Bioindicators provide a range of techniques to assess the impacts of air pollution from reactive nitrogen (N) compounds on statutory nature conservation sites. They complement physical monitoring of atmospheric concentrations and deposition and risk assessment based on the critical loads approach by providing site-based information on atmospheric N concentrations, N deposition and/or ecological impacts.

Appropriate bioindicators for N may be applied by sampling at one time to compare results between different locations. In particular, local-scale transects can help identify the impacts of a nearby point source of reactive N emissions to the atmosphere.

The repeated application of bioindicator methods over time provides the basis for biomonitoring. In general, biomonitoring reflects changes over periods of several years, although short-term changes can also be monitored (over several weeks and months).

This report reviews the wide range of bioindicator and biomonitoring methods for N and incorporates the results of a field test of several of the methods. In addition, datasheets are provided that summarize the key characteristics, advantages and limitations of the different methods.

Bioindicator methods can be grouped into several contrasting approaches: Biochemical methods (based on an accumulation of N or a chemical/physiological response to N), Species composition methods (based on previously characterized species preferences) and Transplant methods (based on the response following transplanting of either locally native species or standardized plants).

Nitrogen accumulation methods include measurement of plant tissue N concentration, amino acids, substrate N and foliar ammonium. The accumulation methods provide the closest link to atmospheric N deposition. Results show that the smaller and more available the chemical pool, the larger the magnitude of response, with increasing responses from: total N < substrate N < foliar ammonium.

Biochemical response methods include analysis of enzymes such as nitrate reductase and emissions of nitrous oxide from soils. These methods are useful to demonstrate physiological effects, but tend to be less well correlated with atmospheric N deposition due to interactions with environmental conditions.

Species composition methods are of particular interest to the statutory conservation agencies since they relate directly to changes in plant communities due to excess atmospheric N. 'Ellenberg' N preference scores for higher plant and bryophyte species can be used to score the overall community for nitrogen. The limitation of this approach is that a wide range of other factors may also affect species composition.

Lichens are particularly sensitive to atmospheric reactive N, particularly ammonia. Detailed approaches are available to score lichen responses to N, but require more development for UK conditions. There is also the potential to refine simple methods that can be applied by non-experts.

The use of standardized grass plants has been shown to provide a robust method for monitoring the deposition and effects of N. The method can be applied in situations of complex terrain where physical estimates of deposition are difficult and as a graphic demonstration of impacts to stakeholders. It has a key advantage that exposure periods of only a few weeks are necessary.

Transplanting native species between sites is useful to demonstrate impacts at polluted sites and conversely the benefits of clean conditions. These methods have been shown to work well for lower plants, and have the benefit of being able to demonstrate recovery following a reduction in deposition where this occurs.
Overall, recognizing the limitations and benefits of the different methods, it is concluded that bioindicators provide a practical site-based approach for assessing N concentrations, deposition and impacts. Each of the above mentioned approaches are have merits, with different techniques matching to the range of questions being addressed. The most robust results are to be obtained by implementing several complementary techniques simultaneously, where possible in combination with low-cost physical monitoring of atmospheric concentrations.


The characterization and recognition of electrical signatures of brain activity constitutes a real challenge. Applications such as Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) are based on the accurate identification of mental processes in order to control external devices. Traditionally, classification of brain activity patterns relies on the assumption that the neurological phenomena that characterize mental states is continuously present in the signal. However, recent evidence shows that some mental processes are better characterized by episodic activity that is not necessarily synchronized with external stimuli. In this paper, we present a method for classification of mental states based on the detection of this episodic activity. Instead of performing classification on all available data, the proposed method identifies informative samples based on the class sample distribution in a projected canonical feature space. Classification results are compared to traditional methods using both artificial data and real EEG recordings.


Leading expert in consumer behaviour
 Offers a unique, real-world and practical approach for evaluating why we buy what we do - and often don't buy what market research says we will
 Uses a range of case studies and draws on the latest psychology and neuroscience to expose the reasons that market research can't work
 Controversial in dismissing the conventional approach as false and misleading and sure to attract the attention of both the marketing world and market research industry
 Market research is a myth. Philip Graves, one of the world's leading experts in consumer behaviour, reveals why the results of the typical market research campaign are completely unreliable. Whether it is company executives seeking to define their corporate strategy or politicians wanting to understand the electorate, the idea that questions answered on a questionnaire or discussed in a focus group can provide useful insights on which to base business decisions is the cause of product failures, political blunders and wasted billions.

 Consumer.ology exposes some of the most expensive examples of research-driven thinking clouding judgement, experience and evidence - from New Coke to General Motors, from Mattel to the Millennium Dome - and instances of success through ignoring research, such as Baileys and Dr Who.  It also shows organisations the tools they should be using if they want to understand their customers.

 Using his unique AFECT approach, a set of five criteria to evaluate the reliability of any consumer insight, Graves asserts that it's time for a fresh approach that embraces this new understanding of human behaviour. Along the way, he reveals why the current practice of market research is a false science, why we often don't buy what we say we will, and how to undersand consumers better than they do themselves. After reading Consumer·ology business leaders and politicians will never look at market research in the same way again.


A practical recycling system has been developed for printed wiring boards (PWBs) with electronic parts mounted on them. This system consists of part-removing, solder-removing and resin-board pulverizing/separating processes, and is effective in the recovery of useful materials. The authors have developed a part-removal apparatus which successfully removes through-hole devices as well as surface mounted devices from PWBs with almost no damage to the devices themselves. Most of the solder is removed by the part-removal, and later by surface abrasion followed by heat/impact. After the removal of parts and solder, the resin-boards are pulverized and the resulting powder is then separated into two types: a copper-rich powder and a powder which consists of glass fiber and resin (GR powder). The copper-rich powder is a good copper resource for refining; the GR powder is usable as a filler for polymer products. Recovered parts which contains valuable metal resources (including gold), can be refined out, as is most commonly the case in other recycling systems, but a more economic and ecologically sound approach would be to exploit the potential of parts removed in this system to be reused for their original purposes after being checked for reliability.


Xanthohumol (XN), a prenylated chalcone from hops, has been reported to exhibit a variety of health-beneficial effects. However, poor bioavailability may limit its application in the prevention and therapy of diseases. The objective of this study was to determine whether a micellar solubilization of xanthohumol could enhance the bioavailability and biological efficacy of xanthohumol in a Western-type diet (WTD) induced model of obesity, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). After 3 weeks feeding with WTD, XN was additionally applied per oral gavage as micellar solubilizate (s-XN) or native extract (n-XN) at a daily dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight for a further 8 weeks. Control mice received vehicle only in addition to the WTD. WTD-induced body weight-gain and glucose intolerance were significantly inhibited by s-XN application. Furthermore, WTD-induced hepatic steatosis, pro-inflammatory gene expression (MCP-1 and CXCL1) and immune cell infiltration as well as activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) and expression of collagen alpha I were significantly reduced in the livers of s-XN-treated mice compared to WTD controls. In contrast, application of n-XN had no or only slight effects on the WTD-induced pathological effects. In line with this, plasma XN concentration ranged between 100–330 nmol/L in the s-XN group while XN was not detectable in the serum samples of n-XN-treated mice. In conclusion, micellar solubilization enhanced the bioavailability and beneficial effects of xanthohumol on different components of the metabolic syndrome including all pathological steps of NAFLD. Notably, this was achieved in a dose more than 10-fold lower than effective beneficial doses of native xanthohumol reported in previous in vivo studies.


An increasing intensity of camera traps recorded the presence of poorly known and globally Endangered Asiatic Wild Dogs Cuon alpinus from different locations in recent years in Nepal.  After 18 years since the previous report, we recorded 29 photos and a video of Dholes in four independent detections with an effort of 4,035 trap-nights during camera trap surveys targeted at tigers in the winter of 2016/2017.  Solitary dholes were camera-trapped from four locations within 27.45km2 area in Bardia National Park.  The evidence of a dead Dhole probably killed in retaliation shows the threat to the species.  Dholes co-exist in Bardia with sympatric carnivores like Tiger Panthera tigris, Leopard Panthera pardus, and Jackal Canis aureus.


The increasing tendency to collect large and uncurated datasets to train vision-and-language models has raised concerns about fair representations. It is known that even small but manually annotated datasets, such as MSCOCO, are affected by societal bias. This problem, far from being solved, may be getting worse with data crawled from the Internet without much control. In addition, the lack of tools to analyze societal bias in big collections of images makes addressing the problem extremely challenging. Our first contribution is to annotate part of the Google Conceptual Captions dataset, widely used for training vision-and-language models, with four demographic and two contextual attributes. Our second contribution is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the annotations, focusing on how different demographic groups are represented. Our last contribution lies in evaluating three prevailing vision-and-language tasks: image captioning, text-image CLIP embeddings, and text-to-image generation, showing that societal bias is a persistent problem in all of them. https://github.com/noagarcia/phase


Innovative design approaches are needed for mass housing implementations. Especially increasing interaction between user and designer is major important in the design decisions of these buildings. For this, it is seriously necessary to benefit from technological advances in computational designs, because digital tools like shape grammar, cellular automata, genetic algorithm, l-systems and agent-based models in this field provide not only to save time and to manage the relationships but also to generate many different alternatives. Accordingly, a digital support tool for designers has been developed by using cellular automata approach and scripts of 3Ds Max software. It produces samples of housing design plans which is generated by cellular automata approach according to the data of users' preferences. In this paper the interface and contributions of the developed model are introduced and discussed.


