Every programmer has a characteristic style, ranging from preferences about identifier naming to preferences about object relationships and design patterns. Coding conventions define a consistent syntactic style, fostering readability and hence maintainability. When collaborating, programmers strive to obey a project's coding conventions. However, one third of reviews of changes contain feedback about coding conventions, indicating that programmers do not always follow them and that project members care deeply about adherence. Unfortunately, programmers are often unaware of coding conventions because inferring them requires a global view, one that aggregates the many local decisions programmers make and identifies emergent consensus on style. We present NATURALIZE, a framework that learns the style of a codebase, and suggests revisions to improve stylistic consistency. NATURALIZE builds on recent work in applying statistical natural language processing to source code. We apply NATURALIZE to suggest natural identifier names and formatting conventions. We present four tools focused on ensuring natural code during development and release management, including code review. NATURALIZE achieves 94 % accuracy in its top suggestions for identifier names. We used NATURALIZE to generate 18 patches for 5 open source projects: 14 were accepted.


Objective: There has been an increasing focus on the extent to which oxidative stress is involved in the pathophysiology of acne. The aim of this study is to investigate the existence of oxidative stress and inflammatory marker IL-8 in patients with acne vulgaris, and the role of oxidative stress as a therapeutic target in the treatment of acne vulgaris.
Methods: A randomized prospective clinical trial was carried out on 56 patients of both sexes with age range of 14-35 years who attend to outpatient clinic in Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital-Kerbalaa -Iraq over a period from December 2011 to May 2012, all patients examined clinically by dermatologist and classified according to disease severity. Serum levels of Glutathione (GSH), Malondialdehyde (MDA) and Interleukine -8 (IL-8) in the acne patients were measured by using ready- for- use Elisa kits, and compared to that of 28 healthy volunteers.
Results: The results of the serum level analysis of MDA for the acne patients (expressed as the mean± Standard deviation) was highly significant (P value ≤ 0.001) higher than that of healthy volunteers, while serum level of GSH was highly significant (P value ≤ 0.001) lower in acne patients compared to healthy volunteers; there is a significant difference (P value ≤ 0.05) found in serum levels of IL-8 between the acne patients and the healthy volunteers.
Conclusions: The results obtained in this study clearly showed the existence of oxidative stress in patients with acne vulgaris, and that oxidative stress along with inflammation play a critical role in acne pathogenesis; furthermore, oxidative stress in acne patients may represents a potential therapeutic target and interference with antioxidant is a rationale choice.


The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is emerging as a potential catalyst for multiple health care reform efforts. Demonstration projects are beginning in nearly every state, with a broad base of support from employers, insurers, state and federal agencies, and professional organizations. A sense of urgency to show the feasibility of the PCMH, along with a 3-tiered recognition process of the National Committee on Quality Assurance, are influencing the design and implementation of many demonstrations. In June 2006, the American Academy of Family Physicians launched the first National Demonstration Project (NDP) to test a model of the PCMH in a diverse national sample of 36 family practices. The authors make up an independent evaluation team for the NDP that used a multimethod evaluation strategy, including direct observation, in-depth interviews, chart audit, and patient and practice surveys. Early lessons from the real-time qualitative analysis of the NDP raise some serious concerns about the current direction of many of the proposed PCMH demonstration projects and point to some positive opportunities. We describe 6 early lessons from the NDP that address these concerns and then offer 4 recommendations for those assisting the transformation of primary care practices and 4 recommendations for individual practices attempting transformation.


Staffing is one of the biggest issues facing companies moving into the global market today. This book provides a multi-disciplinary, integrated and critical discussion-based analysis of current and emerging issues in global staffing. It critically examines best practice and leading approaches, drawing on research from a range of disciplines including international strategy, management, HRM and organizational theory. The key theme of localization is also examined along with the complex associated implementation issues in a number of different regions. This text takes a truly international approach, giving students of HRM and international business an in-depth understanding of the processes of global staffing.


Satellite sewage collection and treatment systems have been independently developed and managed in East African cities outside the centrally planned and sewered areas. A satellite approach is a promising provisioning option parallel to public sewerage for middle- and high-income residential areas, endowed institutions, and government facilities. Although the studied satellite systems offer localized solutions that fit the situation of Kampala, better treatment and management arrangements are needed. Such arrangements do not readily conform to centralized or decentralized sanitation paradigms and likely require flexible mixtures of the two into modernized mixtures. In the case of Kampala, such mixtures entail regulation and control by centralized agencies, development and management by decentralized satellite providers, hybrid treatment process, and separation of waste(water) flows.


This chapter will discuss the biology of exposure to antidepressants during pregnancy as it interacts with fetal neurodevelopment. A systematic review of prevalence rates in pregnancy found 12% of women in third trimester meet criteria for depression and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) found that more women were depressed at 32 weeks pregnant than 8 weeks postpartum. Untreated depression in pregnancy has been associated with increased pregnancy complications, poorer child development and increased risk of postnatal depression. While psychological treatments are indicated for many women with antenatal depression, pharmacological treatment may be indicated for those who either don"t respond, have moderate to severe depressive symptoms, or don"t have access to psychological treatments. Antidepressants may also be indicated for women with Anxiety Disorders. The most commonly prescribed antidepressants are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Rates of prescription in North America for antidepressants in pregnancy are rising yet the implications for exposure on the child"s longer term neurodevelopment are still relatively unknown. Until now, the limited number of studies has not revealed any effects on global cognitive function. Yet there have been 5 studies published recently which suggest an effect of exposure on psychomotor development and a single, unreplicated study which suggested an increased risk of autism-spectrum disorders in children exposed to these antidepressants in pregnancy.

This chapter includes a brief review of the published research on neurodevelopmental outcomes for children following exposure to antidepressants in pregnancy and in particular, findings on psychomotor development. Methodological limitations in this body of literature including sample size, the measures of child development, the age of the children assessed and potential confounding variables will be discussed.

Several models can be used to understand these findings and the chapter will discuss models such as DOHaD's fetal programming concept and neurodevelopmental teratology. While structural teratology is generally limited to the first trimester, neurodevelopmental teratology recognizes the long term effects of exposure to agents or events across pregnancy that can have effect on child development that are often not apparent until well beyond infancy.

In the second half of the chapter, the origins and principles of neurodevelopmental teratology are outlined and discussed in the context of the developing serotonin system. This includes an overview of the development and functioning of the serotonin system and the pharmacology of SSRIs in order to consider how these might interact. An overview will be presented of the key animal and human studies on the effects of SSRIs on the developing serotonin system. Finally, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.


Quantum simulators are attractive as a means to study many-body quantum systems that are not amenable to classical numerical treatment. A versatile framework for quantum simulation is offered by superconducting circuits. In this perspective, we discuss how superconducting circuits allow the engineering of a wide variety of interactions, which in turn allows the simulation of a wide variety of model Hamiltonians. In particular we focus on strong photon-photon interactions mediated by nonlinear elements. This includes on-site, nearest-neighbour and four-body interactions in lattice models, allowing the implementation of extended Bose-Hubbard models and the toric code. We discuss not only the present state in analogue quantum simulation, but also future perspectives of superconducting quantum simulation that open up when concatenating quantum gates in emerging quantum computing platforms.


India, due to its uniquely multicultural history, has for long cherished the ideal of "Unity in Diversity", believing in the value of an egalitarian social order within a tolerant pluralistic framework. Recently, however, the controversial Sachar Committee Report has revealed the appallingly widespread social, economic and educational backwardness of the Muslim community in India: their minimal access to education, their abysmal representation in public services, and their consequent ghettoization and alienation from the national socio-economic mainstream. Affirmative Action, in various forms, including (but not limited to) Reservations, the Report suggests, is the means of addressing this socio-economic problem by enhancing diversity in the educational and public service landscape of the national mainstream.While proponents have argued that the same will reaffirm and invigorate the egalitarian and multicultural nature of the secular Indian polity, opponents have used the same secular paradigm of the Indian Constitution to challenge the Report's proposals, on the basis that the same would be violative of the Constitutional prohibition on discrimination on the basis of religion. With both sides using the rhetoric of the Constitutional ideal of secularism to pursue their own political ends, it becomes necessary to analyse the Report, and its proposals, not only in light of the Constitution, but also in light of the ideals on which it is based, in a non-partisan manner. In the above context, the proposed paper seeks to explore the nebulous precincts of the constitutionality of Affirmative Action for Muslims in India.


This event brought together winners of an art and literature competition for Washington DC artists who explored issues and events relevant to Hispanic Americans and the Hispanic experience in the United States. The exhibition was a joint initiative of the IDB Cultural Center and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The Awards Ceremony took place in September 2003 at the IDB Cultural Center Art Gallery with the participation the Honorable Anthony Williams, Mayor of the District of Columbia. The selected visual artists and poets received IDB Cultural Center grants.


