning at approximately 46 GPa. This softening is due to the lengthening of the C-O bonds as a result of a combination of rotation and volume shrinkage of the FeO6 octahedra while siderite undergoes the isostructural volume collapse and electronic spin transition.


It is well-known that Tolkien disliked The Chronicles of Narnia, but what were his reasons? They appear to be complex and manifold. Part of the problem lies in the fact that we have only one (published) statement from Tolkien on the matter, and it remains ambiguous at best. Writing in 1964, he observes, "It is sad that 'Narnia' and all that part of C.S.L.'s work should remain outside the range of my sympathy, as much of my work was outside his" (Letters 352). This tells us almost nothing. My intention in this article is to come to terms with why Tolkien disliked Narnia. Many reasons have been offered, but it is not always easy to separate the facts from the fancy; more often than not, the lines between the two have been blurred. I will begin by reconsidering the secondhand accounts of Roger Lancelyn Green, Nan C.L. Scott, and George Sayer; Tolkien evidently told each of them at different times why he disliked Narnia. Second, I will defend Humphrey Carpenter's accounts in Tolkien and The Inklings, although several scholars have called them into question. Finally, I wish to introduce and analyze an unpublished letter in which Tolkien briefly discusses Narnia. The most well-known secondhand account is certainly Green's. In 1974, he published a joint biography with Walter Hooper entitled C.S. Lewis: A Biography. In it, Green recalls that after Lewis had shared the opening chapters of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Tolkien, "who had disliked it intensely," Lewis then read it to Green. Shortly after, Tolkien saw Green and remarked, "I hear you've been reading Jack's [Lewis's] children's story. It really won't do, you know! I mean to say: 'Nymphs and their Ways, The Love-Life of a Faun'. Doesn't he know what he's talking about?" (qtd. in Green and Hooper 241). (1) Green provides no explanation of what Tolkien meant; however, this has not prevented critics from interpreting Tolkien's comment. Joe R. Christopher observes that Nymphs and their Ways is one of the books which appears on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase in Chapter II of The Lion. According to Christopher, Tolkien was bothered by this scene because Lewis was distorting and sentimentalizing the myth ("Narnian Exile" 41). He suggests, "[I]f Lucy had really met a faun--that is, a satyr--the result would have been a rape, not a tea party" (Christopher, C.S. Lewis 111). Hence, the reason Tolkien alludes to The Love-life of a Faun--a book that doesn't actually appear on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase but is absurd all the same. In short, Lewis failed to maintain the mythical archetype of fauns as lustful. From an aesthetic standpoint, Christopher's argument certainly seems valid. In contrast to Lewis, Tolkien preserved the traditional qualities of his races in The Lord of the Rings. In Appendix F, he notes that dwarfs have "at last" been relegated "to nonsense-stories in which they have become mere figures of fun"; he has employed the unconventional plural dwarves to "remove them a little, perhaps, from the sillier tales of these latter days" (1137). He comments similarly on the notion of elves: "This old word was indeed the only one available, and was once fitted to apply to such memories of this people as Men preserved [...]. But it has been diminished, and to many it may now suggest fancies either pretty or silly, as unlike to the Quendi of old as are butterflies to the falcon" (1137). Rather than adopt the modern notions of these races, popularized in such works as J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tolkien sought to restore the historical integrity of these beings, found in such works as the Volsunga saga, Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (2) Lewis did not take the same approach towards his stories. In A Preface to Paradise Lost, he suggests that "mythical poetry ought not to attempt novelty in respect of its ingredients" but "[w]hat it does with the ingredients may be as novel as you please" (54). …


Ending an armed conflict and establishing a just, peaceful and orderly society is a complex process. There is a normative acceptance of the key stages in building the peace that is largely focused on an elite political process and which involves a declaration of ceasefires, multiparty negotiations, signing a peace agreement, holding elections to establish a new government with a degree of popular legitimacy, beginning the process of reform of key institutions and perhaps addressing issues of accountability for the violence and meeting the needs of the victims. This work usually focuses on ensuring the involvement of local political leaders and the various key parties to the conflict, and is often dependent on the support of sections of the international community. Sometimes the process involves the active involvement of wider sections of the community, but often these are treated as relatively passive actors, and it is (questionably) assumed that benefits of peace will naturally trickle down to the wider population. Having held elections, established a new government and begun the process of reform it is assumed that the bulk of the work has been achieved. At this point the international community generally turns its gaze elsewhere and assumes that the process of peace-building will continue under its own momentum.


One dominant manifestation of tropical Atlantic variability (TAV) takes place in March-April-May in the form of a strong inter-hemispheric sea surface temperature gradient coupled to a cross-equatorial near surface atmospheric flow. The variability of this circulation pattern affects the position of the intertropical convergence zone and the regional climate in the surrounding areas. In this study, we investigated the effect of the South Atlantic atmospheric variability on this phenomenon. We found that southern summer atmospheric variability (and to a lesser extent winter variability) can play a preconditioning role in the onset of inter-hemispheric anomalies in the deep tropics during the following austral fall. It does so by inducing a sea surface temperature anomaly in the southern tropics that initiates local thermodynamic air-sea feedbacks. This remote influence of the Southern Hemisphere on TAV is contrasted with the remote influence of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during austral summer. The results suggest that to fully understand TAV and its predictability it is necessary to consider not only the remote influences from ENSO and NAO, but also the influence from the South Atlantic atmospheric circulation.


