"The whole course of imitations and adaptations is simply a method of apprenticeship." --Derek Walcott, interview given in 1977 "The idea of art has no tense apart from the present. Dante, for a poet, is. That is related to the same idea that God is. God doesn't have a past or future tense. And art does not have a past or future tense." --Derek Walcott, remarks before the reading of his poem "The Sea Is History" Three years after the publication of Omeros and with his repeated denials that he was rewriting Homer still echoing, Derek Walcott returned to Homer, this time adapting the Odyssey into a drama which, by retaining the title of its epic antecedent, dispelled any lingering doubts as to its classical source. (1) But while Omeros has already attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, Odyssey has lagged behind, despite that over a decade has elapsed since its publication. (2) Existing studies of the play provide a rapid overview of its scenes, drawing along the way some good but undeveloped connections with the Homeric precedent and commenting in passing on its medium, language, and cultural context. (3) Such haste is perhaps inevitable, given not only the thematic richness of Walcott's work and its multilayered allusions to Homer, but also the relatively small size of the studies themselves. In this paper, I shall attempt to remedy this haste by examining only one episode, Odysseus's adventure with the Cyclops, from the point of view of its use of time, space, and characters. The restricted scope of my interpretation will permit a detailed analysis of one fully realized and thematically independent dramatic incident as it reveals some of Walcott's core ideological stances, which may then be fruitfully explored in the rest of the play. While the focus of my attention will be on Walcott's rendering of the adventure, I shall draw comparisons throughout between the play's depiction of the episode and that of its epic antecedent. The essentially performative nature of both the Walcottian and the Homeric media invests the parameters of my study with special significance, as time, space, and characters constitute the necessary ingredients of performance. Of course, both works have by now become texts: Homer's Odyssey has ceased being an oral poem since it was written down, and Walcott's play, although still performable, must lamentably be for most a reading pleasure. (4) And yet for all their "textuality," their status as species of performative poetry remains: both were created in order to be enacted before an audience, recording events firmly situated in time and place and populated by characters. It might then be useful to linger briefly on the nature and extent of the kinship between Homeric performance and Caribbean theater, as well as to offer a brief overview of Walcott's Odyssey, before I clarify further my objectives. While modern epic poems are received on the printed page or perhaps through public readings, the Homeric epics were performed. Both the rhapsoidoi, who recited the creations of the aoidoi (the "singers"), and the deliverers of speeches within the epics are social actors, addressing an audience, the judges of their performance. (5) The long oral tradition, of which Homer is part, supplies the epic poems with mostly formulaic material which, however, is not merely repeated, as oralists tend to argue, but is re-created and transformed during verbal transmission over time. (6) Although the exact parameters of the Homeric oral culture are forever lost to us, the presence and importance of the audience, a key component of the essentially performative nature of the epic, can be glimpsed from within the texts themselves: both the Iliad and the Odyssey include many instances of speakers engaged in public speech acts, and the putative effects of those acts on the audience inform the content of the speeches and the discursive modes deployed in them. Similarly, West Indian theater has been deeply influenced not only by the rich oral tradition of the area but also by the imaginative worlds of legends, myths, and folktales it has inherited. …


The spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems Cosmo-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X, and TanDEM-X acquire imagery with very high spatial resolution (VHR), supporting various important application scenarios, such as damage assessment in urban areas after natural disasters. To ensure a reliable, consistent, and fast extraction of the information from the complex SAR scenes, automatic information extraction methods are essential. Focusing on the analysis of urban areas, which is of prime interest of VHR SAR, in this paper, we present a novel method for the automatic detection and 2-D reconstruction of building radar footprints from VHR SAR scenes. Unlike most of the literature methods, the proposed approach can be applied to single images. The method is based on the extraction of a set of low-level features from the images and on their composition to more structured primitives using a production system. Then, the concept of semantic meaning of the primitives is introduced and used for both the generation of building candidates and the radar footprint reconstruction. The semantic meaning represents the probability that a primitive belongs to a certain scattering class (e.g., double bounce, roof, facade) and has been defined in order to compensate for the lack of detectable features in single images. Indeed, it allows the selection of the most reliable primitives and footprint hypotheses on the basis of fuzzy membership grades. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated by processing a 1-m resolution TerraSAR-X spotbeam scene containing flat- and gable-roof buildings at various settings. The results show that the method has a high overall detection rate and that radar footprints are well reconstructed, in particular for medium and large buildings.


Paul R. Ch~esman, The Keystone of Mormonism: Early Visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Provo: Eagle Systems International, 1988. 205 pp. $14.95. Reviewed by Larry C. Porter Paul Cheesman's publication, The Keystone of Mormonism: Early Visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith, is a title sound-alike to an earlier volume which he published in 1972, entitled The Keystone of Mormonism: Little Known Truths about the Book of Mormon. A careful comparison of the content of the two volumes, however, readily reveals that, although there are some chapter materials which are the same, extensive additions of new subject matter, deletions of former information, and a change of emphasis have created two distinctly separate volumes. The student of the Book of Mormon and the early visions of the Prophet will want both books in his collection to cover the labyrinth of excellent instruction peculiar to each text. Dr. Cheesman's first volume (1972) focused primarily on the physical setting in which the Book of Mormon originated and the means by which it came forth under miraculous circumstances. The new volume (1988) expands its text to include an excellent introductory chapter on the importance of revelatory communication between God and man and a followup chapter examining the visitation of the Father and the Son. Though he isolates the primary accounts of the visitation of the Father and the Son and those of Moroni for special scrutiny, Cheesman also cites evidences for a numerous host of other angelic visitors who came to enlighten the Prophet in conjunction with the translation of the Book of Mormon. For the reader who is interested in the mechanics of the translation of the Book of Mormon, Dr. Cheesman has produced the handbook. The use of the Urim and Thummim, descriptions of that instrument, an examination of the possible methods employed in translating, the time involved in that process, and the respective scribes who aided the Prophet have been spelled out in detail. The various manuscripts of the Book of Mormon have likewise been traced with expertise. Extensive coverage is given to Joseph Smith's personal descriptions of his experiences in producing the Book of Mormon text through the help of the Lord. 66 REVIEW OF BOOKS ONTiffi BOOK OF MORMON In a well-formulated concluding chapter, Dr. Cheesman analyzes the importance of the Prophet's earliest visions at the outset of the restoration. He then cements Joseph's witness with a succession of personal testimonies by his close associates. One of the most significant features of the volume is the inclusion of an extensive appendix containing verbatim accounts of both the First Vision and also early descriptions of the appearances of Moroni. Some of these were recorded at the direction of the Prophet himself and others by contemporaries who obtained their information firsthand from the mouth of Joseph. One of these appendixes, Appendix E, "Wentworth Letter," has an introductory paragraph explaining the origin of the letter with the comment, "Mr. Wentworth was to furnish a Mr. Bastow, his friend, with a copy of this summary [a brief account of the rise of Mormonism by the Prophet] to be used in a history of New Hampshire, which Mr. Bastow was to publish" (p. 165). It might be insightful to note that rather than "Bastow" the man's name was "Barstow," George Barstow. George Barstow did write his The History of New Hampshire in 1842, but elected not to include any mention of the Prophet's early residence in New Hampshire nor his participation in the later birth of Mormonism. Although the table of contents in this publication is quite replete, the reader will miss having an index in the back to assist him in locating the fine points--of which there are a substantial number. Students of the scriptures, historians, and the casual reader will appreciate having this exceptional resource at their fingertips. It serves as a ready reference to the earliest visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith and constitutes a substantive commentary on the emergence of the Book of Mormon.


The predominant risk factor of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), peripheral neuropathy, results in loss of protective sensation and is associated with abnormally high plantar pressures. DFU prevention strategies strive to reduce these high plantar pressures. Nevertheless, several constraints should be acknowledged regarding the research supporting the link between plantar pressure and DFUs, which may explain the low prediction ability reported in prospective studies. The majority of studies assess vertical, rather than shear, barefoot plantar pressure in laboratory-based environments, rather than during daily activity. Few studies investigated previous DFU location-spe-cific pressure. Previous studies focus predominantly on walking, although studies monitoring activity suggest that more time is spent on other weight-bearing activities, where a lower " peak " plantar pressure might be applied over a longer duration. Although further research is needed, this may indicate that an expression of cumulative pressure applied over time could be a more relevant parameter than peak pressure. Studies indicated that providing pressure feedback might reduce plantar pressures, with an emerging potential use of smart technology, however, further research is required. Further pressure analyses, across all weight-bearing activities, referring to location-specific pressures are required to improve our understanding of pressures resulting in DFUs and improve effectiveness of interventions.


Background and aims
This research reported here presents findings from an evaluation of the development and
implementation of the Healthy Community Challenge Fund (otherwise known as the
'Healthy Towns' programme). A key aim of the research has been to inform the
development of future environmental and systems‐based 'whole town' approaches to
obesity prevention.
The overall aim of the Healthy Towns programme was to pilot and stimulate novel 'whole
town' approaches that tackle the 'obesogenic' environment in order to reduce obesity, with
a particular focus on improving diet and increasing physical activity. Through a competitive
tender process, nine towns were selected that represented urban areas across England
ranging from small market towns to areas of large cities. The fund provided £30 million over
the period 2008‐2011, divided amongst the nine towns. The amounts awarded ranged from
£900,000 to £4.85 million. Towns were instructed to be innovative and were given freedom
to develop a locally‐specific programme of interventions. This report supplements local
process and impact evaluations undertaken by each town (not reported here) by taking an
overall view of the programme's development and implementation.
Our evaluation therefore addressed the following research questions:
1. What kinds of interventions were delivered across the Healthy Towns programme?
2. Were environmental and infrastructural interventions equitably delivered?
3. How was the Healthy Towns programme theorised and translated into practice?
4. How was evidence used in the selection and design of interventions?
5. What are the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a systems approach
to obesity prevention?


