In 1950 I received from Mr. D. Hille Ris Lambers a strange Pseudococcid from Java which had been collected by Mr. F. W. Rappard, a senior forestry officer, who regularly collects aphids for Mr. Hille Ris Lambers on his tours of duty. As this insect was a coccid, it was transmitted to me for examination. Its appearance is quite abnormal; the shape of its body reminds one almost of a large mite (fig. 4). The 6-segmented antennae have a dense vestiture of fine hairs, with exception of the 2 first segments which are very short. A tuft of 5 very long setae is present on the top of each of the anal lobes. The ungual digitules are extremely large and very flat. It was only after close study that the insect was recognized as a Pseudococcid. It has 2 pairs of ostioles in the usual position, a circulus on the ventral side of the second abdominal segment, and a few trilocular pores on both sides of the body. As I suspected an abnormal mode of living, I asked Mr. Hille Ris Lambers to write to Java for further particulars, and more material. To comply with this request Mr. Rappard has collected abundant material and communicated his field notes on these insects, which he calls "ant-riders" from their peculiar habit of climbing upon the black ants by which they are closely attended, as soon as these ants are disturbed, to have themselves transported in this way. The material at hand contains 3 different instars which seem to represent first and second stage larvae, and immature adult females. Of the latter stage only 3 specimens are available. Eggs or embryos were not observed in these specimens, but in one of them the oviduct and its exterior opening (one segment behind the posterior ostioles) is faintly visible in the chitinous


Background Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is now used regularly to treat therapy-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorders, and is being applied experimentally for refractory depression, Tourette syndrome, addiction, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism and schizophrenia. Aim To review the effects and mechanisms of dbs and to consider the future opportunities for this type of treatment in psychiatry. Method We reviewed the literature using PubMed. Results DBS is effective and safe to use in the treatment of therapy-refractory OCD and has produced encouraging results in cases of refractory depression and Tourette syndrome. However, further investigations are needed with regard to the use of DBS for treating other psychiatric disorders. DBS influences brain networks that are relevant for a whole range of psychiatric symptoms. Conclusion DBS should always be considered as possible treatment for therapy-refractory OCD. DBS often leads to marked and rapid improvement in mood, anxiety, behaviour and other psychiatric symptoms, making it a promising intervention for a variety of refractory patient groups. The development of DBS for psychiatry will benefit from our increased knowledge about how specific brain networks relate to psychiatric dysfunctioning.


INTRODUCTION The manifestation of intestinal dysmotility of coccidiosis has never been briefly reported before. From murine Eimeria study we concluded that Eimeria pragensis (Ep) is capable to induce intestinal hypomotility described to be similar to pan-enteric ileus. In comparison with the intestinal dysmotility in postoperative ileus which is orchestrated by TH1 immune response [1], a local injury to some part of intestine could trigger panenteric ileus. If the TH1 immune response could also be induced in Ep infection, the delay in intestinal motility could be explained as similar mechanism as the post-operative ileus. Since the Ep infestation occurred in the ileocecal part of the intestines, with similar mechanism of postoperative ileus, the pan-enteric ileus could be triggered. In this study, we tried to find a relationship between intestinal dysmotility and TH1 immune response in murine coccidiosis.


The chemistry of fresh water is dictated mainly by ions. Composition of ions in Himalayan Rivers is predominantly governed by chemical weathering process. Calcium and magnesium were the major ions, accounting for more than 85% of the total cation concentration of 1.408844331meq./l in River Ganga and 1.063554785 meq./l in River Yamuna. Among rest 15% sodium was the most abundant ion followed by trace quantities of potassium and ammonium ions. Total cation levels were increased to 2.115125212 meq./l and 3.085396688 meq./l in Gang Canal and Western Yamuna Canal respectively, having same pattern of ions. The levels of calcium and magnesium ions in drinking water supply of these canals were also in the range of 78 84% of the total concentration of 3.0 meq./l approx. Bicarbonate and sulphate were the major ions accounting for 86% of total anion concentration of 1.499494169 meq./l in River Ganga and 1.084299371 meq./l in River Yamuna. The levels of bicarbonate and sulphate were raised to 92-94% of total anion concentration of 2.164310984 meq /l in Gang Canal and 2.99235742 meq./l in Western Yamuna Canal. Chloride is the next most abundant ion followed by trace quantities of nitrates. Sulphur springs located in the high altitude region are the prominent source of bicarbonate, sodium and chloride ions respectively to both these rivers. Levels of bicarbonate and sulphate present in drinking water supply were at 75-83% of total anion concentration (3.0 meq./l approx.). The ionic levels found in rivers supporting high diversity of aquatic life was slightly lower compared to drinking water supply for human consumption. 2009 Trade Science Inc. INDIA


Composite-database micro-expression recognition is attracting increasing attention as it is more practical for real-world applications. Though the composite database provides more sample diversity for learning good representation models, the important subtle dynamics are prone to disappearing in the domain shift such that the models greatly degrade their performance, especially for deep models. In this article, we analyze the influence of learning complexity, including input complexity and model complexity, and discover that the lower-resolution input data and shallower-architecture model are helpful to ease the degradation of deep models in composite-database task. Based on this, we propose a recurrent convolutional network (RCN) to explore the shallower-architecture and lower-resolution input data, shrinking model and input complexities simultaneously. Furthermore, we develop three parameter-free modules (i.e., wide expansion, shortcut connection and attention unit) to integrate with RCN without increasing any learnable parameters. These three modules can enhance the representation ability in various perspectives while preserving not-very-deep architecture for lower-resolution data. Besides, three modules can further be combined by an automatic strategy (a neural architecture search strategy) and the searched architecture becomes more robust. Extensive experiments on the MEGC2019 dataset (composited of existing SMIC, CASME II and SAMM datasets) have verified the influence of learning complexity and shown that RCNs with three modules and the searched combination outperform the state-of-the-art approaches.


Local boards of health often issue regulations that have broad effects that surpass the borders of the city or county to which they apply. Promulgation of such rules by board of health members appointed by the executive branch implicates separation of powers concerns; because such regulations may so extensively burden a locality's citizens, it may be more appropriate for elected officials to adopt these regulations. Indeed, local businesses or other interested parties often bring suit challenging local board of health actions. Courts apply different analytical methodologies to review these challenges, which often leads to incongruent local health agency discretion for different boards in different states—or even between different local boards in the same state. This Note suggests that the above concerns implicitly affect how courts assess local board of health action. Based on an examination of four local boards of health and their relationships with their local and state governments, this Note posits that there are three factors that courts and policymakers should examine when assessing the parameters of a local board of health's regulatory discretion: the locality's history, the locality's government structure, and the locality's politics. By taking into account these three factors before applying traditional doctrines of local agency review—including nondelegation, preemption, or Dillon's Rule—courts may be better positioned to decide which of these doctrines should apply. In conducting this analysis, this Note also furthers the understanding of the place local boards of health hold in the grander struggle between local and state governments.


This report documents the results of a an 11-city paired testing study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development of housing discrimination against Asian- Americans and Pacific Islanders. The study shows that one out of every five Asians and Pacific Islanders attempting to buy or rent a home are discriminated against, a rate similar to that of African Americans and Hispanics.


Community involvement in regeneration is increasingly promoted as a 'good thing' and there are many publications offering guidance on how to involve local people in the delivery of sustainable regeneration. The advice generally points out the importance of valuing individuals' involvement whose ideas, energies and time are often invested benevolently. This publication is an attempt to begin to recognise and articulate that value. Through anumber of models of involvement, the study brings together a variety of examples of personal discovery, sense of accomplishment and deep social learning that participating in the management of community projects can bring. Thus, this study details the stories of 21 people involved in different ways with their local community development trust as a way to celebrate individuals' contributions to the quality of individual and community life in localneighbourhoods. It begins to tease out what inspires and motivates local people to become actively involved and what practices are used by trusts to encourage, sustain and expand membership and participation in the management of trusts and projects. The richness of the individual stories and depth of insight of the interviewees' experience andlearning is reflected in the style of this report which draws heavily on participants' own words, in an attempt to capture the human dynamics at play. The report highlights the very personal nature of individual learning and motivation and avoids the use of what some participants described as regeneration jargon and 'regenerese'. In the main, the report does not seek to universalise some kind of elusive community member experience, but instead respects each individual and their sense of personhood. Thus, this study weaves a collection of tales together using common sense language.


Objectives: Blood pressure variability (BPV) and its reduction in response to antihypertensive treatment are predictors of clinical outcomes; however, little is known about its heritability. In this study, we examined the relative influence of genetic and environmental sources of variance of BPV and the extent to which it may depend on race or sex in young twins. Methods: Twins were enrolled from two studies. One study included 703 white twins (308 pairs and 87 singletons) aged 18–34 years, whereas another study included 242 white twins (108 pairs and 26 singletons) and 188 black twins (79 pairs and 30 singletons) aged 12–30 years. BPV was calculated from 24-h ambulatory blood pressure recording. Results: Twin modeling showed similar results in the separate analysis in both twin studies and in the meta-analysis. Familial aggregation was identified for SBP variability (SBPV) and DBP variability (DBPV) with genetic factors and common environmental factors together accounting for 18–40% and 23–31% of the total variance of SBPV and DBPV, respectively. Unique environmental factors were the largest contributor explaining up to 82–77% of the total variance of SBPV and DBPV. No sex or race difference in BPV variance components was observed. The results remained the same after adjustment for 24-h blood pressure levels. Conclusions: The variance in BPV is predominantly determined by unique environment in youth and young adults, although familial aggregation due to additive genetic and/or common environment influences was also identified explaining about 25% of the variance in BPV.


