Nanodiamond (ND) is an attractive nanomaterial for reinforcement of polymers [1] due to the ND's superior mechanical and chemical properties, and low biotoxicity. A novel composite material has been produced for bone scaffolds utilizing the biodegradable polymer, poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), and octadecylamine-functionalized nanodiamond (ND-ODA) [2]. Composites were prepared by admixing to a PLLA/chloroform solution chloroform suspensions of ND-ODA at concentrations of 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 (w/w). Dispersion of ND-ODA in the composites was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The lower-resolution TEM micrograph of 1% wt ND-ODA/PLLA film (Fig. 1a) shows nanodiamond particles dispersed in PLLA film on amorphous carbon support. Due to long hydrocarbon chains of ODA the ND-ODA particles have good wettability with the PLLA so there is no segregation of ND-ODA and PLLA, and the polymer completely surrounds the particles. The high-resolution TEM image (Fig. 1b) shows ND crystals with attached organic material that can be ODA or PLLA. Nanoindentation tests show that the mechanical strength of ND-ODA/PLLA composites improves upon addition of ND (Table 1). Even at low concentrations (1% wt) the ND-ODA increased the hardness of the composite by 60% and Young's modulus by 20% over neat PLLA. Based on our preliminary observations, we conclude that further additions of ND-ODA resulted in smaller changes with subsequent saturation in the mechanical properties at ∼7% wt (see Table 1). ND is relatively novel nanomaterial. Establishing its biocompatibility requires further studies, especially for modified ND. We studied the biocompatibility of 5–10nm ND and ND-ODA in experiments with a murine osteoblast cell line (7F2, from ATCC). Incubation of a cultured osteoblasts with 1–100μg/ml of ND or ND-ODA particles for 4 hours did not show much influence on the cell viability (Fig. 2), as inferred from an alamarBlue™ assay. To test the feasibility of ND-ODA/PLLA as a matrix material supporting cell growth, osteoblasts were cultured on the composites for 6 days. The attactment and proliferation of 7F2 cells on the scaffolds were assessed, respectively, by fluorescent nuclear staining with Hoechst 33258 and the alamarBlueTM assay. Our results showed that the addition of ND-ODA had only a negligibly small effect on cell proliferation, which is indicative of good biocompatibility of the composites (Fig. 3). The morphology of 7F2 cells growing on all ND-ODA/PLLA composite scaffolds was assessed by SEM. The data (not shown) confirm that the osteoblasts spread on the scaffolds similar to their spreading on TCP (tissue culture plastic). To summarize, the improved mechanical properties of the PLLA/ND-ODA composites and their good biocompatibility suggest that these materials may be suitable for applications in musculoskeletal tissue engineering.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Rising energy prices, geopolitics and concerns over the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change are increasing the demand for biofuel production. At present biofuel production is estimated at 35 billion liters, accounting only for a small part (,2%) of the 1200 billion liters of annual gasoline consumption worldwide. But the contribution of biofuels to energy supply is expected to grow fast with beneficial impacts including reductions in greenhouse gasses, improved energy security and new income sources for farmers. However, biomass production for energy will also compete with food crops for scarce land and water resources, already a major constraint on agricultural production in many parts of the world. China and India, the world's two largest producers and consumers of many agricultural commodities, already face severe water limitations in agricultural production, yet both have initiated programs to boost biofuel production. This paper explores the land and water implications of increased biofuel production globally and with special focus on these two important countries, using the WATERSIM model. It concludes that, although of lesser concern at the global level, local and regional impact could be substantial. In fact, the strain on water resources would be such in China and India that it is unlikely that policy makers will pursue biofuel options, at least those based on traditional field crops.


RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES
The authors determine the effectiveness of stereoscopy and vertical-axis rotation for displaying three-dimensional (3-D) information in x-ray images.

METHODS
Simple x-ray images were simulated using ray tracing and computer-displayed in monoscopic static (MS), monoscopic rotating (MR), stereoscopic static (SS), and stereoscopic rotating (SR) formats. In two experimental tasks, participants including experts (radiologists and radiographers) were shown images displayed in these four formats. Performance was measured by participants' accuracy of judgment, amount of time taken, and confidence in each response. The experts also informally evaluated the displays using complex fluoroscopic skull images and a simulated diagnostic task.

RESULTS
The results from both tasks were consistent and showed MS to be least effective and SR to be most effective on all measures. There was no difference in performance between the nonexperts and experts, whose informal feedback consolidated the experimental findings.

CONCLUSIONS
It was found that rotational stereoscopic fluoroscopy is feasible and is an effective way of portraying 3-D information using x-rays.


Background/Aims: Gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) are defined as neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) with a Ki-67 index >20% according to the 2010 WHO classification. Some reports suggest that this category is heterogeneous. We retrospectively studied a series of 136 patients affected by grade 3 GEP-NECs with the aim to clarify the prognostic role of tumor morphological differentiation, proliferation, defect in mismatch repair proteins (MMRd), CD117 expression, and site of origin. The primary endpoint was the correlation between these parameters and the overall survival (OS). Methods: Univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to assess the prognostic significance of various clinical and histopathologic features. Results: With a median follow-up of 81 months, the median OS was 12.9 months. At multivariate analysis, morphological differentiation, Ki-67 index, MMRd, stage, and CD117 expression were independent prognostic markers in NECs. Three different prognostic categories of NECs were identified according to the degree of morphologic differentiation (well vs. poorly differentiated) and Ki-67 index (<55% vs. ≥55%). On this basis, median OS was 43.6 months in well-differentiated neoplasms with a Ki-67 index 20-55% (named type A), 24.5 months in poorly differentiated neoplasms with a Ki-67 index 20-55% (type B), and 5.3 months (p < 0.0001) in poorly differentiated neoplasms with a Ki-67 index ≥55% (type C). Conclusions: The present study suggests that GEP-NECs represent a heterogeneous group of neoplasms which can be better classified in different prognostic categories using both tumor morphology and Ki-67 index.


This paper describes a framework for steel surface defects detection and classification. We use SIFT for defects regions detection and features extraction for the following SVM classification. This approach can generate many feature points for training the classifier from a few images. We also propose a voting strategy for the final decision that handles the problem of multiple outputs of a given input image with a specific defect type. In addition, this approach improves the classification performance. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on steel surface defects detection and classification.


This framing and discourse analysis documents the news coverage of a fire in Shanghai by the Chinese press, represented by a party-organ newspaper and three metro dailies. The findings illustrate the way commercial metro dailies side with their urban civicminded readers to create an alternative news discourse that differs from that of the party journalism in China. The discourse analysis provides an empirical illustration of a new constructionist approach to community structural analysis. The interaction between the press and the online public, and the convergence of news production and consumption processes, have essentially changed the news framing process. This signifies a shift of the journalist paradigm towards a participatory model in the contemporary Chinese news environment.


The main textual hint as to the intended scope of the codified economic substance doctrine is ambiguous. It provides "The determination of whether the economic substance doctrine is relevant to a transaction shall be made in the same manner as if this subsection had never been enacted." This Article argues that this language should be read in light of the codification history, which stretches back over ten years prior to enactment. This history suggests that the relevance provision is primarily about maintaining the pre-codification balance of decision-making between tax agencies and courts. The history also indicates that the provision reflects congressional concurrence in the pre-codification trajectory of the doctrine, particularly in terms of the types of transactions that were being litigated.The movement from the common law to codified statute brought with it the potential application of a complex web of authority regarding interactions between tax agencies and courts in their administration, enforcement, and interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code. Included in this web is the general ability of the tax agencies to obtain strong deference from the courts as to the agencies' authoritative, reasonable interpretations of textual ambiguities. The economic substance legislative history acknowledges the general interpretive authority of the tax agencies but does not suggest a specific path for reconciling that authority with the preference that development of the doctrine continue "in the same manner" as under the common law. This Article proposes that the various strands in the legislative history can be reconciled by interpreting the relevance provision as adding two directions to tax agencies and courts: (1) The statute does not apply to transactions that are clearly consistent with the form and purpose of claimed tax benefits and (2) the courts have final discretion over whether a specific, litigated transaction ultimately fails the requirements of the economic substance doctrine.


The emergence of catalytically active RNA enzymes (ribozymes) is widely believed to have been an important transition in the origin of life. In the context of a likely heterogeneous chemical environment, substrate specificity and selectivity of these primordial enzymes would have been critical for function. Here we have explored the chemical fidelity, i.e. substrate selectivity and specificity for both single and multiple catalytic steps of the Z RNA polymerase ribozyme – a modern day analogue of the primordial RNA replicase. Using a wide range of nucleotide analogues and ionic conditions, we observe strong energetic but weak geometric discrimination at the incorporation step, indicative of an open active site. In contrast, stringent selectivity is exerted at the extension steps through specific down and upstream interactions with the 3′-terminal nucleoside as well as nascent product and template strands. Our results indicate specificity mechanisms that are found in functionally analogous forms in natural polymerases. They also reveal a level of chemical fidelity over multiple catalytic steps that is remarkable for a comparatively unoptimized enzyme developed de novo from a random sequence pool. The convergent evolution of specificity mechanisms in phylogenetically unrelated proteinaceous polymerases and polymerase ribozymes suggests that chemical as well as informational fidelity are emergent properties of polymerase enzymes.