The aim of this paper is to provide insights into nine primary school teachers' concerns and instructional needs in biology and mathematics, grades 1 to 6. By using Content Representation, combined with Learning Study in an action research project, teachers were encouraged to reflect on their conceptions, processes of instructing and pupil learning. From concerns articulated by teachers three instructional needs emerged: (i) to make subject progression, especially in biology, and pupil learning more visible, (ii) to develop mathematics teaching in order to change pupils' views of the subject, and (iii) to develop teachers' subject matter knowledge and teaching in an ongoing collaborative process. The paper argues that in order to stimulate teacher professional development it is important to make teacher concerns and thereby needs explicit. They help teachers to identify and reflect on relations between teacher subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pupil learning.


This article summarizes key findings from the Global Restrictions on Religion report, a study released in December 2009 by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. The report covers 198 countries and territories, representing more than 99% of the world's population for the two-year period of July 2006 through June 2008. It distinguishes government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion before combining them in a joint index.


When searching a display, users sometimes know what the target is but sometimes do not. It has generally been assumed that for this latter case people must engage in a deeper semantic evaluation of items during the search process. This idea is central to Information Foraging theory. But do people actually spend longer assessing items when engaged in a semantically demanding search task' We investigate this by having participants locate target items in 16-item menus. Participants were either told exactly what to look for (known-item search) or they were told the category that the target belonged to (semantic search). Participants were faster and more accurate at known-item searches. Eye-movement data show that this was because participants were more likely to skip over items when performing known-item searches. Contrary to expectation, we found limited empirical evidence to support the idea that deeper semantic evaluations of items lead to longer gaze durations (this occurred only when items were arranged very close together). This finding is important because it reveals how people adopt different eye gaze strategies depending on the kind of search activity they are engaged in.


The current pensions situation requires a number of reforms in order to correct distortions which have emerged and to meet the challenges posed by the radically changing demographic structure of most European countries. The direction that those reforms should take is crucial to the current debate on the outlook for the Welfare State. This article examines the pension schemes of the most developed countries of the OECD, with particular reference to Spain, and discusses the prospects for reform.


Estimation of signal parameters via rotational in- variance techniques is a classical algorithm widely used in array signal processing for direction-of-arrival estimation of emitters. Inspired by this method, a new signal model and new fluorescence lifetime estimation via rotational invariance techniques (FLERIT) were developed for multiexponential fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) experiments. The FLERIT only requires a few time bins of a histogram generated by a time-correlated single-photon count- ing FLIM system, greatly reducing the data throughput from the imager to the signal processing units. As a noniterative method, the FLERIT does not require initial conditions, prior information nor model selection that are usually required by widely used tra- ditional fitting methods, including nonlinear least square methods or maximum-likelihood methods. Moreover, its simplicity means it is suitable for implementations in embedded systems for real-time applications. FLERIT was tested on synthesized and experimental fluorescent cell data showing the potentials to be widely applied in FLIM data analysis.


Today, the society is demanding from the industries to perform Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and show their responsibility by contributing and developing sustainable businesses. Especially for the agribusinesses in the Republic of Macedonia (RM), linked with many scandals concerning food and beverage production, it is crucial to work strategically with CSR, for example, by using ethical guidelines, such as codes of conduct (CoC). Stakeholders want to be sure that companies using ethical CoC are accountable, showing concerns for their employees and providing safety at work, avoiding corruption, and protecting the environment. These codes represent corporate efforts of the companies to communicate proactively and properly in order to show their accountability and gain legitimacy and reputation among key stakeholders.

The aim of this study is to describe how companies create incentives for promoting responsible leadership through a stakeholder and legitimacy theory in practice, and how the CoC are used as a tool for sustainable businesses development. A literature review that leads to the development of a conceptual framework is introduced. It offers a framework for interpreting determinants of the CSR, CoC and their effects on the companies particularly on the legitimacy, reputation and the real performance of the companies in agribusiness. The theoretical approach and empirical study are used in order to give us deeper analysis of the CoC and CSR practices within companies and the way how they are communicated with the relevant stakeholders.

The surveyed companies in this project are three Macedonian food companies, which can be said to be among the few companies with implemented CoC and CSR practices in RM. The implementation of CSR practices and development of CoC presupposes awareness of the importance of social and environmental values on the part of the CEO and the management team. A reason for studying these corporate efforts is willingness to share the perceived experiences and relevant documents regarding CSR and CoC. A mixed method has been used for the project, meaning that internal and external documents, web pages and personal interviews serve as methods for accessing data. With a view to describing the incentives for promotion of the CSR activities and the CoC within companies, the respective documents have been compared with the case findings.
The conducted study represents the current situation with the implementation of the CSR concept in RM. The Government of RM has constituted a Coordinative Body for CSR in RM, and has developed a National Agenda for CSR Development in RM. The key for undertaking corporate responsibility initiatives for food companies in RM is associated with conceptualizing the role and importance of food industry in the country. Key factors are identified as explanatory in the search for legitimacy associated with corporate responsibility. These factors are related to institutional facts, corporate type (ownership and size) and management (structure, culture, leadership, style and communication efforts). The results from the conducted study differ depending on the type of the company, ownership, and business approach of the management team. The findings from the case studies substantiate the notion that in some cases small enterprises sometimes show more transparency and proficiency for the CSR concept than larger companies which, in their organizational structure, have implemented a separate department for human resource management which is responsible for conducting these activities (UNDP Baseline study, 2007, p. 35).


Becoming Jimi Hendrix traces "Jimmy's" early musical roots, from a harrowing, hand-to-mouth upbringing in a poverty-stricken, broken Seattle home to his early discovery of the blues to his stint as a reluctant recruit of the 101st Airborne who was magnetically drawn to the rhythm and blues scene in Nashville. As a sideman, Hendrix played with the likes of Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, the Isley Brothers, and Sam & Dave-but none knew what to make of his spotlight-stealing rock guitar experimentation, the likes of which had never been heard before. From 1962 to 1966, on the rough and tumble club circuit, Hendrix learned to please a crowd, deal with racism, and navigate shady music industry characters, all while evolving his own astonishing style. Finally, in New York's Greenwich Village, two key women helped him survive, and his discovery in a tiny basement club in 1966 led to Hendrix instantly being heralded as a major act in Europe before he returned to America, appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival, and entered the pantheon of rock's greatest musicians. Becoming Jimi Hendrix is based on over one hundred interviews with those who knew Hendrix best during his lean years, more than half of whom have never spoken about him on the record. Utilizing court transcripts, FBI files, private letters, unpublished photos, and U.S. Army documents, this is the story of a young musician who overcame enormous odds, a past that drove him to outbursts of violence, and terrible professional and personal decisions that complicated his life before his untimely demise.


Executive Summary Venezuela's economic crisis has triggered mass migration; more than 3.4 million Venezuelans have fled to other countries in the region and beyond. An assessment mission to Cúcuta, in the Colombian border state of North Santander, was undertaken from July 26 to August 1, 2018, and to Bôa Vista and Pacaraima, in the state of Roraima, Brazil, between August 24 and 28, 2018. Interviews were conducted with key informants, including health providers and organizations engaged in the humanitarian response. Secondary analysis of gray literature and data shared by key informants was also undertaken. Surveillance data demonstrate increases in infectious diseases, as well as adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes, among Venezuelans in North Santander and Roraima. Summary of Findings for North Santander Reportable public health surveillance events among Venezuelans increased from 182 in 2015 to 865 in the first half of 2018. In 2018, the most common reported events included gender-based and intrafamiliar violence (17 percent), malaria (15 percent), and acute malnutrition in children <5 years (9 percent). There were 14 measles cases reported between January and June 2018 (compared to none in the previous years), the majority associated with migration from Venezuela. Thirty-six cases of maternal morbidity and two cases of maternal mortality among Venezuelans were observed in the first half of 2018 (compared to three cases of maternal morbidity and no maternal deaths in 2015). Low-birth-weight Venezuelan births rose from three in 2015 to 34 in 2017. Between January 2017 and June 2018, emergency medical attention was provided to 19,108 Venezuelans in government health facilities. Summary of Findings for Roraima In 2018, there were 355 cases of measles in Roraima (compared to none in previous years) — all cases had the genotype lineage originating in the 2017 Venezuelan measles outbreak. Children younger than one year old (812.1/100,000) had the highest measles incident rate in Roraima, followed by children 1–4 years old (245.7/100,000). Malaria cases among Venezuelans increased 3.5-fold from 2015 to 2018 (1,260 vs. 4,402 cases). As of August 2018, 171 HIV-infected Venezuelans were receiving HIV care at the Coronel Motta Clinic in Bôa Vista, Roraima. In 2018, 1,603 Venezuelan women gave birth at the Hospital Materno-Infantil in Bôa Vista, and by mid-2018, 10,040 Venezuelans had received outpatient care and 666 had been hospitalized at the Hospital General Roraima. In Colombia, primary healthcare is not available to Venezuelans, and provision of emergency care is perceived as unsustainable given current funding mechanisms. In Brazil, primary care is available to Venezuelans, but the healthcare system is under severe strain to meet the increased demand for care and is facing unprecedented shortages in medications and supplies. There is an urgent need to expand the humanitarian health response in Colombia and Brazil, both to ensure health among Venezuelans and to protect public health in border areas.