Littlework has been undertaken to examine the role of specific long-term fault properties on earthquake ground motions. Here, we empirically examine the in- fluence of the structural maturity of faults on the strong ground motions generated by the rupture of these faults, and we compare the influence of fault maturity to that of other source properties (slip mode, and blind versus surface rupturing). We analyze the near-field ground motions recorded at rock sites for 28 large (Mw 5.6-7.8) crustal earthquakes of various slip modes. The structural maturity of the faults broken by those earthquakes is classified into three classes (mature, intermediate, and immature) based on the combined knowledge of the age, slip rate, cumulative slip, and length of the faults. We compare the recorded ground motions to the empirical prediction equa- tion of Boore et al. (1997). At all frequencies, earthquakes on immature faults produce ground motions 1.5 times larger than those generated by earthquakes on mature faults. The fault maturity appears to be associated with larger differences in ground-motion amplitude than the style of faulting (factor of 1.35 between reverse and strike-slip earthquakes) and the surface rupture occurrence (factor of 1.2 between blind and surface-rupturing earthquakes). However, the slip mode and the fault maturity are dependent parameters, and we suggest that the effect of slip mode may only be apparent, actually resulting from the maturity control. We conclude that the structural maturity of faults is an important parameter that should be considered in seismic hazard assessment.


On 11 August 1750, British ship captain John Newton departed Liverpool aboard the vessel, Duke of Argyle, setting sail for the Windward Coast of Africa. After docking close to a month later, he entered into business negotiations with local merchants for the procurement of various goods--both human and non-human. Much to his satisfaction, the number of captives he boarded on his ship increased. However, as he traveled the waters venturing into different coastal areas, he confronted several instances of declining health among purchased bondpeople and several crew members. Following his arrival in a region referred to as "Rio Junque," West Africa, the unhealthy environment aboard ship appeared to hinder Newton's future trading voyages and forced him to declare, "Having so many sick, am afraid [we] shall not be able to keep our boats going," presumably to conclude any of his immediate slaving endeavors. (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As sickness continued to advance, Newton chose to draw upon available coastal resources in hopes of restoring the health of some of those enslaved. Prior to his departure to the neighboring locale of Grand Bassa, on 12 January 1751, he discharged several seamen to "put a boy on [shore], No. 27, being very bad with a flux." (2) Three weeks after the young male's removal, his designated caretaker, Andrew Ross, shared with Newton that treatment notwithstanding, the bonded child's health deteriorated and he died. All too often, the physical and psychological traumas captives underwent during their final moments of life remain unrecorded. Despite the financial loss incurred by the boy's death, Newton intimated it was "indeed what I expected." (3) Three months later, while attempting to finalize slave sales in preparation for his Atlantic departure, Newton faced yet another medical episode. This concerned an enslaved girl referred to as "No. 92," who also became enfeebled by the flux. Similar to her male shipmate, Newton sent the young female captive on shore, this time to an individual named Peter Freeman. Upon her transfer, Newton concluded it was "not so much in hopes of recovery (for I fear she is past it)," but instead as he professed, "to free the ship of a nuisance." In many respects his actions can be perceived as cold and indifferent to the girl's condition. Yet, the primary concern for Newton, as with many slaving captains, rested on maximizing profits through the importation of healthy bondpeople. His financial intentions aside, on Wednesday morning, the next day following her relocation ashore, the young "No. 92" died. (4) Ill health was a common aspect of the transatlantic slave trade. Thus given the wider terrain of sickness and death that claimed the lives of countless other enslaved Africans, the loss of the two above-mentioned captives is not entirely unique. Ship captains carefully sought healthy Africans in their coastal negotiations. The proliferation of dangerous maladies, however, often weakened captives' valuable bodies, in some cases reducing the numbers of those transported to New World ports. Regardless of race or gender, individuals traveling across the Atlantic were never granted immunity to various seaborne ailments or spared from subsequent death. Even more importantly, medical complaints and treatment required for restoration played out much differently at sea than on land. In 1896 the young historian W. E. B. Du Bois distinguished himself as a leading scholar on the transatlantic slave trade through publication of his Harvard dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870. (5) Owing greatly to Du Bois's early influence, a large number of studies continue to emerge, further unearthing various aspects of this gruesome chapter in human history. Bicentennial anniversaries of the abolition of the slave trade by the British and the Americans have also helped to revive many of these important discussions. …


What type of relationship is maintained between grandparents and grandchildren when the couple formed by the intermediate generation is separated? This question is analysed using data from the Swiss survey Enfants, adolescents et leurs grands-parents dans une société en mutation (Children, adolescents and their grandparents in a changing society) conducted in 2004 on a sample of 685 adolescents who were asked about their relationships with their grandparents. They highlight several facets of these relationships, notably with regard to lineage effects. Contrasting with the now classic assertion of matrilateral bias following divorce or separation, our multivariate analyses provide some original new insights: while grandparent-grandchild relations are indeed weaker when the parents are separated than when their union is intact, the difference is quite small. Moreover, matrilateral bias is observed not only in separated families, but also in intact ones, and parental separation is not associated within an increase in matrilateral bias. In our societies, these findings can be interpreted as a sign of changing relationships between family members after parental separation.


This paper describes a computerized alternative to glottochronology for estimating elapsed time since parent languages diverged into daughter languages. The method, developed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) consortium, is different from glottochronology in four major respects: (1) it is automated and thus is more objective, (2) it applies a uniform analytical approach to a single database of worldwide languages, (3) it is based on lexical similarity as determined from Levenshtein (edit) distances rather than on cognate percentages, and (4) it provides a formula for date calculation that mathematically recognizes the lexical heterogeneity of individual languages, including parent languages just before their breakup into daughter languages. Automated judgments of lexical similarity for groups of related languages are calibrated with historical, epigraphic, and archaeological divergence dates for 52 language groups. The discrepancies between estimated and calibration dates are found to be on average 29% as large as the estimated dates themselves, a figure that does not differ significantly among language families. As a resource for further research that may require dates of known level of accuracy, we offer a list of ASJP time depths for nearly all the world's recognized language families and for many subfamilies.


ABSTRACT In this work, we apply a systemic approach to the analysis of a particular geographic territory, the industrial district. We are particularly interested in analysing the interaction between the productive-technological environment and the scientific environment by an examination of research contracts and patents. Our analysis shows that R&D activity in the Spanish ceramic tile District Innovation System was mainly conducted by suppliers. Final producers' innovation efforts were related to non-technological aspects and differentiation.


Ultra Fast liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry method (UFLC-MS), for detection and quantification of the anti-tuberculosis drug, ethambutol (EMB), in human plasma is described here. The method uses a single Quadrapole mass spectrometer equipped with positive electrospray ionization detector, linked with Shimadzu 20AD ultrafast LC system. Ethambutol was extracted from human plasma (100 µl) through a single step, simple and straight forward acetonitrile deproteinization method, achieving 98 - 102 % analyte recovery. Short C18 column (50 mm x 2.1 mm) was used with isocratic mobile phase system consisting of 80% aqueous acetonitrile and 0.5% formic acid as additive. Selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode was selected with EMB m/z 205.3 in positive ion mode (MH+). This method achieved wide range of detection from microgram to nanograms of EMB (Linearity R value = 0.9999), with great precision and accuracy. The limits of quantification and detection were achieved upto 19.18 ng/ml and 5.78 ng/ml respectively. This method was applied successfully to determine EMB in plasma samples from TB patients who were receiving EMB along with other anti-TB drugs.


Since the early 1990s numerous studies have concluded that there is an over-representation of males and minorities in special education. This paper examines the question if a different educational format, such as single-gender education, can help boys' behavior and thus reduce the number of special education referrals? The rationale for single-gender education is based on the belief that there are inherent biological differences between males and females and these differences may manifest themselves in classroom behavior having implications for pedagogical practices. With this in mind, we examine the perceptions of students, parents, and teachers regarding how single-gender classrooms have impacted males. The results presented provide preliminary evidence that the single-gender format is an option that should be explored to reduce the overrepresentation of males and minorities in special education. ********** Since the early 1990s numerous studies have concluded that there is an over-representation of males and minorities in special education. Coutinho's and Oswald's (2005) analysis of state variation in gender disproportionality in special education found that the male-to-female ratio hovers somewhere between 2:1 and 3.5:1 depending on the se verity of the disability. However, for students labeled severely emotionally disordered, the ratio increases to 3.43:1 with Black and Hispanic students averaging 3.42 and 3.65 respectively. Further, Samuals (2007) found that minority students are more likely to be found in the "judgmental" disability categories that require some degree of subjectivity on the part of the school-based team during the evaluation process. Samuals defines these "judgmental" disabilities as learning disabilities, mental retardation and emotional disturbance. Moreover, Monroe (2006) suggests that the overrepresentation of black males in emotional/behavioral categories is related to an "uneven hand" applied to discipline. Wehmeyer & Schwartz (2001) cite research that suggests there are three reasons for these disproportionate rates of males and minorities in special education. The first explanation suggests there are biological factors because boys are vulnerable to some genetically determined disorders. A second explanation is that there is gender bias relating to the referral, classification and placement processes. This suggests that the root of gender bias is due to stereotypical expectations of higher standards for men (which they may or may not be meeting), while tolerating lower achievement in girls. The third contribution to the overrepresentation of males in special education may be because boys are more active and more likely to act out or misbehave in classrooms perhaps due to boys' early social learning. Wagner's (1976) research suggests that boys' active behavior is encouraged outside of school, but not tolerated in school. Gender bias and early gender socialization have been common arguments used to explain many academic and behavioral differences between boys and girls. Throughout the late part of the 20th century, the accepted theory regarding gender or sex differences was a theory of social construction, which quickly found its way to the classroom. Rousso & Wehmeyer (2001) suggest that teachers hold gender biases and expectations based on differential socialization patterns and sex role stereotyping. In addition, boys are more likely to have higher levels of activity and exhibit behaviors that do not fit the class norm, and as such are more likely to be referred to special education (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1978). This socially constructed view of gender differences and bias lead Wehmeyer & Schwartz (2001) to question whether there is an over-representation of males in special education or if there is an under-representation of females. Knowing whether or not a gender is over-represented or under-represented in special education does little to positively impact the success of males or females in schools. …