This research examines planning for recreational facilities and open spaces in townships. In this regard, various planning methods and approaches to planning for recreational facilities open spaces have been reviewed. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used in the study. Secondary sources were used in defining the nature of recreational facilities and spaces whereas the primary sources provided experiential knowledge. The study assessed the adequacy and appropriateness of recreational facilities and open spaces for the youth in the township. Different methods were employed in data collection and analysis. This includes the use of a questionnaire, check lists and documents. Questionnaires presented responses from the youth on the topic whereas check list represents the researchers' observations gathered through field survey. The research focus examined suitability, quality and quantity of recreational facilities and open spaces for the youth in ESikhawini. The results reveal that recreational open spaces show varying degrees of suitability and quality. Poor quality of spaces was characterized with lack of visual appropriateness as a result of littering, maintenance and lack of open space furniture. As such conclusion and recommendations to improve the situation are made. These findings are useful to planners, urban designers, architects and developers in making decisions in the planning for recreational facilities and spaces in township environment. Table of


A new panel of greater than 300 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) was prepared to the high, middle, and low Mr rat neurofilament (NF) subunits (NF-H, NF-M and NF-L, respectively). NF proteins were purified both from native, i.e., phosphorylated rat NFs and from enzymatically dephosphorylated rat NFs. The resulting mAbs were used to biochemically and immunochemically distinguish and characterize distinct and differentially phosphorylated isoforms of NF subunits. By immunoblot, all mAbs specific for NF-L and some mAbs specific for NF-M detected their specific NF subunit regardless of whether or not the NFs had been treated with alkaline phosphatase, and such antibodies were termed "phosphate-independent" or P[ind] mAbs. The other mAbs were specific for NF-M, NF-H, or for both NF-M and NF-H, and they recognized epitopes in the COOH termini of these subunits. Significantly, the latter mAbs could discriminate different isoforms of NF-M and NF-H, depending on the phosphorylation state of each variant. Such mAbs were assigned to one of 4 distinct categories on the basis of their performance in immunoblots of progressively dephosphorylated rat NF samples and by immunohistochemistry of various adult rat nervous tissues: (1) P[-] mAbs preferentially stained neuronal perikarya and dendrites, and they recognized only extensively dephosphorylated (and nonphosphorylated) NF- H; (2) P[+] mAbs stained axons more strongly than perikarya, and primarily blotted phosphorylated, but not nonphosphorylated, forms of NF-H and NF-M; (3) P[++] mAbs stained axons almost to the exclusion of perikarya, and in blots recognized only the extensively phosphorylated forms of NF-H and NF-M (i.e., subunits subjected to limited enzymatic dephosphorylation); (4) P[ ] mAbs also predominantly stained axons, but the briefest alkaline phosphatase treatment abolished the NF-M and NF-H immunobands produced by these mAbs. Two-dimensional gel analysis and immunoblotting of total proteins from adult rat dorsal root ganglion verified mAb specificity in situ, and showed that differentially phosphorylated isoforms of NF-M and NF-H occur in vivo. This provided additional evidence that mAbs can detect all 4 phosphorylation- dependent endogenous isoelectric variants of NF-H and NF-M.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


The cover of the heart, or epicardium, consists of a single layer of mesothelial cells. During cardiac development, epicardial cells undergo Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) to form multipotent precursors known as epicardial-derived cells (EPDC). The EPDC migrate into myocardial tissue (containing cardiomyocytes) and subsequently differentiate into fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, and smooth muscle cells. In adult hearts, a similar process of epicardial cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation occurs after myocardial infarction (MI, heart attack). EPDC differentiation into vascular endothelial cells or cardiomyocytes is rare and not well understood. Recently, we observed that running (exercise) in mice promotes differentiation of EPDC into microvascular endothelial cells (CD31+). After running, EPDC appear to generate endothelial cells and not other cardiac cell types. Of interest, running promotes cardiac hypertrophy that requires additional perfusion (blood flow) and may therefore stimulate the contribution of EPDC to capillaries. We hypothesized that running exercise induces gene expression in epicardial cells that promotes endothelial specification. To test our hypothesis, we developed an efficient method to directly isolate primary adult epicardial cells from the heart cover based on their expression of integrin-β4 (CD104). After 2 hours of protease digestion, we used Magnetic-Activated Cell Sorting with antibodies against CD104 (CD104 MACS) to obtain undifferentiated epicardial cells; this was confirmed by expression of Keratin-18, an epicardial-specific protein in the heart. By cDNA microarray assays and bioinformatics analysis, we compared the gene expression profile of epicardial cells isolated from running-conditioned mice with that of agematched controls (non-runners). Our data suggest that extracellular matrix remodeling in the heart is mediated, in part, by epicardial cells during running. Furthermore, we identify epicardial gene expression for cell signals/pathways and transcription factors that may enhance vascular perfusion after MI through promoting angiogenesis or endothelial specification of epicardial derivatives.


We thank Costas Arkolakis, Ariel Burstein, Christian Broda, Lorenzo Caliendo, Marty Eichenbaum, Chang-Tai Hsieh, Erik Hurst, Anil Kashyap, and Ralph Ossa as well as participants at numerous seminars for helpful comments. George Alessandria, Chris Edmond, Tim Kehoe, Andrei Levchenko, Kanda Naknoi, Denis Novy, Andy Rose, Jonathan Vogel, and Kei-Mu Yi gave excellent discussions. Max Perez Leon, Fernando Parro, and Kelsey Moser provided outstanding research assistance. This research was funded in part by the Neubauer Family Foundation and the Charles E. Merrill Faculty Research Fund at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Eaton and Kortum gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation under grant number SES-0820338. Neiman gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation under grant number 1061954. The Appendix that accompanies the paper, as well as notes and derivations from a simplified version of the model, can be found on the authors' web pages. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.


This paper evaluates two new tests to characterize cable nets used in slope stabilization; a concentrated load test (CLT) and a distributed load test (DLT). These tests enable engineers to obtain the stress versus displacement graph and the maximum resistance. Both test devices and test methodology have been designed by the Construction Technology Research Group (GITECO) at the University of Cantabria. These two tests have enabled the certification of two different manufacturers of cable nets, Geobrugg and Malla Talud Cantabria (MTC). The results showed that these tests provide representative results of the net resistance. To verify the effectiveness of these new tests, they have been performed with various cable nets, from which homogeneous, logical results have been obtained, which are representative of the real working conditions. When performing the distributed load test, the force was applied to a pyramid of fine gravel sacks that enabled the forces to be distributed throughout the net. With this configuration, the net was deformed, acquiring an elliptical form in the lower free area. In the concentrated load test, the force was applied through a metallic plate of 600 mm diameter that deformed the net locally. The result always showed homogeneous behavior of the different samples tested. This allowed the test to be repeated in the same conditions several times. With the results of both tests an analysis was carried out relating the net grid, the load applied, and the displacement obtained. This enabled the generation of regression functions that provided information about the resistance value and the net displacement according to the chosen grid.


Statistics will be the sexy profession of the next ten years. Hal Varian of Google said it, and it has become a cliché. Significance has been going for ten years, and in that time one man has made the prediction come true. Julian Champkin and Alison Oliver talked to Nate Silver.


Objectives Assess the link between levels of armed conflict and postconflict intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by women in Liberia. Methods Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project data were used to measure conflict-related fatalities in districts in Liberia during the country's civil war from 1999 to 2003. These data were linked to individual-level data from the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey, including past-year IPV. Multilevel logistic models accounting for the clustering of women within districts evaluated the relationship of conflict fatalities with postconflict past-year IPV. Additional conflict measures, including conflict events and cumulative years of conflict, were assessed. Results After adjusting for individual-level characteristics correlated with IPV, residence in a conflict fatality-affected district was associated with a 50% increase in risk of IPV (adjusted OR (aOR): 1.55, 95% CI 1.26 to 1.92). Women living in a district that experienced 4–5 cumulative years of conflict were also more likely to experience IPV (aOR 1.88, 95% CI 1.29 to 2.75). Conclusion Residing in a conflict-affected district even 5 years after conflict was associated with postconflict IPV. Policy implications Recognising and preventing postconflict IPV violence is important to support long-term recovery in postconflict settings.


PURPOSE
The Positively Aging program is an innovative set of interdisciplinary teaching materials that uses examples from geriatrics and gerontology to teach sixth through eighth grade curricular elements. The purpose of this study was to determine if use of the Positively Aging teaching materials by regular classroom teachers could change middle school students' images of elders.

DESIGN AND METHODS
At the beginning of the 1998-1999 school year, students at two San Antonio, Texas, middle schools were asked to draw a typical older person. These drawings were coded as positive, neutral, or negative portrayals of elders. One school then used the Positively Aging materials as part of the curriculum; the other school served as the control. Second drawings were obtained from the students at the end of the school year and compared to those from baseline.

RESULTS
Both drawings were completed by 60% of students at the intervention school and 55% of students at the control school. Of the 782 paired drawings from the intervention school, 34% were more positive at Time 2 compared to 25% of 591 paired drawings from the control school (chi2 = 13.9, p < .001). In addition, only 20% of the second drawings from the intervention school were more negative than the first drawing compared to 27% from the control school (chi2 = 11.3, p < .001). Using a generalized logit model, we adjusted for each student's baseline drawing (positive-neutral-negative), grade level, gender, ethnic group, and socioeconomic status. After adjustment, students in the intervention school were more likely to draw positive (odds ratio [OR] 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.13, 1.94) or positive and neutral images (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.21, 2.19) at follow-up compared to the control school.