ABSTRACT A major spill of 692,000 gallons of catalytic feedstock oil resulted when the Greek tankship Shinoussa collided with and sank the tank barge Apex 3417 and damaged the tank barge Apex 3503 in the Houston Ship Channel, Galveston Bay, Texas on July 28, 1990. The owner of the barges took immediate action to contain and recover the oil and salvage the sunken barge, but on the sixth day withdrew from the cleanup. The Coast Guard On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) federalized the cleanup and continued for another 15 days, completing the cleanup on August 17, 1990. Bioremediation microbes were used for the first time by the OSC to treat oiled marsh areas. Visually, the treatment appeared successful. Several problems were encountered and lessons learned during the major cleanup operation.


Abstract Current guidelines do not recommend bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in patients with implanted cardiac devices. There is no data on the influence of such devices over the parameters assessed by BIA. We aimed to assess the influence of cardiac devices on the parameters assessed by BIA as well as to evaluate the likelihood of electromagnetic interference of BIA in patients with implanted cardiac devices. Sixty-two consecutive patients over 18 years of age who underwent single (PM) or multisite (CRT) pacemaker or defibrillator (ICD) implantation were included. Body composition assessment was done using a single frequency device, on both right and left sides, before and after cardiac device implantation. During BIA analysis after device implantation, we did real-time telemetry to assess electromagnetic interference. Patients were 67+14 years old and 51.6% male. PM was implanted in 52 patients (83.9%), ICD in 7 (11.3%), ICD with CRT in 2 (3.2%) and CRT in 1 (1.6%). During real-time telemetry, there was no electromagnetic interference including interruption of telemetry. Default device programming did not change after BIA assessment. After surgery, resistance and fat mass were smaller, while cellular mass, fat-free mass, metabolic rate and total body water/ body weight increased, on right and left sides measurements. We concluded that decreased resistance and related parameters after device implantation were probably influenced to a change in hydration status, regardless of the implanted device. Bioimpedance analysis is safe in patients with an implanted cardiac device.


An "asynchronous unit delay" is an n-input n-output asynchronous sequential circuit in which the present value of the output n-tuple is equal to the value of input n-tuple prior to the last input change. In this paper it is shown that such a circuit can be used as a basic building block in the design of any asynchronous circuit. It is shown that any fundamental mode flow table is realizable by a circuit of feedback index m with one asynchronous unit delay, m inertial delays, and a combinational network, where m is the smallest integer ≥ {log2 max (Si)} and Si is the number of stable states in any input column of the table. A straightforward method of realizing "asynchronous indefinite" fundamental mode tables without critical races by circuits of feedback index 1 with k asynchronous unit delays, one inertial delay, and combinational gates is also suggested. The approach suggested in this paper avoids complicated secondary assignment problems, results in circuits with simple structure, and further, brings closer the theories of synchronous and asynchronous sequential circuits.


This paper discusses the changing approaches that governments in the Uk have adopted in response to youth issues and the extent to which these are reflected in dominant social constructions of youth. Our discussion offers a perspective on youth policy in the Uk in 2014 set within an historical context with a particular focus on policy from England. We outline the debates and issues facing youth policy as a result of the opportunities and tensions created by recent transformations of local authority services and changes to the way in which youth work is funded and consider the implications of this for young people. Finally we consider some of the key elements to youth policy in the current era of austerity. The picture of youth policy in the Uk highlights the extent to which ideological crusades based on moral panics and deficit models of youth have given rise to a stream of policies which have successively failed to connect with the lives of young people whilst redirecting the blame onto young people themselves. We argue that constantly changing and underfunded initiatives have done little more than provide a «fig leaf» to provide the illusion that something is being done.


The policy choices of governments are frequently durable. From the building of bridges to the creation of social programs, investments in public infrastructure typically last well beyond a single electoral cycle. In this paper we develop a dynamic model of repeated elections in which policy choices are durable. The behavior that emerges in equilibrium reveals a novel mechanism through which durability interacts with the shorter electoral cycle and distorts the incentives of politicians. We find that a government that is electorally accountable nevertheless underinvests in policy, that it deliberately wastes investment on projects that are never implemented, and that the type of policy it implements is itself Pareto inefficient. The first two distortions match evidence from infrastructure policy in western democracies, and the third identifies a distortion that has heretofore not been explored empirically. Notably, these effects emerge solely due to the interaction of policy durability and political accountability, and not from corruption, poor decision making, or voter myopia.


Minor, Benjamin. The Southern Literary Messenger, 1834-1864. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007. 296 pp. $14.95. In The Southern Literary Messenger, 1834-1864, which was first published in 1905, Benjamin Minor provides a workmanlike history of the magazine, which was rich in names and contributors. Most forthcoming during the years of his proprietorship (July 1843 to February 1847), he offers anecdotes and details to enrich understanding of the magazine's content, authors, and publication and operation. Contributors included Henry Timrod, N. Beverly Tucker, W. Gilmore Simms, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Quincy Adams, Mary E. Lee, Caroline Lee Hentz, and dozens of other men and women from the North and the South. The periodical's most famous contributor, however, was Edgar Allen Poe, who edited the magazine among bouts of drinking from December 1835 until January 1837, when publisher Thomas W. White, the magazine's first, had had enough. Poe contributed articles, poems, and reviews before, during, and after his brief and controversial stint as editor. While the book does not dwell on Poe, it mentions him frequently. Few will find Minor's book a pageturner, as he mentions name after name and sometimes the nature of what they wrote. In the fine introduction, historian Jonathan Daniel Wells says the listings provide information on lesser contributors not available anywhere else. Researchers will find this book valuable for that purpose, especially coupled with David K. Jackson's The Contributors and Contributions to The Southern Literary Messenger, which was published in 1936. Wells notes that periodical literature, important to southern and other readers, is "one of the great, largely unexplored, and woefully underutilized historical resources in modern historical scholarship." This book offers an intriguing guide to thirty years of political, military, religious, economic, and scientific insight; fiction, poetry, reviews, and criticism; speeches, addresses, and essays; and cultural, artistic, and social trends. Minor includes anecdotes and descriptions of staffing, the publishing process, and the duties and activities of publishers and editors. He notes, for example, that during his time at a Memphis convention in 1845-46, his wife, Virginal Maury Otley, edited and essentially ran the magazine. The University of Michigan offers a complete set of the Messenger online at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/rn/moajrnl/browse.journals/sout. …


Landscapes of beauty...in a world that time seems to have passed by. Step away from the city's hustle and bustle and into the country, where old castles and abbeys stand, where small villages maintain their charm, where the spirit of long ago still burns bright, unextinguished by the modern age. Striking photographs bring forth all the magic and romance of rural areas throughout Britain and France -- the highlands and islands; the gardens with fountains, topiary, cottage flowers, and fragrant herbs; the canals and country railways; the small pubs where one can still quaff a pint among friends. What wonderful places to be.


Division of pension benefits on divorce still unsatisfactory
Although the South African Law Commission recommended in 1999 in it's Final Report on the Sharing of Pension Benefits that the sharing of retirement fund benefits by erstwhile spouses should be governed by a dedicated act separate from the Divorce Act, the legislature has not been convinced of the urgency of this matter and ignored the report. This has left South African subjects involved in divorce proceedings in an unfavourable position compared to that of their brothers and sisters in other jurisdictions where divorce is governed by modern legislation that makes provision for pension splitting. Experience gained after the 1989 amendment of the Divorce Act has reconfirmed what was predicted more than two decades ago: the inclusion of retirement fund benefits as ordinary assets forming part of the matrimonial property of spouses is not to the benefit of the weaker party. At the dissolution of a marriage only the division of ordinary assets should be governed by principles of matrimonial property law - retirement fund benefits should be excluded from those calculations. The non-member spouse is entitled to share in the retirement fund benefits which accumulated during the marriage. The legislature should prescribe clear formulae to be used in the determination of the extent of this right taking cognisance of the various types of retirement schemes. The social destination of retirement benefits should preclude any form of utilisation of these benefits by the person entitled to it prior to him reaching retirement age. For this reason a person's entitlements to retirement benefits should be excluded from the determination of his creditworthiness and should be ring fenced against any attachment orders. By amending the Pension Funds Act in September 2007 the legislature opened up the possibility that the non-member spouse may claim her share of the value of the accumulated pension benefit on divorce and the fund would be compelled, if so desired, to pay out the claimant's share of the accumulated benefit in cash. The pension fund adjudicator went even further and interpreted the amendment to the act as if it was intended to have unlimited retrospective effect. In this article it is argued that this latest legislative amendment runs counter to the premises underlying provisions for retirement benefits and will probably in the not so distant future result in an additional burden being placed on taxpayers to contribute to payments as alimentation grants to erstwhile divorced spouses who misappropriated the capitalized share of their funds after their divorce. It is submitted that it would have been more appropriate if the legislature provided for pension splitting - where the non-member becomes entitled on a locked-in basis, to a share in the accumulated pension fund benefit by way of a deferred pension benefit and not to a cash benefit. It is submitted that the current formulation of the new sections in the Pension Funds Act and the Income Tax legislation are not synchronized with the result that the poor member spouse will inevitably end up paying all applicable tax due on the total value of the retirement benefits and will then be left to struggle to reclaim the amount of these taxes that should have been deducted from the share of the benefit received by his erstwhile spouse on their divorce.