In the popular imagination, the laser is an apparition from the world of science fiction: a large piece of complex equipment, capped by a tube which shoots out a metal-vaporizing beam of bright red light. In reality, however, the laser that's playing the liveliest role in an increasingly diverse market is a tiny chip of semiconductor material, the diode laser.


Abstract.
 Lower and upper third molars of a proboscidean from the Tha Chang sand pits, Nakhon Ratchasima, northeastern Thailand, show a zygodont pattern. The crescentoids are less well developed than those of the type specimen of Zygolophodon gobiensis but similar to those of late Miocene specimens from south China assigned to Z. lufengensis and Z. chinjiensis. On the other hand, the loph(id)s are less oblique and the zygodont crests are less well developed than in Z. lufengensis and Z. chinjiensis. However, it is difficult to erect a new species for these specimens because their anterior loph(id)s are so deeply worn that the morphology of the conelets on these loph(id)s is unclear. Thus, we identify the specimens as Zygolophodon sp. Zygolophodon is known from lower and middle Miocene sediments in Africa while they are usually dated to the early—late Miocene in Europe, South Asia such as Pakistan, and Central and North China. Based on its apparent grade of dental evolution, the new material of Zygolophodon from Thailand is probably late Miocene in age. In addition, this discovery is the first record of a zygodont proboscidean in Southeast Asia.


Anti-virus systems can operate on access gateways for centralized management and early virus blocking. When serving a group of computers, the traditional storagebased mechanism is less scalable because the mail should be stored. This work designs a stream-based mail proxy that processes the mail segment by segment without storing the entire mail and interleaves the MIME parsing, decoding, decompression and virus scanning. We integrate several modified open source packages into the proxy and use the system call select to achieve singleprocess concurrency. The benchmarking reveals this new proxy is seven times faster than the storage-based one on simply forwarding, three times faster on virus scanning, and twice faster on both file decompression and virus scanning. This proxy keeps nearly constant memory consumption and works without disk storage, while the storage-based proxy requires the disk space to be proportional to the number of clients and the mail size.


The cornea is a transparent tissue in front of the eye that refracts the light and makes vision possible. A slight change in the geometry of cornea remarkably affects the optical power. Biomechanical study of cornea can reveal much about its performance and function. Numerical techniques such as the finite element method (FEM) have been extensively implemented as effective and non-invasive methods for analyzing corneal mechanics and possible disorders. The focus of this dissertation is to use finite element analysis for studying biomechanical behavior of the cornea. This work also allows reviewing different applications of FEM in studying corneal diseases, surgery predictions, impact simulations and clinical applications.
In some mammalian corneas such as mice and rats, the epithelial cells assort themselves into patterns that resemble spirals. The patterned arrangement of the corneal epithelial cells implies existence of some global processes or forces. However, a definitive explanation of the cause of these spiral patterns has not been determined. Studying the generation of these patterns is important as it may lead to greater understanding of corneal development and possible disorders. We propose here that the stresses and strains on the cornea surface facilitate sliding of epithelial cells into spiral patterns. In this dissertation, a framework for explaining the generation of this poorly understood phenomenon is presented.
To this end, a finite element computer code is developed to perform three-dimensional and large deformation modeling of mammalian cornea. The cornea model includes the effect of preferentially oriented and dispersed collagen fibrils embedded in nearly incompressible matrix. The deformation, stresses and strain distribution in the cornea subjected to pressure (intraocular pressure) is investigated. An algorithm is devised to track the pathlines of critical strain directions that tend to form spiral pattern. These patterns are finally matched with logarithmic spirals obtained from confocal images of the rat cornea. We conclude that the mechanical behavior of the cornea may cause the observed spiral patterns.


This model is based on theories of emotional cognition from cognitive science,
theories of attitudes and persuasion from social psychology, and theories of social networks from sociology. Agents' beliefs and emotions about attitude objects are modeled as a parallel constraint satisfaction networks. In two case studies we showed, how the model can be used to address theoretical and practical research questions in the context of innovation diffusion and environmental psychology.


When multi-path fading and interference frequently disrupts a mobile radio communication system, it can seriously undermine its reliability for transmission of compressed video signals. In this paper, we present a pixel interlacing based video transmission system for low-complexity Intra-frame error concealment over error-prone mobile networks, especially under severe channel conditions. The proposed method, despite its low-complexity which is based on a simple pixel interlacing technique at the encoder, can significantly enhance the quality of the corrupted video signal. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve image quality (with the average PSNR gain up to 15.80 dB) in comparison with the existing methods.


The share of equipment and power use in smaller data centers (DCs) is comparable with that of more massive counterparts. However, they grabbed less attention in the literature despite being less energy-efficient. This study highlights the challenges of setting up a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a 180-m2 small-size high-performance computing (HPC) DC and the validation procedure leading to a reasonably accurate model for the investigation of the thermal environment and potential energy efficiency improvements. Leaky floors, uneven placement of computing equipment and perforated tiles preventing separation of hot and cold air, low-temperature operation, and excessive cooling capacity and fan power were identified sources of energy inefficiency in the DC. Computational fluid dynamics model predictions were gradually improved by using experimental measurements for various boundary conditions (BCs) and detailed geometrical representation of large leakage openings. Eventually, the model led to predictions with an error of less than 1 °C at the rack inlet and less than 5 °C at the rack outlet. The ultimate objective was to use the validated CFD model to test various energy efficiency measures in the form of operational or design changes in line with the best practices. Impact of leakage between the raised floor and the room, reduced airflow rate, cold-aisle and hot-aisle separation, workload consolidation, and higher temperature operation were among the phenomena tested by using the validated CFD model. The estimated power usage effectiveness (PUE) value reduced from 1.95 to 1.40 with the proposed energy efficiency measures.


Most research on corporate responsibility (CR) has investigated CR from the perspective of organizations, often focusing on how organizations define, manage and implement CR to gain benefits or competitive advantage. The benefits of CR for organizations are, however, often said to be achieved through increased support of stakeholders. Despite this, limited attention has been given to understanding CR from the perspective of stakeholders and, in particular, the mechanism by which CR drives stakeholder support. This study addresses this deficit. Building on advances in the application of psychological theories to the field of management, the research develops and empirically tests a theoretical model of how CR-related experiences and beliefs drive stakeholder trust and positive intent. The research is conducted with customers (n = 708) and employees (n = 359) of a service organization in the UK that introduced a range of CR-related activities into their business. The findings contribute to literature by empirically demonstrating (a) the impact of CR-related experiences on the development of beliefs about, and trust towards, the organization; (b) the importance of 'others-related' CR experiences even in the presence of 'self-related' CR experiences; and (c) the role of beliefs as partial mediators in how experiences of CR, both 'self-related' and 'others-related', translate into trust and positive intent.


Twelve states have laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. A law pending in Congress - the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA - would extend federal protections to gay workers throughout the country. Some opponents of ENDA have argued that the state laws are used so rarely that a federal law is unnecessary. Indeed, the number of bias claims filed by gay workers does seem surprisingly low, in most states less than a few dozen each year. In this Article, I analyze whether these numbers are truly low. While they seem low, it is also the case that there are relatively few gay people in the workforce. The premise of this study is that the relevant question is not how often sexual orientation claims are filed, but rather how often they are filed per gay worker in the workforce. I generate this population-adjusted filing rate and, to put it in perspective, I compare it to the frequencies with which women file gender discrimination claims and people of color file race discrimination claims in the same states during the same years. My findings belie the heretofore unexamined assumption that gay rights claims are rarely filed. Using a low-end estimate of the number of gay people in the workforce, in 8 of 10 states studied, gay workers file discrimination claims with greater frequency than women file gender discrimination claims, while in half the states, gay workers file bias claims at about the same rates that people of color file race discrimination claims. This data is important not only because it is the first empirical assessment of the use of gay rights laws but also because it will have a critical impact on the on-going Congressional debate about the need for a federal gay rights law.