Abstract From the early Cambrian of Yunnan, China, new chancellorid scleritomes assigned to Allonnia junyuani new species are described and compared with scleritomes of Chancelloria eros Walcott, 1920 from the Middle Cambrian of Utah, USA and isolated phosphatized chancellorid sclerites from the Georgina Basin of North Australia. Characters of the entirely preserved chancellorids offer new insight into the paleobiology of Chancelloridae. An irregular thickening at the inferred base of the narrow body end of Chancelloria eros from Utah is interpreted as a root bulb that anchored the sessile animal in the soft bottom sediment. Sclerites show gradual increase in size from the narrower towards the broader upper end of the chancellorid body. A central "gastral" lumen was not directly observed in any of the investigated specimens, but the orientation of sclerites towards the outer body surface indicates that the fossils are secondarily flattened due to compaction and were originally hollow. Taphonomy of isolated chancellorid sclerites from the Georgina Basin, Australia, indicates a biomineralization very different from that of sponge spicules, including the spongin spiculoids of demospongid Keratosa. Allonnia junyuani from Chengjiang (Yunnan) exhibits a prominent epidermis, probably with stable epithelian cell-to-cell connections. This feature excludes a sponge affiliation of the Chancelloridae and points towards a systematic position of this group within the epithelian-bearing animals and thus well above the Porifera.


Context. In the last decade, astronomers have found a new type of supernova called 'superluminous supernovae' (SLSNe) due to their high peak luminosity and long light-curves. These hydrogen-free explosions (SLSNe-I) can be seen to z ∼ 4 and therefore, offer the possibility of probing the distant Universe. Aims. We aim to investigate the possibility of detecting SLSNe-I using ESA's Euclid satellite, scheduled for launch in 2020. In particular, we study the Euclid Deep Survey (EDS) which will provide a unique combination of area, depth and cadence over the mission. Methods. We estimated the redshift distribution of Euclid SLSNe-I using the latest information on their rates and spectral energy distribution, as well as known Euclid instrument and survey parameters, including the cadence and depth of the EDS. To estimate the uncertainties, we calculated their distribution with two different set-ups, namely optimistic and pessimistic, adopting different star formation densities and rates. We also applied a standardization method to the peak magnitudes to create a simulated Hubble diagram to explore possible cosmological constraints. Results. We show that Euclid should detect approximately 140 high-quality SLSNe-I to z ∼ 3.5 over the first five years of the mission (with an additional 70 if we lower our photometric classification criteria). This sample could revolutionize the study of SLSNe-I at z > 1 and open up their use as probes of star-formation rates, galaxy populations, the interstellar and intergalactic medium. In addition, a sample of such SLSNe-I could improve constraints on a time-dependent dark energy equation-of-state, namely w(a), when combined with local SLSNe-I and the expected SN Ia sample from the Dark Energy Survey. Conclusions. We show that Euclid will observe hundreds of SLSNe-I for free. These luminous transients will be in the Euclid data-stream and we should prepare now to identify them as they offer a new probe of the high-redshift Universe for both astrophysics and cosmology.


»Konventionentheoretische Perspektiven auf die politische Ökonomie des Rechts. Eine Einleitung«. This introduction and the contributions of this HSR Special Issue "Conventions and Law from a Historical Perspective" present the conception and analysis of law from the perspective of the French institutionalist approach of the economics of convention (EC). From the pragmatic viewpoint of EC, law is regarded as an institution through which actors "identify" the situation in which they interact regularly. Law can be seen as a "guide" in the coordinations in which actors are engaged and committed. So law is not conceived as simple external constraint for economic action because law has to be interpreted and mobilized by competent actors. Therefore, EC understands law as internal to situational coordinations. From its beginnings (three decades ago), EC has included the analysis of law into its institutional research. Also from its beginnings, EC has developed a transdisciplinary approach, refusing the traditional "division of law" between history, sociology, economics, and law science. The introduction presents some main concepts (as convention of State) and positions of EC in the analysis of law. This introduction also relates EC's perspective to neoliberalism, economic neo-institutionalism, new historical institutionalism, and the Weberian sociology of law. The contributions of this HSR Special Issue are presented. They cover overviews about EC's research on (mainly economic) law, empirical applications, and theoretical considerations about law from a conventionalist perspective.


In the wake of the 2007–09 global financial crisis, there has been heightened interest in correctly gauging the probability of large losses on assets, particularly house prices. If an asset exhibits GARCH effects in its returns, there is a much higher probability of large losses during volatile periods than standard mean-variance analysis indicates. While there has been much research on regional home prices in the United Kingdom, the focus has been on the conditional mean and convergence rather than on the possibility of GARCH effects and volatility clustering. The findings of this study reveal that the majority of U.K. regions indeed exhibit GARCH effects, and these GARCH effects have heterogeneous impacts on returns across regions. The existence of these GARCH effects in the majority of the U.K. regions has many important implications, ranging from proper portfolio management to government policy.