Landscape amenities can be scarce in places with large areas of open space. Intensely farmed areas with high levels of monocropping and livestock production are akin to developed open space areas and do not provide many services in terms of landscape amenities. Open space in the form of farmland is plentiful, but parks and their services are in short supply. This issue is of particular importance for public policy because it is closely linked to the impact of externalities caused by agricultural activities and to the indirect effects of land use dynamics. This study looks at the impact of landscape amenities on rural residential property values in five counties in North Central Iowa using a hedonic pricing model based on geographic information systems. The effect of cropland, pasture, forest, and developed land as land uses surrounding the property is considered, as well as the impact of proximity to recreational areas. The study also includes the effect of other disamenities, such as livestock facilities and quarries, which can be considered part of the developed open space and are a common feature of the Iowa landscape.


This paper presents a study on the ultra wideband (UWB) radio channel characteristics between a capsule endoscope and a directive on-body antenna in different parts of the small intestine. The study is conducted using a finite integration technique (FIT) based electromagnetic simulation software CST Studio Suite and four of its anatomical voxel models. The capsule endoscope model is set inside different areas of the small intestine of the voxel models. A recently published directive on-body antenna designed for in-body communications is used in the evaluations. The obtained frequency and time domain channel characteristics are compared with previously published results with another directive on-body antenna designed for capsule endoscopy communications. Power flow presentations are used to understand differences obtained with two on-body antennas. Different rotation angles of the capsule are also considered in this study. It is found that channel characteristics vary remarkably depending on the antenna location in the small intestine and location of the on-body antenna. Thus, the on-body antennas should be located carefully to ensure coverage over the whole intestine area. Path loss does not only depend on the distance between a capsule and the on-body antenna but also on the tissues between the capsule and on-body antennas. Obviously, the antenna patterns have clear impact on the received signal's strength. Furthermore, orientation of the capsule affects also strongly impact when linearly polarized antennas are used.


This article discusses trends in the appropriation of new media in Ghana, as evidenced in existing literature on mobile phones, the Internet, new media production, and gaming. A few themes are evident: the emergence of "smart consumption" practices to mitigate the high cost of mobile phone communication; the association of the Internet with the potential for quick economic gains, leading to varying degrees of criminal or unethical behavior; and what appears to be a clear separation of expectations and approaches to the Internet and mobile phones as technological tools. For example, the Internet points users outward to potentially greener pastures in Western economies, but mobile phones ground users in their local context, keeping them linked to social and economic resources that are more readily accessible.


This work explores how buffer overflow vulnerabilities in C programs, specifically the ones that originate from the use of unsafe functions, can be fixed by using a source-to-source program transformation. I implemented a Safe Library Replacement transformation that replaces unsafe library functions with safe alternatives. The transformation improves the security of a system, which means that it does not preserve the original behavior of the program. It preserves good-path behavior, and modifies the behavior only on attack vectors. Implementing the transformation in C requires sophisticated static analyses that are typically unavailable in existing program transformation infrastructures for C. I used OpenRefactory/C, a framework for building correct and complex program transformations for C; I enhanced the infrastructure to support control flow and alias analysis. I tested the transformation on 1,778 test cases from the SAMATE reference dataset, and was able to remove the buffer overflow vulnerability from each case. I also applied the transformation on 181 instances of unsafe functions in three real C programs. The transformation replaced the function in 73% of the cases, and did not break the original program in any of the cases. A program transformation-based approach can integrate with a developer's coding activity, much like a refactoring, and allows a developer to fix library-related buffer overflow problems on demand.


The term 'Livability' had emerged for a holistic, systemic strategy in an attempt to reverse some of the 20th century urban planning techniques and had applied very broadly; however, ambiguity still characterizes the term. The study tries to give a clear explanation of this term; investigating the linkage between the term 'Livability' and other terms in addition to codifying different studies that are testing new methodologies for analysing cities in terms of being livable. Finally, the paper discusses how to make any built urban environment whether a city, a town or a neighbourhood truly livable. Keywords: Urban Livability, Livability Rankings, Satisfaction, Quality of Life, Well-being


Titanium and titanium alloys are extensively used in biomedical, cardiac and cardiovascular applications for their superb properties, such as good fatigue strength, low modulus, machinability, formability, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. However, titanium and its alloys do not meet the majority of all clinical necessities. Due to these reasons, surface modification is frequently performed to enhance the mechanical, biological and chemical properties of titanium and alloys. In this work, nanocomposites coating of poly(-caprolactone)/hydroxyapatite/forsterite (PCL/HA/F) have been successfully deposited on the Ti6Al4V substratesby dip coating at room temperature. The coatings are prepared with various concentrations of forsterite/hydroxyapatite nanopowder (2, 4, 6 and 8 wt.%) with a fixed concentration of PCL (4 wt.%) and thus coated Ti6Al4V substrates are examined for corrosion resistance. PCL/Hydroxyapatite/Forsterite coatings are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which clearly showed the formation of nanocomposites. Potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are used to investigate corrosion behavior of the coated substrates, which portrayed that the composite coating of PCL/HA/F substantially enhanced the corrosion resistance of Ti6Al4V alloy.


This new study looks at how non-human animals have been viewed in the Buddhist and Christian religious traditions. The concept of speciesism, coined in 1970 as an analogy to racism and discussed almost exclusively within philosophical circles, is used to explore very basic questions about which animals, human or otherwise, were significant to early Buddhists and Christians. Drawing on scriptures and interpretive traditions in Christianity and Buddhism, Waldau argues that decisions about human ethical responsibilities in both religions are deeply rooted in ancient understandings of the place of humans in the world and our relationships with other animals in an integrated cosmos. His study offers scholars and others interested in the bases for ethical decisions new insights into Christian and Buddhist reasoning about animals as well as what each might have to offer to the current discussions about animal rights and environmental ethics.


In 2012, Alagheband and Aref presented a dynamic and secure key manage- ment model for hierarchical heterogeneous sensor networks. They proposed a signcryption algorithm which is the main building block in their key management model. They proved the algorithm is as strong as the elliptical curve discrete logarithm problem. In this work, we study the security of their signcryption algorithm. It is regretful that we found their algorithm is insecure. The adversary can impersonate the base station by sending forged messages to the cluster leaders after capturing the signcrypted messages. Hence, the key management model proposed by them is insecure. Then, we propose an improved signcryp- tion algorithm to fix this weakness.


Teachers contribute enormously to a positive social climate in science classes, particularly through their communication with students. In the study described in this article, a questionnaire (The Teacher Communication Behaviour Questionnaire (TCBQ)) developed by She and Fisher (2000) was used. TCBQ can be used to assess students' perceptions of science teachers' interpersonal communication behaviours in their classroom learning environments. TCBQ has five scales: Challenging, Encouragement and Praise, Non-Verbal Support, Understanding and Friendly, and Controlling. The TCBQ was used with a large sample of a university' students in Turkey. Girl students perceived more of these communication behaviours in their teachers than did the boy students. There were statistically significant differences (p<0.0001) on four of the five scales of the TCBQ between teachers' gender. Statistically significant differences were not found among different grade classes. Teachers in biological and chemistry science classrooms exhibited more favourable behaviour toward their students than did those in physical science classrooms.


A study of the Leith–Upatnieks hologram for the time average of the coherent wavefronts scattered from a vibrating object is reported. The image reconstructed by the hologram is found to contain a system of interference fringes which map contours of constant vibration amplitude, thus providing a method of analysis of the vibration of objects with arbitrary surfaces. Experimental results are presented and interpreted for a simple periodic vibration; statistical motion of objects is discussed.


Parkinson's disease is a progressive nervous system disorder afflicting millions of patients. Among its motor symptoms, bradykinesia is one of the cardinal manifestations. Experienced doctors are required for the clinical diagnosis of bradykinesia, but sometimes they also miss subtle changes, especially in early stages of such disease. Therefore, developing auxiliary diagnostic methods that can automatically detect bradykinesia has received more and more attention. In this article, we employ a two-stage framework for bradykinesia recognition based on the video of patient movement. First, convolution neural networks are trained to localize keypoints in each video frame. These time-varying coordinates form motion trajectories that represent the whole movement. From the trajectory, we then propose novel measurements, namely stability, completeness, and self-similarity, to quantify different motor behaviors. We also propose a periodic motion model called PMNet. An encoder--decoder structure is applied to learn a low dimensional representation of a motion process. The compressed motion process and quantified motor behaviors are combined as inputs to a fully-connected neural network. Different from the traditional means, our solution extends the application scenario outside the hospital and can be easily transplanted to conduct similar tasks. A commonly used clinical assessment is served as a case study. Experimental results based on real-world data validate the effectiveness of our approach for bradykinesia recognition.