Purpose: The loss of raw materials in wood cutting industries has reached high proportions (30 to 36% of volume yield, Ngolle Ngolle, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to solve the problem of optimising the production on the basis of the commercial value of the cuts. Design/methodology/approach: In order to tackle this problem, we started with the generalities on the exploitation and the primary conversion of wood in Cameroon. After that, we studied the various methods of cutting and the different products obtained. We then proceeded with the formulation of the log cutting optimisation problem based on a real shape model of the logs, objective of research works presented in (Danwe, Bindzi, Meva'a & Nola, 2011). We finally completed our work with the design and the presentation of a software package called cutting optimiser. Findings: We start by having some knowledge on the geometry of the logs, cutting strategies and classification of cuts. This classification enables us to determine the quality and quantity of the production, and to estimate the commercial value of the log. The solution to this problem then led to the design of a software package. Research limitations/implications: In this paper, the optimisation problem concerns problems where the objective function is non-explicit, the variables discreet, and the constraints non-explicit. Practical implications: The solution to this problem then led to the design of a software package to be used as a cutting optimiser. The automation of the cutting operation leads to an accelerated work and an increase in the volume of the cuts produced daily. Originality/value: This research is among the few to solve discrete optimization problems with constraints. Some constraints concerning the mechanical characteristics of the logs are taken into account. The constraints can equally be non-explicit. Moreover the market standards impose technological constraints which render the problem of optimisation even more complex.


Fieldbus is a specific class of LAN technology, through which the communication process in industrial applications is integrated. The extent of using the wireless communications in most applications, leading to design hybrid wired/wireless fieldbus systems is based on standard PROFIBUS protocol. Because of the difference in physical media such as bit rate and/or frame format between wired domain and wireless domain, there is a need to use a method to overcome traffic congestion that may occur in the intermediate systems as a result of the heterogeneity in the physical media. Within this work the intermediate systems (repeaters) are suggested to work as store-and-for ward mode. The main objectives of this work is to develop simulation tools for the hybrid wired/wireless PROFIBUS architectures in order to perform behavioral study of such network protocols. The use of our developed simulation tools has indeed enabled us to test different network configurations and different parameters settings more easily, cheaper, and faster than in a real application.


It was not so long ago that the belief in witchcraft was shared by members of all levels of society. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, diseases were feared by all, the infant mortality rate was high, and around one in six harvests was likely to fail. In the small rural communities in which most people lived, affection and enmity could build over long periods. When misfortune befell a family, they looked to their neighbours for support - and for the cause. During the sixteenth century, Europe was subject to a fevered and pious wave of witch hunts and trials. As the bodies of accused women burnt right across the Continent, the flames of a nationwide witch hunt were kindled in England. In 1612 nine women were hanged in the Pendle witch trials, the prosecution of the Chelmsford witches in 1645 resulted in the biggest mass execution in England, and in the mid-1640s the Witch finder General instigated a reign of terror in the Puritan counties of East Anglia. Hundreds of women were accused and hanged. It wasn't until the latter half of the seventeenth century that witch-hunting went into decline.In this book, Andrew and David Pickering present a comprehensive catalogue of witch hunts, arranged chronologically within geographical regions. The tales of persecution within these pages are testimony to the horror of witch-hunting that occurred throughout England in the hundred years after the passing of the Elizabethan Witchcraft Act of 1563.


Sulla coronaria (L.) B.H. Choi & H. Ohashi (= Hedysarum coronarium L.) is a Mediterranean forage legume grown extensively in rainfed Italian environments. Here we report the field quantification of its seasonal and annual N fixation, using the 15 N isotopic dilution (ID) method, the influence of various nonfixing reference species on these estimates, and the allocation of fixed N between the aerial and the belowground biomass. Parallel experiments were conducted over two biennial crop cycles at two Italian locations (Sassari and Ancona), characterized by sandy-loam to heavy clay-loam calcareous soils. The proportion of nitrogen derived from the atmosphere (%Ndfa) present in the aerial biomass reached 78.2% at Sassari and 82.7% at Ancona, with no significant effect of the identity of the nonfixing reference species. At Sassari, the amount of fixed N present in the aerial dry matter (DM) of sulla was 187 kg ha –1 in the first crop cycle, and 265 kg ha –1 in the second, while the equivalent N yields at Ancona were 350 and 170 kg ha –1 . The relationship between the quantity of fixed N in the aerial biomass and the aerial DM yield of sulla was significant and not site-specific, realizing an equivalence of about 1.8 kg ha –1 of fixed N per 100 kg ha –1 of aerial DM. The relative contribution of the root biomass to the amount of fixed N was on average 4%. The N balance of sulla at the end of the second crop cycle was negative, but the N sparing effect compared with the nonfixing species ranged from 65 to 175 kg ha –1 .


A widespread misconception in the lithium ion battery literature is the equality of the energy difference of HOMO and LUMO of the solvent with the electrochemical stability window. HOMO and LUMO are concepts derived from approximated electronic structure theory while investigating electronic properties of isolated molecules, and their energy levels do not indicate species participating in redox reactions. On the other hand, redox potentials are directly related to the Gibbs free energy difference of the reactants and products. While redox potentials in some cases show strong correlation with HOMO energies, the offset can be of several eVs. Presence of electrolytes and other molecules can also significantly affect the redox potentials of the solvent leading to offset as high as 4 eV from the HOMO energies. In this opinion we provide a correct thermodynamic representation for the electrochemical stability of the electrolyte, based on redox potentials and Fermi level of the electron in solution, and demonstrate that the use of terms HOMO and LUMO should be avoided when talking about the electrochemical stability of electrolytes. Instead, it is more correct to speak of potential of electrolyte reduction at negative potentials, and of potential of solvent oxidation at positive potentials.


The willingness to accept – willingness to pay disparity raises questions about accepted economic theory. Plott and Zeiler (2005) have suggested that the disparity is the result of subject misconception about experimental procedures and, in an experiment designed to control for subject misconception, they show that the disparity can be turned on and off. This paper investigates a single feature of their experimental procedure—the prompt for subjects to consider revising their offers. Using the post-prompt and revision offers, we, like Plott and Zeiler, are unable to reject equality between WTA and WTP. However, using the pre-prompt and revision offers the disparity between WTP and WTA is shown to be significant. Results suggest that the prompt and revision opportunity systematically influences offers. Future research must determine whether the pre- or post-prompt offers more accurately reflect underlying preferences.


Bioprocess optimization is important in order to make the bioproduction process more efficient and economic. The conventional optimization methods are costly and less efficient. On the other hand, modeling and computer simulation can reveal the mecha- nisms behind the phenomenon to some extent, to assist the deep analysis and efficient optimization of bioprocesses. In this chapter, modeling and computer simulation of microbial growth and metabolism kinetics, bioreactor dynamics, bioreactor feedback control will be made to show the application methods and the usefulness of modeling and computer simulation methods in optimization of the bioprocess technology.


Northwest Panay consists of two terranes that form part of the Central Philippine collision zone: Buruanga Peninsula and Antique Range. The Buruanga Peninsula consists of a Jurassic chert-clastic-limestone sequence, typical of oceanic plate stratigraphy of the Palawan Micro-continental Block. The Antique Range is characterized by Antique Ophiolite Complex peridotites and Miocene volcanic and clastic rocks, representing obducted oceanic crust that serves as the oceanic leading edge of the collision with the Philippine Mobile Belt. The Nabas Fault is identified as the boundary between the two terranes. This study employed the gravity method to characterize the Northwest Panay subsurface structure. Results indicate higher Bouguer anomaly values for Buruanga Peninsula than those for Antique Range, separated by a sudden decrease in gravity values toward the east-southeast (ESE) direction. Forward gravity data modeling indicates the presence of an underlying basaltic subducted slab in the Buruanga Peninsula. Furthermore, the Nabas Fault is characterized as an east-dipping thrust structure formed by Buruanga Peninsula basement leading edge subduction beneath Antique Range. Additional geophysical constraints were provided by shallow seismic refraction and electrical resistivity surveys. Results from both methods delineated the shallow subsurface signature of the Nabas Fault buried beneath alluvium deposits. The gravity, seismic refraction and electrical resistivity methods were consistent in identifying the Nabas Fault as the terrane boundary between the Buruanga Peninsula and the Antique Range. The three geophysical methods helped constrain the subsurface configuration in Northwest Panay.