The current work investigates the potential of two low-cost off-the-shelf quadcopters for multi-view reconstruction of sub-vertical rock faces. The two platforms used are a DJI Phantom 1 equipped with a Gopro Hero 3+ Black and a DJI Phantom 3 Professional with integrated camera. The study area is a small sub-vertical rock face. Several flights were performed with both cameras set in time-lapse mode. Hence, images were taken automatically but the flights were performed manually as the investigated rock face is very irregular which required manual adjustment of the yaw and roll for optimal coverage. The digital images were processed with commercial SfM software packages. Several processing settings were investigated in order to find out the one providing the most accurate 3D reconstruction of the rock face. To this aim, all 3D models produced with both platforms are compared to a point cloud obtained with a terrestrial laser scanner. Firstly, the difference between the use of coded ground control targets and the use of natural features was studied. Coded targets generally provide the best accuracy, but they need to be placed on the surface, which is not always possible, as sub-vertical rock faces are not easily accessible. Nevertheless, natural features can provide a good alternative if wisely chosen as shown in this work. Secondly, the influence of using fixed interior orientation parameters or self-calibration was investigated. The results show that, in the case of the used sensors and camera networks, self-calibration provides better results. To support such empirical finding, a numerical investigation using a Monte Carlo simulation was performed.


In a recent article, Yermack (2015) argues that bitcoin is not money because it functions poorly as a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. We offer a more conventional view. We maintain that the standard approach classifies an item as money if and only if it functions as a commonly-accepted medium of exchange. Then, we show that the demand for bitcoin is comparable to the demand for many government-issued monies. Finally, we argue that bitcoin is money — though perhaps only over a relatively small domain at present.


Thermal effect in crystals is the main obstacle blocking diode-pumped solid state laser to get high and stable output power. Diffusion bonding crystal has been demonstrated to be an effective method to relieve the thermal lensing theoretically based on the numerical heat analysis to the end-pumped anisotropic laser crystal. The temperature distributions in Nd:YVO4/YVO4 composite crystal and conventional crystal were analyzed and compared. The end-pumped Nd:YVO4/YVO4 composite crystal laser was designed and set up with z-cavity. The maximum output powers of 9.87 W at 1064 nm and 6.14 W at 532 nm were obtained at the incident pump power of 16.5 W. The highest optical-optical conversion efficiencies were up to 59.8% at 1064 nm and 37.2% at 532 nm respectively.


A kinetic model describing the kraft cooking degradation reactions for softwood lignin and carbohydrates was developed in this thesis. The model satisfactorily predicted the data for modified as well as conventional cooking schemes, something which eluded earlier published models. The model considers four wood components (lignin, cellulose, glucomannan and xylan), each divided into three species. The dependence of hydroxide and hydrogen sulfide ion concentrations and temperature was considered. The rate expressions for the wood components were accompanied by an algebraic expression, denoted the distribution model, developed for describing how the equilibrium distribution of the medium and low reactive species depends upon the current cooking conditions. The proposed model, alongside previously published models was explored in terms of cooking selectivity in numerical experiments. It was seen that the earlier models gave diverse results, while the proposed model was in accordance with the accepted rules and industrial practice. The quantitative dependence of pulp yield and viscosity was determined, and the cooking variables could be given the following order of importance in terms of governing cooking selectivity: increased concentration of hydrogen sulfide ions has a larger beneficial effect than decreased concentration of hydroxide ions, which in turn has a larger beneficial effect than decreased temperature. A procedure for separation of the black liquor after an autoclave cook was developed, enabling analysis of the liquor bound inside the chips. The concentration trends for e.g. hydroxide ions and organic matter showed substantial differences between the free and the bound liquor. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and multivariate calibration techniques were used for black liquor characterisation, and the extracted data was subsequently used for kinetic modelling. Predictive calibration models were built for e.g. concentrations of hydroxide ions, dissolved lignin and dissolved organic matter. A scheme for improving the prediction errors was proposed. The effect of performing spectral pre-processing before, or integrated inside, cross-validation was investigated, using a Monte Carlo simulation approach which showed that pre-processing should be applied inside the cross-validation rounds in order to achieve a reliable estimate of the model performance.


As the national building stock ages and society needs for public facilities evolve, communities undertake revitalization projects to restore or repurpose existing structures to suit current needs. Community-based restoration projects involve a variety of stakeholders: owners, community members, and visitors to the community. Because some restoration projects involve derelict or at-risk structures, communities need a framework for prioritizing construction tasks and undertaking short term rehabilitation procedures in order to save the building in the short term while the community negotiates its appropriate use. Several frameworks exist to help communities prioritize tasks in terms of the building's structure or the long term energy efficiency of the building, but communities need a framework that provides the additional construct of allowing project stakeholders to begin baseline restoration tasks to prolong the immediate life of the facility. This research aims to develop a multi-step, straightforward framework for communities to approach restoration projects, conduct analyses, identify potential future use alternatives, and prioritize tasks for reconstruction. The paper first details the methodology used to develop the framework by presenting a case study of a historic dairy barn facility in Catawba, Virginia. The research uses the case study approach as a baseline for developing the framework, and then applies the framework back to the dairy barn restoration project in order to prioritize construction tasks and develop a path forward for the facility. In addition to the case study framework development, the research offers procedures and estimates specifically for the case study facility restoration. Finally, the paper offers recommendations for application and testing of the framework and offers areas for future examination.