The contrasting outcomes to HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation processes in sub-Saharan Africa have not been adequately investigated or explained. Specifically, few scholars have attempted to root the responses to HIV and AIDS within the socio-economic and political realities of those countries severely impacted by the disease. This article seeks to explain the ambivalent political response to HIV and AIDS in Kenya in the context of the neopatrimonial leadership of former president Daniel arap Moi, between 1983, when the disease was first identified, and 2002, when Moi finally left office. The article relies on rigorous interpretation and corroboration of secondary and primary data collected between 2004 and 2006. The findings suggest that the slow and inadequate response to HIV and AIDS in Kenya during Moi's presidency was primarily dictated by the need to maintain the structures of his neopatrimonial leadership.


The Brackenridgea Nature Reserve is a 110 ha protected area established by the provincial Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism as a way of protecting the population of Brackenridgea zanguebarica , a species classified as critically endangered in South Africa. In the whole of South Africa, the species is found in only one small area around Thengwe–Mafukani in Venda. It is threatened with extirpation due to high demand for its medicinal bark. This study investigated the adequacy of the reserve to conserve the species using a method established in 2001 by Burgman et al . This method involves 12 steps to quantify the risk of the decline or possible extinction of the species and takes current human activities, disturbances and the viability of the population into consideration for setting a conservation target. From the results, it was clear that more area is needed for the current population to survive beyond 50 years. Assuming the status quo, it will require 410 ha to maintain the population, whereas a 50% reduction in human-related activities, such as cultivation, harvesting and livestock grazing, will lower the required potential habitat to 203 ha and a conservation option, which allows for bark harvesting, will require 179 ha. Conservation implications: The results of this study will have conservation implication on management of viable species population within a nature reserve. It will require managers to take into consideration the reserve size in relation to potential habitats for the development of species under their management.


Introduction: Heat production by intense prolonged exercise induces a decrease in physical performance. Under warm and humid environmental conditions, evaporation is the primary mechanism for muscle heat dissipation (Nybo et al., 2007).
This abstract summarizes the results of two studies investigating the effects of local body cooling modalities on the endurance capacity during cycling.
Methods: Using a standardized incremental bike ergometer test in a randomized cross-over design, Clijsen et al. (2008) investigated the effects of local cooling of the upper arms on the endurance capacity in 7 female and 2 male healthy subjects. "Energicer" bands (Liquid Ice Cosmedicals GmbH, Unterageri, Switzerland) for the local cooling applications. The two bands (7.5 x 5 x 0.5 cm) were saturated with a menthol-alcohol liquid (33.2 g). Time to exhaustion was the independent variable for endurance capacity. Variables measured at the end of each incremental step were, blood lactate, heart rate, body temperature and perceived exhaustion (BORG scale). Temperature (23°C) and relative humidity (40%) of the lab were kept constant. Using the same test protocol and cooling product, Hohenauer et al. (2009) investigated the effect of different local cooling applications on the endurance capacity during cycling under warm (35°C) and humid (44%) conditions. The subjects (n=7) were tested under four different conditions: A= without cooling; B= "Energicer" cooling bands; C= "Energicer" cooling vest; D= "Energicer" cooling bands and vest. Bands and vest were saturated with the "Energicer" fluid (25 respectively 225 g).
Results: No significant differences (p>0.05) for the evaluated variables could be demonstrated between the two test conditions in Clijsen et al.' study (2008) neither between the four test conditions in Hohenauer et al.' study (2009).
Discussion: Potential effects of the "Energicer" could have been mimicked by the artifial lab situation. Future research will focus on the combined influence of airflow with cooling bands and vest.
Conclusion: Under the present standardized lab conditions, local cooling of the upper arms and/or upper body by "Energicer" bands and/or vest did not enhance endurance capacity during cycling.
References:
Verducci FM, Journal of Athletic Training; 35(4):422-426, 2000
Duffield R, Dawson B, Bishop D, Fitzsimons M, Lawrence S. Br J Sports Med, 37:164-169, 2003
Nybo L. J App. Physiol, 104:871-878, 2007


In this work, an innovative approach for the design and structuring of teaching videos systematically using 3D animations is presented. The approach focuses on the quantitative description of electromagnetic fields and the mathematical methods and competencies required for this purpose, exemplarily with regard to an undergraduate electrical engineering course during the initial phase of corresponding degree programs. An essential part of this course is the spatial and time-dependent description of electromagnetic fields. For this purpose, students have to work with multiple integrals in 3D space and in different coordinate systems. Such subjects are typically covered only later in mathematics courses and without a technical context, therefore leading to major difficulties for many students. The videos presented in this work are intended to support students and lecturers to work with these subjects in an instructive fashion. The 3D animations allow for effectively clarifying complex connections between technical and mathematical aspects. The videos and their specific design are discussed with regard to didactic and technical considerations. Additionally, their integration with existing interventions for the course is described.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the issues surrounding the transition into the teaching profession by specifically focusing on teacher induction and mentoring issues while explicitly addressing matters of concern by secondary music teachers in a large suburban school board in southern Ontario. Participants included beginning teachers with fewer than 5 years of teaching, mid career teachers with between 6 and 15 years of instruction, and experienced teachers with more than 16 years of practice. The ' processes of mentoring and inducting new teachers within the board were examined, along with their relationships between proteges, mentors, and administrators. Further, internal and external programs specifically designed and implemented for newer music teachers were scrutinized and discussed. An analysis ofkey documents and literature on the subject was performed, and data were collected through 16 personal interviews. The findings suggest that although the necessity of mentoring and induction processes has begun to be recognized, there exists a fundamental relationship between mentoring and induction and the effect of the professional attachments to mentoring; the institutional and administrative supports that are enabled; and essential processes and practices between mentors and proteges. Together these three arms combine to support successfiil induction and mentoring initiatives that will help ease the transition into teaching.


The objectives of public utility pricing are generally acknowledged to include a desire for efficient allocation of community resources, equity in allocating cost shares, stable revenues adequate to operate the utility effectively and to insure continuity of service, simple and easily understood rates, and appropriate conservation of scarce resources. Among the policies required to achieve these goals is the adoption of marginal cost pricing, where all prices set by the utility reflect the marginal cost of the service offered. The central role of marginal cost pricing is illustrated by reviewing some specific policy goals. Among the reasons for adopting merginal cost-based water prices, the paper finds that marginal cost-based prices promote economic efficiency; they promote equity by eliminating marginal subsidies; they lead to simple, easily-understood rate designs; and they promote conservation of scarce resources. At the same time, there are equally clear reasons for not implementing this policy under certain conditions, and these are also discussed.


Compared to other avant-garde movements that emerged in the 1960s, conceptual art has received relatively little serious attention by art historians and critics of the past twenty-five years -- in part because of the difficult, intellectual nature of the art. This lack of attention is particularly striking given the tremendous influence of conceptual art on the art of the last fifteen years, on critical discussion surrounding postmodernism, and on the use of theory by artists, curators, critics, and historians. This landmark anthology collects for the first time the key historical documents that helped give definition and purpose to the movement. It also contains more recent memoirs by participants, as well as critical histories of the period by some of today's leading artists and art historians. Many of the essays and artists' statements have been translated into English specifically for this volume. A good portion of the exchange between artists, critics, and theorists took place in difficult-to-find limited-edition catalogs, small journals, and private correspondence. These influential documents are gathered here for the first time, along with a number of previously unpublished essays and interviews. Contributors Alexander Alberro, Art & Language, Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, Robert Barry, Gregory Battcock, Mel Bochner, Sigmund Bode, Georges Boudaille, Marcel Broodthaers, Benjamin Buchloh, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Ian Burn, Jack Burnham, Luis Camnitzer, John Chandler, Sarah Charlesworth, Michel Claura, Jean Clay, Michael Corris, Eduardo Costa, Thomas Crow, Hanne Darboven, Raul Escari, Piero Gilardi, Dan Graham, Maria Teresa Gramuglio, Hans Haacke, Charles Harrison, Roberto Jacoby, Mary Kelly, Joseph Kosuth, Max Kozloff, Christine Kozlov, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Lee Lozano, Kynaston McShine, Cildo Meireles, Catherine Millet, Olivier Mosset, John Murphy, Helio Oiticica, Michel Parmentier, Adrian Piper, Yvonne Rainer, Mari Carmen Ramirez, Nicolas Rosa, Harold Rosenberg, Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, Jeanne Siegel, Seth Siegelaub, Terry Smith, Robert Smithson, Athena Tacha Spear, Blake Stimson, Niele Toroni, Mierle Ukeles, Jeff Wall, Rolf Wedewer, Ian Wilson


One dimensional iron(II) coordination polymers formed from 1,2,4-triazole bridging ligands are a unique class of spin-crossover materials (SCO). The integration of those coordination polymers into devices for practical applications remains a major challenge. Using a nanocomposite approach based on the control of coordination polymer interactions with chemically engineered silica particles, we show that we can achieve in situ gelation, while preserving the SCO properties of the solid state. Tuning the interface between the two phases of a composite provides a unique way to synergistically adjust the material's structure and the cooperativity associated with its transition properties. The strategy described here should allow for bridging the gap between soft and crystalline functional inorganic materials.