The amount of time in which a sample is executed is one of the key parameters of a malware analysis sandbox. Setting the threshold too high hinders the scalability and reduces the number of samples that can be analyzed in a day; too low and the samples may not have the time to show their malicious behavior, thus reducing the amount and quality of the collected data. Therefore, an analyst needs to find the 'sweet spot' that allows to collect only the minimum amount of information required to properly classify each sample. Anything more is wasting resources, anything less is jeopardizing the experiments. Despite its importance, there are no clear guidelines on how to choose this parameter, nor experiments that can help companies to assess the pros and cons of a choice over another. To fill this gap, in this paper we provide the first large-scale study of the impact that the execution time has on both the amount and the quality of the collected events. We measure the evolution of system calls and code coverage, to draw a precise picture of the fraction of runtime behavior we can expect to observe in a sandbox. Finally, we implemented a machine learning based malware detection method, and applied it to the data collected in different time windows, to also report on the relevance of the events observed at different points in time. Our results show that most samples run for either less than two minutes or for more than ten. However, most of the behavior (and 98% of the executed basic blocks) are observed during the first two minutes of execution, which is also the time windows that result in a higher accuracy of our ML classifier. We believe this information can help future researchers and industrial sandboxes to better tune their analysis systems.


Generating semantically coherent responses is still a major challenge in dialogue generation. Different from conventional text generation tasks, the mapping between inputs and responses in conversations is more complicated, which highly demands the understanding of utterance-level semantic dependency, a relation between the whole meanings of inputs and outputs. To address this problem, we propose an Auto-Encoder Matching (AEM) model to learn such dependency. The model contains two auto-encoders and one mapping module. The auto-encoders learn the semantic representations of inputs and responses, and the mapping module learns to connect the utterance-level representations. Experimental results from automatic and human evaluations demonstrate that our model is capable of generating responses of high coherence and fluency compared to baseline models.


Polymorphisms in key genes involving the folate pathway have been reported to be associated with the risk of orofacial cleft (OFC) and several studies were published with conflicting results. A meta-analysis of the previous studies of allelic association between OFC with A1298C polymorphisms of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene was carried out. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated to assess the association between MTHFR A1298C polymorphism and OFC risk. A total of 11 studies including 1628 cases and 2676 controls were involved in this meta-analysis. No statistical relationship was found with any genetic model (C vs. A (Additive): OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 0.76-1.65, P = 0.47; CC vs. AA (homozygote): OR = 0.90, 95%CI = 0.72-1.15, P = 0.0.41; AC vs. AA (co-dominant): OR = 0.97, 95%CI = 0.85-1.11, P = 0.0.63; CC+AC vs. AA (Dominant): OR = 0.96, 95%CI = 0.84-1.1 , P = 0.51; CC vs. AC+AA (Recessive): OR = 0.93, 95%CI = 0.74-1.16, P = 0.52). The present meta-analysis supports that the common A1298C polymorphism of MTHFR gene is not risk factor for OFC.

 Key words: Orofacial cleft, cleft lip, cleft palate, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), A1298C, folic acid.


In the 1990s, no historical connections were made between Chinese eugenics and the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust. Yet the recent developments in Chinese eugenics of linking enhanced sexual performance and fertility treatment are intriguing in comparison with cases of compulsory sterilization of people with cognitive disabilities and forced abortion for rural women often reported in the international media in the 1980s. What constitutes such a diametrical shift from a negative approach to a rather benign presentation of eugenics in the 1990s? Three historical and social conditions have constituted such discursive shift. First, the commodification of sexual technology and media exposure of scholarly findings of the sexual behaviors of adults in China have been instrumental in reconstructing urban sexuality since the reform era. Second, the unintended consequences of promoting superior birth implicated in China's "One-child Policy" have generated a social cleavage of healthcare accessibility between the urban and rural population, and a paranoia to terminate unwanted pregnancies among urban married couples and their desperate pursuit of possible technological aids. Third, sexual pleasure signifies an accumulative success of four decades of mass mobilization by the communist party for reproductive health since the 1950s.


As Senior Curator of Fashion at the V&A, Wilcox was Lead Curator for the architectural refurbishment of the Fashion Gallery and the redisplay of the permanent fashion collection from research process to design and installation. The display shows stylistic and design changes in European fashion and textiles from 1750 to the present. Over 500 individual objects were selected after extensive archival research, the criteria being to cover the main narrative of fashion and to impart new object based knowledge through textual commentary. The gallery contextualises fashion within the wider arena of art and design, acts as a showpiece for leading contemporary fashion and contextualises it within wider dress history. The gallery offers informal and formal learning opportunities such as gallery talks, events and schools activities.

The project developed and consolidated curatorial knowledge and led to new developments in conservation and display techniques. New discoveries were made about specific objects such as the Faberge parasol. Gaps in the collection were identified leading to new acquisitions including Jeanne Lanvin's robe de style and a 1920s ski-outfit. The rotation programme has ensured that fragile pieces can be seen for the first time, if only briefly. The contemporary case offers an opportunity for re-curation in response to contemporary developments. Wilcox also co-edited and wrote the extended Introduction to the associated publication The V&A Gallery of Fashion. This includes new photography that situates the display within the wider history of the V&A and recent developments in dress history.


The city of Pompeii has had an enormous impact on Western imaginations since its rediscovery under the ashes of the volcano that destroyed it in 79 CE. In the 250 years since excavations began, Pompeii has helped to bring the ancient world to life for everyone, from music hall audiences to gentleman scholars, and it continues to have an impact on the way in which we think about the past, and the human condition itself. The contributors to this generously illustrated volume, who include the novelist Robert Harris, in a recorded interview, investigate how Pompeii has been used in film, fiction, and art on both sides of the Atlantic over three centuries. They explore the many different ways in which Pompeii inhabits our imaginations: as ghostly relic of human suffering, romantic ruin, model of cultural inspiration, home of a distant, decadent culture, and comforting model for everyday life.


The ajumma is one of the most misunderstood categories in Korean culture. Roughly translated as a woman that is married and middle-aged, the ajumma is one of the most stigmatized demographics in Korea today. This PhD project seeks to undercover some of the complex ways in which we might redefine the ajumma as a woman that has played a pivotal role in Korean culture post IMF bailout in 1997. Through exploring ajummas as new media users, this PhD project not only seeks to debunk the stereotypes around the category but also to provide a more nuanced study of gendered new media practice beyond the young-new media "digital natives" conflation in one of the countries lauded for new media innovation, Korea. This PhD project deploys an interdisciplinary model of the research that combines academic practices (e.g. a dissertation) and creative practices (e.g. Digital Ppal-let-ter video project and Smart Ajumma blog).


IMPORTANCE
Differences in ocular anatomy may contribute to ethnic differences in glaucoma risk. Because the trabecular meshwork (TM) plays an important role in aqueous outflow, its anatomy in relation to at-risk populations may provide insight into a potential contributor to elevated intraocular pressure and thus to probability of glaucoma development.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether differences exist in TM height between ethnic groups.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
This prospective study took place from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2013. Adult patients who self-reported as being of white, Asian, Hispanic, or African American ethnicity were recruited from ophthalmology clinics at the University of California, San Francisco. The TM height was assessed using spectral-domain anterior segment optical coherence tomography.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Trabecular meshwork height was measured from the scleral spur to the Schwalbe line. We hypothesized that ethnicities with a higher prevalence of glaucoma would tend to have shorter TM heights.

RESULTS
We collected data from 460 eyes of 291 participants after excluding 34 optical coherence tomographic scans owing to poor image quality. The final sample was 32.2% white, 45.1% Asian, 10.5% African American, and 12.1% Hispanic. There were 64.2% women, and the mean age was 68.1 years. The mean (SD) TM height among all eyes included in the study was 836 (131) μm. The mean (SD) TM height was characterized among white (851 [131] μm), Asian (843 [126] μm), Hispanic (822 [147] μm), and African American (771 [118] μm) persons. Ethnicity was not associated with TM height overall (P = .23, linear mixed regression model). However, the TM heights of African American participants (771 μm) were shorter than those of white (851 μm; adjusted difference 95% CI, -119.8 to -8.1; P = .02) and Asian (843 μm; adjusted difference 95% CI, -117.4 to -10.8; P = .02) participants.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Although TM height is not associated with ethnicity overall, African American individuals have shorter TM heights compared with Asian and white persons. Trabecular meshwork size may play a role in ethnic differences of glaucoma risk and be a new risk factor to consider in primary open-angle glaucoma.


Epigenetic Regulation in the Nervous System addresses current understanding of the roles of epigenetic processes at the molecular/cellular level, their impact on neural development and behavior, and the potential roles of these mechanisms in neurological and psychiatric disorders. This award-winning volume spans molecular epigenetics, development, cellular physiology and biochemistry, synaptic and neural plasticity, and behavioral models, and is unique in covering epigenetically based disorders of the central nervous system. Behavioral epigenetics is the study of how environmental factors alter behavior, addressing the fundamental mechanisms that shape development and individual vulnerability/resilience to adverse behavioral outcomes. By understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in epigenetic modulation, researchers may be able to develop targeted therapies for those individuals in whom it malfunctions. Edited by the most highly regarded leaders in the field, this book offers a comprehensive review of behavioral epigenetics and a balanced treatment of the strengths and weaknesses in experimentation in this area. Covering background material as well as topics of current interest, it serves both as a cutting-edge resource and a foundational reference. The book will benefit neuroscience researchers and graduate students with an interest in the links between gene regulation and behavior, as will clinicians dealing with disorders such as addiction, depression, and schizophrenia. * BMA Medical Book Awards 2014 - Highly Commended, Neurology, British Medical Association* BMA Medical Book Awards 2014 - First Prize, Neurology, British Medical Association*2013 PROSE Award winner for Best in Reference Works and Best Single Volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers* Presents a unified view of epigenetic mechanisms from behavior to genes and everything in between* Discusses clinically relevant disorders in the context of epigenetics research, making the volume appealing to clinicians as well as basic scientists* Provides numerous practical examples for the new investigator to facilitate implementation of research in neuroepigenetics


BACKGROUND
Increases in the market share of managed care in an area are associated with decreases in expenditures in the fee-for-service sector (i.e., a spillover effect). Given concerns that these decreases in expenditures result from reductions in necessary care, we examined associations between increases in managed care market share and changes in the quality of care delivered to cancer patients in the fee-for-service sector.