I'll try to connect some of the bionian ideas about individual-group relationship to the specific manifestations of eating disorders, with regards to the fact that some of these remarks could be valid also for different pathologies. The aim of this paper is not so much to propose alternative aetiological explanations, as to stress the possibility of bringing group elements back to the individual dynamic. Though the most direct implications seem be addressed to group therapy, the stimulation is rather referred to a quality of analytic listening, in other words to a mental setting that is able to catch group implications as a basic characteristic of mental functioning.


Microaeration, a biological method to remove H2S from biogas by oxidizing it to elemental sulfur, has been shown to be highly efficient, simple and reliable. However, dosing air directly into an anaerobic fermenter results in the dilution of biogas with nitrogen and oxygen and can cause clogging of biogas pipes by elemental sulfur. These disadvantages can be overcome by the use of a biomembrane, i.e. a membrane covered with a biofilm that separates air and biogas. Experiments with bare, wet and biofilm membranes were conducted with a commercially available PVDF LM-P2 membrane to evaluate the chemical and biological oxidation rates of H2S. Different amounts of air were dosed through the biomembrane to determine the optimum air-to-biogas ratio, to evaluate methane losses and to evaluate biogas contamination with nitrogen and oxygen. The H2S content decreased from 3000 ppm to less than 100 ppm within two days. The loss of methane was 3.7% of the total methane production and the specific H2S removal rate was 32 mg m−2 d−1.


The thin layer drying kinetics of chillies (Capsicum annuum L) at different layers were experimentally investigated in a natural convective solar dryer with layer thicknesses of 1cm, 2cm and 3cm. The chillies were dried from an initial moisture content of about 81. 23% (w.b) to a moisture content of 7. 13% (w.b) and the moisture content of chillies were determined at 3 hours interval. The drying data were fitted with Page model. The values of the drying constants for the model was determined. The performance of the model was investigated by comparing the correlation coefficient (r), chi-square and root mean square error (RMSE) between the observed and predicted moisture ratios. The effects of layer thickness of chillies on the drying characteristics and drying time of drying process were evaluated. The results have shown that an increase in the drying layer thickness causes longer drying times. According to the results, Page model was found to be suitable for drying chillies with 1 cm layer thickness. The model satisfactorily described the drying curve of chillies with correlation coefficient of 0.814 and 0.022 and 0.132 for chi square and RMSE


Symbolic execution (SE) is a path-sensitive program analysis technique widely used in program verification. As it interprets a program path on symbolic inputs, SE generates a set of constraints called a path condition (PC). A PC describes possible concrete values that can traverse the same path during program execution. In order to determine whether such a set is non-empty, symbolic execution utilizes constraint solvers to determine whether a PC is satisfiable.
 The further SE explores a program path, the more constraints are added to PCs. This raises the issue of the scalability of the approach since SE needs more memory to store large PCs and a solver needs additional time to decide them. Approaches such as,slicing and decomposition of a PC addresses the latter but not the former issue.
 In this work we propose an orthogonal to the previous efforts technique that minimizes the number of constraints in a PC. The idea is to identify in the PC a set of linear constraints describing a polyhedron and use effiocient techniques to remove the redundant constraints in that set. In this work, we outsource this task to Parma Polyhedra Library (PPL). Our experiments have shown that this approach reduced the size of PCs and if a solver is insensitive to the PPL's constraint format the solver's time to decide PCs is reduced also.


This paper, for the first time, describes the development of a microbial biocathode for hydrogen production that is based on a naturally selected mixed culture of electrochemically active micro-organisms. This is achieved through a three-phase biocathode startup procedure that effectively turned an acetate- and hydrogen-oxidizing bioanode into a hydrogen-producing biocathode by reversing the polarity of the electrode. The microbial biocathode that was obtained in this way had a current density of about -1.2 A/Nm2 at a potential of -0.7 V. This was 3.6 times higher than that of a control electrode (-0.3 A/m2). Furthermore, the microbial biocathode produced about 0.63 m3 H2/m3 cathode liquid volume/day at a cathodic hydrogen efficiency of 49% during hydrogen yield tests, whereas the control electrode produced 0.08 m3 H2/m3 cathode liquid volume/day at a cathodic hydrogen efficiency of 25%. The effluent of the biocathode chamber could be used to inoculate another electrochemical cell that subsequently also developed an identical hydrogen-producing biocathode (-1.1 A/m2 at a potential of -0.7 V). Scanning electron micrographs of both microbial biocathodes showed a well-developed biofilm on the electrode surface.


Nowadays, many new window components known as complex fenestration systems (CFS), such as laser-cut panels and prismatic films, are considered in order to improve the overall luminous properties of building spaces : detailed studies of CFS remain necessary however to validate their daylighting performance. Physical and virtual models are commonly used to assess the daylighting performance of more conventional daylighting strategies within buildings. Several recent studies have reported significant errors for both physical and virtual modelling procedures, 10% modelling errors leading in both cases to 15% up to 170 % inaccuracy in modelled daylight factors assessment: no similar error analysis was carried out in a systematic way for daylighting strategies involving CFS use. A side lit office room equipped with double glazing and a CFS (laser-cut panel and prismatic film) was mocked-up for that purpose in a daylighting test module. The office room was reproduced by way of a 1:10 scale physical model placed under a scanning sky simulator, as well as a virtual model built-up by the way of Radiance lighting program. Several model parameters were varied, leading to the evaluation of model inaccuracies through a sensitivity analysis. The most significant factor (internal surface reflectance) is considered in this paper, leading to a first set of modeling guidelines.