IMPLICATIONS
This controlled study demonstrated that use of the Positively Aging teaching materials and activities moved middle school students toward a more positive view of elders. Interdisciplinary teaching materials based on geriatrics and gerontology can be successfully developed and tested in public school systems to affect attitudes about aging.


The Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas is best seen as a cousin to Griswold v. Connecticut, invalidating a ban on the use of contraception within marriage, and Reed v. Reed, invalidating a preference for men over women in the administration of estates. In both cases, the Court struck down an anachronistic law palpably out of step with existing public convictions. Lawrence should be understood in the same terms, as rooted in a distinctly American-style doctrine of desuetude. The central principle is that at least if certain interests are involved, criminal statutes may not be invoked against citizens when the underlying moral judgments have become anachronistic, as demonstrated by a pattern of nonenforcement. A key problem here is procedural; it involves an absence of fair notice and arbitrary exercise of discretion. This understanding of the decision has implications for the many imaginable constitutional challenges to other laws involving sex and sexual orientation. After Lawrence, states are certainly prohibited from banning fornication; they are almost certainly forbidden to ban use of sexual devices. Bans on prostitution, incest, and adultery stand on firmer grounds, though even here responsible challenges can be imagined. After Lawrence, the Constitution almost certainly forbids public discrimination against those who have engaged in homosexual conduct, at least outside of certain specialized contexts (most notably the military). The hardest cases involve the failure to recognize same-sex marriages. The ban on same-sex marriages cannot be said to be an anachronism, even though it is not easy, in principle, to reject the law struck down in Lawrence while permitting states to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry. One general lesson, underlined by Lawrence, is that political and social change is usually a precondition for changed interpretation of the Constitution.


Abstract. The possibility of an impact of global warming on the Indian monsoon is of critical importance for the large population of this region. Future projections within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP-3) showed a wide range of trends with varying magnitude and sign across models. Here the Indian summer monsoon rainfall is evaluated in 20 CMIP-5 models for the period 1850 to 2100. In the new generation of climate models, a consistent increase in seasonal mean rainfall during the summer monsoon periods arises. All models simulate stronger seasonal mean rainfall in the future compared to the historic period under the strongest warming scenario RCP-8.5. Increase in seasonal mean rainfall is the largest for the RCP-8.5 scenario compared to other RCPs. Most of the models show a northward shift in monsoon circulation by the end of the 21st century compared to the historic period under the RCP-8.5 scenario. The interannual variability of the Indian monsoon rainfall also shows a consistent positive trend under unabated global warming. Since both the long-term increase in monsoon rainfall as well as the increase in interannual variability in the future is robust across a wide range of models, some confidence can be attributed to these projected trends.


Mobility-on-demand (MoD) systems have recently emerged as a promising paradigm of one-way vehicle sharing for sustainable personal urban mobility in densely populated cities. In this paper, we enhance the capability of a MoD system by deploying robotic shared vehicles that can autonomously cruise the streets to be hailed by users. A key challenge to managing the MoD system effectively is that of real-time, fine-grained mobility demand sensing and prediction. This paper presents a novel decentralized data fusion and active sensing algorithm for real-time, fine-grained mobility demand sensing and prediction with a fleet of autonomous robotic vehicles in a MoD system. Our Gaussian process (GP)-based decentralized data fusion algorithm can achieve a fine balance between predictive power and time efficiency. We theoretically guarantee its predictive performance to be equivalent to that of a sophisticated centralized sparse approximation for the GP model: The computation of such a sparse approximate GP model can thus be distributed among the MoD vehicles, hence achieving efficient and scalable demand prediction. Though our decentralized active sensing strategy is devised to gather the most informative demand data for demand prediction, it can achieve a dual effect of fleet rebalancing to service the mobility demands. Empirical evaluation on real-world mobility demand data shows that our proposed algorithm can achieve a better balance between predictive accuracy and time efficiency than state-of-the-art algorithms.


A number of glacial moraines are distributed from the eastern margin of the Torres del Paine drainage basin to near the present margin of the Patagonian Ice Fields, together with a set of regionally continuous lacustrine terraces related to glacial fluctuations. The geomorphology, supported by lake sediment evidence, indicates the existence of a single proglacial paleolake in this area, here referred to as the Great Tehuelche Paleolake. This concept helps to clarify the chronology of glacial events and leads to a better understanding of the evolution of the hydrologic system in the Torres del Paine area. Glacial advances previously referred to as A, B and C occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum and fed the Great Tehuelche Paleolake with meltwater, allowing it to reach its maximum extension. The discovery of thrombolites at Laguna Amarga suggests that the drainage of the paleolake towards the ultima Esperanza Fjord took place at 7,113 Cal. yr BP, after the melting of an ice barrier that existed during the earlier glacial advance. This gave rise to the development of a complex fluvio-lacustrine hydrologic system that persists to the present day.


This study examines textual representations of plural subjectivities in life-writing by three francophone Russian women in the early nineteenth century. It addresses a gap left by studies carried out on plural identities in Russian women's life-writing composed in the long eighteenth century by its examination of the texts from a cross-cultural perspective and close focus on linguistic and cultural identity. The application of Felicity Nussbaum's theory of gendered interdiscourses, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin's heteroglossia, Murielle Lucie Clement's extension of Bakhtinian heteroglossia and my modifications to her approach reveal the representation of multiple discourses of self in the life-writings as well as the literary, spoken and cultural bilingualism of the life-writers and shows them to be bicultural. Bilingualism is not limited here to national languages, but is equally applicable to the expression of different subject positions within one culture and of discourses relating to different national cultures. Chapter One focuses on multiple and contradictory gendered subjectivities, the life-writers' (non)conformity to socially prescribed images of femininity, to which they ultimately represent themselves as bound, and the addressees' influence on self-representation. Chapter Two explores the life-writers' linguistic identity, whilst the third chapter examines their cultural identity. The analysis demonstrates that while multiple factors influence the life-writers' representation of their plurality, culture is key. None of the life-writers represents herself as either exclusively French or Russian by culture, but shows that each culture has a defined place in Russian life and that they coexist in an unproblematic way.


The interaction of ApU, Aps4U, Aps4Up, ApAps4Up and Gps4U with RNase A was studied by CD difference spectroscopy. The use of 4-thiouridine (s4U) containing oligonucleotides enables to distinguish between the interaction of the different components of the ligand with the enzyme. The mode of binding of the oligonucleotides to the enzyme is described. From this mode of binding it is explained why Aps4U, for example, inhibits RNase A, while s4UpA serves as a substrate.


In this article, I connect political communication with urban politics by conceptualizing an interdisciplinary urban politics research framework. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theories of practice and communication, I offer an urban politics research model that simultaneously addresses the dimensions of power struggle and symbolic struggle in urban politics. The theoretical modeling is discussed from an interdisciplinary approach to social studies and constructed with a methodological suggestion of tripartite social network analysis.


Large scale cultivation of turf grasses in South Africa is a comparatively new venture which is beseti?½ with many problems. The study of its entomological problems shows that many insects, previously considered harmless, have now assumed new roles in that they have become serious pests. A recent example of this concerns a Coccid, which has been reported from golf courses in Natal, and at present seems to be confined to a narrow coastal strip between Mount Edgecombe and Umkomaas.


All major approaches to Qualitative Reasoning rely on the existence of a model of the physical system. However, the task of finding a model is usually far from trivial. Within the area of electrical engineering, model building methods have been developed to automatically deduce models from measurements. In this paper we explicitly show how to incorporate qualitative knowledge in order to apply these methods to situations where they do not behave satisfactorily. A program has been developed and applied to a non-trivial example. The qualitative input, in terms of an incomplete bond graph, and the resulting output can be used to form a more complete bond graph. This more informative model is suitable for further reasoning.


Lipid membranes are insulators and capacitors, which can be charged by an external electric field. This phenomenon plays an important role in the field of electrophysiology, for instance when describing nerve pulse conduction. Membranes are also made of polar molecules meaning that they contain molecules with permanent electrical dipole moments. Therefore, the properties of membranes are subject to changes in trans-membrane voltage. Vice versa, mechanical forces on membranes lead to changes in the membrane potential. Associated effects are flexoelectricity, piezoelectricity, and electrostriction. Lipid membranes can melt from an ordered to a disordered state. Due to the change of membrane dimensions associated with lipid membrane melting, electrical properties are linked to the melting transition. Melting of the membrane can induce changes in trans-membrane potential, and application of voltage can lead to a shift of the melting transition. Further, close to transitions membranes are very susceptible to piezoelectric phenomena. We discuss these phenomena in relation with the occurrence of lipid ion channels. Close to melting transitions, lipid membranes display step-wise ion conduction events, which are indistinguishable from protein ion channels. These channels display a voltage-dependent open probability. One finds asymmetric current-voltage relations of the pure membrane very similar to those found for various protein channels. This asymmetry falsely has been considered a criterion to distinguish lipid channels from protein channels. However, we show that the asymmetry can arise from the electromechanical properties of the lipid membrane itself. Finally, we discuss electromechanical behavior in connection with the electromechanical theory of nerve pulse transduction. It has been found experimentally that nerve pulses are related to changes in nerve thickness. Thus, during the nerve pulse a solitary mechanical pulse travels along the nerve. Due to electromechanical coupling it is unavoidable that this pulse generates a trans-membrane voltage. In the past, we have proposed that this electromechanical pulse is the origin of the action potential in nerves.