East Africa has one of the world's fastest growing human populations—many of whom are dependent on livestock—as
well as some of the world's largest wildlife populations. Humans, livestock, and wildlife often interact closely, intimately
linking human, animal, and environmental health. The concept of One Health captures this interconnectedness, including
the social structures and beliefs driving interactions between species and their environments. East African policymakers
and researchers are recognising and encouraging One Health research, with both groups increasingly playing a leading
role in this subject area. One Health research requires interaction between scientists from different disciplines, such as the
biological and social sciences and human and veterinary medicine. Different disciplines draw on norms, methodologies,
and terminologies that have evolved within their respective institutions and that may be distinct from or in conflict with one
another. These differences impact interdisciplinary research, both around theoretical and methodological approaches and
during project operationalisation. We present experiential knowledge gained from numerous ongoing projects in northern
Tanzania, including those dealing with bacterial zoonoses associated with febrile illness, foodborne disease, and anthrax.
We use the examples to illustrate differences between and within social and biological sciences and between industrialised
and traditional societies, for example, with regard to consenting procedures or the ethical treatment of animals. We
describe challenges encountered in ethical approval processes, consenting procedures, and field and laboratory logistics
and offer suggestions for improvement. While considerable investment of time in sensitisation, communication, and collaboration
is needed to overcome interdisciplinary challenges inherent in One Health research, this can yield great
rewards in paving the way for successful implementation of One Health projects. Furthermore, continued investment in
African institutions and scientists will strengthen the role of East Africa as a world leader in One Health research.


Panel or grouped data are often used to allow for unobserved individual heterogeneity in econometric models via fixed effects. In this paper, we discuss identification of a panel data model in which the unobserved heterogeneity both enters additively and interacts with treatment variables. We present identification and estimation methods for parameters of interest in this model under both strict and weak exogeneity assumptions. The key identification insight is that other periods' treatment variables are instruments for the unobserved fixed effects. We apply our proposed estimator to matched student-teacher data used to estimate value-added models of teacher quality. We show that the common assumption that the return to unobserved teacher quality is the same for all students is rejected by the data. We also present evidence that No Child Left Behind-era school accountability increased the effectiveness of teacher quality for lower performing students. JEL Codes: C12, C14, C31, C36, C52, H75, I21, J24


Background: Metastasis to craniocervical area may result in instability manifesting as disabling pain, cranial nerve dysfunction, paralysis, or even death. Stabilization is required to prevent complications. Nonoperative treatment modalities are ineffective in providing stability and adequate pain relief. We present our experience of diagnosis, presentation, and surgical management for metastatic tumors to the upper cervical spine (UCS). Methods: Single-center single-surgeon database of consecutively operated posterior occiput-cervical fusion for metastasis to UCS was reviewed from 2007 to 2016. Demographics, clinical, and surgical data were collected through chart review. Pain scores based on Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and other radiological data were noted. Kaplan–Meier curve was used for survival analysis. Clinical outcomes and complications were recorded. Results: A total of 29 patients (17 females/12 males) had the mean age of 56.7 ± 13.5 (24–82). Predominant metastasis included from the breast in 9 (31.03%) cases, followed by renal in 5, melanoma in 4, and 3 each from lung and colon. Axis was involved in 24 cases (C2 body in 21, pedicle in 8 cases). Atlas was involved in 9 cases (lateral mass in 8 cases and arch in 3 cases) and occiput was involved in three cases. Average Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score was 10 ± 2.3 (7–14). Mild cord compression was seen in 7 cases. Fusion extended from occiput to C4 fusion (n = 23), C5 (n = 5), and C6 (n = 1). Average blood loss was 364.8 ± 252.1 ml and operative time was 235 ± 51.9 min. Average length of stay was 7 ± 2.8 days (3–15). VAS improved from 8.3 ± 1.5 to 1 ± 1.1 (P < 0.001). C2 angulation corrected from 2.1° ±5.3° (0°–17°) to 0.5° ±1.2° (P = 0.045). Three patients each developed cardiopulmonary complications and deep infection. The average survival was 14.5 ± 15.1 (0.15–50) months. Conclusion: C2 body is the most common site of metastasis. Occiput-cervical fusion for unstable upper cervical metastasis offers a good palliative treatment for pain relief and improved quality of life.


In competitive electricity markets, in addition to the uncertainty of exogenous variables such as energy demand, water inflows, and availability of generation units and fuel costs, participants are faced with the uncertainty of their competitors' behavior. The analysis of electricity price time series reflects a switching nature, related to discrete changes in competitors' strategies, which can be represented by a set of dynamic models sequenced together by a Markov chain. An input-output hidden Markov model (IOHMM) is proposed for analyzing and forecasting electricity spot prices. The model provides both good predictions in terms of accuracy as well as dynamic information about the market. In this way, different market states are identified and characterized by their more relevant explanatory variables. Moreover, a conditional probability transition matrix governs the probabilities of remaining in the same state, or changing to another, whenever a new market session is opened. The model has been successfully applied to real clearing prices in the Spanish electricity market.


Face recognition algorithms based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA) generally give satisfactory performance but tend to require a relatively high number of samples in order to learn reliable projections. In many practical applications of face recognition there is only a small number of labelled face images and in this case LDA-based algorithms generally lead to poor performance. The contributions in this paper relate to a new semi-supervised, self-training LDA-based algorithm which is used to augment a manually labelled training set with new data from an unlabelled, auxiliary set and hence to improve recognition performance. Without the cost of manual labelling such auxiliary data is often easily acquired but is not normally useful for learning. We report face recognition experiments on 3 independent databases which demonstrate a constant improvement of our baseline, supervised LDA system. The performance of our algorithm is also shown to significantly outperform other semi-supervised learning algorithms.


Trust-based systems have been proposed as means to fight against malicious agents in peer-to-peer networks, volunteer and grid computing systems, among others. However, there still exist some issues that have been generally overlooked in the literature. One of them is the question of whether punishing disconnecting agents is effective. In this paper, we investigate this question for these initial cases where prior direct and reputational evidence is unavailable, what is referred in the literature as trust bootstrapping. First, we demonstrate that there is not a universally optimal penalty for disconnection and that the effectiveness of this punishment is markedly dependent on the uptime and downtime session lengths. Second, to minimize the effects of an improper selection of the disconnection penalty, we propose to incorporate predictions into the trust bootstrapping process. These predictions based on the current activity of the agents shorten the trust bootstrapping time when direct and reputational information is lacking.


Within racialized societies, the meaning of race is an important topic of psychological study. As Helms and colleagues have pointed out, however, race has no consensual theoretical or scientific meaning in psychology, although the term race is frequently used in psychological theory, research, and practice as if it has obvious meaning. A recent cultural historical analysis of race scholarship concluded that race as a label has developed over time, leading to the treatment of race as a "thing." Such ideological use of race as a thing has been discredited. Nevertheless, socially destructive ideological concepts of race have been embedded in racialized societies to varying degrees through social, economic, and political institutions and their practices.
 In the history of the field of psychology, race has had various theoretical conceptualizations (i.e., definitions). Most of these theoretical conceptualizations can be linked to larger scientific and societal movements within racialized societies. Relatedly, psychologists have adopted various epistemological and methodological approaches to studying race, although positivist empiricism has dominated. The complexities of the theoretical conceptualization and methodological approaches in the field of psychology for studying race have led to multiple analyses of how to address "psychology's problems with race." Multiple features of a racialized society provide the broader context for the study race within the field of psychology.


Short-range signaling by sulfated peptides maintains root stem cells. A tiny bunch of stem cells generates the bulk and diversity of plant roots. These cells are found at the root meristem and are themselves regulated by signaling inputs from a variety of sources. In Arabidopsis, Matsuzaki et al. have identified a family of peptide factors that regulate these root stem cells. These peptides, known as root meristem growth factors, carry the posttranslational modification tyrosine sulfation and are essential for maintaining the root stem cell niche. Y. Matsuzaki, M. Ogawa-Ohnishi, A. Mori, Y. Matsubayashi, Secreted peptide signals required for maintenance of root stem cell niche in Arabidopsis. Science 329, 1065–1067 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The value of clinical legal education courses and the faculty teaching those courses has long been contested. A focal point for this opposition has been resistance to the American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation standard that requires law schools to establish long-term employment relationships with clinical faculty and provide them with a meaningful voice in law school governance. By integrating clinical faculty into law schools, the ABA aims to advance the value of clinical legal education and the professional skills and values it promotes. In the decades since the ABA created the first clinical faculty standard, clinical legal education in the United States has developed as pedagogy and the number of clinical faculty has greatly increased. Despite these trends, a recent decision by the ABA Accreditation Committee approving short-term contracts and the denial of meaningful participation in faculty governance for clinical faculty demonstrates that the debate over the appropriate status continues. In this debate, there is often little or no mention of the history of the accreditation standard in question, perhaps because no historical account of its evolution exists. In this article, the authors fill that gap in the literature by tracing the evolution of the ABA standard concerning clinical faculty status. The article begins with a discussion of the role of the ABA in legal education and a brief history of the development of clinical legal education. It then discusses the events leading up to the initial adoption in 1984 of a standard addressing clinical faculty and to the strengthening of the standard in 1996. The authors conclude by addressing changes to the standard in 2005 and how those changes have revived the debate over the status of clinical faculty. By surfacing the historical debates and the evolution of the standard for clinical faculty, the article provides the basis for reasoned, informed decisions by the ABA and the legal academy concerning the value of clinical legal education and the role of clinical faculty in law schools.