The population is aging, and by 2050, there will be more individuals over the age of 60 than any other age group. Older adults are the least likely to engage with computers and tablets, and are the smallest demographic using digital social networks. Within this context, some older adults experience physical, financial or social constraints, more so than other age groups. Consequently, this research study explored new opportunities for community engagement using computers and tablets. Fifteen interviews were conducted among three populations: older adults experiencing social isolation, therapeutic recreation practitioners and volunteer coordinators. The findings suggest that although there are programs and resources available to help older adults engage with their community, such as online communities and virtual lectures, the biggest barrier for older adults is the lack of knowledge they have with using such devices. Therefore, therapeutic recreation practitioners and volunteer coordinators are encouraged to facilitate more digital literacy programs. Subscribe to TRJ


In temperate humid watersheds, evapotranspiration returns more than half of the annual precipitation to the atmosphere, thereby determining the balance available to recharge groundwaters and support stream flow and lake levels. Changes in evapotranspiration rates and therefore watershed hydrology could be driven by changes in land use or climate. Here we examine the watershed water balance over the past 50 years for a watershed in southwest Michigan covered by cropland, grassland, forest, and wetlands. Over the study period about 27% of the watershed has been abandoned from row-crop agriculture to perennial vegetation and about 20% of the watershed has reverted to deciduous forest, and the climate has warmed by 1.14°C. Despite these changes, precipitation and stream discharge, and by inference evapotranspiration, have been stable over the study period. The remarkably stable rates of evapotranspirative water loss from the watershed across a period of significant land cover change indicate that rainfed annual crops and perennial vegetation have similar evapotranspiration rates, a conclusion supported by measurements of evapotranspiration from various vegetation types based on soil water monitoring. Therefore the hydrology of this humid temperate landscape has been resilient in the face of both land cover and climate change over the past 50 years.


— Contribution: This work reports engineering students' practical epistemic cognition by studying their interactional work in situ. Studying "epistemologies in action" the study breaks away from mainstream approaches that describe this in terms of beliefs or of stage theories. Background: In epistemology, knowledge is traditionally seen as "justified true belief", neglecting knowledge related to action. Interest has increased in studying the epistemologies people use in situated action, and their development of epistemic fluency. How appropriate such approaches are in engineering and design education need further investigation. Research Questions: 1) How do students in the context of a design project use epistemic tools in their interactional work? 2) What are the implications of the findings in terms of how students' cognitive and epistemological development could be conceptualized? Methodology: A collaborative group of six students were video recorded on the 14th day of a fifth-semester design project, as they were preparing for a formal critique session. The entire, almost six hour, session was recorded by four video cameras mounted in the design studio, with an additional fifth body-mounted camera. The video data collected was analyzed using video ethnographic, conversation analysis, and embodied interaction analysis methods. Findings: The results show that the students use a wealth of bodily-material resources as an integral and seamless part of their interactions as epistemic tools, in their joint production of understanding and imagining. The analysis also suggests that students' epistemological and cognitive development, individually and as a group, should be understood in terms of developing "epistemic fluency".


To determine the effectiveness of colonic fluid absorption as a route for fluid resuscitation of a major burn. In order to assess the feasibility and performance of colonic resuscitation, the authors compared plasma volume expansion and hemodynamic parameters of animals submitted to colonic or intravenous fluid resuscitation. Twelve anesthetized swine were submitted to a 40% full thickness flame burn. Thirty minutes later fluid resuscitation was initiated with either intravenous or colonic infusion of crystalloid based on the Parkland formula. This treatment lasted 4.5 hours. The volume of fluid infused was 86 ± 18 ml/kg for the intravenous treatment and 89 ± 14 ml/kg for the colonic treatment. The percentage of fluid absorbed by the colon at the end of the protocol was 30 ± 13% of the infused fluid. Enteral resuscitation was equally effective in expanding plasma volume at the end of the protocol. Laboratorial and hemodynamic parameters were similar between the two resuscitation strategies throughout the study. Urine output was significantly higher in the intravenous group (7.9 ± 4.2 ml/kg/hr vs 0.9 ± 0.3 ml/kg/hr, P = .03). This study demonstrates that colonic infusion of normal saline in a severe burn injury model can restore hemodynamic stability and expand plasma volume to a degree that rivals the effect of direct intravenous infusion for early burn resuscitation in a swine model.


Autism is now considered to be one of the most common developmental disorders today, yet 100 years ago the term did not exist. This book examines the historical and social events that enabled autism to be identified as a distinct disorder in the early twentieth century. The author, herself the mother of an autistic child, argues that although there is without doubt a biogenetic component to the condition, it is the social factors involved in its identification, interpretation and remediation that determine what it means to be autistic. Constructing Autism explores the social practices and institutions that reflect and shape the way we think about autism and what effects this has on autistic people and their families. Unravelling what appears to be the 'truth' about autism, this informative book steps behind the history of its emergence as a modern disorder to see how it has become a crisis of twenty-first century child development.


The movement of perishable goods is growing worldwide. Perishable goods need to be available to the market before the expiration date. With the decrease in inventory levels the components of a supply chain become even more integrated and dependent on coordinated decisions. Information regarding perishable goods must be visible throughout the supply chain for avoiding goods loss. A Model Predictive Control (MPC) heuristic to address operations management at supply chains of perishable goods is proposed in this paper. The approach is capable to follow the remaining time until expiration date which is critical to avoid losses. The supply chain is modeled using a state-space representation and operations management at the supply chain is formulated as anMPC Problem. In order to cope with operational decisions, the problem is solved on a periodic basis. The proposed approach is capable to deal with production decisions, monitor work-in-progress (WIP), and make transport assignments while monitoring the remaining time until the expiration date. Flows over the supply chain can be synchronized and therefore we named this type of supply chain a Synchronized Supply Chain (SSC). The approach is modular and easily scalable for largescale supply chains. Numerical results illustrate these statements.


The AgreementMaker system was the leading system in the anatomy task of the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) competition in 2011. While AgreementMaker did not compete in OAEI 2012, here we report on its performance in the 2012 anatomy task, using the same configurations of AgreementMaker submitted to OAEI 2011. Additionally, we also test AgreementMaker using an updated version of the UBERON ontology as a mediating ontology, and otherwise identical configurations. AgreementMaker achieved an F-measure of 91.8% with the 2011 configurations, and an F-measure of 92.2% with the updated UBERON ontology. Thus, AgreementMaker would have been the second best system had it competed in the anatomy task of OAEI 2012, and only 0.1% below the F-measure of the best system.


ABSTRACT In this study, the influence of aqueous and organic extracts of different plant parts (flowers, leaves, and stems) of Typha angustifolia on the germination and early seedling growth of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) was evaluated. Chemical composition of extracts of different plant parts of Typha was also determined. Aqueous (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 g L−1) and organic extracts (at 0.5, 1, and 2 mg mL−1) were applied to the seeds of two pea cultivars, Douce de Provence and Lincoln, placed in Petri dishes. Application of extracts had a beneficial effect on germination and early seedling growth of both pea cultivars. However, aqueous extract of leaves showed the most beneficial effect at 60 and 40 g L−1 for the cultivars Douce de Provence and Lincoln, respectively. The effect could be attributed to the allelochemicals present in the aqueous extracts. Petroleum ether and chloroform extracts of leaves had the most stimulating effect on the germination and early seedling growth of pea. Analysis of Typha extracts indicated the presence of vitamin E in leaves, which could be responsible forthis stimulation. Moreover, Typha leaves also had substantial amount of flavonoids. In conclusion, the allelopathic activity of of Typha was dependent on the plant part, the solvent nature, the concentration of the extracts tested, and on the pea cultivar. Application of leaf extract was the most effective in improving the germination rate and early seedling growth of pea.


This paper brings together work carried out by Guy Hazlehurst, Stephen Drewer and RodenBuxton at the University of the West of England on the concept of the Single Building Model andresearch by Terry Pitt and George Griffith on the management of complex healthcare facilities,'Healthcare FM'. The central aim of the research has been to utilise advanced 3D, object modelsof complex buildings not only as repositories for 3D, 2D graphics, data and intelligence, but to actas 'information brokers'. The concept of the single building model has effectively evolved toprovide a spatial database that has the inherent potential to act as the spine of a 'heterogeneous'system. This spine links the sub-systems that enable complex processes throughout the life of thebuilding to be modelled.This paper will seek to address the issues of systems integration, through the creation andapplication of Single Building Modelling technologies, during the post occupancy stage of thebuilding process. Modelling complex buildings and estates at a time long after the facilities wereoriginally conceived, designed and built posits a set of unique issues that do not arguably arisewhen such models evolve through the incremental processes of inception, design and construction.It will be argued that the principal issues are those of data compatibility and the level of detailrequired within the 'ex-post' single building model to deliver optimum benefit to the owners andmanagers of complex buildings. The research issues identified by the production andimplementation of such a model within a Hospital's existing building management will bediscussed. Although the example cited in this paper is a healthcare building the points raisedwithin it arguably apply to any significant property or estate.


Abstract Background Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is effective for most patients with a social anxiety disorder (SAD) but a substantial proportion fails to remit. Experimental and clinical research suggests that enhancing CBT using imagery-based techniques could improve outcomes. It was hypothesized that imagery-enhanced CBT (IE-CBT) would be superior to verbally-based CBT (VB-CBT) on pre-registered outcomes. Methods A randomized controlled trial of IE-CBT v. VB-CBT for social anxiety was completed in a community mental health clinic setting. Participants were randomized to IE (n = 53) or VB (n = 54) CBT, with 1-month (primary end point) and 6-month follow-up assessments. Participants completed 12, 2-hour, weekly sessions of IE-CBT or VB-CBT plus 1-month follow-up. Results Intention to treat analyses showed very large within-treatment effect sizes on the social interaction anxiety at all time points (ds = 2.09–2.62), with no between-treatment differences on this outcome or clinician-rated severity [1-month OR = 1.45 (0.45, 4.62), p = 0.53; 6-month OR = 1.31 (0.42, 4.08), p = 0.65], SAD remission (1-month: IE = 61.04%, VB = 55.09%, p = 0.59); 6-month: IE = 58.73%, VB = 61.89%, p = 0.77), or secondary outcomes. Three adverse events were noted (substance abuse, n = 1 in IE-CBT; temporary increase in suicide risk, n = 1 in each condition, with one being withdrawn at 1-month follow-up). Conclusions Group IE-CBT and VB-CBT were safe and there were no significant differences in outcomes. Both treatments were associated with very large within-group effect sizes and the majority of patients remitted following treatment.