The aim of this study is to examine the difference between entrepreneurship characteristics of the senior university students who are studying in Physical Education and Sport fields in Bishkek province of Kyrgyzstan and the gender, whether they have entrepreneurs in the family, entrepreneurial experience and the sector they want work. The universe of the study is 4 class students of Kyrgyz State Sports Academy in Bishkek province of Kyrgyzstan with 4 class students of Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University School of Physical Education and Sports in 2014-2015 academic year. In the study, significant differences have been found in the dimensions of "Leadership" and "Innovation and Self-Confidence" which are sub-dimensions of gender variation and entrepreneurship characteristics. Significant differences have been determined between the variables of the students who have entrepreneurs in their families and the dimensions of "Innovation and Self-Confidence" and "Risk Taking". Significant difference has been found between entrepreneurship experience variable and "Evaluating Opportunities", "Need of Achievement" and "Leadership" dimensions. As a result, it can be said that sports education has increased the need of achievement, which is the most important component of entrepreneurship.


The phenomena of unacknowledged rape has been well documented in the empirical literature on sexual assault, and it has been found that a substantial number of women who have experiences that would legally constitute rape or sexual assault choose not to name it as such. The purpose of this investigation was to determine how women who have not acknowledged discuss their experiences in the absence of the labels of rape and sexual assault, and also to examine what influences how they do conceptualize their coercive experiences. Interviews were conducted with ten women from the University of Windsor who reported experiences of rape, but did not label them as such. The women's narratives of coercion were analyzed using the Listening Guide (Brown &Gilligan, 1992) as an analytic framework, and three voices (or themes) were identified that illuminated how women negotiate experiences of sexual violence in the absence of labels. These voices have been identified as the Not Knowing Voice, the Knowing Voice, and the Ambivalent Voice. These voices are discussed in relation to the broader cultural context, and the complexity of how women struggle to know and name their experiences is framed in relation to the influence of rape culture, neo-liberalism and cultural dialectics.


Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role as a link between innate and adaptive immunity through their abilities to detect infection and to prime naïve T cells (signal 1 and 2). They not only activate naïve T cells, but also direct differentiation of CD4 T cells to induce appropriate immune responses against pathogens via cytokine production (signal 3). In this study, human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) as a model for myeloid DCs were activated in vitro with an array of Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands derived from or mimicking various pathogens, to determine their cytokine profiles, as well as the ability of these differentially TLR ligand-activated DCs to induce differentiation of naïve CD4 T cells. moDCs activated with a viral TLR ligand (TLR3 ligand) induced more heavily skewed Th1 responses, whereas bacterial TLR ligand (TLR1/2, 4 and 5 ligand)-activated moDCs induced more balanced Th1/Th2/Th17 responses in CD4 T cells. Unexpectedly, moDCs activated with another viral TLR ligand (TLR7/8 ligand) also induced more balanced Th1/Th2/Th17 CD4 T cell responses. These results provide a framework for the use of these TLR ligands in tailoring T cell responses in vaccines and other immunotherapeutic approaches.


The local elections that were held in November 2014 stirred up considerable controversy in Po-land. The article is an attempt to describe how Poles evaluated the overall functioning of democ-racy in the context of these elections and what determinants significantly contributed to that evaluation. We examined three levels of democracy evaluation: general beliefs (Jost's system justification), the current state of democracy (Dahl's democratic institutions), and specific events connected with the functioning of the democratic system (the quality of the elections and the level of trust in the elected representatives). We also tested the extent to which these levels of democracy evaluation were explained by sociopolitical determinants, such as the general level of trust in people, patriotism and nationalism, or the experience of security. The study was conducted shortly after the second round of the election on a sample of 524 subjects. The obtained results show a low quality of democracy (particularly on the level of general beliefs and trust in the newly elected authorities) and reveal associations between aspects of evaluation and the investigated determinants.


The inverse relationship between farm size and productivity is widely accepted as a "stylised fact" of agriculture in developing countries, a generalised phenomenon observed in widely differing agro-climatic conditions and agrarian structures. This thesis uses primary fieldwork data to examine the factors which give rise to such a relationship, and the impact of economic and technological change on the inverse relationship in the context of Egyptian agriculture. The significance of the inverse relationship as a crucial developmental issue cannot be overemphasised. The inverse relationship constitutes a major component of the economic rationale for redistributive land reform, and has obvious importance for policy issues concerning land reorganization. Part one critically discusses the inverse relationship debate, with particular emphasis on India, as an essential preliminary analysis to the examination of the Egyptian situation. The Indian literature on the inverse relationship is by far the most extensive, and it is within this debate that most of the analytical approaches to the inverse relationship have originated. The second, core part of the thesis uses fieldwork data from rural Egypt (an extensive 18-village survey conducted by the ILO in 1976 and the author's own intensive 2-village survey conducted in 1990) to support a new political economy approach to understanding the factors behind the inverse relationship and to examine how the inverse relationship breaks down in the dynamic context. We show that in the static context, the inverse relationship arises from the economic compulsions to which poor peasants are subject within a relatively backward agriculture. Redistribution of land on the basis of the inverse relationship argument therefore, will only deepen and perpetuate these conditions. Furthermore, in the dynamic context of technological change, the inverse relationship will disappear. The inverse relationship argument for redistributive land reform no longer has any rationale in the context of changing production conditions.


In the central nervous system lactate contributes to the extracellular pool of readily available energy substrates and may also function as a signaling molecule which mediates communication between glial cells and neurons. Monocarboxylate transporters are believed to provide the main pathway for lactate transport across the membranes. Here we tested the hypothesis that lactate could also be released via opening of pannexin and/or functional connexin hemichannels. In acute slices prepared from the brainstem, hippocampus, hypothalamus and cortex of adult rats, enzymatic amperometric biosensors detected significant tonic lactate release inhibited by compounds, which block pannexin/connexin hemichannels and facilitated by lowering extracellular [Ca2+] or increased PCO2. Enhanced lactate release triggered by hypoxia was reduced by ∼50% by either connexin or monocarboxylate transporter blockers. Stimulation of Schaffer collateral fibers triggered lactate release in CA1 area of the hippocampus, which was facilitated in conditions of low extracellular [Ca2+], markedly reduced by blockade of connexin hemichannels and abolished by lactate dehydrogenase inhibitor oxamate. These results indicate that lactate transport across the membranes may occur via mechanisms other than monocarboxylate transporters. In the central nervous system, hemichannels may function as a conduit of lactate release, and this mechanism is recruited during hypoxia and periods of enhanced neuronal activity.


Repair of bone defects remains a major concern in plastic and maxillofacial surgery. Based on modern concepts of tissue engineering, periosteum has gained attention as a suitable osteogenic material. We tested the hypothesis that surgically released and immediately repositioned periosteum would exhibit high osteogenic capacity upon grafting in a rat calvarial defect. Seven days after periosteum was released from the tibia and immediately repositioned, the "primed periosteum graft" (PPG; n = 15) was placed into a critical-sized defect of rat calvaria and the process of bone formation was evaluated histologically, immunohistologically, and radiographically at 7, 14, and 21 days after grafting. Findings were compared with a nonprimed periosteal graft (NPG; n = 15). Endochondral ossification was observed in both the PPG and NPG. The PPG showed higher expression of proliferative cell nuclear antigen, bone morphogenetic protein, and vascular endothelial growth factor than the NPG. Three-dimensional radiographic examination revealed significantly increased bone formation in the PPG than in the NPG (P < 0.01). These findings suggested that surgical stimulation of the periosteum enhanced the osteogenic potential of periosteal cells. This method may be suitable for the clinical repair of bone defects.


This paper proposes a novel method of isolating fluctuations in public spending that are likely to be uncorrelated with contemporaneous macroeconomic shocks and can be used to estimate government spending multipliers. The approach relies on two features unique to many low-income countries: (1) borrowing from the World Bank finances a substantial fraction of public spending, and (2) actual spending on World Bank-financed projects is typically spread out over several years following the original approval of the project. These two features imply that fluctuations in spending on World Bank projects in a given year are in large part determined by fluctuations in project approval decisions made in previous years, and so are unlikely to be correlated with shocks to output in the current year. World Bank project-level disbursement data are used to isolate the component of public spending associated with project approvals from previous years, which in turn can be used to estimate government spending multipliers, in a sample of 29 aid-dependent low-income countries. The estimated multipliers are small, reasonably precisely estimated, and rarely significantly different from zero.


Two intensive surveys were conducted in the coastal waters of Barcelona (northwest Mediterranean) to assess short‐term variations of biological parameters in relation to environmental conditions. Surveys lasted 1 week, with three to four samplings per day, and were carried out in autumn and spring. Rather than exploring extreme events, we aimed to study the effects of regular low or moderate perturbations, such as meteorological fronts, on the dynamics of the system. We focused on two attributes: wave height, as a proxy for mechanical energy entering the system, and nutrient inputs, whose variability in total load and relative composition is a central characteristic of coastal areas. The effects of the temporal coupling or uncoupling of both factors were examined. Sudden nutrient fluxes uncoupled from water motion tended to favor bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellates, while their concurrence with some water column mixing shaped a favorable scenario for large autotrophs. Ultimately, these two distinct biological responses pointed toward two main disturbance scenarios: episodes of nutrient enrichment uncoupled from mixing, mostly related to episodic water spills from the nearby city that contributed to high relative loads of ammonium and organic compounds; and episodes of increased wind caused by passing weather fronts that promoted some water column mixing and the entrainment of nutrients from bottom sediments or from adjacent water masses.