We have created an atomic beam source of lithium atoms for use in a cryogenic environment. This beam source is expected to provide a flux of 10 atoms/s. The main features of this source are a reservoir chamber of solid lithium heated with heater wire, creating a lithium gas that travels down an ohmically heated tube and exits as an effusive beam. That beam is directed at a cold supersonic jet of helium. As lithium atoms enter the helium gas they rapidly thermalize and become entrained. The design challenges faced included directing the heat load away from the cold elements of the cryogenic chamber, obtaining the correct temperatures to provide the desired flux, and measuring the beam as it exited the reservoir. Through the use of laser induced fluorescence, we believe we have observed capture of lithium by the helium jet. Such a beam source can be used to form an intense cold atom source with the potential future application of serving as a pump source for an atom laser.


Communication between parallel programs is an indispensable part of parallel computing. SW26010 is a heterogeneous many-core processor used to build the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer, which is well suited for parallel computing. Our team is designing and implementing a coroutine scheduling system on SW26010 processor to improve its concurrency, it is very important and necessary to achieve communication between coroutines for the coroutine scheduling system in advance. Therefore, this paper proposes a communication system for data and information exchange between coroutines on SW26010 processor, which contains the following parts. First, we design and implement a producer-consumer mode channel communication based on ring buffer, and designs synchronization mechanism for condition of multi-producer and multi-consumer based on the different atomic operation on the MPE (management processing element) and the CPE (computing processing element) of SW26010. Next, we design a wake-up mechanism between the producer and the consumer, which reduces the waiting of the program for communication. At last, we test and analyse the performance of channel in different numbers of producers and consumers, draw the conclusion that when the number of producers and consumers increases, the channel performance will decrease.


The present study deals with the analysis of the cylindrical part of a CNG storage vessel, combining a plastic liner and an over wrapped filament wound composite. Three kind of polymer are used in the present analysis: High density Polyethylene HDPE, Light low density Polyethylene LLDPE and finally blend of LLDPE/HDPE. The effect of the mechanical properties on the behavior of type IV vessel may be then investigated. In the present paper, the effect of the order of the circumferential winding on the stacking sequence may be then investigated. Based on mechanical considerations, the present model provides an exact solution for stresses and deformations on the cylindrical section of the vessel under thermo-mechanical static loading. The result show a good behavior of HDPE liner compared to the other plastic materials. The presence of circumferential winding angle in the stacking improves the rigidity of vessel by improving the burst pressure. Keywords—CNG; Cylindrical vessel; Filament winding; Liner; Polymer; LLDPE; HDPE; Burst pressure.


With an Introduction and Notes by Jeff Wallace, University of Glamorgan. These stories of myth and resurrection, of uncanny events and violent impulse, were with one exception written and published in the latter half of the 1920s, coinciding with the composition of Lawrence's controversial masterpiece Lady Chatterley's Lover. At this time Lawrence declared himself to be 'really awful sick of writing'; yet here we find some of his most beautiful, hauntingly melancholy fictions. In struggling to escape from their thwarted lives and to achieve human 'tenderness', the characters embody and continue the major preoccupations of Lawrence's work as a whole. Love Among the Haystacks provides an early illustration of the intensity and innovation which made Lawrence one of the most distinctive and important of twentieth-century writers.


This submission addresses the change to the electronic environment in libraries. It presents eight selected research papers which cumulatively contribute to knowledge regarding the management issues arising from this change. The specific elements of the research programme focused primarily on changes in academic libraries and secondly in public libraries. The implications of changes in different countries were investigated. The research programme evolved over time, as its applicability and relevance extended to other players in the developing library electronic resources field. The need for effective communication and marketing regarding electronic resources was identified as key, and it became increasingly evident that libraries needed to adopt marketing techniques appropriate to the changing environment and different to those techniques traditionally used. The linked elements of the research programme involve managing changing user needs in line with a changing user base, which includes remote users, and the requirements for changing staff skills. Further elements include work in a virtual environment alongside a physical environment and collaboration and consortia working. The central aim of the research programme was to identify solutions for best practice, and funding was obtained for many of the research elements. Originality is demonstrated by investigation into an emerging area, using library websites at the time of their development and applying an experimental research technique. Research methods from different research paradigms - positivist and interpretivist - were employed. Quantitative data was obtained to establish hard facts. Qualitative approaches enabled the acquisition of multiple perspectives and understanding of social constructions of meaning and knowledge, such as respondents' attitudes, feelings and perceptions. The extent and modes of discussion with respondents facilitated triangulation of methods that resulted in multiple views for synthesis so as to clarify understanding. All of the research was underpinned by an on-going literature review, which was vital in order to assess both what existed and current developments. The research methods used were applied in a sequence of eight stages as the electronic environment in libraries developed. The research aimed to provide a fully rounded picture, investigating the issues arising from the introduction of electronic resources in libraries, and it achieved this by considering developments over a period of time just in excess of the past decade. The papers present findings that can be applied by players in the field of electronic resource provision. Foremost amongst these was the requirements for educating library users, often in a remote environment, in the use of the new electronic resources, which were derived and the vital importance of operating different marketing and communication techniques, which was demonstrated.


This study focuses on what is on the surface a deeply patriarchal society, the Kuria of Tanzania. Although little agency is overtly ascribed to women, the study demonstrates how some women and disadvantaged men manage to overcome the constraints in their lives either by utilising the existing structures of marriage to their advantage or else by engaging in entrepreneurial activities, alone or with others, to improve their economic situations. It shows how the various forms of marriage help individuals to achieve full personhood in Kuria terms. The study explains why people wish to have many children and how they are able to overcome infertility, and even death, to increase the number of their descendants.

Taking a historical perspective, the study is positioned against the backdrop of Kuria marriages. It looks at the ways these unions are tied into and shaped by wider social structures, including the laws and ideologies of Christianity, Islam, and the state in its various forms. The study concentrates more on local meanings than on legal or political rules. Despite far reaching politico-economic, religious and cultural changes, the Kuria have continued to tenaciously embrace their main ideas about marriage and fertility in relation to personhood. This is seen as a form of resistance, best understood in terms of the structures of agnatic descent and processes of individual agency, reflected in status and access to rights and resources in the community. Moreover, new stimuli in the local economy, like mining, have created market for local produce and services enabling households, individuals and groups to have various income-generation activities. The study argues that gender is flexible; it can be negotiated and circumvented by pragmatic changes in roles and status, rendering gendered identities a highly fluid process. Thus sonless or childless, living or non-living, and wealthy women can have daughters-in-law (female wives), and men who are dead, disabled, impotent or sterile, and mad can have children. Gender is also, however, in other senses circumscribed and fixed, because only women can bear children.


Density functional theory calculations (B3LYP) have been carried out to investigate the 4π-electron systems of 2,4-disila-1,3-diphosphacyclobutadiene (compound 1) and the tetrasilacyclobutadiene dication (compound 2). The calculated nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) values for these two compounds are negative, which indicates that the core rings of compounds 1 and 2 have a certain amount of aromaticity. However, deep electronic analysis reveals that neither of these two formal 4π-electron four-membered ring systems is aromatic. Compound 1 has very weak, almost negligible antiaromaticity, and the amidinate ligands attached to the Si atoms play an important role in stabilizing this conjugated 4π-electron system. The monoanionic bidentate ligand interacts with the conjugated π system to cause π-orbital splitting. This ligand-induced π-orbital splitting effect provides an opportunity to manipulate the gap between occupied and unoccupied π orbitals in conjugated systems. Conversely, compound 2 is nonaromatic because its core ring does not have a conjugated π ring system and does not fulfill the requirements of a Hückel system.


Title of Document: MACROINVERTEBRATE PREDATORS AND THEIR ROLE IN SHAPING FRESHWATER COMMUNITIES IN CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS Lauren Elizabeth Culler, Master of Science, 2008 Directed By: Associate Professor, William O. Lamp, Department of Entomology The recent increase in the number of wetland construction projects has led to numerous studies investigating the response of the macroinvertebrate community in wetlands. Little is known, however, about the factors structuring these communities and how predation may shape community development. Here, I analyze two years of macroinvertebrate community data collected from 9 constructed wetlands at the Jackson Lane Preserve on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Results suggest that abiotic factors may be less important than previously thought in structuring the macroinvertebrate community, and biotic factors such as predation may be more important. I then investigate the role of two larval dytiscid beetles in structuring the primary consumer community. These predators exert strong pressure on the community and, therefore, I conclude that predation is an important factor shaping freshwater communities in constructed wetlands. I offer several suggestions for wetland management with the goal of constructing wetlands with high ecological value.