This book is a contribution to the definition of a model based system engineering (MBSE) approach, designed to meet the objectives laid out by the INCOSE. After pointing out the complexity that jeopardizes a lot of system developments, the book examines fundamental aspects of systems under consideration. It goes on to address methodological issues and proposes a methodic approach of MBSE that provides, unlike current practices, systematic and integrated model-based engineering processes. An annex describes relevant features of the VHDL-AMS language supporting the methodological issues described in the book.


Nowadays, countering terrorism involves many pressing ethical dilemmas for the professionals involved. The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 have had a tremendous impact on the practice of counterterrorism. The option of shooting down a presumed hijacked commercial airliner, with the deaths of many innocent passengers as a consequence, has been added to the toolbox of counterterrorism professionals. Naturally, most of the ethical dilemmas faced by counterterrorism professionals are not as extreme as this and mostly related to routine issues.Most of the ethical dilemmas facing counterterrorism professionals were, when this research started, hardly represented in the literature on counterterrorism and security studies, or in studies on applied ethics and ethics support. This thesis sets out to fill this gap by formulating and then addressing its main research question: What is the current relevance of the ethics of counterterrorism and what is the added value of ethics support within the practice of counterterrorism? This thesis contributes to the debate on the ethics of counterterrorism and explores the added value of applied ethics and ethics support in professional practice.


The Tutte-Grothendieck polynomial T(G; x, y) of a graph G encodes numerous interesting combinatorial quantities associated with the graph. Its evaluation in various points in the (x,y) plane gave the number of spanning forests of the graph, the number of its strongly connected orientations, the number of its proper k-colorings, the (all terminal) reliability probability of the graph, and various other invariants the exact computation of each of which is well known to be P-hard. Here we develop a general technique that supplies fully polynomial randomised approximation schemes for approximating the valve of T(G; x,, y) for any dense graph G, that is, any graph on n vertices whose minimum degree is /spl Omega/(n), whenever x/spl ges/1 and y/spl ges/1, and in various additional points. This region includes evaluations of reliability and partition functions of the ferromagnetic Q-state Potts model. Extensions to linear matroids where T specialises to the weight enumerator of linear codes are considered as well.<<ETX>>


Abstract. Urban air quality and human health are among the key aspects of future urban planning. In order to address pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter, efforts need to be made to quantify and reduce their concentrations. One important aspect in understanding urban air quality is the influence of urban vegetation which may act as both emitter and sink for trace gases and aerosol particles. In this context, the "Berlin Air quality and Ecosystem Research: Local and long-range Impact of anthropogenic and Natural hydrocarbons 2014" (BAERLIN2014) campaign was conducted between 2 June and 29 August in the metropolitan area of Berlin and Brandenburg, Germany. The predominant goals of the campaign were (1) the characterization of urban gaseous and particulate pollution and its attribution to anthropogenic and natural sources in the region of interest, especially considering the connection between biogenic volatile organic compounds and particulates and ozone; (2) the quantification of the impact of urban vegetation on organic trace gas levels and the presence of oxidants such as ozone; and (3) to explain the local heterogeneity of pollutants by defining the distribution of sources and sinks relevant for the interpretation of model simulations. In order to do so, the campaign included stationary measurements at urban background station and mobile observations carried out from bicycle, van and airborne platforms. This paper provides an overview of the mobile measurements (Mobile BAERLIN2014) and general conclusions drawn from the analysis. Bicycle measurements showed micro-scale variations of temperature and particulate matter, displaying a substantial reduction of mean temperatures and particulate levels in the proximity of vegetated areas compared to typical urban residential area (background) measurements. Van measurements extended the area covered by bicycle observations and included continuous measurements of O3, NOx, CO, CO2 and point-wise measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at representative sites for traffic- and vegetation-affected sites. The quantification displayed notable horizontal heterogeneity of the short-lived gases and particle number concentrations. For example, baseline concentrations of the traffic-related chemical species CO and NO varied on average by up to ±22.2 and ±63.5 %, respectively, on the scale of 100 m around any measurement location. Airborne observations revealed the dominant source of elevated urban particulate number and mass concentrations being local, i.e., not being caused by long-range transport. Surface-based observations related these two parameters predominantly to traffic sources. Vegetated areas lowered the pollutant concentrations substantially with ozone being reduced most by coniferous forests, which is most likely caused by their reactive biogenic VOC emissions. With respect to the overall potential to reduce air pollutant levels, forests were found to result in the largest decrease, followed by parks and facilities for sports and leisure. Surface temperature was generally 0.6–2.1 °C lower in vegetated regions, which in turn will have an impact on tropospheric chemical processes. Based on our findings, effective future mitigation activities to provide a more sustainable and healthier urban environment should focus predominantly on reducing fossil-fuel emissions from traffic as well as on increasing vegetated areas.


In this dissertation, I examine the appropriation of
Native American cultures and histories in the theatre of the
American counterculture of the 1960s and seventies, using the
Living Theatre's Paradise Now , the street
theatricals and broadsides of the San Francisco Diggers, and James
Rado and Gerome Ragni's Hair: The American Tribal-Love
Rock Musical as my primary case studies. Defining
themselves by points of difference from mainstream America and its
traditional social and cultural values, counterculturalists often
attempted to align themselves with Native Americans in order to
express an imagined sense of shared otherness. Representations of
Natives on countercultural stages, however, were frequently steeped
in stereotype, and they often depicted Native cultures
inaccurately, elided significant tribal differences, and relegated
Native identity almost wholly to the past, a practice that was
particularly problematic in light of concurrent Native rights
movements that were actively engaged in bringing national attention
to the contemporary issues and injustices Native Americans faced on
a daily basis. In my study, I analyze the impulses that might have
led counterculturalists to appropriate Native culture during this
period, highlighting some of the ways in which such appropriations
played out in Paradise Now and
 Hair , as well as on the streets of San
Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. I examine the countercultural
tendency to use stereotyped Native characters as mascots for
various-and sometimes competing-causes, such as environmentalism,
hallucinogenic drug use, communalism, pacifism, and violent
activism, and I demonstrate how such mascotry appeared in the
theatre of the period. I also interrogate the propagation of the
troublesome "vanishing Indian" stereotype during the sixties and
seventies, tracing its development into the popular myth of the
hippie as reincarnated Native. Finally, I examine Hanay Geiogamah's
1972 play Body Indian as an alternative model
for more ethical and responsible Native representation, also
proposing my own guidelines for non-Native artists engaging with
Native subject matter in their creative work.


Multi-port memory controllers (MPMCs) have become increasingly important in many modern applications due to the tremendous growth in bandwidth requirement. Many approaches so far have focused on improving either the memory access latency or the bandwidth utilization for specific applications. Moreover, the application systems are likely to require certain adjustments to connect with an MPMC, since the MPMC interface is limited to a single-clock and single-data-width domain. In this paper, we propose efficient techniques to improve the flexibility, latency, and bandwidth of an MPMC. Firstly, MPMC interfaces employ a pair of dual-clock dualport FIFOs at each port, so any multi-clock multi-data-width application system can connect to an MPMC without requiring extra resources. Secondly, memory access latency is significantly reduced because parallel FIFOs temporarily keep the data transfer between the application system and memory. Lastly, a proposed arbitration scheme, namely window-based first-come-first-serve, considerably enhances the bandwidth utilization. Depending on the applications, MPMC can be properly configured by updating several internal configuration registers. The experimental results in an Altera Cyclone V FPGA prove that MPMC is fully operational at 150 MHz and supports up to 32 concurrent connections at various clocks and data widths. More significantly, achieved bandwidth utilization is approximately 93.2% of the theoretical bandwidth, and the access latency is minimized as compared to previous designs.


Tourism is one of the 2030 vision themes. Neum City will be attractive for tourists and promising. Industrial lighting units design is considered an important field in tourism which takes part in economic balance and achieve tourism development, through modern designs taken from heritage products and Popular legacies especially Jazan region. In addition to this, there are natural materials such as shura trees and pure technologies like laser and waterjet. These materials are spreading because of the nature of Jazan and industrial zone. The matter which take part in environmental sustainability for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  The study aims at using Jazan heritage in designing sustainable Industrial lighting units for Radisson Blu Neum hotels. Descriptive approach has been used for showing materials and technologies used previously. Analytical approach is used to benefit from the heritage products form. The study results in a lot of applications which support the importance of making use the shape features in Jazan heritage and some environmental materials and techniques. The matter which achieve sustainable designing modern unites. It recommends the study results on hotels and tourism resorts for Radisson BluNeum City.  Results: - Spreading awareness and culture of Jizan heritage as a part of Saudi heritage and converting its ideas into developed and compatible products with the current era. - Designing creative sustainable industrial lighting units derived from the Jazan heritage. - Reviving the Jazan heritage, spreading its culture among tourists and visitors, and expanding it locally and internationally. - Opening new fields in designing lighting units that combine originality and modernization. - Achieving sustainability in the field of designing lighting units, maintaining natural resources and protecting the environment through using friendly materials and technologies. - Distinguishing heritage items and products in Jizan by simple colors, shapes and engineering elements. - Using friendly materials and un expensive, primitive and traditional techniques in Jazan heritage products.