Nowadays, the employment of high-resolution Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and RGB orthophotos has become fundamental in coastal system studies. This work aims to explore the potentiality of low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) surveys to monitor the geomorphic and vegetation state of coastal sand dunes by means of high-resolution (2–4 cm) RGB orthophotos and DSMs. The area of study (Punta Marina, Ravenna, Italy), in the North Adriatic Sea, was considered very suitable for these purposes because it involves a residual coastal dune system, damaged by decades of erosion, fragmentation and human intervention. Recently, part of the dune system has been involved in a restoration project aimed at limiting its deterioration. RGB orthophotos have been used to calculate the spectral information of vegetation and bare sand and therefore, to monitor changes in their relative cover area extension over time, through the using of semi-automatic classification algorithms in a GIS environment. Elevation data from high-resolution DSMs were used to identify the principal morphological features: (i) Dune Foot Line (DFL); (ii) Dune Crest Line (DCL); Dune seaward Crest Line (DsCL); Stable Vegetation line (SVL). The USGS tool DSAS was used to monitor dune dynamics, considering every source of error: a stable pattern was observed for the two crest lines (DCL and DsCL), and an advancing one for the others two features (DFL and SVL). Geomorphological data, as well as RGB data, confirmed the effectiveness of planting operations, since a constant and progressive increase of the vegetated cover area and consolidation of the dune system was observed, in a period with no energetic storms. The proposed methodology is rapid, low-cost and easily replicable by coastal managers to quantify the effectiveness of restoration projects.


Hypoxia is a condition in which the body lacks oxygen, and is a problem for some populations. Hypoxia in otherwise healthy adults normally happens in situations that would prohibit the use of standard diagnostic tools, such as underwater diving and aviation. Furthermore, the loss of consciousness that follows untreated hypoxia has a high chance of being fatal in these situations. Certain programs like NASA and some military training centers induce hypoxia in their students so they can understand firsthand what signs/symptoms occur, and that they need to fix a problem. However they do not provide a concise progression to these signs/symptoms, so it is impossible to know how severely an individual has become hypoxic. This implies a population that is in need of a way of knowing when they or their partner are beginning to suffer hypoxia without the use of an electronic device or tool, and to know how severe the hypoxia is.


There are numerous and significant challenges associated with leveraging electronic clinical data for purposes beyond treating an individual patient and getting paid for that care. Optimizing this secondary use of clinical data is a key underpinning of many health reform goals and triggers numerous issues related to data stewardship and, more broadly, data governance. These challenges often involve legal, policy and procedural issues related to the access, use and disclosure of electronic health record (EHR) data for quality improvement and research. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of health data governance by detailing the experiences of nine multi-site research initiatives across the country The rich set of experiences from these initiatives, as well as a number of resources used by project participants to work through various challenges, are documented and collected here for others wishing to learn from their collective efforts. The paper does not attempt to catalogue the full spectrum of governance issues that could potentially surface in the course of multi-site research projects using electronic clinical data. Rather, the goal was to provide a snapshot in time of data-sharing challenges and navigation strategies, as well as validation that privacy-protective, legally compliant clinical data-sharing across sites is currently possible. Finally, the paper also provides a foundation and framing for a broader community resource on governance – a "governance toolkit" – that will create a virtual space for the further discussion and sharing of promising practices.


Bread and circuses were what the Romans demanded of their emperors, and for more than 500 years spectacular events in amphitheaters, circuses, and theaters were the most important leisure activities of the masses in all parts of the Roman empire. In Rome itself, public holidays featuring magnificent and costly shows occupied more than half the year. Comedies and tragedies, pantomimes and bawdy folk plays were staged in the theaters, while in the arena of the Colosseum, opened in a.d. 80, gladiators fought in pairs or with wild animals to satisfy the blood lust of the crowd, and hundreds of thousands of race-goers packed the stands of the Circus Maximus to enjoy the thrills of chariot racing. The organization of games came to be part and parcel of electioneering in towns and cities and was increasingly used as a means to consolidate the power of the reigning emperor. Like the sports stars of today, the top gladiators, charioteers, and actors were folk heroes, and the power of their universal appeal was recognized and exploited by politicians and emperors alike. Two thousand years later, the Roman games may seem remote, but, as this superbly illustrated book shows, they satisfied the same need for excitement and hero-worship that gives rise to the intense media coverage of sports in our own time.


The eukariotic cytoskeleton consists of three major filament types: actin filaments, microtubules and intermediate filaments. While the first two filament types are highly conserved, intermediate filaments vary between cell types. Here, we focus on the intermediate filament vimentin, which occurs mesenchymal cells. A defining feature of intermediate filaments is their assembly process. The filaments assemble in a hierarchical manner from tetrameric complexes of half-staggered antiparalell coiled-coils. These tetrameric structures then align laterally to form unit-length filaments which in turn form filaments by annealing longitudinally. Using fluorescence microscopy techniques we perform experiments on vimentin filaments in vitro:
Sub-unit exchange between two differently labeled filament populations is observed  to depend on the filaments cross-section polymorphism. We find that increasing polymorphism leads to a faster sub-unit exchange process. Thus, vimentin intermediate filaments are found to be dynamic structures. Notably these observations are made in the absence of cellular regulatory mechanisms.
Aside from the changes in composition of vimentin filaments we observe the mechanical properties of vimentin filaments and make observations on the polymer physical aspects of the filaments. To this end the fluorescently labeled filaments are confined in microchannels with widths in the range of micrometers. We find that vimentin filaments can accurately be described by the worm-like chain model; fluctuations in perpendicular planes decouple. In addition a scaling law describing filaments confined in the Odijk regime is confirmed for polymers with different persistence lengths by the combination of data from vimentin and actin filaments.