Focussing on ten and eleven year-old children's ongoing informal talk in school, this chapter examines the emergence of their evaluative responses to a number of texts from popular culture which figure in their everyday lives. It looks in particular at how expressions of emotional reactions, judgements about behaviour and events and appreciation of the aesthetic value of the texts are mediated by the interactive entrainment of evaluation among friends. The data include highly heteroglossic exchanges about an episode of the UK television soap opera EastEnders, which children treat simultaneously as a 'slice of live' and as an artful text, revoicing characters and expressing feelings about the producers and the plot. In collaborative performances of musical fragments from films including Titanic and Mama Mia, and a rhythm and blues song by Rihanna: 'Unfaithful', children's appreciation was expressed by entry into and appropriation of rhythmic and melodic forms, often strongly emotionally imbued. The children's sensitivity to and appreciation of form is conveyed in the interactionally synchronised performance of song which confirms and intensifies social bonding. Judgement here is often implicit in children's evaluative alliances with the singers whose voices and stances they are reproducing, but they could also distance themselves from these values, for example through playful revoicing. While children's performances and discussion of the soap-opera and songs enact dominant cultural values and discourse, their revoicings and exchanges with peers also provide evidence of experimentation and play with a range of evaluative positions and with different degrees of commitment.


Modeling disease progression is an active area of research. Many computational methods for progression modeling have been developed but mostly at population levels. In this paper, we formulate a personalized disease progression modeling problem as a multi-task regression problem where the estimation of progression scores at different time points is defined as a learning task. We introduce a Personalized Progression Modeling (PPM) scheme as a novel way to estimate personalized trajectories of disease by jointly discovering clusters of similar patients while estimating disease progression scores. The approach is formulated as an optimization problem that can be solved using existing techniques. We present efficient algorithms for the PPM scheme, together with experimental results on both synthetic and real world healthcare data proving its analytical efficacy over other 4 baseline methods representing the current state of the art. On synthetic data, we showed that our algorithm achieves over 40% accuracy improvement over all the baselines. On the healthcare application PPM has a 4% accuracy improvement on average over the state-of-the-art baseline in predicting the viral infection progression.


Background/Context Students, classrooms, teachers, and schools form hierarchical units of any schooling system that compete for, say, educational resources and sometimes blame one another for the failure to meet a certain societal goal. Little educational research exists that separates competing effects on schooling outcomes across these educational levels. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We aimed to fill in this gap in the literature by simultaneously examining in one model students, classrooms, teachers, and schools for competing effects on science achievement and identifying factors at each of these educational levels critical to science achievement. Population/Participants/Subjects We used data from the Program for Regional Assessment and Promotion of Basic Education Quality, a program in China. Data described learning and teaching practices of eighth-grade students and their science teachers (physics, biology, and geology) and school principals. Research Design: A four-level hierarchical linear model was developed to perform secondary analysis of science achievement data with students nested within classrooms, nested within teachers, nested within schools. Findings/Results Across physics, biology, and geology, the proportion of variance in science achievement attributable to students was 75%–78%, 7%–9% to classrooms, 1%–4% to teachers, and 10%–14% to schools. Across the three content areas of science, male students, younger students, and students with higher parental socioeconomic status outperformed their counterparts respectively (at the student level), and students in schools with higher student expenditure outperformed students in other schools (at the school level). Teacher effects were diverse across the three content areas of science. Conclusions/Recommendations The breakdown of institutional contributions to science achievement across the three content areas of science indicates a hierarchy of importance of educational units in the order of schools, classrooms, and teachers in China. From a global perspective, in China, gender differences were stronger, socioeconomic differences were weaker, age effects deviated from the international tradition, and school effects associated with student expenditure were stronger. We conclude that preparation and development are as critical for school administrators as they are for classroom teachers and that professional development organized by science content area may be more effective than pooling all science teachers together.


The performance of a multiple-input multiple-output amplify-and-forward two-way relay network with joint antenna and relay selection is analysed over Nakagami-m fading channels. Both approximate and asymptotic system outage probability expressions are derived, and diversity and coding gains for an arbitrary number of antennas, relays and fading severity are presented. Finally, the analytical findings are verified by numerical examples.


One of the enduring principles of federal securities regulation is the mantra that bonds are securities, while commercial loans are not. Yet the corporate bond and loan markets in the U.S. are rapidly converging, putting significant pressure on the disparity in their regulatory treatment. As securities, corporate bonds are subject to onerous public disclosure obligations and liability regimes, which corporate loans avoid entirely. This longstanding regulatory distinction between loans and bonds is based on the traditional conception of a commercial loan as a long-term relationship between the borrowing company and a single bank, in contrast to bonds, which may be issued to widely dispersed retail investors and are traded in a liquid market. Today, however, not only are loans funded by dispersed, non-bank creditors, but the pricing, terms, participants, and liquidity in the two markets are rapidly converging. Logically, securities regulators should respond to this functional convergence by treating loans and bonds as one and the same. While the regulatory disparity persists, however, it provides a rare natural experiment testing the effectiveness of the securities laws. That the loan market has achieved comparable depth and liquidity to the bond market, even in the absence of mandatory disclosure and robust antifraud provisions, suggests that the securities laws are not doing the work for which they were intended.


This study examined sex and age differences in social withdrawal among 240 (135 males and 105 females) pre-service teachers in a Nigerian university. A cross-sectional survey was used to collect data on social withdrawal and some demographic factors. Respondents were systematically randomly selected for the study. Demographic characteristics revealed 170 (70.8%) Christians, 47 (19.6%) Muslims and 22 (9.2%) traditionalists. Participants' ages ranged between 15-30 years, with a mean age of 20 years. Data collected was analysed with version 17 of SPSS software using t-test and 2x3 ANOVA. The results show participants were generally high on social withdrawal and there was neither a significant independent sex difference, nor interactive influence of sex and age on social withdrawal (p > .05). However, there was a significant influence of age on social withdrawal (p = .018), as participants within the ages of 21-25 years were shown to be higher on social withdrawal. It was concluded that social withdrawal is an observable psychological manifestation among pre-service teachers and if not attended to, these pre-service teachers may become negative role models to their students who may end up becoming unsociable, unassertive and maladjusted individuals who may not be able to make meaningful, positive contribution in the society in which they live.


For 220 years, the Patent Act has required patentable inventions to be "new and useful." For almost as long, courts have struggled with difficult questions about what to protect by patent and what to leave in the public domain. Patent laws provide a variety of rules to help answer these questions, but the very nature of translating an inventive principle into written form can make application of these rules elusive. As a result, consistent application of patent law can often involve guesswork and hand-waving at the margins of difficult cases. There are many principled ways to make headway through such doctrinal thickets. Some look to economic analysis, others to natural rights, while still others focus primarily on patentability criteria such as newness and disclosure.In the broad scheme of things, however, the requirement that an invention be useful has been nearly non-existent – essentially ignored. The level of "utility" currently required to obtain a patent is extremely low: the invention need only operate as described and potentially provide some de minimis public benefit. Patents that fail to meet this standard are rare, and usually limited to perpetual motion machines and chemicals with unknown effects. As a result, the invention's usefulness has never been considered an over-arching principle that can help decide difficult questions about what should be patented.Ignoring usefulness is a mistake. Usefulness can be – and in some ways already is – surprisingly helpful in patent law and policy. This article's goal is to show how usefulness is not only relevant, but also how it is important. Usefulness can underlie a principled approach to resolve longstanding doctrinal questions, resolve close factual questions of patentability, explain existing rules, or provide meaning to vague requirements. The doctrine is especially helpful at the margins, where some policy is needed to decide close cases; usefulness can often put a thumb on the scale.To be sure, usefulness does not answer every question, and in some cases can only provide guidance rather than resolution. Even so, this article follows on its predecessor, Reinventing Usefulness, by presenting the first comprehensive illustration of how some difficult, fundamental questions become answerable when viewed through the lens of usefulness. The analysis is descriptive in part and normative in part. Sometimes rules implicitly or explicitly consider usefulness, and some rules should start doing so.


Contrary to popular conception, the purpose of particle physics is to understand the everyday world. The current theory of fundamental interactions among the quarks and leptons depends on eighteen parameters, which are a priori arbitrary. Were these parameters different, our world would be changed dramatically. By exploring the connection between these parameters and everyday phenomena we can better appreciate the challenges confronting contemporary particle physics. Until we can explain the origin of these parameters, we cannot say we truly understand why our everyday world is as it is. [S0034-6861(96)00203-6]


Electron transfer kinetics between an electrode and an electron acceptor in electrolytes, liquid dielectrics, and dense gases is comparatively analyzed for the case of a weak electric field. Near-electrode charge distribution patterns in a liquid dielectric (or a dense weekly conducting gas) exposed to an external high-voltage field are examined. It is shown that the quadratic dependence of current–voltage characteristics of the system is determined by the character of electron transitions from surface states. The transient processes involved are discussed, and characteristic formation times for steady-state near-electrode patterns are calculated.