Lithium manganese oxide (Li2-xMnO3-y) thin films have been deposited from activated Li2MnO3 powder by radio frequency magnetron sputtering for the first time in the literature and subjected to electrochemical characterization. Physicochemical characterization by X-ray diffraction has revealed the formation of the thin films with crystallographic phase identical to that of the powder target made of Li2-xMnO3-y. The Li:Mn atomic ratio for the powder and film are calculated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and it is found to be 1.6:1.0. From galvanostatic charge discharge studies, a specific discharge capacity of 139 mu Ah mu m(-1) cm(-2) was obtained when cycled between 2.00 and 3.50 V vs Li/Li+. Additionally the rate capability of the thin film electrodes was studied by subjecting the cells to charge-discharge cycling at different current densities in the range from 10 mu A cm(-2) to 100 mu A cm(-2). (C) 2013 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.


PURPOSE
To assess the psychometric properties of the National Eye Institute Refractive Error Quality of Life (NEI-RQL-42) questionnaire in keratoconus and compare these findings to patients with refractive error correction alone.

METHODS
The Portuguese version of the NEI-RQL-42 Quality of Life questionnaire was completed by 44 patients who had keratoconus before and after implantation of intracorneal ring segments. Rasch analysis was used to assess the use of response categories, success in measuring a single trait per subscale (unidimensionality), ability to discriminate person ability (precision), and targeting of questions to person quality of life (QoL).

RESULTS
Rasch analysis was performed for the questionnaire subscales using stacked preoperative and postoperative data. Three subscales (Symptoms, Dependence on correction, and Suboptimal correction) contained response categories that were not used as intended. Six subscales contained misfitting items indicating multidimensionality. Eleven subscales exhibited inadequate measurement precision. Only the Near vision subscale demonstrated adequate precision with a person separation greater than 2.0. Targeting of items to person QoL was adequate in 11 of the 12 subscales with a mean item location of less than 1 logit.

CONCLUSIONS
Only one NEI-RQL-42 subscale (Near vision) performed adequately in keratoconus. Targeting was better in patients with keratoconus than in patients with refractive error correction alone, but 11 of the 12 subscales remain manifestly inadequate. Better instruments exist for measuring patient-reported outcomes in keratoconus.


Military computer games continue to evoke a uniquely contradictory public, intellectual, and critical response. Whilst denigrated as child's play, they are played by millions of adults; whilst dismissed as simplistic, they are used in education, therapy, and military training; and whilst classed as meaningless, they arouse fears over media effects and the propagandist influence of their representations of combat. They remain the object of intense suspicion, and as part of a new and growing mass medium, they are blamed for everything from obesity to falling literacy standards, and from murder to Abu Ghraib. Much of the suspicion surrounding military computer games has been caused by the development of the military-entertainment complex - the relationship between the computer game industry and the U.S. military which has seen the production of dual-use games, co-produced by the military and the computer game industry and released for both military training and commercial sale. This relationship has placed military computer games at the centre of an intensely politicized debate in which they have become characterized as a mass medium which functions under the control of the military and political establishment and which promotes the militaristic ideals of the neoconservative Bush administration. This thesis serves as a fundamental reevaluation of such preconceptions and prejudices, and in particular, a complete reevaluation of the understanding of the relationship between computer games and American militarism. Its analysis focuses on three main areas: firstly, the content of military computer games; secondly, the determinants which affect the production and representation of war in computer games; and thirdly, the contribution of the representation of war in computer games to the misunderstandings and misconceptions concerning warfare which, in turn, have supported American militaristic beliefs.


This study aimed to investigate the roles of high glucose and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) on the activation of the lectin complement pathway (LCP) on human renal glomerular endothelial cells (HRGECs) in vitro . Flow cytometry analysis, immunofluorescence staining and Western blot were used to detect the cell surface deposition of MBL, C3 and the membrane attack complex (MAC), as well as the code position of MBL and C3 (MBL+C3). Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) was used to measure the activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB). These results show that cell surface deposition of MBL, C3 and MBL+C3 after exposure to high glucose increased in both time- and dosedependent manner (P < 0.05). Moreover, MBL, C3 and MBL+C3 deposition stimulated by exogenous recombinant human MBL (rhuMBL) were also observed in both time- and dose-dependent manner, peaking at 4 h and then decreasing (P < 0.05). Inhibition experiments indicated that the inhibitory monoclonal antibody 3F8 against human MBL (MAb 3F8) significantly abrogated the cell surface deposition of MBL, C3 and MBL+C3, attenuated MAC staining, and inhibited NF-κB activation in HRGECs (P < 0.05). In conclusion, high glucose and MBL played an important role on the LCP activation of HRGECs, and MAb 3F8 may represent a novel potential therapeutic strategy to block LCP activation on HRGECs. Key words: High glucose, mannose-binding lectin, complement activation, human renal glomerular endothelial cells.


Suicide is a quintessentially individual act, yet one with unexpectedly broad social implications. Though seen today as a private phenomenon, in the uncertain aftermath of the American Revolution this personal act seemed to many to be a public threat that held no less than the fate of the fledgling Republic in its grip. Salacious novelists and eager newspapermen broadcast images of a young nation rapidly destroying itself. Parents, physicians, ministers, and magistrates debated the meaning of self-destruction and whether it could (or should) be prevented. Jailers and justice officials rushed to thwart condemned prisoners who made halters from bedsheets, while abolitionists used slave suicides as testimony to both the ravages of the peculiar institution and the humanity of its victims. Struggling to create a viable political community out of extraordinary national turmoil, these interest groups invoked self-murder as a means to confront the most consequential questions facing the newly united states: What is the appropriate balance between individual liberty and social order? Who owns the self? And how far should the control of the state (or the church, or a husband, or a master) extend over the individual? With visceral prose and an abundance of evocative primary sources, Richard Bell lays bare the ways in which self-destruction in early America was perceived as a transgressive challenge to embodied authority, a portent of both danger and possibility. His unique study of suicide between the Revolution and Reconstruction uncovers what was at stake - personally and politically - in the nation's fraught first decades.


The gripping first-hand account of the events that inspired the major film Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks, by the man at the centre of them all - James B Donovan. Also featuring a foreword by Jason Matthews. With the Cold War at its height, the capture and trial of Colonel Abel, the Soviets' most capable and effective spy, revealed the chilling depths of the KGB's penetration of the West. But when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia and its CIA pilot, Gary Powers, captured, both men's fates hung in the balance. With East and West staring each other down across the Iron Curtain the stakes couldn't have been higher. And at the heart of it all, from Abel's arrest to his exchange with Powers on Berlin's infamous 'Bridge of Spies', was James B. Donovan. Strangers on the Bridge is the only inside account of the greatest spy story of the era and a real-life espionage classic. Reviews of Strangers on a Bridge: "Enthralling...Engrossing...Truly remarkable." (New York Times). "As compelling as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold except it happens to be true." (Life). "A top notch spy thriller." (Time).


The purpose of this paper is to effectively evaluate the innovation ability and classification of technical talents in the intelligent robot field, and to be able to carry out adaptive learning and mining technical innovation talents according to the real-time change data corresponding to different indicators. Taking inventor's patent information retrieved and cleaned from DI database as research object, it constructs the evaluation index system of technological innovation talents. It reduces the dimension of the index and cluster automatically, shows the visual effect, and mines the similar technical innovation talents through t-SNE algorithm. For a large number of patent information data, machine learning algorithm improves the traditional recognition method. According to inventor similarity, automatic classification is realized. Combined with DWPI manual code mining, the corresponding innovators and members of the technical team in the intelligent robot technology field were found. According to the results of visual dimensional reduction, the specific inventors can be traced. Machine learning algorithm t-SNE can reduce dimension and analysis clustering. It breaks the limitations of artificial statistics, deals with the larger order of magnitude data, and analyzes data timely, accurate and intuitive.


Abstract. In this study we present a qualitative and quantitative assessment of more than 10 yr of aerosol number size distribution data observed in the Arctic environment (Mt. Zeppelin (78°56' N, 11°53' E, 474 m a.s.l.), Ny Alesund, Svalbard). We provide statistics on both seasonal and diurnal characteristics of the aerosol observations and conclude that the Arctic aerosol number size distribution and related parameters such as integral mass and surface area exhibit a very pronounced seasonal variation. This seasonal variation seems to be controlled by both dominating source as well as meteorological conditions. Three distinctly different periods can be identified during the Arctic year: the haze period characterized by a dominating accumulation mode aerosol (March–May), followed by the sunlit summer period with low abundance of accumulation mode particles but high concentration of small particles which are likely to be recently and locally formed (June–August). The rest of the year is characterized by a comparably low concentration of accumulation mode particles and negligible abundance of ultrafine particles (September–February). A minimum in aerosol mass and number concentration is usually observed during September/October. We further show that the transition between the different regimes is fast, suggesting rapid change in the conditions defining their appearance. A source climatology based on trajectory analysis is provided, and it is shown that there is a strong seasonality of dominating source areas, with Eurasia dominating during the Autumn–Winter period and dominance of North Atlantic air during the summer months. We also show that new-particle formation events are rather common phenomena in the Arctic during summer, and this is the result of photochemical production of nucleating/condensing species in combination with low condensation sink. It is also suggested that wet removal may play a key role in defining the Arctic aerosol year, via the removal of accumulation mode size particles, which in turn have a pivotal role in facilitating the conditions favorable for new-particle formation events. In summary the aerosol Arctic year seems to be at least qualitatively predictable based on the knowledge of seasonality of transport paths and associated source areas, meteorological conditions and removal processes.