Many scientific, industrial and medical applications require the measurement of different physical parameters in order to collect information about the spatially distributed status of some process. Very often this information needs to be collected remotely, either due to the spatial dispersion of the measurement points or due to their inaccessibility. A wireless embedded self-powered sensor may be a convenient solution to be placed at these inaccessible locations. This thesis is devoted to study the analytical relation governing the electromagnetic coupling between a reader and a embeddable self-powered sensor, based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which is capable of wirelessly retrieving the status of physical parameters at a remote and inaccessible location. The physical parameter to be sensed may be the electromagnetic (EM) field existing at that location (primary measurement) or the indirect measurement of other parameters such as the temperature, humidity, etc. (secondary measurement). Given the simplicity of the RFID solution (highly embeddable properties, scavenging capabilities, penetration and radio coverage characteristics, etc.) the measurement can be done at a single location, or it can be extended to a set of measuring locations (an array or grid of sensors). The analytical relation is based on a reciprocity formulation studying the modulation of the scattered field by the embedded sensor in relation with the incident field, and allows to define a set of quality parameters of interest for the optimum design of the sensors. Particular attention is given to the scavenging circuitry as well as to the antenna design relevant to the sensing objective. In RFID tags, the existence of an RF harvesting section is an improvement with respect to conventional scattering field probes since it removes the need of DC biasing lines or optical fibers to modulate the sensor. However, this harvesting section introduces non-linearities in the response of the sensor, which requires a proper correction to use them as EM-field probes, although the characterization of the non-linearities of the RFID tag cannot be directly done using a conventional vector network analyzer (VNA), due to the requirements of an RFID protocol excitation. Due to this, this thesis proposes an alternative measurement approach that allows to characterize the different scattering states used for the modulation, in particular its non-linear behavior. In addittion, and taking this characterization as the starting point, this thesis proposes a new measurement setup for EM-field measurements based on the use of multiple tones to enlarge the available dynamic range, which is experimentally demonstrated in the measurement of a radiation pattern, as well as in imaging applications.
The RFID-based sensor response is electromagnetically sensitive to the dielectric properties of its close environment. However, the governing formulation for the response of the probe mixes together a set of different contributions, the path-loss, the antenna impedance, the loads impedance, etc. As a consequence, it is not possible to isolate each contribution from the others using the information available with a conventional RFID sensor. This thesis mathematically proposes and experimentally develops a modification of the modulation scheme to introduce a new set of multi-load scattering states that increases the information available in the response and properly isolate each term. Moreover, this thesis goes a step forward and introduces a new scattering state of the probe sensitive to temperature variations that do not depend on the environment characteristics. This new configuration enables robust environmental sensing in addition to EM-field measurements, and sensing variations of the dielectric properties of the environment.


The relationship between yield stress and the distribution of microscopic plastic deformation was numerically investigated by using a crystal plasticity finite element method (CP-FEM) in the model where particles were randomly distributed. It was in order to reveal which particle spacing. i.e. , the maximum, minimum or average particle spacing, can be taken as the representative length which controls yielding. The critical resolved shear stress for the onset of the slip deformation in any element was defined under the extended equation in the Bailey-Hirsch type model. The model includes the term of the Orowan stress obtained from the local values of the representative length. Each particle spacing was distributed with a standard deviation of approximately 2 to 3 times larger than the average particle spacing. The macroscopic mechanical properties obtained with CP-FEM were in good agreement with those experimentally obtained. The onset of microscopic slip deformation depended on the particle distribution. Plastic deformations started first in the area where the particle size is larger, then the plastic region grows in the areas where the particle spacing is smaller. Slip deformation had occurred in 90% of the matrix phase by the macroscopic yield point. The length factor in the Orowan equation was the average spacing of the particles in the model, which is in good agreement with Foreman and Makin. The CP-FEM indicated that in dispersed hardened alloys, microscopic load transfer occurred between the areas where the large particles spacing and the small one at the yielding.


The small-signal gain of a cw optically pumped 12-μm NH3 system is investigated as a function of pump intensity, pressure, pump offset, and polarization using a tunable diode laser as a probe. In general, the experiment is found to be in good agreement with calculations based on the theory of two laser fields interacting with a three-level molecular system. Raman gains in excess of 3%/cm are obtained using a waveguide configuration. The significance of these findings is discussed in terms of designing an efficient and powerful cw 12-μm laser.


Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the East India Company struggled to protect its royal monopoly from the challenges of a group of interlopers who had strong support in the House of Commons. The conflict for control of the East India trade had a great effect on the royal prerogative. Historians have presented differing views on the state of the royal prerogative for this period, and positions have remained polarized along conservative and radical lines. Close examination of the East India trade debate sheds much light on the issue. The debate over trade reveals a process of give and take in the struggle over the royal prerogative, with the King giving up certain rights in exchange for Parliamentary support to prosecute the war in France.


Abstract To develop more effective pest-management strategies, it is essential to understand how different pests interact with each other and the crop. Field studies were conducted in 2003 and 2004 at two Nebraska locations to determine the effects of early-season crop defoliation on the critical time for weed removal (CTWR) in narrow-row soybean. Three soybean defoliation levels were selected to simulate 0, 30, and 60% leaf tissue removal by the bean leaf beetle. Weeds were allowed to compete with the crop until V2, V4, V6, R3, and R5 growth stages. There were also season-long weedy and weed-free treatments. Results indicated that the CTWR in soybean occurred earlier as defoliation levels increased from 0 to 60%. The CTWR occurred at V3, V2, and V1 growth stage for 0, 30, and 60% defoliation levels, respectively. Overall, 60% defoliation resulted in earlier CTWR by at least 14 d. Yield losses from defoliation and weed interference were primarily associated with a reduction in number of pods per plant−1. Nomenclature: Soybean, Glycine max L. Merr.


Multidrug resistance during cancer chemotherapy is commonly acquired by overexpression of the ATP binding cassette transporter, P-glycoprotein (P-gp). As such, inhibitors that target P-gp activity represent potential therapeutic agents against this form of drug resistance. This study evaluated the ability of various non-natural nucleosides that mimic the core structure of adenosine to modulate drug resistance by inhibiting the ATPase activity to P-gp. Of several analogues tested, only one novel non-natural nucleoside, 5-cyclohexylindolyl-2'-deoxyribose (5-CHInd), behaves as a P-gp inhibitor. Although 5-CHInd is an adenosine analogue that should block the binding of ATP, the non-natural nucleoside surprisingly stimulates the ATPase activity of P-gp in vitro. However, 5-CHInd is not an exportable substrate for P-gp as it is not transported across an MDCK-MDR1 monolayer. In addition, 5-CHInd differentially modulates MDR by decreasing or increasing the cytotoxicity of several chemotherapeutic agents. Although 5-CHInd displays variable activity in modulating the efflux of various drugs by P-gp, there is a correlation between changes observed in the drug-stimulated ATPase catalytic efficiency induced by 5-CHInd and its effect on drug efflux. The paradoxical behavior of 5-CHInd is rationalized within the context of contemporary models of P-gp function. In addition, the data are used to develop a predictive in vitro model for rapidly identifying potential drug-drug interactions with P-gp.


The Mino tectono-stratigraphic terrane of central Japan is dominated by thrust-deformed Jurassic terrigenous clastic sediments, thought to have formed as a subduction–accretion complex at an active margin. However, in the central Mino terrane, basic volcanic rocks, together with stratigraphically overlying Permian shallow-water platform and slope carbonates and radiolarian cherts (Okumino Group), are present as tectonic intercalations. These Permian units have previously been interpreted as representing a large oceanic seamount-type body, formed in a distal oceanic setting. In addition, basaltic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of unknown age and affinities are also found as tectonic slivers within the adjacent Jurassic trench clastic sequences (Neo Formation). New petrological and geochemical investigations of all these basalts show that two main compositional groups are present: (i) alkali basalts (Mid-Permian) which are highly enriched in incompatible trace elements and the light REE (Group 1); (ii) tholeiitic basalts (mainly Lower Permian) which are moderately enriched in incompatible trace elements and light REE, relative to N-type MORB (Group 2). These characteristics suggest derivation from an enriched mantle source, such as a mantle plume. The compositions of Neo Formation basalts closely resemble those of the Okumino Group, suggesting that they were probably derived from the latter by both tectonic and sedimentary processes. Geochemical comparison with modern oceanic plume-influenced basalts, notably using La/Smn–Sm/Ybn ratios, suggests that the older Group 2 basalts are more akin to volcanics erupted along a constructive plate boundary (P- or E-type MORBs), than to tholeiitic basalts of intraplate oceanic islands (OIB). The sedimentary evidence for bathymetric elevation further indicates that the setting for this volcanism was most likely a spreading axis-centered oceanic plateau or ridge (e.g. Iceland, Ninety-East Ridge). The younger alkali basalts probably formed in an off-axis position, either due to normal lateral spreading processes, or perhaps more complex spreading centre–plume interactions. Accretion of this plateau onto the southern margin of the Asian landmass in the Mid–Late Jurassic apparently involved significant subduction-erosion of the plateau, evidenced by reworking of the Permian units into adjacent trench clastic sequences.