METHODS
We studied a population-based sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged 66 years or older who were diagnosed with breast (N = 41,394) or colorectal (N = 48,027) cancer during 1993-1999. We used fixed effects regression analysis of SEER cancer registry and Medicare claims data to assess whether county-level increases in the market share of managed care over time were associated with the quality of cancer care. All statistical tests were two-sided.

RESULTS
Increases in the market share of managed care were not associated with most quality indicators, including receipt of surveillance mammography after diagnosis for patients with breast cancer (P = .83), receipt of radiation after breast-conserving surgery among women who underwent breast-conserving surgery (P = .16), receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with stage III colorectal cancer (P = .94), or surveillance colonoscopy after treatment for colorectal cancer (P = .39). Increases in the market share of managed care were associated with increased rates of surveillance carcinoembryonic antigen testing for colorectal cancer patients (P = .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Increases in managed care market share had limited or no effect on the quality of care for cancer patients. Concerns that increases in managed care would have large negative spillover effects on the quality of cancer care appear to be unfounded; however, the potential for managed care to stimulate improved quality throughout the medical care system have not yet been realized.


This thesis provides a broad study of the tenurial, administrative and political history of Yorkshire
in the first century of English feudalism. It begins by providing a new and more precise chronology
for the Norman conquest of Yorkshire and illustrates the importance of castleries and hundreds in the
process of take-over. In Chapter 2 the thesis reveals that in the fifty years following the Domesday
survey the Normans extended the system of compact lordships based upon castleries, hundreds and
hundredal castleries in order to bring the more remote parts of the county under control and to
provide protection for its borders. The new men placed in control of these lordships played a vital
role in the integration of Yorkshire within the royal system ofjustice and administration. Attention is
then paid in Chapter 3 to the scale and pattern of Norman sub-enfeoffment in the period 1086 x 1135.
The study throws new light on both the purpose of the system of military service introduced by the
Normans and the reasons for the rapid expansion of monasticism in Yorkshire after 1100. Chapter
4 illustrates how after 1135 royal control over the local administration of Yorkshire disintegrated in
the face of the political difficulties of King Stephen and the growing power of William earl of York,
and Chapter 5 examines how King David of Scotland exploited Stephen's weakness in the northern
England to extend his influence within the area. Chapter 6 considers the nature of some of the new
enfeoffment tenancies recorded in the 1166 inquest and elucidates the reasons behind the reluctance
of magnates to acknowledge their existence and pay scutage upon them. And finally, the thesis
concludes in Chapter 7 with a major re-assessment of the nature and strength of lordship and the
emergence of property right in the first century of English feudalism.


Australian population ageing is moderate by Western country standards but there are major issues emerging in national policy debates. The proportions 65+ will double and the proportions 85+ will more than quadruple by 2050. The first concern is the long-term trend to earlier retirement from work along with a nearly universal dependency on publicly funded age pensions rather than on private savings and superannuation. New mandatory superannuation guarantee scheme will ease some of the financial pressure from income dependency. Secondly heart, musculoskeletal, cancers, mental illness and digestive diseases are high cost conditions but musculoskeletal and mental conditions are a higher cost for women than for men. About two thirds of health expenditures are spen on the tenth of the population 65+ which indicates an issue of control of health costs through appropriate servicing. Third severe handicap rates reported in national surveys have stabilised over time to cover the last 3 or 4 years of life. Over two thirds of the remaining years of life al age 65 are currently spent free of handicap. Aged care services have shifted in focus from intensive options like nursing homes to less intensive options like hostel care and home and community care. There is about a two thirds risk of ever entering a nursing home or hostel at age 65. Consequently long-term care financing is one of the most urgent issues in Australian aged care policy.


PURPOSE
To identify the cognitive processes nurses use in their decision-making in long- and short-term care settings in five countries, and the demographic variables associated with their decision-making. METHOD AND SAMPLES: The instrument used was a 56-item questionnaire that has been shown to be reliable in earlier studies. The sample consisted of five convenience samples of registered nurses working in either geriatric wards (n = 236) or acute medical-surgical wards (n = 223) in hospitals or nursing homes in Canada, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

FINDINGS
Five models of decision-making were identified on the basis of factor analysis. They represent both analytical and intuitive cognitive processes. Analytical cognitive processes were emphasized in information collection, problem definition, and planning of care, and intuitive cognitive processes were emphasized in planning, implementing, and evaluating care. Professional education, practical experience, field of practice, and type of knowledge were significantly associated with decision-making models as well as with country of residence of the participants. The highest proportion of analytically oriented decision-makers was found among nurses in long-term care, the decision-making of nurses in short-term care was more intuitively oriented.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that decision-making of participants varied from country to country and in different nursing situations. Future research should be focused on reasons for these differences, the relationship between the task and the nurses' type of knowledge, and how nurses use their knowledge to make decisions in different nursing situations.


A language for programming-in-the-large should support architectural descriptions of an entire product line. The evaluation of programs-in-the-large should generate the architecture of individual products and should link implementations-in-the-small to form an executable product. The Standard ML (SML) module language 20] could serve this task, but it is not referentially transparent. Furthermore, it does not distinguish between architectural and implementa-tional concerns. This paper presents a general module language that is based on a typed-calculus extended by systems. Overcoming SML's drawbacks, the module language permits syntactic control of type and structure gen-erativity resulting in referential transparency. Furthermore , splitting up architectural and implemen-tational concerns, the implementation of elementary modules is not part of the module language. The module calculus is essentially simply typed, with elementary modules and types as simple values, and interfaces and kinds as types. Function and system interfaces are value-dependent types.


Liverpool English, also known as Scouse, presents peculiar characteristics on the segmental as well as on the paralinguistic level, probably linked with the Irish immigration (see [4], [7]). Maybe the most important feature is the lenition of obstruents to affricates or fricatives as a result of a lax voice context. The widespread velarization of all consonantal segments in Scouse seems to interact with the phonatory setting, causing a vocal type defined as adenoidal. Our analysis, based on a corpus of spontaneous speech produced by six native speakers, aims at an acoustic evaluation of the voice quality of Scouse through the use of parameters which allow us to classify the phonation types according to the reliable labels (cf. [1], [6]). There seems to be a gender differentiation in relation with the frequency of lenition as far as the vocal characterization of the speakers is concerned.


Mouse Hox gene enhancer elements have typically been identified and characterized using Hox/lacZ transgenic mouse embryos. Such studies have, for example, identified Cdx responsive binding motifs in the enhancers of Hoxb8 and Hoxa7. Production of transgenic mouse embryos involves issues of cost, welfare, and considerable technical skill. It would be of benefit if these studies could be performed, or advanced, in cell culture. It is shown here that Cdx1 activation of mouse Hoxb4, b8 and a7 embryo-active enhancers can be detected using a HepG2 cell culture model system. The technique employed uses co-transfection of an inducible Cdx1 expression construct together with a Hox enhancer/luciferase reporter construct. Cultures to be compared receive identical DNAs and differ only in whether or not they also receive inducer (doxycycline). Response of all three Hox enhancers to Cdx1 protein is inhibited by mutation of Cdx binding motifs which are conserved in sequence from fish or Xenopus to mammals. The magnitude of transfected chick Hoxa7 activation by Cdx1 is increased by multiple copies of its enhancer, but for maximum effect these must contain intact Cdx binding motifs. Cdx1 protein was found not to activate Hoxb4, b8 or a7 enhancers in P19 mouse pluripotential cells.


Ice Shelves in the Amundsen Sea Embayment have thinned, accelerating the seaward flow of ice sheets upstream over recent decades. This imbalance is caused by an increase in the ocean-driven melting of the ice shelves. Observations and models show that the ocean heat content reaching the ice shelves is sensitive to the depth of thermocline, which separates the cool, fresh surface waters from warm, salty waters. Yet the processes controlling the variability of thermocline depth remain poorly constrained. Here, we quantify the oceanic conditions and ocean-driven melting of Cosgrove, Pine Island Glacier (PIG), Thwaites, Crosson and Dotson ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea Embayment from 1991 to 2014 using a general circulation model. Ice shelf melting is coupled to variability in the wind field and the sea-ice motions over the continental shelf break and associated onshore advection of warm waters in deep troughs. The layer of warm, salty waters at the calving front of PIG and Thwaites is thicker in austral spring (June to October) than in austral summer (December to March), whereas the seasonal cycle at the calving front of Dotson is reversed. Furthermore, the ocean-driven melting in PIG is enhanced by an asymmetric response to changes in ocean heat transport anomalies at the continental shelf break: melting responds more rapidly to increases in ocean heat transport than to decreases. This asymmetry is caused by the inland deepening of bathymetry and the glacial meltwater circulation around the ice shelf.