Automobile companies recall vehicles whenever they are perceived to have defects that affect safety. Since market responses to a product recall may be different depending on the size of cars in the recall, the analysis separated the recalls into major events with more than 500,000 cars per recall, and minor recalls with less than 500,000 cars per recall. In this paper, the impact on sales was measured in order to understand the customer's reaction under these circumstances. The well-publicised recalls in November 2009 and January 2010 are the focus of this study. The paper also investigates the impact of the recalls on the Japanese auto industry, as well as stock market performance of Toyota. The conclusion from the model indicates that major recalls have a negative impact on the market share with a three-month lag, while minor recalls showed a positive impact on the market share after four months. However, its impact on the stock market performance is immediate and shows no evidence of lagging effect for stock prices. Analysis on Japanese auto industry identifies that the market share trajectories of Honda and Toyota shows similar patterns which suggests that consumer perceptions of these companies are similar.


This paper presents the work in progress towards a simple, flexible and decentralized representation of context and for the detection of appropriate context-aware action. Continuing our previous work on decentralized multi-agent systems for the context-aware exchange of information, we propose a representation for context inspired from concept maps and conceptual graphs, and also a formalism for context patterns, that allows the detection and solution of problems related to the user's context.


Hate speech detection on Twitter is critical for applications like controversial event extraction, building AI chatterbots, content recommendation, and sentiment analysis. We define this task as being able to classify a tweet as racist, sexist or neither. The complexity of the natural language constructs makes this task very challenging. We perform extensive experiments with multiple deep learning architectures to learn semantic word embeddings to handle this complexity. Our experiments on a benchmark dataset of 16K annotated tweets show that such deep learning methods outperform state-of-the-art char/word n-gram methods by ~18 F1 points.


The environment in which an experience occurs impacts the quality of that experience. Hospitals and nursing homes are the locations for 75% of deaths in America, contrary to the surveyed preference that 80% of us want to die at home. Institutions need to provide sacred space in the form of a private room(s) designated for the purpose of keeping vigil with the dying during the final, most sacred transformation of life: a Chrysalis Room. Death at home means a familiar environment filled with personal possessions and loved ones caring for the person dying. It means autonomy, privacy, comfort, quiet, control, and dignity. These qualities of home create the opportunity to care for each other, share stories, to make meaning of a life, to do the spiritual, emotional and psychological work of preparing for death. A chrysalis room in a nursing home or hospital is a quiet, comfortable, spacious, esthetic space designated for a dying person, in the care of hospice, to be supported through the final days of life. Family can be present and comfortable 24 hours. In a nursing home, the staff and other residents become family to each other. They are invited to be part of the vigil. Rituals are performed. Those who have been able to keep vigil in such sacred space report a peaceful experience, feelings of sorrow rather than painful emotions, and satisfaction for having been able to be there with one they love.


The British monarchy is one of the most durable institutions in the world. For almost a thousand years (with only one brief interlude) it has served as the formal head of the British state apparatus and has occupied its subjects' imaginations to a profound extent. Frank Prochaska takes a close look at the relationship between monarchy and its enemies since 1750. He considers the challenges that monarchy has faced and the reforms and reinventions they have forced on this apparently solid and timeless feature of the British constitution.


According to the popularity of variant video streaming applications over the Internet, video quality assessment is essential for video solutions and network operators in order to evaluate video stream quality and measure the end-user Quality of Experience. Packet loss affects both the decoder performance and the user's perception of video quality due to several network issues. The main goal of this paper is to estimate the perceived video quality at the receiver's side by passive measurement in the network and also evaluate how errors propagate through temporal prediction. Our proposed method is based on the network level parameters by considering the video codec and frame information. Our experimental analysis shows the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.


Recent scholarship has highlighted the role of severe ethnic inequalities, or what Stewart (2002) has termed 'horizontal inequalities', in provoking a range of political disturbances, including violent conflicts and civil wars. However, some countries with severe socio-economic or developmental inequalities between different ethnic groups or regions have nonetheless remained relatively peaceful and stable. This obviously raises the question: under what circumstances are horizontal inequalities more likely to provoke violent group action? In order to understand the linkages between horizontal inequalities and the emergence of violent ethno-regional mobilisation, we need to analyse not only countries where violent conflicts have emerged, but also countries which have been able to manage their ethno-regional tensions and inequalities relatively peacefully. The current paper aims to do so for the Ghanaian case. From the perspective of horizontal inequality/conflict, Ghana is an interesting case not only because so far the prevailing socio-economic inequalities between the North and South have not resulted in a serious violent conflict at the national level. But also because the most serious political tensions have occurred between the elites of ethnic groups (the Ewe and Ashanti/Akan), whose socio-economic situations are not markedly different from one another.


This 1998 book describes the sampling and statistical methods used most often by behavioral ecologists and field biologists. Written by a biologist and two statisticians, it provides a rigorous discussion together with worked examples of statistical concepts and methods that are generally not covered in introductory courses, and which are consequently poorly understood and applied by field biologists. The first section reviews important issues such as defining the statistical population and the sampling plan when using non-random methods for sample selection, bias, interpretation of statistical tests, confidence intervals and multiple comparisons. After a detailed discussion of sampling methods and multiple regression, subsequent chapters discuss specialized problems such as pseudoreplication, and their solutions. It will quickly become the statistical handbook for all field biologists.


The characteristics of the clinical study protocol (CSP) are discussed with regard to (i) its structure and (ii) its development process. The benefits of medical-writing involvement into both aspects are highlighted. In particular, medical writers are encouraged to participate in the development of the CSP template of their organisation.


The near extinction of bison from the North American prairie in the late 19th century made possible the settler colonization of the region and was a devastating rupture in Indigenous lifeways. Settler and Indigenous responses to this extermination reveal, at their core, differing conceptions of human-animal relations. This article analyzes settler and Indigenous narratives of bison extermination and then compares two contemporary conservation policies: the Vermejo Statement's (2006) ecological recovery model and the Buffalo Treaty's (2014) decolonial vision for bison restoration. Reading bison extermination and conservation through Indigenous scholarship clarifies how the historical horror of settler colonization has always been a multispecies endeavor. Through an analysis of historical narratives of bison extermination and contemporary bison restoration policies, this article argues that decolonization and conservation require multispecies approaches that take expansive views of human-animal relations. This is a project to which Indigenous thought contributes essential theoretical and methodological tools.


Introduction At the conclusion of the famous article of 1953 announcing the molecular structure of DNA, Watson and Crick observed "that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for genetic material." (1) Six months later, Pope Plus XII addressed the First International Conference of Medical Genetics on ethical issues. The Pope said that since the aim of genetics "is to influence the transmission of hereditary factors in such a way as to promote what is good and eliminate what is harmful," genetics is "morally irreproachable." (2) In these two events we have a prediction and a warranty: the scientist predicts the future fruitfulness of a biotechnological science, the Bishop of Rome warrants its moral value. The relationship between attempts to fulfill the prediction and maintain the warranty typifies what we now call "bioethics." This paper begins an examination of the way bioethics turns to law in its confrontation with biotechnology. There are three aspects to the bioethical encounter with biotechnology. First, bioethics accepts biotechnological facts as truths. Second, bioethics understands consent as the antidote to the risks of biotechnology it diagnoses. Third, bioethics turns to the positive law of procedural liberalism as the way to secure and guarantee consent. The paper aims only to raise the question of the implicit understanding of the human being and law one finds in the bioethical encounter with biotechnology. (3) This paper does not pose policy questions or offer solutions, nor could it without self-contradiction. The task of the paper is not to improve bioethics, or correct it, or identify its mistakes so as to achieve a "proper" vantage point from which to solve "problems" with biotechnology. Rather, the paper aims to begin an inquiry into the way being human is understood at the intersection of biotechnology, bioethics, and liberalism. Such an inquiry can present no "solutions" for "moving forward." I. Two Moments of Biotechnology: Variation and its Measure Some twenty years after Watson and Crick's prediction, Paul Berg, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen developed the technique of recombining "cut" strands of DNA into new genetic material, forming "recombinant DNA." (4) There are now many kinds of genetically engineered products, and many kinds of living beings under design in labs around the world. Biotechnology presents the allure of making us smarter, letting us live longer, healing us more effectively, and giving us better food. Modification of genetic material, the main activity of biotechnology, is the way these temptations are to be made real. Contemporary reflections on biotechnology often cite the two main events of this modern phenomenon as (i) the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA and (ii) the development of recombinant DNA. But these reflections imply that isolated instances of technical advance capture the technicity of biotechnology, and of how biotechnological facts "are". These advances have certainly led to effective results. However these advances manifest only a new precision in identifying and configuring the variables of biological phenomena. (5) The significant moments, the ones that have come to define the way biological phenomena present themselves as variables, were much earlier. To see the technicity that determines biotechnology requires a look at two prior moments: Darwin's identification of the problem of specie variation and Mendel's development of statistical methods for identifying and predicting genetic variation. Up until the mid-nineteenth century, the way to distinguish biological phenomena was through taxonomy. The development of taxonomy occurred along with the identification of species as the way to demarcate differences in that order of nature. (6) Species provided a foundation for classification by expressing the perpetuation of distinct kinds over time. …