Herbal medicines are efficient to reduce side effects in the fight against glioblastoma, which plays a critical role within brain cancer species. The recent studies designated for testing the effects of lichens that have shown numerous anticancer activities on glioblastoma so far. In the present study, different concentrations of water extract obtained from Usnea longissima Ach. were used in order to determine cytotoxic (via 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and lactate dehydrogenase tests), antioxidant (via total antioxidant capacity test), pro-oxidant (via total oxidant status test) and genotoxic (via 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine test) effects of them on human U87MG-glioblastoma cancer cell lines. Primary mixed glial-neuronal non-cancerous cells from Sprague-Dawley rats were also utilized to measure the effects of treatments on non-cancerous cells. Based on median inhibitory concentration values, the data belonged to non-cancerous cells (2486.71 mg/L) showed distinct towering compared to U87MG (80.93 mg/L) cells. The viability of non-cancerous and U87MG cells exposed to extract is decreased in a dose dependent manner. It was also showed that low concentrations of extract notably increased total antioxidant capacity on non-cancerous cells. In addition, various phenolic compounds in extract were detected through high-performance liquid chromatography. The recent results encourage that extract will be able to have therapeutic potential against glioblastoma.


The nonprofit sector is a vital component of society and is allowed the greatest freedom to operate. The public understandably assumes that since non-profit organisations are established to do good, the people who run nonprofits are altruistic, and the laws governing nonprofits have reflected this assumption. But as Marion Fremont-Smith argues, the rules that govern how nonprofits operate are inadequate, and the regulatory mechanisms designed to enforce the rules need improvement. Despite repeated instances of negligent management, self-interest at the expense of the charity, and outright fraud, nonprofits continue to receive minimal government regulation. In this time of increased demand for corporate accountability, the need to strengthen regulation of nonprofits is obvious. Fremont-Smith addresses this need from a historical, legal, and organisational perspective. She combines summaries and analysis of the substantive legal rules governing the behaviour of charitable officers, directors, and trustees with descriptions of the federal and state regulatory schemes designed to enforce these rules. Her unique and exhaustive historical survey of the law of nonprofit organisations provides a foundation for her analysis of the effectiveness of current law and proposals for its improvement.


The Library of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) welcomes researchers interested in international humanitarian law (IHL) and the institution's work throughout the years. Its online catalogue is the gateway to the most recent scholarship on the subject, documents of Diplomatic and International Conferences, all ICRC publications, rare documents published between the founding of the ICRC and the end of the First World War, and a unique collection of military manuals. The Library Team also publishes research guides in order to help researchers access the full text of the most relevant and reliable sources in the field of IHL and the ICRC.*


Experimental vibration analysis is one of the most important tools for analyzing dynamic properties of mechanical structures. The information from experimental vibration analysis is used in the development of products to obtain a required dynamic behavior, or for instance classify vibration problems in different public, industrial environments etc. In order to carry out such experiments with high quality, knowledge about different analysis methods is of great importance. Also a large experimental experience is required to obtain reliable results as in any field. In engineering education experiment using real mechanical structures and equipment is of significance for the learning process. In traditional university laboratories students conduct experiments under the supervision of an instructor. However, a trend towards decreasing investments to maintain these laboratories can be seen all over the world and instead an increase of simulations or theoretical experiments is replacing these hands on experiments due to cost. Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden provide the opportunity for engineering students to remotely access the practical and theoretical knowledge advancement in experimental vibration analysis that is highly attractive for the industry. Remote laboratory exercises are to day a reality at BTH and are a complement to on-campus laboratory experiments, increasing the availability of the instruments. Previously vibration experiments have been conducted over the Internet at BTH, using experimental hardware located in a small closed laboratory. A further step towards a more user-friendly interface has been developed, increasing the feeling of being in front of a real instrument instead of a virtual front panel. This paper presents a new remote vibration laboratory and how remote experimental vibration analysis has been integrated in the engineering education as a complement to ordinary lessons and experiments in traditional laboratories.


This article examines Catholic theologian W.T. Cavanaugh's influential 1995 article, "A Fire Strong Enough to Consume the House." Here Cavanaugh asserts that the modern democratic, liberal state – in which the Church is largely privatized – is, at its basis, rooted in a rejection of Christian values. This rejection, Cavanaugh argues, legitimizes itself through a fraudulent historical argument: that political liberalism, with the "state as Savior," was necessary to bring peace between the warring factions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries "Wars of Religion." This article disagrees both with Cavanaugh's history and his political theology. Instead, it roots modern political liberalism in Christian history. The tragedy is that this political liberalism has loosed itself from its roots and forgotten its debt to the Church. Nevertheless, contrary to Cavanaugh, the article argues both for the legitimacy of the modern state and for the necessity of Christian participation in it.


Proximal peripheral nerve injuries often result in poor functional outcomes, chiefly because of the long time period between injury and the reinnervation of distal targets, which leads to muscle and Schwann cell atrophy. The supercharged end-to-side (SETS) nerve transfer is a recent technical innovation that introduces donor axons distally into the side of an injured nerve to rapidly innervate and support end organs while allowing for additional reinnervation after a proximal repair at the injury site. However, the mechanisms by which donor axons grow within the recipient nerve, contribute to muscle function, and impact the regeneration of native recipient axons are poorly understood. This uncertainty has slowed the transfer's clinical adoption. The primary objective of this article is to comprehensively review the mechanisms underpinning axonal regeneration and functional recovery after a SETS nerve transfer. A secondary objective is to report current clinical applications in the upper limb and their functional outcomes. The authors also propose directions for future research with the aim of maximizing the clinical utility of the SETS transfer for peripheral nerve surgeons and their patients.


In order to design the vibrator with the similar structure to military transport truck, which will be used in simulating transport environment and evaluating the transportation properties of the tested product, three-dimension model of overall structure of truck frame, crossbeams and floor is established with ADAMS/View based on multi-body dynamics theory and virtual prototyping technology. Post-processing of the simulation and analysis results is executed with ADAMS/Post Processor module with a military truck model in the study. According to the bump of vehicle during transport and the chassis vibration, the constraints, force and motion accord with the actual transport are put on the model. Vibration modes of all orders and the spectrum are gained and analyzed in detail. The results indicate that the simulation is consistent with the actual transport, which shows the simulation of the overall frame structure owns high credibility.


Humans possess explicit, rule-based, and culturally determined systems for identifying kin, but kinship inferences are also influenced implicitly by cue-based mechanisms found commonly across the animal kingdom. These mechanisms are fallible. An evolutionarily informed signal-detection analysis suggests that (a) cue-based kin recognition may sometimes be biased in favor of false-positive errors, resulting in implicit kinship inferences even in the presence of nonkin, and (b) the tendency toward this inferential error may vary predictably in response to specific developmental and contextual circumstances. This analysis has important implications for a wide variety of psychological phenomena (especially in the realms of person perception, interpersonal attraction, and prosocial behavior) and leads to the deduction of many novel hypotheses.


Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide (CGRP), amylin and Adrenomedullin (ADM) belong to a distinctive group of calcitonin (CGRP-α)/CGRP-β) family peptides that have related biological outcome owing to their structure and cross-reactivity between receptors. We recently reported that the level of immune reactive ADM is significantly up regulated in pregnant rats during early implantation period. Furthermore, infusion of ADM antagonist in pregnant rats causes uteroimplantation growth restriction. The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression and possible role of ADM in ACH-3P first trimester cell lines. ADM is localized in syncytiotrophoblast, cytotrophoblast and endothelial cells throughout human pregnancy. This study also established that ADM enhances the invasion and migration of first-trimesterACH-3P cells. The present work mainly concerned with the cell line analysis to investigate cytotoxicity extent determination by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The cell lines initially subjected to the MTT assay to determine the cytotoxicity effect of ADM22-52. DNA fragmentation is exposed by the presence of a multitude of DNA strand breaks in TUNEL assay by flow cytometric method. As a whole, the results from this study suggested that ADM have animperativerole in the physiology of human pregnancy via regulation of trophoblast invasion and migration.


Since 1990, the federal government has collected data on hate crimes reported throughout the United States. To date, the conventional account of that data has simply been to report that racial hate crimes are the most frequently reported type, followed by religious hate crimes, and sexual orientation hate crimes. While this conventional story is not technically wrong, I argue in this Article that it is not the real story the data tell. Undertaking the first comprehensive empirical analysis of this data, this Article develops a new account of hate crimes in the United States. First, the Article pierces the neutral categories (race, religion, sexual orientation) to demonstrate that three sub-groups - blacks, Jewish people, and gay people - report, by far, the most hate crimes. Second, I adjust the raw data to account for the differing population sizes of targeted groups: per capita, gay people report the greatest number of hate crimes, followed by Jewish people and blacks, these three groups reporting hate crimes at greater per capita rates then all other groups. Third, gay people are especially like to report personal - as opposed to property-based - hate crimes. A final section of the Article presents the first scholarly analysis of the staggering growth of anti-Islamic and anti-Arab hate crimes after September 11, 2001. The methodology of this Article enables a per capita perspective on this increase, showing that Muslims and Arabs reported hate crimes in 2001 at rates even greater than those at which gay people, Jewish people, and blacks have reported hate crimes over the past half-decade. While this post-9/11 spike leveled off in 2002, Muslims and Arabs are still reporting hate crimes at very high rates. As Congress intended hate crimes data to assist in designing public policy initiatives, the Article concludes by calling on Congress to respond to what the data actually demonstrate.