In the United States miscegenation is not merely a subject of literature and popular culture. It is in many ways the foundation of contemporary imaginary community. The Romance of Race examines the role of minority women writers and reformers in the creation of our modern American multiculturalism. The national identity of the United States was transformed between 1880 and 1930 due to mass immigration, imperial expansion, the rise of Jim Crow, and the beginning of the suffrage movement. A generation of women writers and reformers--particularly women of color--contributed to these debates by imagining new national narratives that put minorities at the center of American identity. Jane Addams, Pauline Hopkins, Onoto Watanna (Winnifred Eaton), Maria Cristina Mena, and Mourning Dove (Christine Quintasket) embraced the images of the United States--and increasingly the world--as an interracial nuclear family. They also reframed public debates through narratives depicting interracial encounters as longstanding, unacknowledged liaisons between white men and racialized women that produced an incestuous, mixed-race nation. By mobilizing the sexual taboos of incest and miscegenation, these women writers created political allegories of kinship and community. Through their criticisms of the nation's history of exploitation and colonization, they also imagined a more inclusive future. As Jolie A. Sheffer identifies the contemporary template for American multiculturalism in the works of turn-of-the century minority writers, she uncovers a much more radical history than has previously been considered.


The effectiveness of sources of information on adoption of precision farming technologies (PFT) by US cotton producers is evaluated. The conceptual framework considers information flows as production inputs with derived demand from the demand for PFT's and output. By using multivariate probit regression, it's found that the use of university publications and attendance to events organized by universities had more consistent and significant positive effects on adoption of PFT's. Information from farm dealers impacted significantly the adoption of zone soil sampling technologies and soil survey maps. In conclusion, sources of information have positive and asymmetric effects on adoption of PFT's.


The objective of this work was to identify the nutritional and physiological effects of commercial soy and whey protein preparations. Wistar rats were fed with soy (S), whey (W), or casein (C) preparations as the sole dietary protein source. The nitrogen balance, body composition, changes in caecal microbiota, mucosal and bacterial enzyme activities, and allergenic potential of the preparations were analysed. The whey diet elicited greater skeletal muscle anabolism than the soy diet. Rats from the S group had the lowest values of body weight, fat, and lean mass gain. Compared to casein, soy and whey preparations decreased the protein efficiency ratio, increased N in the urine, and triggered the reduction of ammonia levels in the caecum. Changes in β-glucuronidase and β-galactosidase activities in the small intestine, caecum, and colon between experimental groups were observed. Significant differences were noted in the total counts of anaerobic bacteria and sulphite reducing bacteria during soy and whey treatments. This probably affected the short chain fatty acid level in caecal digesta resulting in the lowest propionic acid and total putrefactive short chain fatty acid levels during S treatment. Generally, whey preparations are a good choice for rapid bodybuilding (skeletal muscles), whereas soy preparations are more helpful during mass reduction.


Abstract Results from a 71-day deployment of three ADCP current meters on a section across the sill region of the Faroe Bank Channel are reported. The characteristic density structure of the channel, with warm, highly saline North Atlantic Ocean surface water overlying colder, less-saline deep water originating from the Nordic seas, lends itself well to a two-layer description of flow processes in this region. The dataset has been analyzed to describe the spatial and temporal characteristics of the deep-water potential vorticity. The most striking feature is a persistent cross-channel variation of this quantity, with higher values on the Faroe Bank side. In the 1½-layer hydraulic calculations that were undertaken the potential vorticity was approximated as a linear distribution. The ADCP observations indicated that the deep-water flow was hydraulically controlled, and, using the direct observed transport, the analysis yielded diagnostic results for the upstream reservoir interface level that were in good ...


Our long-term objective is to devise methods to improve osteotomy site preparation and, in doing so, facilitate implant osseointegration. As a first step in this process, we developed a standardized oral osteotomy model in ovariectomized rats. There were 2 unique features to this model: first, the rats exhibited an osteopenic phenotype, reminiscent of the bone health that has been reported for the average dental implant patient population. Second, osteotomies were produced in healed tooth extraction sites and therefore represented the placement of most implants in patients. Commercially available drills were then used to produce osteotomies in a patient cohort and in the rat model. Molecular, cellular, and histologic analyses demonstrated a close alignment between the responses of human and rodent alveolar bone to osteotomy site preparation. Most notably in both patients and rats, all drilling tools created a zone of dead and dying osteocytes around the osteotomy. In rat tissues, which could be collected at multiple time points after osteotomy, the fate of the dead alveolar bone was followed. Over the course of a week, osteoclast activity was responsible for resorbing the necrotic bone, which in turn stimulated the deposition of a new bone matrix by osteoblasts. Collectively, these analyses support the use of an ovariectomy surgery rat model to gain insights into the response of human bone to osteotomy site preparation. The data also suggest that reducing the zone of osteocyte death will improve osteotomy site viability, leading to faster new bone formation around implants.


Abstract A remarkable specimen of the small neoceratopsian dinosaur Protoceratops andrewsi (Late Cretaceous, Mongolia) reveals the first nest of this genus, complete with fifteen juveniles. The relatively large size of the individuals and their advanced state of development suggests the possibility that Protoceratops juveniles remained and grew in their nests during at least the early stages of postnatal development. The nest further implies that parental care and sociality are phylogenetically basal behaviors in Ceratopsia. Finally, it reaffirms the conclusion that Protoceratops lived (and died) in the sandy aeolian dune fields of the central Asian craton.


Abstract: James Buchanan argues that profit seeking and rent seeking are formally the same sort of behavior, but that the substance of such activities — whether they create or destroy wealth — depends on the institutional environment within which they take place. William Baumol and Israel Kirzner each flesh out this distinction between form and substance in more detail but in different ways. Baumol distinguishes between productive, unproductive, and destructive forms of entrepreneurship, while Kirzner distinguishes between ordinary types of entrepreneurial discovery and superfluous discoveries. In this essay we argue that Baumol and Kirzner's contributions are complementary, providing a more complete taxonomy of the substance of entrepreneurial activity. We also integrate these ideas with recent work on institutional entrepreneurship that examines changes in the rules governing economic activity. We illustrate this taxonomy by examining entrepreneurial innovation in drug markets both legal and illegal, identifying cases of productive, superfluous, erroneous, unproductive, destructive, and protective entrepreneurship.


With the advent of high performance workstations and fast LANs, networks of work-stations have recently emerged as a promising computing platform for long-running coarse grain parallel applications. Their advantages are wide availability and cost-effectiveness, as compared to massively parallel computers. Long-running computation in the workstation environment, however, requires both fault tolerance and the effective utilization of idle workstations.
In this dissertation, we present a variant of Linda, called Persistent Linda (PLinda), that treats these two issues uniformly: specifically, PLinda treats non-idleness as failure.
PLinda provides a combination of checkpointing and transaction support on both data and program state (an encoding of continuations). The traditional transaction model is optimized and extended to support robust parallel computation. Treatable failures include processor and main memory hard and slowdown failures, and network omission and corruption failures.
The programmer can customize fault tolerance when constructing an application, trading failure-free performance against recovery time. When creating a PLinda program, the programmer can decide on the frequency of transactions and the encoding of continuations to be saved upon transaction commit. At runtime, the programmer can decide to suppress certain continuations for better failure-free performance.
PLinda has been applied to corporate bond index statistics computation and biological pattern recognition. Typical speedups over conventional sequential programs range over 15 times for 30 processors.


Since the mid-2000s, the idea of Open Government Data (OGD) has emerged in the United Kingdom as a strong demand for the free and unrestricted re-use of data produced by public bodies. This thesis aims to better understand the social forces and interests that have been working to shape the UK's Open Government Data (OGD) initiative and to what ends. It focuses on the period 2010-2012, when OGD was adopted as a core policy objective by the new Coalition (Conservative-Liberal Democrat) government that came to power in May 2010.
Through analysis of interviews, observations and online documentation, and the adoption of a neo-Gramscian analytical framework to guide the data collection and analysis, the thesis produces an explanatory framework for better understanding and conceptualising the development of the OGD initiative in the UK during this period.
Contextualising the emergence and development of the UK's OGD initiative within the contemporary political and economic crises of the neoliberal project, the thesis adopts the neo-Gramscian concept of trasformismo to explain the domestication of the OGD agenda into a project - counter to many of the initial civil society OGD advocates intentions - which is aimed at the reproduction of the UK's neoliberal state. In particular, it highlights how OGD policy is being used with the intention of leveraging the full marketisation of public services and the further expansion of capitalism into the exploitation of societal risks, and to help rebuild the fracturing consent for the neoliberal project.
It is shown that whilst a radical, and potentially counter-hegemonic, political energy exists within sections of the civil society OGD community within the UK, these OGD advocates are necessarily restricted by both the structural conditions of OGD's emergence and tactical decisions taken by OGD advocates. The thesis concludes with a number of suggestions for those aiming to direct the OGD initiative in a more egalitarian direction, counter to neoliberal hegemony.
The thesis's contribution to Information Science can be understood as providing a deeper critical understanding of the political economic domain which structures the discipline and its subject of interest at the most fundamental levels. The thesis's contribution to Political Science is to utilise ideas developed in neo-Gramscian International Political Economy to draw insight into the complex political processes that have unfolded around OGD. In particular, it is the first neo-Gramsican analysis that considers the adaptation of neoliberal capitalism to the logic of 'openness'.