This dissertation project investigates the socio-political and socio-economic contexts of the Ashikaga collection of Chinese paintings and objects and the associated development, function, and multifaceted meanings of formal decoration and display in medieval Japan. Scholars have been interested in the Ashikaga collection, kaisho reception halls, and shogunal art manuals (Kundaikan sōchōki) as either a way to understand the Japanese reception of Chinese paintings or to trace and reconstruct shoin-style architecture. However, formal display as an ensemble and a means of representing the patrons' identities within the political and economic spheres of Kyoto have not been adequately addressed. My dissertation also investigates the relationship between the Ashikaga and their cultural advisors (doboshu) who were in charge of the arrangement of the collection. I show that the Ashikaga skillfully combined Japanese court and Buddhist traditions with elements of continental culture as a means to consolidate their own political and cultural authority. Additionally, I explore the gradual change in the meaning of formal display from an expression of political authority to a commodity circulated among the elite following the Onin War (1467-1477). The architectural space where the objects were displayed will be examined through visual and textual evidence. To this end, this dissertation moves beyond a survey of shogunal palaces and examines the development of interior space in medieval Japan and the relationship between formal interior display and the identity of the patron or owner.


Ferritin cage nanoparticles are promising platforms for targeted delivery of imaging and therapeutic agents because their cage structure can accommodate small molecules and their surfaces can be decorated with multiple functionalities. However, selective targeting is still a challenge for translating ferritin-based nanomedicines into the clinic, especially for heterogeneous diseases such as cancer. Targeting peptides can be genetically fused onto the surface of a ferritin cage, forming peptide bunches on nanocages (PBNCs) that offer synergistic increases in binding avidity. Here, we utilized two sites of the ferritin monomer, the N-terminus and the loop between the fourth and fifth helices, which are exposed on the surface of the assembled 24-subunit ferritin cage, to ligate one or two types of peptides to achieve "super affinity" and bispecificity, respectively. PBNCs formed by ligation of the IL-4 receptor-targeting peptide, AP1, to both sites (48AP1-PBNCs) tethered IL-4R, expressing tumor cells with greater affinity than did PBNCs with AP1 ligated to a single site (24AP1-PBNCs). Moreover, bispecific PBNCs containing 24 RGD peptides and 24 AP1 peptides (24RGD/24AP1-PBNCs) were capable of independently targeting cells expressing the corresponding receptors. Bispecific and superaffinity PBNCs could be useful for efficient targeting of ferritin-based therapeutic/diagnostic agents in a clinical setting.


This paper presents a displaying method of button like click feeling using ultrasonic vibration with amplitude of a few micrometers. Artificial click feeling is displayed by recreating rapid change in force arising from buckling of a mechanical push button utilizing squeeze film effect. First, important factors for displaying click feeling were extracted by analyzing the relationship among force-stroke curve of mechanical buttons and perceived click feeling. Then, click feeling display system was constructed. In the system, stimulation are applied to the operators at both buckling and restitution point. Finally, by conducting several sensory evaluation experiments, it was verified that button like feeling can be displayed without recreating the stroke of mechanical buttons by use of ultrasonic vibration. It was also verified that various artificial click feeling can be displayed by controlling the multiple parameters of the system.


Experimental analysis of enzymatic transition-state structures uses kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) to report on bonding and geometry differences between reactants and the transition state. Computational correlation of experimental values with chemical models permits three-dimensional geometric and electrostatic assignment of transition states formed at enzymatic catalytic sites. The combination of experimental and computational access to transition-state information permits (a) the design of transition-state analogs as powerful enzymatic inhibitors, (b) exploration of protein features linked to transition-state structure, (c) analysis of ensemble atomic motions involved in achieving the transition state, (d) transition-state lifetimes, and (e) separation of ground-state (Michaelis complexes) from transition-state effects. Transition-state analogs with picomolar dissociation constants have been achieved for several enzymatic targets. Transition states of closely related isozymes indicate that the protein's dynamic architecture is linked to transition-state structure. Fast dynamic motions in catalytic sites are linked to transition-state generation. Enzymatic transition states have lifetimes of femtoseconds, the lifetime of bond vibrations. Binding isotope effects (BIEs) reveal relative reactant and transition-state analog binding distortion for comparison with actual transition states.


AbstractGeothermal energy accounts for 43% of the electricity expenditure of Sao Miguel Island, Azores Archipelago. All production comes from the Ribeira Grande (RG) high-enthalpy geothermal field. To meet the growing energy demand in the island, it is necessary to extend the exploration efforts to new areas. We evaluated the results of a broadband magnetotelluric reconnaissance survey conducted at Sete Cidades Volcano, placed only 30 km westward of the RG field. The resistivity structure of the Sete Cidades geothermal system was obtained through a simultaneous 3D inversion of the full impedance tensor and tipper. The bathymetry and the topography of the island were treated as fixed features in the model. The geothermal reservoir at Sete Cidades is outlined as a northwest–southeast elongated resistive anomaly, geologically controlled by the Terceira Rift fracture zone. We have also identified high-conductivity zones between 1000 and 4000 m below mean sea level, probably associated with clay cap rocks over...