A low level of non-metallic inclusions in steel is the key requirement in the concept of clean steel. Although the concept has received its name quite recently, it has been implemented at the large-scale steel mills for more than 40 years. Production of clean steel became possible due active development and adoption of the post-melting treatment of molten metal in the teeming ladle. Ladle metallurgy, an umbrella term for various methods of treatment, includes operations that cannot be performed during primary metallurgical processes such as melting in an electric arc, basic oxygen, or air induction furnace. Initially, the most common operations of ladle treatment were deoxidation and alloying. More sophisticated methods like vacuum degassing, chemical reheating, or injection of powdered refining mixtures have also been successfully implemented into steelmaking practice. Treatment of large quantities of steel at once made the ladle metallurgy operations economically sustainable. Most of the steel foundries operate with much smaller quantities of metal than the steel mills. This makes most types of ladle treatment not cost effective. Also smaller quantities of molten metal would lose temperature quicker, endangering successful pouring of the castings. Also, the foundries typically use acid-based or neutral refractory materials that do not allow to form the basic slags necessary for refining. On the other hand, the steel founders are striving to keep up with constantly rising quality standards for steel casting by the manufacturing industry. Therefore, the foundries are limited in selection of ladle metallurgy methods, and, in the same time, are facing the necessity of advancing their processing technology. Given such conditions and considering the experience from the steelmaking industry, a few methods of liquid metal treatment are potentially available to most of the steel foundries: (a) control of metal-slag reactions, (b) homogenization of the steel melt by inert gas injection; and (c) complex deoxidation of metal. The major premise of the current study was to demonstrate experimentally how the extremes of the treatment practices affect certain indicators of steel cleanliness and to make conclusions on which practice yields better results from the metal quality standpoint. For that purpose, the experimental conditions were organized to replicates real industrial settings as close as possible. This affected the choice of melting method, the selection of raw materials and master alloys, as well as the choice of molding practice. The experimental plan for the melting operations was designed to test how combinations of commercial and returning scrap, stirring of molten metal by argon, and removal of slag from metal surface affect certain response variables. The experiment on steel treatment in the ladle was conducted using four different combinations of deoxidizing alloys: a single element addition and three complex additions of two and three deoxidizers. The response variables in this study were the total concentrations of oxygen and nitrogen concentration in metal, chemical and physical specifications of nonmetallic inclusions, and impact toughness of the steel. The analysis of experimental data on melting revealed that selected process variables impose a limited influence on the total content of nitrogen and oxygen in the metal. Statistical analysis of the experimental data determined that only the total nitrogen concentration was affected by the use of returning scrap steel and argon stirring, while the total oxygen content was found independent from all three selected process variables. Particularly, use of returning foundry steel scrap in combination with additional mixing created by argon bubbles would favor the increase of nitrogen concentration in the metal by the end of melting operation. The results of the ladle treatment experiment confirmed that method of deoxidation affects the total oxygen content but does not significantly alter the parameters of inclusions and the impact toughness. The most significant decrease in total oxygen content was observed when a combination of strong and moderate deoxidizers was added. It was experimentally determined that prolonged holding of the metal in the ladle facilitates the removal of inclusions by floatation. Variations in the impact toughness values were found to be in correspondence with the inclusions spacing, an average distance between inclusions. Also, the increase in the concentration of aluminum and nitrogen produced a negative effect on the impact toughness values. The investigation of inclusions morphology revealed that the samples bear a significant amount of large nitrides in plain and complex form. The growth of the nitride inclusions was attributed to the additions of titanium, a strong nitride-forming element. Concluding the findings of the study, it can be said that the treatment of steel in the ladle, even in its simplified form, provided a set of effective tools for improving the cleanliness of steel. An appropriately selected combination of deoxidation additions, ladle holding time, and temperature could lead to a lower level of inclusions, and, hence, the greater values of impact toughness. On the practical side, despite the technological differences between steel processing at steel mills and foundries, the ladle metallurgy methods are applicable to the latter and have a great potential to the cast steel quality improvement. AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF NON-METALLIC INCLUSIONS PRECIPITATION AND ITS EFFECT ON IMPACT TOUGHNESS VARIATIONS IN LOW ALLOY STEEL SUBJECTED TO COMPLEX DEOXIDATION A Dissertation Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Industrial Technology Approved: ___________________________________________ Dr. Scott R. Giese, Committee Chair ___________________________________________ Dr. Nageswara Rao Posinasetti, Committee Co-Chair ___________________________________________ Dr. Julie Zhang, Committee Member ___________________________________________ Dr. Timothy E. Kidd, Committee Member ___________________________________________ Dr. Marius M. Somodi, Committee Member Pavel Bizyukov University of Northern Iowa May 2017


As bottled water use continues to expand around the world, there is growing interest in the environmental, economical, and social implications of that use, including concerns about waste generation, proper use of groundwater, hydrologic effects on local surface and groundwater, economic costs, and more. A key concern is how much energy is required to produce and use bottled water. This paper estimates the energy footprint required for various phases of bottled water production, transportation, and use. We do not develop a single comprehensive life-cycle energy estimate because of differences among water sources, bottling processes, transportation costs, and other factors, but we quantify key energy inputs necessary for site-specific assessments. We also apply these inputs to three site-specific examples of the energy required from production to the point of use: local bottled water produced and used in Los Angeles, water bottled in the South Pacific and shipped by cargo ship to Los Angeles, and water bottled in France and shipped in various ways to Los Angeles. For water transported short distances, the energy requirements of bottled water are dominated by the energy used to produce the plastic bottles. Long-distance transport, however, can lead to energy costs comparable to, or even larger than, those of producing the bottle. All other energy costs—for processing, bottling, sealing, labeling, and refrigeration—are far smaller than those for the production of the bottle and transportation. These data can be used to generate specific estimates for different sources, treatments, and delivery options.


Formulations are turns of talk that address both interlocutors' perspectives (in previous turns) and participation (in subsequent turns). This paper examines formulations in interactions, taking place during classroom workshops held with children aged 10–13 and coordinated by facilitators. The analysis shows the ways in which facilitators' formulations combine reference to the children's previous statements with the projection of children's positioning, thus creating different opportunities for children's active participation and dialogic forms of communication. In the context taken into consideration, formulations can have five different functions: revoicing; promoting assessments of children's performances; promoting diverging opinions about controversial issues; supporting children's expressions of emotional experiences and rapport; concluding interactions by asserting shared values (upshot formulations). The analysis reveals that, in achieving different functions, formulations can take different forms, displaying and enhancing different forms of expectations and positioning, with different consequences on dialogic forms of communication.


This paper presents three techniques for using an iterated local search algorithm to improve the performance of a state-of-the-art branch and bound algorithm for job shop scheduling. We use iterated local search to obtain (i) sharpened upper bounds, (ii) an improved branch-ordering heuristic, and (iii) and improved variable-selection heuristic. On randomly-generated instances, our hybrid of iterated local search and branch and bound outperforms either algorithm in isolation by more than an order of magnitude, where performance is measured by the median amount of time required to find a globally optimal schedule. We also demonstrate performance gains on benchmark instances from the OR library.


This paper questions criminal law's strong presumption of free will. Part I assesses the ways in which environment, nurture, and society influence human action. Part II briefly surveys studies from the fields of genetics and neuroscience which call into question strong assumptions of free will and suggest explanations for propensities toward criminal activity. Part III discusses other "causes" of criminal activity including addiction, economic deprivation, gender, and culture. In light of Parts I through III, Part IV assesses criminal responsibility and the legitimacy of punishment. Part V considers the the possibility of determining propensity from criminal activity based on assessing causal factors and their effects on certain people. In this context, the concept of dangerous individuals and possible justifications for preventative detention of such individuals in order to protect society is assessed. The concluding section suggests that the law should take a broader view of factors that could have determinant effects on agents' actions.


Farm accounting data from the Institute of Food Economics and from Central Agricultural Registers in Denmark were used to define the import of nitrogen (N) to farmed fields on conventional and organic arable farms to 129 and 51 kg N ha-1 yr-1, respectively. Based on the recorded distribution of crops, a generalised crop rotation was defined for each of the two farming systems. The crop rotation for the organic farm had a high share of spring cereals and additionally 20% grass-clover in the rotation, whereas the conventional rotation was dominated by cereals, primarily winter cereals.

The FASSET model was used to simulate the N balance of these two crop rotations. This included N leaching and change in the soil organic N pool. All simulations were performed for three soil types, representing the variation in Danish soils. These three soil types were further subdivided into low and high N fertility, representing a low and a high content of organic N in the soil.

The model results showed that the organic arable crop rotation had a higher field N surplus than the conventional rotation, 61 versus 40 kg N ha-1 yr-1. Since there was a higher increase in the soil N stock in the organic crop rotation, this difference in field N surplus did not result in differences in N leaching between the two systems. There was an average annual increase in soil organic N content of 13 kg N ha-1 for the organic crop rotations, whereas there was a decline of 6 kg N ha-1 for the conventional rotation. This is primarily caused by differences in crop choice.