This paper describes iDriver, an iPhone software to remote control "Spirit of Berlin". "Spirit of Berlin" is a completely autonomous car developed by the Free University of Berlin which is capable of unmanned driving in urban areas. iDriver is an iPhone application sending control packets to the car in order to remote control its steering wheel, gas and brake pedal, gear shift and turn signals. Additionally, a video stream from two top-mounted cameras is broadcasted back to the iPhone.


Slavoj Žižek shows in his book Absolute Recoil (and previous Hegelian works such as Less than Nothing ) the importance of repeating Hegel's dialectical philosophy in contemporary capitalism. Žižek contributes especially to a reconceptualisation of dialectical logic and based on it the dialectic of history. The reflections in this paper stress that the dialectic is only the absolute recoil, a sublation that posits its own presuppositions, by working as a living fire that extinguishes and kindles itself. I point out that a new foundation of dialectical materialism needs a proper Heraclitusian foundation. I discuss Žižek's version of the dialectic that stresses the absolute recoil and the logic of retroactivity and point out its implications for the concept of history as well as Žižek's own theoretical ambiguities that oscillate between postmodern relativism and mechanical materialism. I argue that Žižek's version of the dialectic should be brought into a dialogue with the dialectical philosophies of the German Marxists Hans Heinz Holz and Herbert Horz. Žižek's achievement is that he helps keeping alive the fire of dialectical materialism in the 21 st century. Such a dialectical fire is needed for a proper revolutionary theory.


OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) sufficiently reflects the true diurnal glucose control during ordinary daily life in type I diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS By using a microdialysis technique, continuous monitoring of adipose tissue glucose was performed in 24 type I diabetic patients during ambulatory conditions. A microdialysis probe was implanted subcutaneously and perfused by a portable microinfusion pump. Dialysate fractions were collected in 1- to 2-h samples during 3 consecutive days. The diurnal microdialysis glucose profiles were compared with those obtained by SMBG recordings performed seven times a day. RESULTS In seven patients, the SMBG profiles showed marked aberrations as compared to the continuous microdialysis glucose recordings; during the 3-day study period, 5–6 inconsistencies were registered. In only 4 patients (17%) did SMBG provide a valid reflection (0–2 inconsistencies) of the diurnal glucose profile, whereas in 13 patients the SMBG recordings paralleled the diurnal adipose tissue glucose profiles in an intermediate way (3–4 major inconsistencies). The inaccuracy of the SMBG data was due more often to the fact that wide glucose swings remained unrecognized, rather than to erroneous testing techniques (P < 0.05), and it was more evident during the night (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS In many type I diabetic patients, the true diurnal variability in glycemia is too great to be accurately reflected even by frequent self-monitoring of blood glucose.


The study examined the effects of tax reforms on tax buoyancy and elasticity estimates. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine the effect of tax modernization programme and revenue administration reforms and modernization programme on tax buoyancy and tax elasticity. The study employed regression analysis and used annual time series data for the period 1963 to 2010. Secondary data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Kenya Revenue Authority, Central Bank of Kenya and World Bank was used. Elasticity estimates were determined by adjusting data for discretionary changes using the proportional adjustment method. The study revealed that both revenue administration reform and modernization programme (RARMP) and tax modernization programme (TMP) were important in explaining the variations in buoyancy and elasticity of the tax system in Kenya. Although the reforms analyzed had positive effect on both tax buoyancy and elasticity, the results indicate that this was not sufficient to help generate adequate revenue to finance the ever increasing government expenditure. With an inelastic tax system, the Kenya government has to re-evaluate the implementation strategies and pursue further reforms for it to fully exploit the tax revenue potential in the economy.


Hybrid systems are real-time systems that react to both discrete and continuous activities (such as analog signals, time, temperature, and speed). Typical examples of hybrid systems are embedded systems, timing-based communication protocols, and digital circuits at the transistor level. Due to the rapid development of microprocessor technology, hybrid systems directly control much of what we depend on in our daily lives. Consequently, the formal specification and verification of hybrid systems has become an active area of research.
This dissertation presents the first general framework for the formal specification and verification of hybrid systems, as well as the first hybrid-system analysis tool--H scYT scECH. The framework consists of a graphical finite-state-machine-like language for modeling hybrid systems, a temporal logic for modeling the requirements of the hybrid systems, and a computer procedure that verifies modeled hybrid systems against modeled requirements. The tool H scYT scECH is the implementation of the framework using C++ and M scATHEMATICA.
More specifically, our hybrid-system modeling language, Hybrid Automata, is an extension of timed automata (AD94) with discrete and general continuous variables whose dynamics are governed by differential equations. Our requirement modeling language, I scCTL, is a branching-time temporal logic, and is an extension of T scCTL (ACD93) with stop-watch variables. Our verification procedure is a symbolic model-checking procedure that verifies linear hybrid automata against I scCTL formulas, and is an extension of the symbolic model-checking procedure for real-time systems in (HNSY94).
To make H scYT scECH more efficient and effective, we designed and implemented model-checking strategies and abstract operators that can expedite the verification process. To enable H scYT scECH to verify nonlinear hybrid automata, we also introduce two translations from nonlinear hybrid automata to linear hybrid automata that can be fed into H scYT scECH for automatic analysis. We have applied H scYT scECH to analyze more than 30 hybrid-system benchmarks. In this dissertation, we show the application of H scYT scECH to three nontrivial hybrid systems taken from the literature.


In Parts of Classes (1991) and Mathematics Is Megethology (1993) David Lewis defends both the innocence of plural quantification and of mereology. However, he himself claims that the innocence of mereology is different from that of plural reference, where reference to some objects does not require the existence of a single entity picking them out as a whole. In the case of plural quantification "we have many things, in no way do we mention one thing that is the many taken together". Instead, in the mereological case: "we have many things, we do mention one thing that is the many taken together, but this one thing is nothing different from the many" (Lewis, 1991, p. 87). The aim of the paper is to argue that—for a certain use of mereology, weaker than Lewis' one—an innocence thesis similar to that of plural reference is defensible. To give a precise account of plural reference, we use the idea of plural choice. We then propose a virtual theory of mereology in which the role of individuals is played by plural choices of atoms.


The Terminology Box (TBox) of a Description Logic (DL) knowledge base is used to define new concepts in terms of primitive concepts and relations. The topic of this paper is the effect of the available operations in a DL on the length and the syntactic shape of definitions in a Terminology Box.

Defining new concepts can be done in two ways: (1) in an explicit syntactical manner as in NewConcept ≐ C, with C an expression in which NewConcept does not occur. Acyclic TBoxes only contain such axioms. (2) implicitly, by writing a set of general inclusion axioms ⊤ with the property that in any model of ⊤, the interpretation of NewConcept is uniquely determined by the interpretation of the primitive concepts and relations. The explicit manner is preferred because its syntactic simplicity makes it immediately clear that NewConcept is nothing but a defined concept, and leads to algorithms with a lower worst case complexity. The focus of this paper is on the following property of DL's: every new concept defined in the implicit way can also be defined in the explicit manner. DL's with this property are called Definitorially Complete.

It is known that ALC is definitorially complete. We provide a concrete algorithm for computing explicit definitions on the basis of implicit definitions. It involves at most a triply exponential blowup, and is based on a method for obtaining exponential size uniform interpolants.

We also investigate definitorial completeness for a number of extensions of ALC. We show that definitorial completeness is preserved when ALC is extended with qualified number restrictions (ALCQ), but is lost when nominals are added (ALCO). On the other hand, definitorial completeness is regained when ALCO is further extended with the @-operator. We also show that all extensions of ALC and ALCO@ with transitive roles, role inclusions, inverse roles, role intersection, and/or functionality restrictions, are definitorially complete.


This Article reviews the processes by which domestic-level transposition of international human rights norms may occur as a consequence of human rights treaty ratification, or other means of incorporation. Specifically, we consider the transformative vision of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or Convention) as a vehicle for fostering national-level disability law and policy changes. In doing so, we outline the challenges and opportunities presented by this new phase in disability rights advocacy, and we draw conclusions that bear generally upon human rights practice and scholarship. We contend that the role of human rights in domestic law and process reflect important dimensions of international law and practice. At the same time, human rights advocates and scholars often fail to account for the potentially mutually constitutive nature of domestication processes and the transformative role that human rights treaties perform within societies. Accordingly, we argue that effective Convention implementation must result in a human rights practice that includes law reform or court-based advocacy, but also moves beyond it to include strategies that support deeper domestic internalization of human rights norms.


Trained in the conventions of the late nineteenth century, Gilbert Ledward (1888-1960) adhered to representational values suited to public commemorative projects. The first artist to win a scholarship in sculpture to the British School at Rome, and a soldier in the First World War, he was a sought after sculptor of war memorials. His figurative designs of those that fought remain evocative of the Great War and its cost. The Guards' Division Memorial at Horse Guards Parade (1922-5) is his most prominent work in London and he designed sculpture for the Imperial War Graves Commission Memorial to the Missing at Ploegsteert, Belgium (1926-9).