Optical sectioning of biological specimens provides detailed volumetric information regarding their internal structure. To provide a complementary approach to existing three-dimensional (3D) microscopy modalities, we have recently demonstrated lensfree optical tomography that offers high-throughput imaging within a compact and simple platform. In this approach, in-line holograms of objects at different angles of partially coherent illumination are recorded using a digital sensor-array, which enables computing pixel super-resolved tomographic images of the specimen. This imaging modality, which forms the focus of this review, offers micrometer-scale 3D resolution over large imaging volumes of, for example, 10-15 mm(3), and can be assembled in light weight and compact architectures. Therefore, lensfree optical tomography might be particularly useful for lab-on-a-chip applications as well as for microscopy needs in resource-limited settings.


Background In Northern Nigeria, infant mortality rates are two to three times higher than in the southern states, and, in 2008, a partnership program to improve maternal, newborn, and child health was established to reduce infant and child mortality in three Northern Nigeria states. The program intervention zones received government-supported health services plus integrated interventions at primary health care posts and development of community-based service delivery (CBSD) with a network of community volunteers and community health workers (CHWs), who focus on educating women about danger signs for themselves and their infants and promoting appropriate responses to the observation of those danger signs, consistent with the approach of the World Health Organization Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness strategy. Before going to scale in the rest of the state, it is important to identify the relative effectiveness of the low-intensity volunteer approach versus the more intensive CBSD approach with CHWs. Methods We conducted stratified cluster sample household surveys at baseline (2009) and follow-up (2011) to assess changes in newborn and sick child care practices among women with births in the five prior years (baseline: n = 6,906; follow-up: n = 2,310). The follow-up respondents were grouped by level of intensity of the CHW interventions in their community, with "low" including group activities led only by a trained community volunteer and "high" including the community volunteer activities plus CBSD from a CHW providing one-on-one advice and assistance. t-tests were used to test for significant differences from baseline to follow-up, and F-statistics, which adjust for the stratified cluster design, were used to test for significant differences between the control, low-intensity, and high-intensity intervention groups at follow-up. These analyses focused on changes in newborn and sick child care practices. Results Anti-tetanus vaccination coverage during pregnancy increased from 69.2% at baseline to 85.7% at follow-up in the intervention areas. Breastfeeding within 24 hours increased from 42.9% to 59.0% in the intervention areas, and more newborns were checked by health workers within 48 hours (from 16.8% at baseline to 26.8% at follow-up in the intervention areas). Newborns were more likely to be checked by trained health personnel, and they received more comprehensive newborn care. Compared to the control communities, more than twice as many women in intervention communities knew to watch for specific newborn danger signs. Compared to the control and low-intensity intervention communities, more mothers in the high-intensity communities learned about the care of sick children from CHWs, with a corresponding decline those seeking advice from family or friends or traditional birth attendants. Significantly fewer mothers did nothing when their child was sick. High-intensity intervention communities experienced the most decline. Those who did nothing for children with fever or cough declined from 35% to 30%, and with diarrhea from 40% to 31%. Use of medications, both traditional and modern, increased from baseline to follow-up, with no differentiation in use by intervention area. Conclusion The community-based approach to promoting improved newborn and sick child care through community volunteers and CHWs resulted in improved newborn and sick child care. The low-intensity approach with community volunteers appears to have been as effective as the higher-intensity CBSD approach with CHWs for several of the key newborn and sick child care indicators, particularly in the provision of appropriate home care for children with fever or cough.


The Cambridge Companion to Anselm. Edited by Brian Davies and Brian Leftow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xiii + 323 pp. £45.00 / $65.00 (cloth); £18.99 / $29.99 (paper). Anselm of Canterbury and His Theological Inheritance. By Giles E. M. Gasper. Aldershot, Hants, and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2004. xiii + 228 pp. £50.00 / $99.95 (cloth). Anselm of Canterbury: The Beauty of Theology. By David S. Hogg. Aldershot, Hants, and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2004. 207 pp. £50.00/$99.95 (cloth). As we approach the 900th anniversary of Anselm of Canterbury s death in 1109, each year brings the welcome publication of new research exploring the life and writings of the monk of Bee. Unfortunately, if Saint Anselm is read at all today, too often our attention focuses narrowly on a small selection of his works: the Proslogion, with its much-disputed claim that God cannot not exist; the Cur Deus Homo, so troubling and strange with its "feudal" anxieties about God's aggrieved honor, Satan's rights, and Christ's duty; or maybe a few of his inimitable prayers and meditations. Over against this atomizing tendency, content to pick through mere fragments instead of reading the wider corpus of his works, the trend of recent Anselmian studies has been more integrative and holistic. The very title of Sir Richard Southern's monumental 1990 biography Saint Anselm: Portrait in a Landscape, signals his aim to restore his subject to the wider context of his age. Since then, new research has traced out the overarching themes and perduring concerns that unite together, as binding threads, the disparate, seemingly ad hoc pieces comprising the Anselmian canon. This effort to recontextualize Anselm has drawn scholarly attention to some unjustly neglected works, to research the hidden sources of his thought and bring him into fruitful dialogue with contemporary philosophy and theology. Advancing this recent trend in Anselmian scholarship, three new books enrich our knowledge; of the intellectual and cultural background of Anselm even as they illuminate the more obscure margins of his work. The new volume devoted to Anselm appearing in the excellent series, Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, will be of interest both to general readers in religion and to specialists in medieval philosophy and theology alike. A dozen essays, the contributions of many distinguished Anselm scholars, have been collected together under the editorship of Brian Davies and Brian Leftow. All the essays are both historical and critical: they offer valuable background information on Anselm s life and times-his debt to PIatonism, his relations with his teachers and contemporaries-but they also measure Anselm's assumptions and methods against the standards of contemporary philosophy and theology. Of particular interest to theologians will be the articles on Anselm's ethics (Jeffrey E. Brower) and his doctrines of God (Brian Leftow), the Trinity (William E. Mann) and the Atonement (David Brown). The essay by Marilyn McCord Adams, which investigates what Anselm can mean by his famous definition of theology as, fides quaerens intellectum. is noteworthy for its clarity, breadth of textual evidence, and insight. A particular strength of some essays is their close reading of key texts in the Anselmian corpus: that of Brian Davies on the "Ontological Argument" of the Proslogion, for example, or the essay of Sandra Visser and Thomas Williams on the De Veritate, are models of clear exposition, taking seriously what Anselm is saying but also engaging him critically and intelligently. Among the essays in this volume, there is certainly an impressive range of perspectives and interpretive strategies which represent interesting contemporary approaches to medieval philosophical texts. Reference material in this volume-a chronology of Anselm's life, outlines of his major arguments, notes on key terms offered within some essays-will be helpful to the student who is beginning to read in Anselm. …


In 2000, the University of Southern California Trojans were named Collegiate Athletic Department of the 20th Century. However, it still seemed that the greatest historical football program was USC's biggest rival, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In this lively history of USC football, Travers makes the case that under the guidance of coach Pete Carroll the Trojans have overtaken Notre Dame as the "greatest ever" collegiate tradition. Illustrated with both historic and contemporary photos and containing an extensive appendix listing college football's all-time greatest teams by year, this book celebrates college football's best and provides a blow-by-blow account of perhaps the greatest game ever played: the 2006 USC-Texas Rose Bowl.


Carcinoma is the most common primary renal tumor in cattle, dog and horse. In cattle, aged females are more susceptible than males. Bilateral renal involvement is common and rate of systemic metastasis is low. The present study was performed in a Holstein cow in Najaf Abad abattoir of Isfahan. Swelling and hardness in consistency of the kidneys and neoplastic foci of various sizes, white to yellow in color that swelled up from the surface of the kidney were seen in macroscopic examination. For microscopic examination tissue samples prepared from the lesions and were sent to the lab in 0/10 buffered formalin . Sections were prepared from samples and were stained using hematoxylin and eosin )H-E(. In histopathology, the presence of neoplastic foci with fibrous and collagenous stroma, polygonal or oval neoplastic cells with eosinophilic and foamy cytoplasm, clear neoplastic cells with round or oval eccentric nucleus and dense chromatin network and absence of fetal renal structures, renal cell carcinoma was diagnosed. This report seems to be the first case of bovine renal cell carcinoma in Iran.


The relativization devices of a language can be hierarchized according to case codification on the basis of linguistic typology, diachrony and acquisition studies. Yet, such a scale is sensitive to the variation between spoken and written language. In Spanish, the canonical relative, proper of the written language, fills a clause internal slot of the relative. Spoken language, however, drastically reduces morpho-syntactic marling (as shown, e.g., by the depronominalization of the relative marker and by quesuismo), while at the same time simplifying the semantic compatibility relations with the antecedent (extending, e.g., the use of donde 'where'). We propose to analyse native speakers' and language learners' errors, including those stemming from hypercorrection, in order to find out which are the prevailing relativization strategies. The tension between grammatical economy and communicative efficiency explains the fluctuation between simplification, on the one hand, characterized by the loss of prepositions and by the use of marked relative forms (e.g. cuyo 'whose'), and on the other, the recovery of information, e.g. through the use of resumptive pronouns. Special attention will be paid to the so-called 'subordinate subject relative attraction', which privileges clause-internal concordance relations.