"Cognitive radio" is an emerging technique to improve the utilization of radio frequency spectrum in wireless networks. This paper discusses the problem of spectrum sharing among primary users and secondary users, and carries out the centralized spectrum allocation with the following two goals: (1) maximize system's sum bandwidth reward, and (2) maximize second users' access fairness. The spectrum allocation problem is formulated into a multi-objective optimization problem aiming at optimizing the system's overall performance and reducing to a graph coloring problem. Graph coloring problem is a well known NP-hard problem. A swarm intelligence based algorithm, particle swarm optimization (PSO), is used to solve the problem. Simulations are conducted to compare the proposed methods with the CSGC algorithms under the Collaborative-Max-Sum-Reward (CSUM) and Collaborative-Max-Proportional-Fair (CMPF) rules. Our experiment results show that the proposed method provides a good tradeoff between the system's sum bandwidth reward and the secondary users' access fairness, and has a better system overall performance. The paper gives an effective method for the spectrum allocation of cognitive radio networks.


Due to global climate change and its impact on local weather conditions, decision support systems are becoming more important in agriculture. Such systems allow farmers to adapt more effectively to the complex changes affecting their farms. Marginal production sites must apply new tillage strategies adapted to new climatic conditions. Information about proper strategy adjustments is often disseminated through agricultural extension services and journals. A new internet information platform, KlimaBob, which focuses on climate-flexible tillage, was established under the auspices of the Innovation Network of Climate Change Adaptation Brandenburg Berlin. Successful and permanent introduction of such a system requires analysis and verification of its acceptance among individual farmers. This study addresses this need by applying the established task-technology fit approach. A survey was conducted among farmers in the Brandenburg region. The resulting data provided the basis for a structural equation model that explains and evaluates the task-technology fit of the KlimaBob platform. The results indicate that the performance spectrum of the system exerts a strong influence on the task-technology fit when assessed by both the name characteristics of KlimaBob and the individual characteristics of users (for example, time management, technology affinity and risk attitude).


Philanthropy today has reached an impasse, in both theory and practice. This article maps a way beyond that impasse by taking us back to philanthropy's core function and traditional values. The standard academic model sees philanthropy as subordinate and supplemental to our society's other public sectors, the market and the state, and uses their metrics to measure its performance. Current law, best reflected in the federal income tax code, closely parallels that perspective. This article proposes to reverse the dominant theoretical perspective and reveal a radically different relationship among society's three public sectors, the market, the state, and the philanthropic. Following both classical western philosophy and the West's three Abrahamist faiths, this perspective places philanthropy first and measures everything, including our current economic and political systems, by a neo-classical philanthropic standard: the highest good of all humankind.


Exsolution microstructures in a complex amphibole assemblage from metabasalts of the Betic Ophiolitic Association (SE Spain) have been studied using transmission and analytical electron microscopy (TEM, AEM). Three main types of amphibole were identified, filling veins and vesicles: brown amphibole, with mean composition of pargasite, originated during an early ocean-floor metamorphism, and two types of green amphiboles with compositions of edenite and actinolite-magnesiohornblende, respectively formed during a later orogenic metamorphic event. The exsolution in the brown amphibole include minute rutile and amphibole rods. The brown amphibole also contains numerous halite inclusions. Amphibole exsolutions, with compositions of magnesiohornblende and actinolite appear to have formed paired rutile + amphibole intergrowths. All the exsolution products appear oriented with respect to the lattice of the host amphibole. Green amphiboles do not contain either submicroscopic rutile or halite inclusions, but they show oriented lamellae of magnesiokatophorite, exsolved in the edenite. These thin lamellae (300 to 500 A in thickness) are coherently intergrown with the host. The studied amphibole pairs evidence two types of miscibility gaps: the one gap between amphiboles of the calcic group (brown amphibole) and the other gap between amphiboles of the calcic and sodiccalcic groups (green amphibole).


Vulnerability is one of the root causes of network intrusion. An effective way to mitigate security threats is to discover and patch vulnerabilities before an attack. Traditional vulnerability detection methods rely on manual participation and incur a high false positive rate. The intelligent vulnerability detection methods suffer from the problems of long-term dependence, out of vocabulary, coarse detection granularity and lack of vulnerable samples. This paper proposes an automated and intelligent vulnerability detection method in source code based on the minimum intermediate representation learning. First, the sample in the form of source code is transformed into a minimum intermediate representation to exclude the irrelevant items and reduce the length of the dependency. Next, the intermediate representation is transformed into a real value vector through pre-training on an extended corpus, and the structure and semantic information are retained. Then, the vector is fed to three concatenated convolutional neural networks to obtain high-level features of vulnerability. Last, a classifier is trained using the learned features. To validate this vulnerability detection method, an experiment was performed. The empirical results confirmed that compared with the traditional methods and the state-of-the-art intelligent methods, our method has a better performance with fine granularity.