During the 1930s Ledward turned from the established practice of modelling in clay to carving stone direct. While other artists pioneered the development of modern sculpture, ultimately towards abstraction, Ledward's work remained figurative. His belief that sculpture had a social purpose, both as a fine and an applied art, led to his involvement in a wide range of projects. In 1934 he co-founded the firm Sculptured Memorials and Headstones in an attempt to promote carving by regional artists in native stone. He made architectural sculpture for many major buildings in the capital.

Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, elected to the Royal Academy in 1937 and a President of the RBS, Ledward was an outspoken member of the art establishment. He was involved in debates about the place of sculpture in twentieth-century society and the professional standing of the sculptor. This book examines the shift in values that Ledward found so troubling and that preoccupied him in the years after the Second World War.

The Sculpture of Gilbert Ledward places attention on the processes and practice of sculpture and reproduces many sketches and working drawings previously unpublished. It is the first comprehensive record of Ledward's work.


The final closure of the Isthmus of Panama at ∼3.5 Ma divided the American tropical ocean into two separate and different oceanographic regions. Consequences for the marine biota were profound, but, hitherto, correlation of the Pacific and Caribbean coastal sections has not been precise enough to track biologic patterns. We present here a correlation of 31 sections from the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and western Panama. Using calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera at both the tops and bottoms of each formation, we estimate that the Caribbean section ranges from 8.2 Ma to 1.7 Ma; and the Pacific sequence, from 3.6 Ma to <1.7 Ma. These intervals bracket postulated dates for final closure of the Isthmus and provide the first well-dated record of middle and late Pliocene faunas from the region.

The Caribbean and Pacific sections include very different environments of deposition, yet there is sufficient overlap and diversity of habitats to permit meaningful biological comparisons. On the Caribbean side, formations tied together by the overlap of the upper Pliocene markers Sphenolithus abies and Pseudoemiliana lacunosa (3.5 Ma to 3.6 Ma) range from very shallow to shallow inner shelf (<200 m) and upper slope (200-800 m). The Pacific coast sections were mostly deposited in a trench slope environment, which is absent on the Caribbean side. These sections fortuitously include abundant thick intra-formational slumps containing shallow-water fauna more appropriate for biological comparison with the Caribbean biota. Similarly, the ∼1.9 Ma to 1.5 Ma interval, well constrained by various taxa, includes middle- to outer-shelf, and inner-shelf to upper-slope deposits on the Caribbean side, and marginal-marine to inner-shelf deposits on the Pacific coast.

Using our new biostratigraphic framework to correlate previously poorly constrained mollusc collections, we show that evolutionary divergence of the Pacific and Caribbean near-shore marine faunas had occurred by 3.5 Ma. This strongly suggests that the Isthmus was effectively closed by this time.


The extraterritorial application of national laws frequently subjects companies to conflicting or overlapping legal requirements, fosters unpredictability, increases the risks involved in commercial activities, exposes companies to overly burdensome litigation in foreign jurisdictions, and inflates legal and other transaction costs.1 Litigants in the United States are accustomed to expansive discovery. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allow discovery into "any matter, not privileged, that is relevant to the claim or defense of any party"; relevant information need not be admissible at trial if the discovery appears "reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence." Discovery of such sweeping scope is literally foreign to other civil justice systems. Indeed, engaging in such broad discovery may conflict with legal obligations imposed in those countries. This can leave companies in an impossible quandary where compliance with one country's laws constitutes a violation of another's.3 In cases involving non-U. S. litigants or U.S.-based litigants with operations overseas, tensions between the expectations of U.S. courts and foreign laws increasingly arise in the context of foreign data protection statutes and blocking statutes. With the advent of technologies allowing the rapid creation and transmittal of information, and of recent e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, these tensions will likely increase. This article discusses the approach U.S. courts have taken to cross-border discovery and suggests possible strategies for companies facing such discovery. A. Data Protection Data protection measures outside the United States can be substantial and may conflict with U.S. discovery demands. For instance, European Union Directive 95/46/EC requires Member States to "protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons, and in particular their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data."4 Where the Commission finds that a third country (like the United States) does not ensure an adequate level of protection, Member States are required to take the measures necessary to prevent any transfer of data of the same type to the third country in question.5 B. Blocking Statutes Some countries have enacted "blocking statutes" to prevent the application of another country's laws from having extraterritorial effect. For example, the French Blocking Statute provides: Art. I bis - Subject to international [agreements] or accords and laws and regulations in effect, any individual is prohibited from requesting, seeking or disclosing, in writing, orally, or in any other form, documents or information of an economic, commercial, industrial, financial or technical nature directed toward establishing evidence in view of legal or administrative proceedings abroad or in relation thereto. Art. 3 - Without prejudice to heavier penalties set out by law, any violation to [sic ] the provisions of articles 1 and 1 bis of this law shall be punishable by imprisonment of two to six months and a fine of FRF 10,000 to FRF 120,000 or by either one of these two penalties.6 C. Balancing the Competing Interests: Theory vs. Reality The Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law sets out several factors courts should consider in evaluating the reasonableness of an international litigant's conduct in the face of conflicting legal requirements: 1. The importance to the litigation of the documents or information requested; 2. The degree of specificity of the request; 3. Whether the information originated in the United States; 4. The availability of alternative means of securing the information; and 5. The extent to which noncompliance with the request would undermine important interests of the U.S., or compliance with the request would undermine important interests of the state where the documents or information is located. …


David Chaney (2001) argues that access to lifestyle templates are available primarily through multiple media channels, where lifestyle is an example of a new "social form" based on specific patterns of consumer choice. This article examines a very particular kind of "celebrity." It is concerned with how television, print, and advertising contribute to the construction of media stars whose function is to transfer knowledge of particular lifestyles to the lived experience of ordinary people. It looks at systems that direct the fow of such information and why the proliferation of this new breed of expert arises out of a particular set of historic conditions, namely the rise of and recent challenges to neo-liberalism. Specifically, it explores the role of the celebrity expert as cultural intermediary at a time when objective and subjective class positions do not necessarily coincide. The social anxieties that arise as a con sequence sees the domination of the market as an economic and cultural space in which such anxieties are increasingly played out. This allows questions to be posed that consider the proliferation of the celebrity expert, their role as tastemakers in contemporary culture and how viewers appropriate, or not, the particular lifestyles that are communicated across popular media forms.


This study focuses on family life of Afghan refugees in the Netherlands, within and across borders. While family life constitutes a foundation in the lives of human beings, the disruption of the family through external causes has a huge impact on the people involved. In the case of refugees, many of these external factors - like the shocking experiences that they had before the flight, the dispersal of family-members over different countries, and the often difficult living conditions in the host country - add up to seriously distorting their family life. Not surprisingly then, the international venture for the realization of human rights has addressed the need for the protection of the family, too. However, in this study the focus is not on the legally defined rights and claims regarding family life but on the perception of the people at the grassroots: How do they construct and experience their family life? And in that respect how do they perceive the freedoms and entitlements that entail the protection they need? The research approach of the study is explorative and qualitative: over eighty interviews, follow-up interviews and informal conversations with 37 Afghan refugees in the Netherlands form the main data source. The main body of the thesis consists of five chapters. Firstly, background information is provided on the situation in Afghanistan, on Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries and in the West, and on the population of Afghan refugees in the Netherlands and the policies that apply to them. It becomes clear that Afghan refugees in the Netherlands come from a heavily fragmented society where people seek the protection of the in-group against the threats formed by outsiders. Then the focus switches from the societal level to the family level, and the process is described of how the families of these refugees became fragmented because of conflict, war, flight, and the Dutch asylum system. The fourth chapter zooms in on the level of the nuclear family life, as most respondents experienced a transformation from an extended family-life in Afghanistan to living in a nuclear family-setting or a partial nuclear family-setting in the Netherlands. It was at this level that respondents were faced with the task of integrating in the new society, which led to intra-familial transformations, tensions and negotiations. The fifth chapter describes the family-life that respondents maintained with non-co-residing family-members in the West, which was characterized by a high level of trust and comparable living conditions. These relations mainly served as a source of mutual social and cultural support. In the sixth chapter the relations with family-members who stayed behind in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are considered, which were characterized by a structural inequality and tended to be more imbalanced at first sight. In the final chapter follows a summary of the findings, a discussion of the implications of these findings for the theoretical concepts of transnationalism, reciprocity and integration, and a formulation of the implications from an upstream human rights perspective for the protection of the family.


According to the TURHEP study, the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in Turkey is 82.5%. After FDA approval in 1995, many countries have used standard triple therapy (proton pump inhibitor 40 mg b.i.d clarithromycin 500 mg b.i.d and amoxicillin 1 gr b.i.d) for Helicobacter pylori treatment. In the beginning, eradication rates were above 90% in many countries; however, current studies have demonstrated a prominent decrease in successful treatment rates, even down to 60%. This unfavorable reduction stimulated searches for new treatment protocols. Treatment protocols differ according to country, prevalence, cost-effectiveness, antibiotic resistance, CYP2C19 polymorphism and eradication rates. Thus, each country/region needs to revise its own therapeutic results and the efficacy of various eradication regimens in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori. This report aims to review the current status of Helicobacter pylori treatment in Turkey and to provide recommendations for rational therapeutic considerations for the eradication of the bacterium.