The effect of a number of management options were analysed using the model, including cover crops, straw incorporation, reduced manure application and changes in the crop rotations. These analyses showed that use of cover crops were clearly the most effective measure to reduce N leaching, with an effect at rotation level of 9 kg N ha-1 yr-1. However, the full potential for growing cover crops cannot be used in practice due to the need for controlling perennial weeds, which often requires intensive harrowing in the autumn after harvest of the cereal crops. Such an intensive tillage during autumn may increase N leaching. Other measures like straw incorporation had a minor effect on N leaching, but a marked effect on soil organic N content. Straw incorporation thus increased soil N content by 14 kg N ha-1 yr-1 compared with the baseline scenario.

Based on the simulations it was concluded that there were no differences in N leaching between conventional and organic arable crop production systems. However, the N leaching from conventional crop production was simulated to have declined by 4 kg N ha-1 yr-1 due to the implementation of measures in the Danish Action Plan for the Aquatic Environment. Prior to the implementation of this action plan, N leaching from conventional arable farming was therefore slightly higher than from organic farming.


In the present study, we try to provide some empirical evidence for the export spillover effect examining the case of an emerging economy, namely India using firm level data for the period 1994-2006. We disentangle different spillover channels, namely export spillover, R&D spillover and wage spillover. We also consider the heterogeneous technological behaviour of local firms considering how in-house R&D efforts and disembodied technological imports may affect the overall exporting performance. Our findings mainly confirm that the two most important channels for export spillover are mainly the demonstration effect and the R&D spillover effect The decision to export is influenced mainly by technological activities of local firms, confirming that R&D is a key variable that help firms to overcome fixed costs that are crucial to start exporting. Moreover, the findings of the analysis suggest that local firms' R&D is highly relevant to internalize the positive spillover effect emanating from MNEs both with regard to decision to export and export propensity


We investigated the splitting of surface electromagnetic waves trapped at the output surface of a one-dimensional metallic grating structure. The output gratings of the structure asymmetrically such that the output surfaces at the different sides of the subwavelength aperture can support surface waves at different frequencies. The transmission amplitude as measured at the left side is 1,000 times of that at the right side at 16 GHz. At 24 GHz, the transmission measured at the right side is 20 times that of the left side of the structure. Therefore, surface waves are guided into the different sides of the aperture at different frequencies via metallic gratings. The experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical results.


In this paper the global agricultural land use model KLUM is coupled to an extended version of the computable general equilibrium model (CGE) GTAP in order to consistently assess the integrated impacts of climate change on global cropland allocation and its implications for economic development. The methodology is innovative as it introduces dynamic economic land-use decisions based also on the biophysical aspects of land into a state-of the-art CGE; it further allows the projection of resulting changes in cropland patterns at a spatially explicit level. A convergence test and illustrative future simulations underpin the robustness analysis and serve to highlight the potential of the coupled system. Reference simulations with the uncoupled models emphasize the impact and relevance of the coupling; the results of coupled and uncoupled simulations can differ by several hundred percent.


The transactions that gave rise to the Fifth Circuit decision in Compaq Computer Corporation v. Commissioner and to the Eighth Circuit decision in IES Industries Inc. v. Commissioner have been characterized as blatant tax avoidance schemes, undeserving of respect by decent people. The pro-taxpayer decisions in those cases have been attacked as illogical and dangerous. Professors Klein and Stark attempt to cast a different light on the transactions. They offer a more benign characterization of the transactions and suggest that the proper judicial treatment is far from clear. Their analysis is based on the propositions that the transactions involved true economic arbitrage rather than classic tax arbitrage and that the foreign tax credit was not, analytically, a crucial element. They conclude that the circuit courts properly rejected the Commissioner's theory that the transactions were economic losers apart from taxes. They suggest, however, that the transactions could possibly have been rejected because of their contrived nature or because of the particular taxpayers' state of mind in entering into them.


Intact eosinophil granules exhibit "intragranular" signaling in response to interferon-γ and the chemokine CCL11 to mediate the secretion of granule proteins. Eosinophils are granulocytic leukocytes important in allergy and immune responses to parasites, which are stimulated by such factors as interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and the chemokine CCL11 to secrete effector proteins, including cytokines, cationic proteins, and hydrolytic enzymes, found in intracellular stores known as granules. In addition, cytolysis of eosinophils can result in the release of intact granules, which are deposited in tissues; however, the function of these intact granules is unclear. Neves et al. prepared intact granules from human eosinophils and performed flow cytometric and electron microscopic analyses to demonstrate their lack of contamination by secretory vesicles or plasma membrane. In response to either IFN-γ or CCL11, the granules released eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and β-hexosaminidase, as well as various cytokines, and flow cytometry studies showed that the IFN-γ receptor and CCR3, a G protein–coupled receptor for CCL11, were present on their outer surface. Inhibitors of tyrosine kinases, protein kinase C (PKC), and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibited IFN-γ-dependent release of effector proteins from the granules, whereas the p38 MAPK inhibitor and pertussis toxin, an inhibitor of Gi-coupled CCR3, blocked CCL11-dependent granule content release. Western blotting showed the increased phosphorylation, and thus activation, of PKC and p38 MAPK in granules in response to either stimulus compared with that in untreated granules. Finally, brefeldin A, an inhibitor of vesicular secretion, dose-dependently blocked IFN-γ- and CCL11-dependent release of ECP and β-hexosaminidase from granules. Together, these data suggest that functional signaling pathways in extracellular, intact eosinophil granules mediate the secretion of granule proteins in response to IFN-γ and CCL11, which the authors suggest may contribute to eosinophil-dependent immune responses. J. S. Neves, S. A. C. Perez, L. A. Spencer, R. C. N. Melo, L. Reynolds, I. Ghiran, S. Mahmudi-Azer, S. O. Odemuyiwa, A. M. Dvorak, R. Moqbel, P. F. Weller, Eosinophil granules function extracellularly as receptor-mediated secretory organelles. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 18478–18483 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In the 1850s, Frederick Douglass set out to nurture emergent antislavery commitments within the most advanced political milieu of the antebellum decade, the Free Soil movement. Douglass developed a protoenvironmentalist critique of capitalism's alienation of workers from the land, arguing that liberty achieved its truest expression when free people mixed their labor with nature in the pursuit of self-reliance. Democratic access to arable land was a precondition of real emancipation, which required reversing capitalism's expropriation of the commons. Douglass fictionalized these ideas in his only novella, "The Heroic Slave" (1853), in which Madison Washington, leader of the 1841 Creole mutiny, declares his independence in a forest glade that functions as a chapel of natural rights. This kind of radical republican pastoralism also shapes My Bondage, My Freedom (1855). The trope's polemical function is especially apparent when it is contrasted retrospectively with The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), in which nature is a paralyzing wilderness rather than a theater of self-emancipation. Ecocriticism has failed so far to engage substantially with black cultures of nature. Part of the problem may be that the lithified historical experience of slavery in rural settings has prevented black writers from developing ecocentric ways of thinking. Douglass's integration of radical pastoralism into abolitionist rhetoric is not only a spotlight example of an alternative black tradition and experience of nature, it also showcases the organic connection between the struggles for social and environmental justice.


This article analyses how successive French governments have sought to resolve the problem of political violence in Corsica by introducing measures of decentralisation for the island. The adoption of provisions specific to Corsica has proved problematic given the traditional understanding of the constitutional principles of national unity and equality as applied by the Constitutional court. The article examines the transformation of the region of Corsica, created in 1982 with an Assembly unique in its organisation and attributes, into the 'collectivité territoriale de Corse' with increased powers distinct from those of mainland local authorities. Measures to recognise legally the people of Corsica, to introduce the compulsory teaching of Corsican in schools and, most controversially, to permit the Assembly to derogate from Parliamentary laws have, however, been held unconstitutional. Finally, consideration will be given to the implications for Corsica of the constitutional reforms of 2003, ending with the rejection by the Corsican electorate in a referendum of further institutional reforms for the island.


To become invasive (and thus really nasty), tumor cells need cooperation from other cells, particularly vascular endothelial cells that form new blood vessels in the tissues that the cancer cells invade. Bergers et al. used a transgenic mouse model of multistage carcinogenesis (RIP1-Tag2 mice expressing the SV40 T antigen) to analyze the onset of angiogenesis during development of tumors of the pancreatic islets. They unexpectedly found that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)--an established inducer of angiogenesis--and its receptors were constitutively expressed in islets and did not increase in abundance when angiogenesis began. Nevertheless, an inhibitor of VEGF signaling did inhibit angiogenesis and tumor growth. What did correlate with angiogenesis was expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9. Furthermore, expression of MMP-9 promoted angiogenesis and release of VEGF from cultured islets. MMP-9 is not the whole story, however, because angiogenesis could still be observed when MMP-9 was absent or inhibited. Nevertheless, MMP-9 clearly participates in the "angiogenic switch" that leads to formation of pancreatic tumors in this model system. The results pose some new puzzles as well: MMP-9 appears not to be expressed by the cancer cells themselves, so what is the nature of the rare cells that appear to supply the enzyme and resemble infiltrating inflammatory cells? And what might the mechanism be by which VEGF is sequestered such that MMP-9 and other mechanisms can control its release and subsequent activity? Bergers, G., Brekken, R., McMahon, G., Vu, T.H., Itoh, T., Tamaki, K., Tanzawa, K., Thorpe, P., Itohara, S., Werb, Z., and Hanahan, D. (2000) Matrix metalloproteinase-9 triggers the angiogenic switch during carcinogenesis. Nature Cell Biol. 2: 737-744. [Online Journal]