Outcome prediction has always been an important part of practicing law. Clients rely heavily on their attorneys to provide accurate assessments of the potential legal consequences they face when making important decisions (such as whether to accept a plea bargain, or risk a conviction on a much more serious offense at trial). And yet, notwithstanding its enormous importance to the practice of law (and notwithstanding the handsome legal fees it commands), outcome prediction in the law remains a very imprecise endeavor.
The reason for this inaccuracy is that the three principal tools lawyers have traditionally relied on to facilitate outcome predictions -- legal analysis, lawyerly experience, and the use of certain types of empirical information (e.g., jury verdict reporters) -- are all subject to significant problems and limitations. This article examines in detail the reasons for these problems and limitations, concluding that they are essentially intractable. Thus, there is little hope that the traditional tools of outcome prediction on their own can ever enable consistently accurate assessments of potential legal outcomes.
Fortunately, however, recent advances in data science offer some grounds for optimism. Already, these advances are beginning to alter the way law firms operate, and there are good reasons to believe that data science (or more specifically, predictive analytics) will soon enable more accurate outcome predictions as well. Of course, predictive analytics is not a panacea: significant challenges remain if it is going to enable accurate outcome predictions on its own. And so it is doubtful that predictive analytics will supplant the traditional tools of outcome prediction in the foreseeable future. Rather, predictive analytics is likely to complement the traditional tools in order to power more accurate outcome predictions. But even that modest change is likely to have a significant effect on the way lawyers practice law, and it should also come as very welcome news to their clients.


Problems of education recently represent the this topic of which is is warm to be discussed by in society. Because various education program which is governmental cymbal assumed disagree with society expectation, even tend to to trouble, like policy of final exam and also registration of new student. Daily of Radar Malang, embrace the the phenomenon in a special column entitle " Pros of Edukasi". In columns this studied to regarding growth of education in Worse luck and also various info in around education in Worse luck. This matter represent a separate breakthrough because Radar Malang daily newspaper represent local media which have special rubric in around education as well as Radar Malang daily newspaper represent most newspaper in enthusing by society, proven from result of marketing which its its his at most in reading society. Become opportunity to promote to education more extend in all society coat. Education institute it is true of vital importance promote x'self, because can influence assessment of society become more enthused. Education of college represent subyek which is very often discussed in pros column of Education Daily of Radar Malang, because of growth of education of college in Worse luck show progress of Malang town arena dank is education town hence high institute in Worse luck enthused many from various area. This matter look from more and moreing the increasing of amount of student from year to year in some University, also the increasing of enthusiast to College Of Country every year in tes enter. This make college in Worse luck cope to improve its interest by improving medium and infrastructure had. Various activity relate to this College is very often loaded in education news at Pros column of Education Daily of Radar Malang. Education theme and news source what there are at news education of college at column " Pros of Edukasi" in is Daily of Radar Malang? Target of this research is to know Theme news source and education found on news education of college at column " Pros of Edukasi" in is Daily of Radar Malang. This Research base use content analysis method. Analysis fill is each;every systematic procedure which designed to study information content of analysis. Analysis Research owning barbed signifikasi with media text study or news, its tendency more quantitative descriptive having the character of. Data type the used is quantitative data type, so that more orienting at process and non at definitive result. In general this research is conducted to comprehend education theme found on Pros column of Education Daily of Java Post. Technique data collecting taken is by Documentation, Pros column article mengkliping of Education at is Daily of Java Post Radar Malang as source of research primary data. Intake of data of sekunder, utilize to equip reference and strengthen primary data namely in the form of article, literature books, journal, and also materialss written other utilize to support equipment of data. To test reliability, this research is assisted by two people of coder one who do coding in coding of data. Examination of reliability conducted to category to be used in research to know do indicator or category to be used by have reliable or not yet. Result of from research that high institute which at most in loading in pros column of Education is University of Muhammadiyah Malang. Of the research hence University of Muhammadiyah Malang can develop; build its reputation excellently which will influence assessment of wide of society. Keyword : Berita Pendidikan; Perguruan Tinggi; Media Lokal Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/255/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2008-evaellana0-12743-PENDAHUL-N.PDF


In this study, temporal changes in the extractability of 14C-pyrene, at native concentrations, were followed in two soils with differing organic matter contents, under sterile and non-sterile conditions over 24 weeks by a sequential solvent extraction scheme. No significant loss of the added 14C-pyrene was observed during the incubation. Significant decreases in methanol:water and n-butanol extractability were observed with increasing soil–pyrene contact time. Significant non-extractable residues were formed in all soils, with the largest increases found in the non-sterile soils. After 8 weeks soil–pyrene contact time, there was a significant increase in the rate and extent of sequestration of pyrene in the biologically active soils. This indicated that the aging of pyrene was initially a physical process, with active microbial communities increasing the rate and extent of residue formation after 8 weeks soil–pyrene contact time. These findings suggest that there is a need for longer term ageing experiments following the role of microbial communities on the formation of solvent non-extractable residues. The humin fraction of the soil organic matter contained the majority of the 14C-pyrene associated activity which was not extractable using the scheme of sequential solvents. Saponification of the soil humin resulted in the release of similar amounts of 14C-pyrene associated activity from sterile and non-sterile soils. Solvent extraction with methanol:water was found to significantly underestimate the bioavailable fraction, whereas n-butanol overestimated the bioavailability of the 14C-pyrene-associated activity when assessed by bacterial mineralization after 24 weeks soil–pyrene contact time.


The production and use of increasingly complex hierarchical multifunctional ensembles of nanomaterials introduces emergent properties that will likely lead to uncertainty in the environmental health and safety (EHS) evaluation of nanohybrids (NHs). This perspective proposes principles to identify NHs with novel properties relevant to nano EHS research, and discusses specific challenges for EHS research on these materials. We propose a strategy for focusing nano EHS research efforts on relevant NH systems.


The study examines lexical-semantic structures in the linguistic consciousness of an individual and considers the factors affecting the establishment of these structures. Understanding the way people categorise the outer world is essential for the development of cross-cultural communication skills. The study analyses linguistic consciousness studies in the field of linguistics, psychology and psycholinguistics and provides findings of research into internal structure of a semantic field 'bird' in the linguistic consciousness of Russian, English, and German speakers. The findings will be interesting to specialists in intercultural communication and foreign language teachers. The methodological framework is based on the psychometric ranking of verbal and non-verbal stimuli followed by statistical data processing implemented to reveal the nature of results correlation. These results were further exposed to comparative analysis to define the factors bringing about both similarities and discrepancies. The analysis helped prove that both linguistic and cultural phenomena affect the position of a component within a semantic field, making up its core and periphery. Linguistic phenomena feature symbolism, metaphorisation, and word-formation, while cultural phenomena are represented by geographic location and practical skills of communication.


Abstract. Data from a field survey of the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami in the Sanriku area of Japan is used to plot the distribution function of runup heights along the coast. It is shown that the distribution function can be approximated by a theoretical log-normal curve. The characteristics of the distribution functions of the 2011 event are compared with data from two previous catastrophic tsunamis (1896 and 1933) that occurred in almost the same region. The number of observations during the last tsunami is very large, which provides an opportunity to revise the conception of the distribution of tsunami wave heights and the relationship between statistical characteristics and the number of observed runup heights suggested by Kajiura (1983) based on a small amount of data on previous tsunamis. The distribution function of the 2011 event demonstrates the sensitivity to the number of measurements (many of them cannot be considered independent measurements) and can be used to determine the characteristic scale of the coast, which corresponds to the statistical independence of observed wave heights.


Surface freshwaters system management can be considered as one of the most relevant issues in an effectual organization of modern States. It follows that specific technocratic rhetoric have been spreading in order to promote the governance of a hydrographic network and water drainage and reclamation actually had the leading role in reinforcing the growing nationalism in all of Europe from the end of XIX century. Since late Middle Age the Veneto region was affected by Venice's increasing interests in achieving a new hydraulic policy focusing on an overall fluvial network amelioration and in this perspective the improvement of navigation was undoubtedly one of the main goals. During the first decades of the Italian Kingdom (particularly since 1866) the expansion of larger and larger reclamation plans had fruitful relationships with water transport and irrigation improvement. At the end of XIX century, the Italian inland navigation became one of the pre-eminent issues of the national economic development, and particularly it was maintained that a good management of Venetian waterways could help lowland drainage and the reclamation of wetlands. Modernization operations actually began at the end of the Nineteenth century and developed even further after the first world war, in an atmosphere characterized by extensive plans of urban regeneration involving many Italian towns. During the second world war most of Italian infrastructures were heavily damaged and in the second post-war period, the economic recession did not allow a continuous and efficient maintenance of the waterway system in the Venetian inland. The decline of the waterways transports was followed by a functional decadence of some fluvial and canal landscapes, implying besides the loss of the symbolic and memorial values of Venetian waterscapes too. It was only during the last decades of the Twentieth century that a more mature consideration of the historical and cultural meaning of fluvial and urban landscapes developed. We are now dealing with a well defined hydrographic heritage and current times are actually ready for broadening the awareness of waterways with regard to their touristic and recreational value.