Today's convergent media industries readily produce stories that span multiple media, telling the tales of superheroes across comics, film and television, inviting audiences to participate in popular universes across cinema, the Web, and more. This transmedia storytelling phenomenon may be a common strategy in Hollywood's blockbuster fiction factory, tied up with ideas of digital marketing and fictional world-building, but transmediality has come to mean so much to so many different people, operating around the world as so much more than contemporary movie franchises.
This talk explores some of the alternative formations and functions of transmedia storytelling, both historically and globally. I consider how different cultures and nations around the world are now making new uses of transmediality, applying alternative modes of transmediality to the needs and structures of a given nation or re-thinking this phenomenon by reapplying it to cultural projects as a political and social strategy for informing and unifying communities. In particular, this talk focuses on the direct influence of political media regulation on transmedia storytelling in war-torn 1940s US, while also showing how the idea of transmediality has taken hold as a university-funded political system in historical and contemporary Colombia, understood and implemented as a tool for social change, one that can help Colombians reconstruct local communities after more than 50 years of armed conflict. Ultimately, I argue for the need to better understand the multiplicities and localities of how transmediality is funded in order to gauge its roles as a cultural, socio-political and industrial phenomenon.


Significance Using an interdisciplinary experimental approach grounded in behavioral economics and personality psychology, we identify an antisocial personality profile and examine its role across strategic contexts. Antisocial individuals exhibit a specific combination of behaviors and beliefs: they have a high propensity to betray others' trust and believe that others are like them, but if given a punishment opportunity, they impose very harsh sanctions on those who betray their trust. More generally, antisocial individuals show beliefs and behaviors that are consistent with the assumption that most others are as antisocial as they themselves are. How do fundamental concepts from economics, such as individuals' preferences and beliefs, relate to equally fundamental concepts from psychology, such as relatively stable personality traits? Can personality traits help us better understand economic behavior across strategic contexts? We identify an antisocial personality profile and examine the role of strategic context (the "situation"), personality traits (the "person"), and their interaction on beliefs and behaviors in trust games. Antisocial individuals exhibit a specific combination of beliefs and preferences that is difficult to reconcile with a rational choice approach that assumes that beliefs about others' behaviors are formed rationally and therefore, independently from preferences. Variations in antisocial personality are associated with effect sizes that are as large as strong variations in strategic context. Antisocial individuals have lower trust in others unless they know that they can punish them. They are also substantially less trustworthy, believe that others are like themselves, and respond to the possibility of being sanctioned more strongly, suggesting that they anticipate severe punishment if they betray their partner's trust. Antisocial individuals are not simply acting in their economic self-interest, because they harshly punish those who do not reciprocate their trust, although that reduces their economic payoff, and they do so nonimpulsively and in a very calculated manner. Antisocial individuals honor others' trust significantly less (if they cannot be punished) but also, harshly punish those who betray their trust. Overall, it seems that antisocial individuals have beliefs and behaviors based on a view of the world that assumes that most others are as antisocial as they themselves are.


Objectives Following appropriate validation, clinical prediction rules (CPRs) should undergo impact analysis to evaluate their effect on patient care. The aim of this systematic review is to narratively review and critically appraise CPR impact analysis studies relevant to primary care. Setting Primary care. Participants Adults and children. Intervention Studies that implemented the CPR compared to usual care were included. Study design Randomised controlled trial (RCT), controlled before–after, and interrupted time series. Primary outcome Physician behaviour and/or patient outcomes. Results A total of 18 studies, incorporating 14 unique CPRs, were included. The main study design was RCT (n=13). Overall, 10 studies reported an improvement in primary outcome with CPR implementation. Of 6 musculoskeletal studies, 5 were effective in altering targeted physician behaviour in ordering imaging for patients presenting with ankle, knee and neck musculoskeletal injuries. Of 6 cardiovascular studies, 4 implemented cardiovascular risk scores, and 3 reported no impact on physician behaviour outcomes, such as prescribing and referral, or patient outcomes, such as reduction in serum lipid levels. 2 studies examined CPRs in decision-making for patients presenting with chest pain and reduced inappropriate admissions. Of 5 respiratory studies, 2 were effective in reducing antibiotic prescribing for sore throat following CPR implementation. Overall, study methodological quality was often unclear due to incomplete reporting. Conclusions Despite increasing interest in developing and validating CPRs relevant to primary care, relatively few have gone through impact analysis. To date, research has focused on a small number of CPRs across few clinical domains only.


This research depicts how the phenomenon of Grindr app technology usage among the unknown Indonesian urban gay circle as an intimate communication. The group has received more attention recently due to attitude shift towards value and norm in the Indonesian society. This paper aims to: (1) describe the purpose of using Grindr app as a medium of communication among Indonesian urban gay men; (2) explore the awareness and meanings comprehended by gay men before and after intimate communication through Grindr app; (3) interpret the type of commitment made before and after being involved in intimate communication through Grindr . This is a qualitative research that employed phenomenon analysis method which aims to explore deeper understanding of a phenomenon through life experience. The research informants are selected using certain criteria, and six gays from two big cities in Indonesia, i.e. Jakarta and Medan, were selected. The data was collected through in-depth interview and literature study. To validate and keep this research to remain objective, data, theory and source triangulation were performed. The result of this research are as follows: (1) the main purpose of using Grindr apps is to gain pleasure and sexual contact; (2) the awareness construction and meanings which appear to a gay during the intimate communication through Grindr are for socializing and for mutual introduction; (3) the types of commitment made by the research informants before and after intimate communication through Grindr are open relationship and monogamy. Keywords: Intimate communication; Commitment; Open relationship; Gay; Grindr.


In her article "Ambiguity, Children, Representation, and Sexuality" Catharine Lumby considers current and historical scholarly and popular debates about the representation of children, including concerns about their sexualisation in such representations. The article begins by examining images taken by photographers in the Victorian era, including Charles Dodgson and Julia Cameron, and asks not only how the gaze of the photographer frames the child but how the child returns the adult gaze. Lumby seeks to problematize our understanding of the ways in which images "sexualize" children. Drawing on the work of James Kincaid, it examines discourses that frame children as, on one hand, naturally innocent, yet, on the other, as unnaturally corruptible. It explores how these discourses underpin current popular debates about the alleged sexualisation of children through amateur and commercial photography. Animating Lumby's argumentation are the questions: what draws us to images of children? What disturbs us about them? and what is at stake in the gaze of the child? Ultimately, Lumby argues that anxieties about representations of children are always located in anxieties about the ambiguity of the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. Catharine Lumby, "Ambiguity, Children, Representation, and Sexuality" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 12.4 (2010): Thematic Issue Ambiguity in Culture and Literature. Ed. Paolo Bartoloni and Anthony Stephens


Safety is very important aspects of construction projects which are the most hazardous endeavors have many work-related injuries and accidents. Accordingly, safety factors must be considered in project lifecycle from beginning of a project to its end. To improve project safety, the definition of safety factors and determination of their importance are necessary. In some of the previous researches several safety factors are introduced. In this paper, safety factors in construction project are reviewed and categorized as well as an exhaustive classified catalogue of critical safety factors in construction project which don't have unnecessary details is developed. The identification of the critical safety factors which are categorized in four main groups consists of safety approach, safety engineering, safety management and safety on construction site will enable appropriate allocation of limited resources.


We consider a wiretap channel consisting of a source with multiple antennas, a legitimate receiver and an eavesdropper with a single antenna each. The channels between the source and the receivers undergo fast fading. We assume that the transmitter, in addition to the statistics of both channels, is only aware of a noisy version of the CSI to the legitimate receiver referred to as main channel. The legitimate receiver is aware of both its instantaneous channel gain and the transmitter's estimate of the main channel. On the other hand, the eavesdropper's receiver, in addition to its instantaneous channel realization, is aware of the actual main CSI and the transmitter's estimate as well. While the capacity of this channel is still open even with perfect CSI at the transmitter, we provide in this paper upper and lower bounds on the secrecy capacity. The upper bound is tighter than the one corresponding to perfect main CSI and the gap between the two upper bounds is characterized in function of the channel estimation error variance, at high-SNR. Furthermore, we show that our upper and lower bounds coincide in the case of no main CSI providing a trivial secrecy capacity.


Alzheimer's ResearchAlzheimer's researchers have seen one promising therapy after another fail in late-stage clinical trials, raising doubts about the field's guiding hypothesis: that the accumulation of a protein fragment called β amyloid in the brain is a key step in the disease process that ultimately kills neurons and robs people of their memories and the ability to think clearly. Another interpretation, however, is that anti-amyloid therapies have so far disappointed because patients got them too late. If these same therapies were given before irreversible brain damage occurs, perhaps the disease could be prevented. Three new trials, expected to get under way next year with support from pharmaceutical companies, the National Institutes of Health, and private philanthropies, will be the sternest test yet for the amyloid hypothesis.


The development of specific Decision Support Systems has been a common practice in distinct areas, such as Medicine, Engineering, and Finance. These systems has been used to help decision making in particular situations, in which the information complexity difficult an optimal human decision. The idea of this work is to propose a general auxiliary system whose main objective is to assist the decision maker in the task of testing and implementing his particular project or plan. The prognostic about the best solution is made in accordance with important criteria (the criteria and alternatives are defined by the system user). That analysis will be performed with the support of a Fuzzy Multicriteria System. A Case Base Reasoning prototype module is also included as an important learning mechanism. The objective of this last module is to increase the level of assistance, making possible to the users recover past similar cases comparing with new situations presented. This paper presents the innovative combination of three important mechanisms in a graphical interactive system that helps the decision maker in all the decision process. The application's generality enables its employment in distinct fields, in accordance with the decision maker requirements.