(1) Background: There is increasing awareness that the quality of the indoor environment affects our health and well-being. Indoor air quality (IAQ) in particular has an impact on multiple health outcomes, including respiratory and cardiovascular illness, allergic symptoms, cancers, and premature mortality. (2) Methods: We carried out a global systematic literature review on indoor exposure to selected air pollutants associated with adverse health effects, and related household characteristics, seasonal influences and occupancy patterns. We screened records from six bibliographic databases: ABI/INFORM, Environment Abstracts, Pollution Abstracts, PubMed, ProQuest Biological and Health Professional, and Scopus. (3) Results: Information on indoor exposure levels and determinants, emission sources, and associated health effects was extracted from 141 studies from 29 countries. The most-studied pollutants were particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10); nitrogen dioxide (NO2); volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene, toluene, xylenes and formaldehyde; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including naphthalene. Identified indoor PM2.5 sources include smoking, cooking, heating, use of incense, candles, and insecticides, while cleaning, housework, presence of pets and movement of people were the main sources of coarse particles. Outdoor air is a major PM2.5 source in rooms with natural ventilation in roadside households. Major sources of NO2 indoors are unvented gas heaters and cookers. Predictors of indoor NO2 are ventilation, season, and outdoor NO2 levels. VOCs are emitted from a wide range of indoor and outdoor sources, including smoking, solvent use, renovations, and household products. Formaldehyde levels are higher in newer houses and in the presence of new furniture, while PAH levels are higher in smoking households. High indoor particulate matter, NO2 and VOC levels were typically associated with respiratory symptoms, particularly asthma symptoms in children. (4) Conclusions: Household characteristics and occupant activities play a large role in indoor exposure, particularly cigarette smoking for PM2.5, gas appliances for NO2, and household products for VOCs and PAHs. Home location near high-traffic-density roads, redecoration, and small house size contribute to high indoor air pollution. In most studies, air exchange rates are negatively associated with indoor air pollution. These findings can inform interventions aiming to improve IAQ in residential properties in a variety of settings.


The 1980s began with the reintroduction of controversy regarding the nature of social work as an applied social science. Heineman's analysis of social work suggested that it was dominated by an outmoded, overly restrictive paradigm of research (an explicitly empirical orientation that was rooted in the philosophy of logical positivism) (Heineman, 1981; Heineman Pieper, 1985). Since that time, Hudson (1982) and many others (Geismar & Wood, 1982; Ivanoff, Blythe, & Briar, 1987) defended portions of an empirically based practice paradigm. New critics noted a variety of other problems in social work (Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Hoffman, 1990; Rodwell, 1990). Defenders patched up the breaches, syntheses were offered (Dean & Fenby, 1989; Mullen, 1985; Peile, 1988), and new starts on the nature of this applied social science were made (Siporin, 1988; Witkin & Gottschalk, 1988). Unfortunately, the result is a melange of opinions that has not resolved some fundamental questions regarding the nature of social work. Indeed, the controversy has tended to polarize rather than unify the profession. This article offers one perspective on the profession of social work as an applied social science, by means of a historical analysis of its major journal literature, by decade markers, over the past 120 years. We believe that this approach may shed some light on the contemporary controversy by providing an objective perspective on how social work has been represented in a sampling of its writings over time. This analysis makes clear that the dichotomy that sets social work practice in opposition to social work research is false. Both practice and research are based on an empirical experience of reality, and both exist as primary activities of the applied social science we refer to as professional social work. Indeed, practice and research find their connection in the concept of applied social science. Without the application implicit in practice, "applied social science" would not be applied; without the knowledge-building commitment demonstrated through research, it would not be science. We have found a guiding metaphor helpful in keeping track of all the separate but related components in social work. The Bayeaux tapestry is an 11th-century embroidery of scenes of the Norman Conquest of England (Denny & Filmer-Sankey, 1966). This famous tapestry is over 230 feet long, a kind of moving picture of the configuration of events occurring in the year 1066--from the point of view of the victor. Only eight different colored threads are used on a bleached cloth background. As a metaphor of the complex interplay of factors over the history of scientific practice in social work, we will use the notion of a tapestry of distinctive threads, all of which are part of the whole, but some of which are predominant at any given time. No one thread ever constitutes the whole of the tapestry, however partial we may be to one component or another. What are the threads that make up the tapestry of applied social science? This investigation began with a reading of the literature already mentioned as well as exploratory reading of papers from the Journal of Social Sciences, perhaps the earliest social work-related journal. An exploratory qualitative analysis of these writings produced a number of conceptual components or threads that seemed to be present. Through continued critical discussion and preliminary efforts to meaningfully apply the emerging categories to the early social work literature, five main categories and three sub-groups, like the eight threads of the Bayeaux tapestry, were identified. Subsequent use of these five categories in a content analysis of social work articles published between 1870 and 1990 produced reasonable to extremely high levels of interrater reliability. Components of Applied Social Science The five components in applied social science that emerged through this qualitative content analysis were empiricism, technology, conceptualization, valuation, and commentary. …


La Ofrenda, or the offering, is deeply embedded in Latino-American culture and is closely associated with Dias de Muertos, the Days of the Dead, a joyous celebration to commemorate the deceased. This thesis explores the history of La Ofrenda from its roots in ancient Mesoamerica to its subsequent merging with Spanish religious beliefs during the colonial Mexican period. Symbolic and ritualistic elements of La Ofrenda are examined to reflect the syncretic nature of the altar showing how it incorporates elements of both cultures. The thesis then analyzes the placement of La Ofrenda in the context of public institutions across the United States of America to discern if authentic characteristics remain when the altar is featured public venues. Each chapter addresses a different set of contrasting elements with the first chapter examining traditional aspects and materials vs. contemporary installations. Second, will consider the distinction between private and sacred displays and those featured in a public secular venue. Next, an effect on La Ofrenda by the very institutions that are trying to preserve the practice is examined with a look at contemporary artists who create highly conceptual Ofrendas reflecting the ever-changing aspects of Modern art, using a wide variety of nontraditional techniques such as computer technology, video and performance. These new methods of artistic representation are challenging and changing not only La Ofrenda, but what can be perceived as an Ofrenda. The question of the future of the display of La Ofrenda in a public setting is examined through these nontraditional altar representations and addresses the ramifications they present to the authenticity of La Ofrenda in conceptual installations.


In this paper, we generalize the model of Quiggin and Chambers (2004) to allow for ambiguity, and derive conditions, referred to as generalized invariance, under which a two argument representation of preferences may be obtained independent of the existence of a unique probability measure. The first of these two arguments inherits the properties of standard means, namely, that they are upper semi-continuous, translatable and positively linearly homogeneous. But instead of being additive, these generalized means are superadditive. Superadditivity allows for means that are computed (conservatively) with respect to a set of prior probability measures rather than a singleton probability measure. The second argument of the preference structure is a further generalization of the risk index derived in Quiggin and Chambers (2004). It is sublinear in deviations from the generalized mean discussed above.


This paper examines how secondary school teachers in Malaysia conceptualize information literacy, and how this understanding leads to information literacy practices through resource-based learning. Although there have been studies carried out in this area, most of the studies are conducted in western societies with sound exposure to information literacy. This study takes place in a learning environment where information literacy is not a central focus in the school curriculum. It employs a qualitative approach in the form of a case study. Five history subject teachers supervising resourcebased learning history project took part in the study. Data were collected through a series of interviews with the teacher participants to uncover: (a) their conceptions of information literacy; (b) their teaching focus in the project instruction; and (c) the instructional approach employed. Six information literacy conceptions, six information literacy teaching focuses, and four types of information literacy instructional methods are generated from the study. The findings suggest that the teachers' conceptions of information literacy in Malaysia are quite comparable to those from developed countries. However, the outlooks are more superficial and lack richness and depth. Further findings show that these conceptions influence and shape teachers' information literacy teaching focuses, as well as their project instructional approaches.


TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. THE CASE ACT IN CONTEXT II. PRESENTING THE CASE ACT TO THE VOTERS OF CALIFORNIA III. POLICY ANALYSIS OF THE CASE ACT A. The Chances of Getting Caught B. The Punishments for Getting Caught C. Activities that Do Not Require a Username D. Marginal Increase in Detecting Online Crime IV. A SLIPPERY-SLOPE CRITIQUE CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION On November 6, 2012, over ten million Californians (81.3% of those voting on the issue) approved Proposition 35, the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation (CASE) Act. (1) The CASE Act is a paradigmatic example of the dangers of the initiative system. (2) A democratic majority--in a perfunctory manner--dismantled the rights of a small, unpopular minority in a sideshow buried behind the main thrust of the initiative. (3) The CASE Act attempts to strengthen California's ability to punish human trafficking using a variety of legislative patches. (4) One of the Act's proposals restricts the ability of registered sex offenders to navigate the internet anonymously. (5) This proposal (found in sections eleven through thirteen of the CASE Act) is the subject of this Note. (6) In this Note, I briefly analyze the history of the CASE Act and the past California sex offender laws it supplemented before describing the misleading way the Act appeared before California voters. I then analyze the sex offender registry sections, and conclude that the proposed requirement is a poorly drafted attempt to enact a questionable policy. The Act would be expensive to administer, and would (unconstitutionally) collect too much information from some individuals while not adequately dissuading the most harmful online activities. I. THE CASE ACT IN CONTEXT The CASE Act was sponsored by Californians Against Slavery and The Safer California Foundation (created by Chris Kelly, former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer and 2010 candidate for California Attorney General). (7) Kelly alone donated over two million dollars to support the CASE Act. (8) Sections eleven through thirteen of the CASE Act amend California Penal Code sections 290.014(b) and 290.015(4)-(6) to require registered sex offenders to register their (1) internet service providers, and (2) c-mail addresses, usernames, screen-names, and other similar identifiers used on "forum discussions, ... chat rooms, ... instant messaging, social networking, or similar Internet communications. Registered sex offenders would have to update changes to their information within twenty-four hours. (10) The CASE Act is only the most recent in a long and convoluted series of changes to California's sex offender registry (the largest and oldest in the country). (11) Before this most recent proposal, California law required registered sex offenders to deliver to law enforcement such information as their proof of residency, place of employment, fingerprints, photograph, and license plate numbers. (12) In 2004, a Megan's Law bill in California required the state to publish some of the sex offender registry information from certain registered sex offenders on a publicly available website. (13) In 2006, California voters passed Proposition 83 (a Jessica's Law initiative), requiring all registered sex offenders convicted of a felony in California to submit to GPS tracking. (14) The CASE Act failed to meld with these existing laws or to adopt the best practices made apparent by their limitations. The Act makes no mention of the public reporting features from the Megan's Law bill, though it does make clear that this information will be shared with the Department of Justice. (15) Will this data be published through the process created by Megan's Law, or will it be reserved for only peace officers and law enforcement under California Penal Code section 290.021? Presumably this data will not--at least initially--be published through the process created by Megan's Law, but this is speculation not discernable from the text of the initiative. …


[1] Kongsfjorden and the West Spitsbergen Shelf is a region whose seasonal hydrography is dominated by the balance of Atlantic Water, Arctic waters, and glacial melt. Regional seasonality and the cross-shelf exchange processes have been investigated using conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) observations from 2000–2003 and a 5-month mooring deployment through the spring and summer of 2002. Modeling of shelf-fjord dynamics was performed with the Bergen Ocean Model. Observations show a rapid and overwhelming intrusion of Atlantic Water across the shelf and into the fjord during midsummer giving rise to intense seasonality. Pockets of Atlantic Water, from the West Spitsbergen Current, form through barotropic instabilities at the shelf front. These leak onto the shelf and propagate as topographically steered features toward the fjord. Model results indicate that such cross-front exchange is enhanced by north winds. Normally, Atlantic Water penetration into the fjord is inhibited by a density front at the fjord mouth. This geostrophic control mechanism is found to be more important than the hydraulic control common to many fjords. Slow modification of the fjord water during spring reduces the effectiveness of geostrophic control, and by midsummer, Atlantic Water intrudes into the fjord, switching from being Arctic dominant to Atlantic dominant. Atlantic Water continues to intrude throughout the summer and by September reaches some quasi steady state condition. The fjord adopts a ''cold'' or ''warm'' mode according to the degree of Atlantic Water occupation. Horizontal exchange across the shelf may be an important process causing seasonal variability in the northward heat transport to the Arctic.


Three hundred-sixty calf-fed steers were fed either treated or untreated corn stover that was previously ground through a 1-in or 3–in screen. Treated stover diets improved ADG and F:G compared to untreated. Reducing particle size improved ADG and F:G but did not influence DMI. Compared to a control diet with 5% roughage and 15 percentage units more corn, diets with 20% treated corn stover had similar F:G, ADG, DMI, and carcass quality. Up to 15% additional corn can be replaced with treated corn stover when diets contain wet distillers grains, and may be further enhanced by reducing particle size before chemical treatment.


Currently, the need for the real-time evaluation of the functioning effectiveness of the subjects of the Russian Federation is observed. To achieve this goal, the situation centers, able to perform the monitoring of the socio-economic indicators both at the federal and regional levels, are created in Russia. At the same time, it is necessary to implement the information-analytical system to make forecasts for the following periods, as well as to conduct a plan-fact analysis based on the available data, using various methods. In the framework of this study, the situation center of Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Plekhanov Russian University of Economics†(FSBEI HE "Plekhanov RUE") is considered. The development of the information-analytical system based on a hybrid forecasting model, integrated with the software of the center under consideration, is proposed by the authors. The examples of the calculations and the estimation of their accuracy and quality, obtained with the prototype of the system under development, are presented.


The commercial activated carbon has a relatively low specific capacitance in the Na2SO4 electrolyte, which hinder the development of asymmetrical supercapacitors with high voltage. Re-activation and oxidative etching methods were applied to change the pore structure of activated carbon, respectively, to study the capacitive behavior of carbon in the Na2SO4 electrolyte. The pore distributions combining with capacitive properties deduce that 0.85 nm is the threshold diameter of the ion-accessible micropores for hydrated Na+ and SO4 2−. The specific capacitances of both the carbon materials by re-activation and oxidative etching methods are increased by 40%, in comparison with the commercial activated carbon. The enhanced capacitive performances of the carbon materials were mainly attributed to the increased ion-accessible specific surface area and pseudocapacitance, respectively. The oxidative etching is a more facile and economical method for practice application. Combining with MnO2 as the positive electrode, the asymmetrical supercapacitor with a high voltage of 1.8 V exhibits a maximum specific cell capacitance of 50 F g–1 and specific energy of 22.5 Wh kg–1.


Digitalization plays a major role in contributing towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Without transformation of existing businesses, both economic and environmental challenges of the future cannot be solved sustainably. However, there is much confusion on interrelationships and terms dealing with digitization or digitalization: Digital business model, digital transformation, digital entrepreneurship. How do these terms interrelate with and to digitalization, and how do they support firms to grow sustainably? To answer this question, we identified seven core digital-related terms based on a structured literature search within the management and economics domain, namely: Digital, Business Model, Digital Business Model, Digital Technology, Digital Innovation, Digital Transformation, and Digital Entrepreneurship. Thereafter, we analyzed prior literature for deriving a common understanding and definition as a basis for interrelations within a conceptual framework. Definitions were presented in a case study setup with twelve innovation and research and development (R&D) managers from various business units of a German high-tech company. Based on these insights, we propose a conceptual framework on how Digital Readiness, Digital Technology, and Digital Business Models might sustainably relate to Innovation, moderated by a Digital Transformation Process. With this approach, we aim to equip practitioners and researchers alike in handling and addressing change through digitalization sustainably.


The intestinal microbiota, a barrier to the establishment of pathogenic bacteria, is also an important reservoir of opportunistic pathogens. It plays a key role in the process of resistance-genes dissemination, commonly carried by specialized genetic elements, like plasmids, phages, and conjugative transposons. We obtained from strains of enterobacteria, isolated from faeces of newborns in a university hospital nursery, indication of phenotypical gentamicin resistance amplification (frequencies of 10(-3) to 10(-5), compatible with transposition frequencies). Southern blotting assays showed strong hybridization signals for both plasmidial and chromosomal regions in DNA extracted from variants selected at high gentamicin concentrations, using as a probe a labeled cloned insert containing aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AME) gene sequence originated from a plasmid of a Klebsiella pneumoniae strain previously isolated in the same hospital. Further, we found indications of inactivation to other resistance genes in variants selected under similar conditions, as well as, indications of co-amplification of other AME markers (amikacin). Since the intestinal environment is a scenario of selective processes due to the therapeutic and prophylactic use of antimicrobial agents, the processes of amplification of low level antimicrobial resistance (not usually detected or sought by common methods used for antibiotic resistance surveillance) might compromise the effectiveness of antibiotic chemotherapy.


This important volume rethinks the conventional parameters of Middle East studies through attention to popular cultural forms, producers, and communities of consumers. The volume has a broad historical scope, ranging from the late Ottoman period to the second Palestinian uprising, with a focus on cultural forms and processes in Israel, Palestine, and the refugee camps of the Arab Middle East. The contributors consider how Palestinian and Israeli popular culture influences and is influenced by political, economic, social, and historical processes in the region. At the same time, they follow the circulation of Palestinian and Israeli cultural commodities and imaginations across borders and checkpoints and within the global marketplace.

The volume is interdisciplinary, including the work of anthropologists, historians, sociologists, political scientists, ethnomusicologists, and Americanist and literary studies scholars. Contributors examine popular music of the Palestinian resistance, ethno-racial "passing" in Israeli cinema, Arab-Jewish rock, Euro-Israeli tourism to the Arab Middle East, Internet communities in the Palestinian diaspora, cafe culture in early-twentieth-century Jerusalem, and more. Together, they suggest new ways of conceptualizing Palestinian and Israeli political culture.