Abstract The highly selective nitrogen donor ligand CyMe4BTBP for An(III) separation by solvent extraction was irradiated in a 60Co γ-source under varying conditions. Organic solutions of 10 mmol/L ligand in 1-octanol were contacted with different concentrations of nitric acid to observe the influence of an aqueous phase during irradiation. In subsequent liquid-liquid extraction experiments, distribution ratios of 241Am and 152Eu were determined. Distribution ratios decreased with increasing absorbed dose when irradiation was performed in the absence of nitric acid. With addition of nitric acid, initial distribution ratios remained constant over the whole examined dose range up to 300 kGy. For qualitative determination of radiolysis products, HPLC-MS measurements were performed. The protective effect of nitric acid was confirmed, since in samples irradiated with acid contact, no degradation products were observed, but only addition products of the 1-octanol molecule to the CyMe4BTBP molecule.


Sean O'Connor was born in Francis Street, in the Liberties of Dublin, a neighbourhood famous over the centuries for the sturdy independence of its people. Now, in this evocative and affectionate book, he recollects the unique and colourful district of his childhood: the neighbours who lived there, their traditions, talk and lore, the music and poetry of the laneways and markets. Remembrances of the 1940s classroom, of bird-watching in Phoenix Park, of roaming towards adolescence in the streets of his ancestors are mingled with tales of ancient ghosts and the coming of change to the Liberties. O'Connor, father of the novelist Joseph, tells his story with honesty, warmth and style, and the often wry wit of his home-place. This tenderly written testament of one Liberties boy builds into a vivid and heart-warming picture of his own extended family as part of a proud community and its all-but-vanished way of life.


For 30 years, the Langlands conjecture, which posits an equivalence between two different branches of mathematics, has been a driving force in number theory. In 1998, the conjecture was proved for one group of mathematical structures, called local fields; now it has been proven for function fields, leaving only the central problem of number fields unresolved. The conjecture9s author says that it is only a matter of time now before that one is solved, too.


In order to characterize a new SOFC stack design, to investigate degradation processes and to validate models, a diagnostic test station was designed and realized. It allows to characterize repeat-elements locally by measuring the local potential, current density and temperature over the active area. The active area is segmented in 18 small electrically insulated measurement points (segments), in addition to a main segment. The profile of current density was investigated up to an average of 0.6A/cm2 and 67% of fuel utilization, showing as expected a different response depending on the position along the flowpath. In addition, the local Nernst potentials were measured by temporarily disabling the polarization of the concerned segments. The temperature profile was also investigated as a function of the output current, showing a large heat transfer with the test furnace in this single-element configuration. In addition, local degradation behavior was studied over 1900 hours. In particular, it was found that the repeat-element showed a large sensitivity to fuel composition, with larger degradation rates under pure hydrogen than under diluted fuel mixture. Impedance spectroscopy results showed large differences in degradation behavior, depending on the location in the repeat-element and on the polarization history. In particular, segments that had not been polarized during the test showed lower ohmic resistances than the polarized ones, and zones located near the gas inlets degraded more than those near the outlet. With this experiment, it was clearly demonstrated that degradation processes depend on local operating conditions.


Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) is an open encryption and security specification designed to protect credit card transactions on the Internet. SET is not itself a payment system, rather it is a set of security protocols and formats that enable users to employ existing credit card payment
infrastructure on an open network, such as the Internet, in a secure fashion. In addition, recently, a great deal of interest has been expressed in implementing and extending
cryptography and biometric into standard authentication protocols and distributed systems. This paper proposes an alternative authentication mechanism for supporting and enhancing the cardholder authentication technique used by
SET.A cryptographic-biometric mechanism is proposed to offer a more secure and suitable method for authentication/verification of the SET participant identity.A software implementation of the proposed mechanism uses SHA-1 for message digest authentication and DSA/RSA approach for digital signature.A simulated application is
presented with results showing the advantageous features of the proposed mechanism and its potential for SET implementation.


We present spectrally resolved observations of the young multiple system T Tau in atomic and molecular lines obtained with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared on board Herschel. While CO, H2O, [C ii], and SO lines trace the envelope and the outflowing gas up to velocities of 33 km s−1 with respect to systemic, the CN 5–4 hyperfine structure lines at 566.7, 566.9 GHz show a narrow double-peaked profile centered at systemic velocity, consistent with an origin in the outer region of the compact disk of T Tau N. Disk modeling of the T Tau N disk with the thermo-chemical code ProDiMo produces CN line fluxes and profiles consistent with the observed ones and constrain the size of the gaseous disk ( AU) and its inclination (i = 25°± 5°). The model indicates that the CN lines originate in a disk upper layer at 40–110 AU from the star, which is irradiated by the stellar UV field and heated up to temperatures of 50–700 K. With respect to previously observed CN 2–1 millimeter lines, the CN 5–4 lines appear to be less affected by envelope emission, due to their larger critical density and excitation temperature. Hence, high-J CN lines are a unique confusion-free tracer of embedded disks, such as the disk of T Tau N.


Grading schemes are an increasingly common method of quality disclosure for public services. Restaurant grading makes information about food safety practices more readily available and may reduce the prevalence of foodborne illnesses. However, it may also have meaningful financial repercussions. Using fine-grained administrative data that tracks food safety compliance and sales activity for the universe of graded restaurants in New York City and its bordering counties, we assess the aggregate financial effects from restaurant grading. Results indicate that the grading policy, after an initial period of adjustment, improves restaurants' food safety compliance and reduces fines. While the average effect on revenues for graded restaurants across the municipality is null, the graded restaurants located geographically closer to an ungraded regime experience slower growth in revenues. There is also evidence of revenue convergence across graded and ungraded restaurants in the long-term. DRAFT—PLEASE DO NOT CIRCULATE WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM AUTHORS


Get a host of extras with this Deluxe versionincluding a Security Administration Simulator!Prepare for CompTIA's new Security+ exam SY0-301 with this Deluxe Edition of our popular CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 5th Edition. In addition to the 100% coverage of all exam essentials and study tools you'll find in the regular study guide, the Deluxe Edition gives you over additional hands-on lab exercises and study tools, three additional practice exams, author videos, and the exclusive Security Administration simulator. This book is a CompTIA Recommended product.Provides 100% coverage of all exam objectives for Security+ exam SY0-301 including:Network security Compliance and operational security Threats and vulnerabilities Application, data and host security Access control and identity management Cryptography Features Deluxe-Edition-only additional practice exams, value-added hands-on lab exercises and study tools, and exclusive Security Administrator simulations, so you can practice in a real-world environment Covers key topics such as general security concepts, communication and infrastructure security, the basics of cryptography, operational security, and more Shows you pages of practical examples and offers insights drawn from the real world Get deluxe preparation, pass the exam, and jump-start your career. It all starts with CompTIA Security+ Deluxe Study Guide, 2nd Edition.


Root necrosis similar to those of the cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) were observed on cassava in western provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR.Congo) in the early 2000's. However molecular laboratory diagnosis were not able to detect any causative agent responsible for the attacks, hence, the disease related to these symptoms was named CBSD-like disease.

In order to assess the distribution and the incidence of the CBSD-like disease, surveys were carried out in four western provinces, comprising, Kwango and Kwilu, Sud Ubangi, Kinshasa and Kongo Central. CBSD-like disease was observed in all surveyed provinces on the basis of root symptoms because foliar symptoms were different to those of the documented cases of CBSD in other parts of east Africa. CBSD-like disease incidence was high in Kongo Central and Sud Ubangi, exceeding an average of 50 %, but low in Kwango and Kwilu (32.8%) and in Kinshasa (19.1%).

During the surveys, cassava leaf samples were collected for lab identification of the causal agent. PCR diagnosis was done on these samples using primers specific for the two known CBSVs. All samples tested negative with no amplification of DNA fragments of the correct size.  Thus, further analysis on the causative organism is needed using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) approaches. NGS approaches will help also to identify the causative organism in other Central Africa countries (Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon) where such cassava root necrosis have been reported or are suspected.


Customer satisfaction has emerged as an important benchmark for gauging business performance. Satisfaction increases customer loyalty and retention, which over time increases revenues and lowers costs to increase profitability (Johnson 1998; Reichheld 1996). Satisfaction benchmarking has taken on national and international significance with the development of national satisfaction barometers and indices in Sweden (Fornell 1992), Germany (Meyer 1994) and the United States (Fornell et al. 1996). Other countries, including New Zealand, Taiwan and Austria, have tested indices on a smaller scale while still others are undertaking similar projects. There is also a proposal for a European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI), a joint effort across nations in the European Union. It remains to be seen whether these indices will develop on a global level and, importantly, in what form. Of critical importance to the validity and reliability of such indices is that the methods and models used to measure customer satisfaction and related constructs continue to learn, adapt, and improve over time. The goal of this report is to facilitate this learning, adaptation and improvement process. We begin with a discussion of the foundations for making broad-based comparisons of satisfaction across individual, industries, and nations. We then describe the evolution of national satisfaction indices, including details of the current model being used in the United States and Sweden, and review evidence of the comparability of satisfaction measures across industries and countries. Both the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the current approaches are detailed. Finally, we propose a series of improvements for measuring and modeling satisfaction going forward.