Data collection and processing are at the core of rapidly growing business models, underpinning the activities of technology companies and acting as a source of market power. The key role played by data in the competitive dynamics of digital ecosystems has brought competition policy and data protection regulation closer together and raised important questions about the substantive relationship between these two branches of law. After identifying the specific ways in which data create and power digital ecosystems and examining the effects of digital privacy (or lack thereof) on consumer welfare, we compare the legal obligations imposed by competition policy and data protection regulation. We then map the interfaces between these two branches of law and critically assess the areas of substantive overlap between them. We show that while in the majority of situations there is an alignment of these two frameworks, opposite outcomes can sometimes be reached when competition and data protection rules are applied separately. We suggest that these two legal instruments should be considered as overlapping areas in a regulatory continuum to facilitate positive synergies and neutralize potential conflicts. We show that there is a significant scope for competition policy actors and institutions to substantially incorporate data protection considerations into their decisional practice and that this integration can inform and enhance the enforcement of competition law. We propose an integrated approach to more effectively regulate digital platform ecosystems, to support innovation, and to protect consumers and the competitive process.


We consider the Frank-Wolfe (FW) method for constrained convex optimization, and we show that this classical technique can be interpreted from a different perspective: FW emerges as the computation of an equilibrium (saddle point) of a special convex-concave zero sum game. This saddle-point trick relies on the existence of no-regret online learning to both generate a sequence of iterates but also to provide a proof of convergence through vanishing regret. We show that our stated equivalence has several nice properties, as it exhibits a modularity that gives rise to various old and new algorithms. We explore a few such resulting methods, and provide experimental results to demonstrate correctness and efficiency.


The right to identity and the commercial exploitation of the individual's public image
The outward image and physical attributes of the individual have become commodities. The advertising world has taken notice of the popularity enjoyed by the stars and has realised the value of associating merchandise or trade marks with superstars. On the one hand, this leads to a whole new source of income for the superstars themselves and greater profit for the enterprises that associate their products with the stars. But, on the other hand, it leads to difficulties when the attributes of a person are apparently used without consent. The purpose of this article is to determine firstly to what extent the individual should be protected against the unlawful use of his or her image. Secondly, the legal nature of such protection is investigated. Thirdly, it is argued that protection of the individual's right to identity must be weighed against the fundamental right to freedom of expression.
From an analysis of various legal systems, it is apparent that there are mainly two approaches to protection of the individual against unauthorised use of his or her image. In some systems, the matter is regulated by statute, while there are attempts in other systems to afford protection within the confines of existing common law measures of mainly the law of delict. There is, however, also a third category of systems where both statutory and common law measures are applied to protect the individual against unauthorised use of his or her image. In South Africa the common law approach has thus far been followed where the attributes of a person have been used without consent for commercial purposes. This position may be summarised as follows: everyone has a right to identity. Identity includes the collection of unique congenital and acquired attributes that are unique to the individual and that distinguish the individual from others.
When the attributes of a person are used without consent for commercial gain, the right to identity can be violated in one of two ways. Firstly, a person's right to identity can be infringed upon if the attributes of that person are used without permission in a way that cannot be reconciled with the true image of the individual concerned. Secondly, the right to identity is violated if the attributes of a person are used without consent by another person for commercial gain. Where the right to identity is violated, a personality right is infringed upon, to wit the right to dignity, and satisfaction may be claimed from the wrongdoer by means of the actio iniuriarum. Violation of the right to identity may also result in patrimonial loss, in which case damages may be claimed with the actio legis Aquiliae. The user can, in certain appropriate cases, justify the unauthorised use of a particular person's attributes on the basis of public interest if such use takes place mainly in connection with public interest reporting, jest or art.


This issue of CPRE Finance Briefs summarizes research that investigated how school-based management can be implemented so that it is more than just a catch-phrase. Making the transition to SBM is neither simple nor quick. Neither is it possible for SBM to succeed simply by giving schools more power over such things as budgets, personnel and curriculum. In addition to power, schools need hefty portions of three other commodities that private sector research has found to be essential for making good and productive decisions: Knowledge of the organization so that employees can improve it. Teachers and other stakeholders need technical knowledge, such as how to employ new approaches to teaching, business knowledge, sch as how to develop a budget, and knowledge of interpersonal and problem-solving skills so they can apply what they know to achieving school goals. Information about student performance and comparisons with other schools about whether parents and community leaders are satisfied with the school, and the resources available, either monetary or other. and Rewards to acknowledge the extra effort SBM requires as well as to recognize improvements. Disciplines Curriculum and Instruction | Educational Administration and Supervision | Educational Leadership | Education Economics | Teacher Education and Professional Development Comments View on the CPRE website. This policy brief is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_policybriefs/52


In recent years, functional fabrics possessing antimicrobial activity have drawn significant interest because antibiotic resistance is becoming widespread among pathogenic micro‐organisms. The aim of this study was to produce microcapsules incorporating ozonated red pepper seed oil (ORPSO) with antimicrobial properties and apply them to nonwoven fabrics to prepare functional textiles. Red pepper seed oil (RPSO) was ozonated and micro‐encapsulated via a complex coacervation method using gelatin (GE) and gum arabic (GA) as wall materials. While micro‐encapsulation yield and oil loading decreased with increases in the amount of surfactant, the mean particle size increased. The antimicrobial activity of the oil was tested via the disc diffusion method. The microcapsules were also tested using the agar well method. While RPSO had no effect on the test micro‐organisms, the ORPSO and microcapsules containing ORPSO were found to be active against the test micro‐organisms. The microcapsules were then applied to nonwoven fabric using the padding method to produce a disposable functional textile. The microcapsule‐impregnated functional fabrics provided a 5 log decrease in 1 h. It is therefore possible to functionalize nonwoven fabrics to have antimicrobial activity against antibiotic‐resistant micro‐organisms, using microcapsules containing ORPSO.


In this study, effect of inlet/outlet configurations on the dispersion and removal of fine particles are examined experimentally and numerically. Ten different inlet/outlet configurations are tested for three different contaminant release cases as by incoming air, from breathing level and close to the outlet. Air velocity and contaminant distributions, air change efficiency, contaminant removal effectiveness and particle decay are investigated for each case. Results revealed that both inlet and outlet opening positions have a strong impact on the performance of the ventilation system. The highest air change efficiency is achieved for the inlet/outlet positioned on the same vertical wall. In terms of particle removal, ventilation performance changes up to the particle source position and the area of interest. The most proper inlet/outlet positions should be decided by considering the source position and the main region of concern of the ventilation system. Moreover, close relation of particle source and outlet opening is found most likely to remove the contaminants effectively.


On the absolute chronology of proto-languages of Finnish (englanti) 1/2006 (110) On the Absolute Chronology of the Proto-Languages of Finnish The proto-languages of Finnish have usually been dated as follows: As the table shows, the dating of the later proto-languages has been modified considerably over the years, whereas the dating of Proto-Uralic has remained at around 4000 BC (if less reliable dating based on archaeological continuity, lexicostatistics, etc., is left aside). The dating of Proto-Uralic has been supported by linguistic palaeontology. For example, Common Uralic * pata clay pot cannot have existed before the sixth millennium BC, and Common Uralic * wsk metal cannot have existed before the fifth millennium BC. However, loanword studies contradict the dating of Proto-Uralic to 4000 BC. Two reasons are given for this. First, Proto-Indo-Iranian loanwords with a wide distribution in the Finno-Ugrian languages suggest that the branches of Finno-Ugrian had not yet linguistically diverged from one another in the latter half of the third millennium BC, when Proto-Indo-Iranian was most likely spoken. Second, Northwest Germanic loanwords in Finnic and Smic similarly suggest that Finnic and Smic were still two dialects of the same Proto-Finno-Smic language as late as the latter half of the first millennium BC, when Northwest Germanic most likely came into being. Hence, while the dating of the later proto-languages shown in the table appears to hold true, that of Proto-Uralic to 4000 BC seems to be too early. There cannot have been several millennia between Proto-Uralic and Proto-Finno-Smic, the reconstructions of which suggest they were almost identical with one another. This being the case, the spread of Proto-Uralic can hardly be connected with the spread of the Combed Ware Style 2 culture around 3900 BC. However, the spread of e.g. the Sejma-Turbino Transcultural Phenomenon as late as around 1900 BC would be a chronologically more plausible archaeological correlation. The writer supports the notion that there was clearly a Finnic homeland on both sides of the Gulf of Finland at the beginning of the Current Era. Petri Kallio


ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection was monitored retrospectively by qualitative determination of immediate-early (IE) mRNA by nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) in a series of 51 bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients. The qualitative results for IE mRNA obtained by NASBA were compared with those obtained by prospective quantitation of HCMV viremia and antigenemia and retrospective quantitation of DNA in blood (DNAemia) by PCR as well as by qualitative determination of late pp67 mRNA by NASBA. On the whole, of the 39 HCMV-positive patients (all asymptomatic), HCMV was detected in 14 (35.9%) by quantitation of viremia, 15 (38.5%) by detection of pp67 mRNA by NASBA, 32 (82.1%) by quantitation of DNAemia, and 33 (84.6%) by quantitation of antigenemia, while HCMV was detected in 38 (97.4%) patients by detection of IE mRNA by NASBA. In the immunocompetent host, IE mRNA was not detected by NASBA in 100 blood donors or during reactivated infections in 30 breast-feeding mothers. Likewise, NASBA did not detect IE mRNA in 56 solid-organ transplant recipients in the first 21 days after transplantation. By using NASBA for detection of IE mRNA as the reference standard for detection of HCMV infection in blood samples, the diagnostic sensitivities were 67.7% for quantitation of DNAemia, 59.0% for quantitation of antigenemia, 18.3% for detection of pp67 mRNA by NASBA, and 16.0% for quantitation of viremia. Specificities and negative and positive predictive values were >90.0, >70.0, and >80.0%, respectively, for all four assays. The mean times to first HCMV detection after bone marrow transplantation were 37.7 ± 15.4 days for detection of IE mRNA by NASBA, 39.6 ± 15.6 days for quantitation of antigenemia, 40.9 ± 15.2 days for quantitation of DNAemia, and 43.7 ± 16.3 or 43.7 ± 17.5 days for quantitation of viremia and detection of pp67 mRNA by NASBA, respectively. On the whole, 31 BMT recipients received preemptive therapy by using confirmed antigenemia positivity as a cutoff, while 35 patients could have been treated by using NASBA positivity as a cutoff and 31 could have been treated by using quantitation of DNAemia as a cutoff. In single patients, IE mRNA was detected in every episode of active HCMV infection, mostly preceding and sometimes accompanying antigenemia and DNAemia, whereas pp67 mRNA was detected only concomitantly with the highest peaks of infection. HCMV IE mRNA detection may represent a useful parameter for initiation of preemptive therapy in BMT recipients.


For the use of high-temperature superconducting
materials in energy technology flexible wires or tapes are needed. Up to now
two different routes for their fabrication do exist. Primary there is the
powder in tube process, which uses polycrystalline BSCCO powder in a silver
tube. Secondary there are the coated conductor concepts, which use a metallic
tape as a substrate for the deposition of buffer and superconducting layers. In
order to achieve high critical current densities biaxially textured layers of
the superconductor YBCO are necessary. As a consequence either the substrates
(RABiTS: rolling assisted biaxially textured substrates approach) or the
deposited buffers (IBAD: ion beam assisted deposition approach) have to be
textured. In this thesis the RABiTS approach was used to produce short samples
of superconducting tapes.
 One of the most important aspects of the RABiTS technique is the
deposition of buffer layers, which serve as a chemical barrier between the
ferromagnetic Nickel substrate and match the structural properties of the
substrate tape and the YBCO layer. In order to deposit high quality YBCO films
on textured Nickel substrates highly (100) textured and crack free buffer
layers are needed. Only few materials such as CeO 2 and Yttria-stabilised
Zirconia (YSZ) are suited for the use as a buffer layer. In this thesis several
deposition techniques such as rf sputtering, thermal reactive evaporation and
electron beam evaporation were developed and tested for the deposition of CeO 2
and YSZ. The buffer layers were characterised by XRD, SEM and optical
microscopy. The growth behaviour of CeO 2 on Nickel was studied in
detail to ensure (100) oriented growth on the cube textured Nickel substrate.
Growth conditions for the reproducible deposition of (100) oriented buffer
layers could be found.
 YBCO films were deposited by dc-sputtering on the buffer layers and the
resulting superconducting properties were measured by inductive
characterisation and transport current measurements. The cracking of the buffer
layers during the highly oxidising conditions of the YBCO deposition process
turned out to be the main obstacle to achieving good superconducting
properties. After optimisation critical current densities up to 0.6 MA/cm 2
(77 K, 0 T) and critical temperatures of 91 K with transition
widths of 3 K could be obtained in 400 nm thick YBCO films on
exclusively evaporated CeO 2 /YSZ/CeO 2 buffer
architectures. These layers still showed cracks after the YBCO deposition,
which seemed to be the cause for the low critical current densities. Buffer
architectures with evaporated CeO 2 followed by sputtering of YSZ and
CeO 2 remained crack free after the YBCO deposition. Critical current
densities between 1.5 and 2.6 MA/cm 2 (77 K, 0 T) in
400 nm thick films could be achieved reproducibly. The transition
temperatures were measured to be between 91 and 92 K with transition
widths of 1.5 K.


This article discusses the technology of handwritten text recognition (HTR) as a tool for the analysis of historical handwritten documents. We give a broad overview of this field of research, but the focus is on the use of a method called 'word spotting' for finding words directly and automatically in scanned images of manuscript pages. We illustrate and evaluate this method by applying it to a medieval manuscript. Word spotting uses digital image analysis to represent stretches of writing as sequences of numerical features. These are intended to capture the linguistically significant aspects of the visual shape of the writing. Two potential words can then be compared mathematically and their degree of similarity assigned a value. Our version of this method gives a false positive rate of about 30%, when the true positive rate is close to 100%, for an application where we search for very frequent short words in a 16th-Century Old Swedish cursiva recentior manuscript. Word spotting would be of use e.g. to researchers who want to explore the content of manuscripts when editions or other transcriptions are unavailable.


In the early hours of the morning, long before dawn has risen, eleven-year-old Yeramma quietly wakes amidst the heavy machinery of the silk factory. For the next twelve hours, she will toil in silence with two or three other children in the Indian state of Karnataka, winding silk with one hour's pause for rest. The small workers prepare meals from rice provided by the factory owner, knowing that it will be deducted from their wages. Bent over her machine, Yeramma works with the utmost precision afforded by her small but agile hands; a mistake, as minor as a cut in the thread, will result in a beating. Vigilance, she hopes, will keep a fresh scar from her back. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Four years ago, Yeramma was a young student at one of India's government schools. When her sister became ill and hospital fees quickly surpassed the family's earnings, she was bonded to a silk manufacturer for 1,700 rupees (US$35). At merely seven years of age, Yeramma's youth was forfeited to India's expansive silk industry. She will likely spend the rest of her lifetime paying off $35 in debt. Yeramma's testimonial is scarcely unique. In recent estimates, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) found that approximately 217.7 million children ages five to seventeen are engaged in labor around the world. Within Asia and the Pacific alone, 122.3 million children between five and fourteen are economically active. In a special report conducted in 2003, the Human Rights Watch concluded that between 60 million and 115 million child workers exist in India, and at least 15 million of those work as bonded laborers. India's silk industry alone employs at least 350,000 children, and an overwhelming majority of child laborers are bonded. As in Yeramma's case, debt of less than $50 often creates an insurmountable obstacle to liberty. The Tragedy of Bonded Labor "At work the supervisor used to beat me with a belt. He tied me up and beat me with a belt on my back. He did this two or three times.... He tied a chain that was attached to the wall to my leg." --Nine-year-old bonded laborer in India's silk industry (Human Rights Watch) As defined in a Human Rights Watch report, a bonded child is "a child working in conditions of servitude to pay off a debt." In many instances, the loan is incurred by destitute parents in order to pay for the most basic necessities. This prevents the child from seeking other employment, even in the face of brutal mistreatment. The child becomes a commodity exchanged between parents and employer, much like an expendable good. With physical exertion serving as the accepted currency of repayment, there is an inherent ambiguity in measuring the progress of repayment. Unscrupulous creditors find it increasingly simple to retain laborers long after the real value of labor exceeds the initial amount of loan, and exploit uncertainty to their advantage in keeping wages minimal or nonexistent. Unfortunately, a tremendous percentage of bonded labor goes unnoticed, especially among girls who work from home. India bears the world's largest number of bonded child laborers, many of whom work in the agricultural and textile industries. The Indian government has proved incapable of cohesively and effectively combating child labor within its borders. It remains difficult to wage successful war against debt servitude for cultural as well as economic reasons. India's caste system, in particular, creates an environment that is conducive to bonded labor by maintaining a tradition-based social hierarchy in order to justify the subjugation of "untouchables," or Dalits. Threats of retaliation from upper castes, the lack of land and economic opportunity, and the long-standing expectation of free labor conspire to keep Dalits, religious minorities, and women in particular, in a state of permanent subservience. Economic dependency feeds intimidation and the threat of violence prevents many cases of abuse from being reported--or justly prosecuted if they are; thus, the cycle of poverty is perpetuated. …


DRAGANOVA, S. and E. MARKOVA, 2006. Bioassays with isolates of Entomopathogenic fungi against Ephestia kuhniella Zell. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 12: 637-643 Bioassays with conidial suspensions of isolates of the entomopathogenic fungi four of Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill., two of Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorok., one of Verticillium lecanii (Zimm.) Viegas have been proved against larvae of Ephestia kuhniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Lethal effect of each fungal isolate was estimated by values of the cumulative mortality (%) in treated populations during 8 days. Virulence of each fungal isolate was estimated by values of the median lethal time (LT 50 ), calculated by probit analysis. It has been established that the isolate 383Bb of B. bassiana caused the highest lethal effect to larvae 87.78% ± 13.18, following by isolates 399Bb and 382Bb of B. bassiana 60.00% ± 8.14 and 58.89% ± 8.75, respectively. Isolates 15Ma and 31Ma of M. anisopliae and the isolate 32Vl of V. lecanii showed less lethal effect in comparison with the other tested isolates. It has been established that only one isolate (383Bb of B. bassiana) was with efficacy over 70% to larvae of E. kuhniella. The isolate 383Bb of B. bassiana was with the highest virulence. It's values of the median lethal time varied within a narrow confidence interval from 4.811 to 5.234 days (at p-level < 0.05), with the average value of LT 50 5.019 days.