Therapists' Perceptions of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Treatment for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Annette Jones-Smith MA, Notre Dame of Maryland University, 2000 BS, Morgan State University, 1992 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology Walden University August 2018 Abstract Child sexual abuse is prevalent worldwide and can result in adverse psychological effects that persist into adulthood. Therapists must identify therapeutic treatments for adult survivors of child sexual abuse who continue to experience psychological difficulties, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of therapists about eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) as a tool to assist adult women survivors of child sexual abuse through the healing process and to regain their abilities to function and behave appropriately. Data were collected through the Moustakas Theory (1994) with 10 therapists who provided therapeutic or counseling services (or both) through EMDR to women with a history of repeated sexual abuse as children. The therapists perceived EMDR as more effective in treating child sexual abuse trauma than other treatment options because it involved the body and worked rapidly, although the treatment may involve a danger of dysregulating the patient. Results indicated the perceived role of EMDR in a treatment program is to allow patients to remember traumatic events without reliving them and to free patients from shame and prepare them to learn more effective coping skills. The therapists implemented EMDR by building rapport, conducting aChild sexual abuse is prevalent worldwide and can result in adverse psychological effects that persist into adulthood. Therapists must identify therapeutic treatments for adult survivors of child sexual abuse who continue to experience psychological difficulties, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of therapists about eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) as a tool to assist adult women survivors of child sexual abuse through the healing process and to regain their abilities to function and behave appropriately. Data were collected through the Moustakas Theory (1994) with 10 therapists who provided therapeutic or counseling services (or both) through EMDR to women with a history of repeated sexual abuse as children. The therapists perceived EMDR as more effective in treating child sexual abuse trauma than other treatment options because it involved the body and worked rapidly, although the treatment may involve a danger of dysregulating the patient. Results indicated the perceived role of EMDR in a treatment program is to allow patients to remember traumatic events without reliving them and to free patients from shame and prepare them to learn more effective coping skills. The therapists implemented EMDR by building rapport, conducting a thorough assessment, focusing treatment on the most distressing elements of past traumas and present triggers, and teaching the client skills for coping with distress. This study contributes to social change by adding more knowledge and awareness about women survivors of child sexual abuse and the various available treatments, thereby helping the long-term impact of women's health with histories of childhood sexual abuse. Therapists' Perceptions of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Treatment for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse by Annette Jones-Smith MA, Notre Dame of Maryland University, 2000 BS, Morgan State University, 1992 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology


The benefits of e-assessment are widely documented (Bull and McKenna 2004). However, instances of good practice have not been systematically reported. Recognising and acknowledging this gap in the research, the JISC Organisational Committee has funded a number of projects on e-assessment practice: 'E-Assessment Glossary?, 'The Roadmap to E-Assessment? together with a set of case studies of innovative and effective practice.
This paper is based on the findings of the JISC Case Study Project 'The innovative and effective use of E-Assessment'. Members of the project team conducted over 90 interviews with teaching staff, senior management, developers and students to showcase all aspects of e-assessment. The project offered a unique opportunity to observe different organisational structures and gain inside-information about the effectiveness of a number of different applications. The 17 case studies and their follow-up surveys have been studied to identify the facilitating factors for the introduction of e-assessment and the organisational structures supporting e-assessment have also been investigated. The focus of this analysis was to study the different organisational structures and to identify patterns herein.
We suggest that the key characteristics for the typology are the position of the e-assessment within the organisational structure and the support from the senior management. Three types of organisational structures are identified by the study, which support innovative practice. These are the Central Team, the Faculty based Team and the Departmental Champion.
The Central Team offers e-assessment support and, in some cases, production services to all academics on a university-wide basis whilst the Faculty Based Team provides a more limited discipline-related service. The Departmental Champion usually implements e-assessment within his/her specific discipline and may be an early adopter or have a special interest in this area.


This study has focussed on the impact of forest disturbance and forest type on community patterns in the bird, mammal, reptile and ant faunas of Timor-Leste, with particular focus on the Lautem district of the far east of the island, and on patterns in the distributional ecology of birds. Island area was the overwhelming factor underlying bird species richness in a biogeographic analysis of 51 Lesser Sunda islands, highlighting the importance of habitat area; but the avifauna had 'relaxed' since Pleistocene-era sea levels. Bird species similarity decayed monotonically (particularly for specialised forest birds, endemics, globally threatened and pigeons) with distance indicating the importance of isolation. The responses of bird groups and individual bird species to habitat type and forest cover was examined for West and East Timor, and for the well-forested Lautem district in East Timor. The abundance of forest birds, pigeons and frugivorous birds was 20-45% greater in East Timor compared to the West; forest cover was also twice as extensive in the East. There was a high similarity of bird species composition of 'wooded' habitats in the Lautem district analysis. Bird abundance increased where forest cover within 3 km was more extensive; for threatened and also restricted-range birds, abundance doubled when forest extent was >10 km2. The savanna woodland community was dominated by forest specialists and was most similar to the dry forest avifauna, but forest birds were shown to be only abundant in savanna when extensive primary tropical forest is available nearby. The ant fauna was species poor and dominated mostly by South East Asian forest ants with a small proportion of Australian taxa including several Iridomyrmex species previously considered as Australian endemics. The land mammal and reptile fauna has been greatly impacted by recent introductions. Further support for land mammal decline is documented, and native geckos may also have undergone decline.