Contributors . Livia Alexander, Carol Bardenstein, Elliott Colla, Amy Horowitz, Laleh Khalili, Mary Layoun, Mark LeVine, Joseph Massad, Melani McAlister, Ilan Pappe, Rebecca L. Stein, Ted Swedenburg, Salim Tamari


This thesis investigated the link between trust and language in online dyadic, online group, and virtual community interactions. The first two empirical studies revealed that positive emotion is reliably linked to trust, that is to say that dyads and groups that produce more positive emotion words show greater trust. In addition, by priming group members to believe their group was either high or low in trustworthiness, the second empirical study revealed that group members produce more positive emotion words as a consequence of greater trust. A third study revealed an additional important language phenomena to trust, this was a type of linguistic mimicry known as linguistic style matching (LSM). The study guided groups through established phases of group development (relational, task, and task resolution), findings revealed that LSM in the early, relational phase, predicted trust. Further analysis of the relationship between phase of development, positive emotion words and LSM revealed that when LSM was low in the relational phase, positive emotion once again became a cue used to trust in subsequent task phases. The Relevant and Reliable Language Theory was proposed to explain the phase of group development dependent effects of LSM and positive emotion on trust. In short, the theory states that language must be relevant, i.e. the group is still undecided regarding trust judgements and still seeks trust relevant information, and reliable, i.e. in a given context, the language must be considered a genuine trust signal, and not one that appears 'faked' by 'opportunists'. Based on the novel theory, it was hypothesised in a forth study that disrupting LSM in an early relational phase, and positive emotion in a subsequent task phase (contexts where LSM and positive emotion were proposed to be most relevant and reliable to trust), would have the most detrimental effect on trust. A confederate implementing these disruptions, relative to a comparable control, supported the theory; with groups who were subject to the 'strong' disruption producing lower trust behaviour than the control group. A final study extended finding to real world online interactions in a virtual community focused on discussing credit card fraud, i.e. a criminal online group. The discussions were relational, rather than task focused, thus The Relevant and Reliable Language Theory predicted that LSM would be the most important language variable related to trust. The theory was supported as LSM, but not positive emotion, ebbed and flowed in line with predicted levels of trust.


This paper deals with the emulation of atomic read/write (R/W) storage in dynamic asynchronous message passing systems. In static settings, it is well known that atomic R/W storage can be implemented in a fault-tolerant manner even if the system is completely asynchronous, whereas consensus is not solvable. In contrast, all existing emulations of atomic storage in dynamic systems rely on consensus or stronger primitives, leading to a popular belief that dynamic R/W storage is unattainable without consensus.
 In this paper, we specify the problem of dynamic atomic R/W storage in terms of the interface available to the users of such storage. We discover that, perhaps surprisingly, dynamic R/W storage is solvable in a completely asynchronous system: we present DynaStore, an algorithm that solves this problem. Our result implies that atomic R/W storage is in fact easier than consensus, even in dynamic systems.


Background: Cutaneous drug reaction seems to be relatively common The aim of the study was to recognize offending drugs, evaluate patients' characteristics and educate the patients to avoid self-administration and re-administration of drugs. Methods: We retrospectively and prospectively analyzed data from Sina hospital in Tabriz (2000-2005) to determine the number of hospitalizations and visits with primary diagnoses of skin conditions that are often attributed to drugs. A physical examination was done by a dermatologist who completed a standardized questionnaire. Requested information included patient characteristics (associated disorders, severity scores), drug intake and characteristics of the skin reaction (type, course).Using statistical methods for surveys, we determined the demographic characteristics of patients with these diagnoses. Results: Three hundred patients (148 males and 152 females) with cutaneous drug eruption were studied. The most common eruptions were erythroderma (41.3%) and maculopapular rash (26%) and the most common offending drugs were carbamazepine (28%), carbamazepine-valproate (20%) and Co-Ttrimoxazole-carbamazepine-diclofenac sodium combination (26.7%). The highest number of the patients belonged to the age group of 30-39 years (15%). The interval between developing lesions and intake of the offending drug varied from 1 day to 45 days. Drug reactions showed that 20-30% of the ADRs from anticonvulsants, 15-25% of the ADRS from sulfonamides, 10% of the ADRs from antibiotics, and 7% of the ADRs from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertensive drugs were dermatological. Conclusion: The pattern of ADRs and the drugs causing them is remarkably different in our population. Knowledge of these drug eruptions, the causative drugs and the prognostic indicators is essential for clinicians. It is recommended to advise patients to carry a card or some other form of an emergency identification in their wallets that lists drug allergies and/or intolerances, especially if they have had a severe reaction. (Iran J Dermatol 2009;12: 16-19)


Cathode materials are important in determining the performance of a capacitive deionization cell. In this work activated carbon cloth (ACC) grafted with tungsten oxide was employed as cathode, which was first grown on ACC with a flaky morphology by a self-anodization method. The oxide was uniformly distributed over the surface of the ACC. The desalination capacity of the obtained material is deduced from electrochemical characterization, based on the preliminary stage, in the static 1 M NaCl aqueous solution over a potential range from −1 V to 0.2 V. The modified ACC attained an enhanced ion removal ability, which gives promising potential in the further application on removing heavy ions from the wastewater of industries.


ABSTRACT Timely and continued access to high-cost medicines for the management of chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, are often constricted by its affordability for patients. Health systems also face challenges in arranging sustainable financing for populations with chronic illness in need of equitable and long-term access to high-cost medicines. In many low-to-middle income countries, pluralistic health payers within and beyond the public system contribute to health financing. The structures, processes and dynamics of access through these payers however, may have limitations and negative consequences for patients. In this paper, we present vignettes of case experiences from working individuals with multiple sclerosis in Malaysia, on their experiences and encounters when seeking access through public and private health payers. The Malaysian case and experience is an example of the public–private health care system challenges in providing sufficient access and financing to high-cost medicines. Themes include limited and interrupted hospital access, requirements to prove individual socio-economic deservingness for reimbursement, and confronting discrimination from employers as discretionary payers of medical care. These discussions reinforce the value of universal health access, pooled systems of financing and risk sharing to provide comprehensive health care access and reduce economic and health vulnerabilities in patients.


In this paper, we build a new test of rational expectations based on the marginal distributions of realizations and subjective beliefs. This test is widely applicable, including in the common situation where realizations and beliefs are observed in two different datasets that cannot be matched. We show that whether one can rationalize rational expectations is equivalent to the distribution of realizations being a mean-preserving spread of the distribution of beliefs. The null hypothesis can then be rewritten as a system of many moment inequality and equality constraints, for which tests have been recently developed in the literature. Next, we go beyond testing by defining and estimating the minimal deviations from rational expectations that can be rationalized by the data. In the context of structural models, we build on this concept to propose an easy-to-implement way to conduct a sensitivity analysis on the assumed form of expectations. Finally, we apply our framework to test for and quantify deviations from rational expectations about future earnings, and examine the consequences of such departures in the context of a life-cycle model of consumption.


The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducratory and field tests to evaluate the effectiveness of dust collector bags for reducing dust liberation and operator exposure from a roof bolter's dust collection system. The laboratory tests evaluated the bag's effectiveness to contain dust and the effect on canister filter loading in both a bag and bagless condition. The dust emissions from the collector's exhaust were also measured in each condition during laboratory testing and show that nearly 100% of the test dust fed into the collector was captured by the dust bags. Loading and pressure drop on the dust collector's canister filter is greatly decreased when using the bags, enabling longer periods of drilling without filter removal/cleaning. The field results showed that, even though dust standards were met, respirable dust in exhausted emissions was reduced around the bolter. Laboratory and field results show that benefits from use of the bags are realized in all areas of operator exposure.


Animal experimentation is a highly emotive issue, yet rarely do we hear accounts of how the use of animals in lethal experiments impact upon those researchers involved. Although emotion has no part in the application of the scientific method, science has never demanded emotional nihilism or the abandonment of compassion from its practitioners. Yet the feelings that drive individual justifications, compromises and uncertainties are never the stuff of scientific papers; in fact, they are almost never discussed. Silence about these personal issues has played to the idea that scientists are largely ambivalent and impervious to such concerns. This is a significant misconception and an omission, not the least because ideas about what is right and wrong about our relationship with animals are not informed by purely objective information. The topic remains largely taboo and is seldom explored given that emotion and objectivity are often seen as the oil and water of scientific discourse. Problematically, attempting to describe how you feel about killing animals in scientific research using a dispassionate and objective approach is self-defeating. It is a little like trying to hide what it is to be human while considering how to be humane. This is the reason why I wrote an account that is unapologetically rich in personal introspection. It is a story about my own inner thoughts and conflicting feelings associated with animal experimentation undertaken to improve the humaneness of feral cat control. It is also an attempt to communicate the personal equivocality, the limbo, that can be experienced while attempting to reconcile what is ethical when confronted with the dilemma of Morton's fork in an environment where dogmatism is rife. Biologists in particular should aspire towards a more robust paradigm inclusive of their empathy for animals where a personal emotional context can be freely discussed. In science, dogma and killing without empathy are dangerous bedfellows. No biologist should ever carry the burden of killing for science too easily, because only a psychopath kills without emotion. This journal article is available in Animal Studies Journal: http://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol2/iss2/4


A method for detecting hydrogen attack by ultrasound wave velocity measurements in which ultrasound waves (e.g. longitudinal, shear, or creeping) are transmitted from one transducer to another transducer along a fixed path through a steel body such as pipe. The velocity of the ultrasound wave is determined with an accuracy of 0.1 percent from the fixed path length and the time for a wave to travel from one transducer to the other transducer. A decrease in velocity by more than two percent indicates hydrogen attack. In one embodiment, either refracted longitudinal or refracted shear waves are transmitted, and the velocities thereof are determined. In another embodiment, a creeping wave is transmitted from one transducer to the other transducer with the creeping wave including a surface wave and a subsurface wave. Travel time of the subsurface wave is measured and used with the known fixed path length in determining velocity. In the third embodiment ultrasonic waves are transmitted into the material and the backscattered ultrasound is measured. An increase in backscattered ultrasound is related to hydrogen attack.