Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has been previously conceptualized as an extreme variant of normal personality traits, captured by continuous indices. A previous study successfully developed and validated a self-report BPD measure, the Minnesota Borderline Personality Disorder Scale (MBPD). I conducted two studies aimed at providing further validation for this measure. Results from Study 1 (clinical sample of substance users) indicated that MBPD exhibited strong positive correlations with measures of convergent validity (self-report and diagnostic measures). Additionally, the MBPD showed similar correlations with external correlates as those of the convergent validity measures, in addition to incremental utility in predicting these external correlates above and beyond negative affect. Third, a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that diagnostic accuracy of the MBPD was excellent for differentiation between BPD and non-BPD individuals. Likewise, Study 2 (non-clinical sample of undergraduate students followed over 6 months) showed strong correlations with an index of convergent validity (self-report measure), similar correlations with external correlates as that of the convergent validity index, and incremental predictive utility. Finally, in this study, the MBPD exhibited high rank-order stability, but significant mean-level and individual-level change over time. These data suggests that these scales are measuring the same latent construct of BPD, providing further evidence for the construct validity of the MBPD.


The nature of the icy material accreted by comets during their formation in the outer regions of the protosolar nebula (PSN) is a major open question in planetary science. Some scenarios of comet formation predict that these bodies agglomerated from crystalline ices condensed in the PSN. Concurrently, alternative scenarios suggest that comets accreted amorphous ice originating from the interstellar cloud or from the very distant regions of the PSN. On the basis of existing laboratory and modeling data, we find that the N2/CO and Ar/CO ratios measured in the coma of the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis instrument on board the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft match those predicted for gases trapped in clathrates. If these measurements are representative of the bulk N2/CO and Ar/CO ratios in 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, it implies that the ices accreted by the comet formed in the nebula and do not originate from the interstellar medium, supporting the idea that the building blocks of outer solar system bodies have been formed from clathrates and possibly from pure crystalline ices. Moreover, because 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is impoverished in Ar and N2, the volatile enrichments observed in Jupiter's atmosphere cannot be explained solely via the accretion of building blocks with similar compositions and require an additional delivery source. A potential source may be the accretion of gas from the nebula that has been progressively enriched in heavy elements due to photoevaporation.


This article is set against the post-Mao official discourse on modernity, in which the conceptualization of a homogeneous, progressive time dominates the public consciousness. The focus is on Han Shaogong, one of the most important writers and cultural theorists in contemporary China, and on how he imagines a heterogeneous spatiotemporality away from the centralized and teleological paradigm. Han's emphasis on the heterogeneity of time and space puts the homogenized, Hegelian-Marxist, developmentalist logic at the core of China's modernization project into question. The article begins by examining how the linear and evolutionary concept of time has determined the perception of history and reality in modern China. It then moves to an exegesis of Han's famous literary treatise "The Roots of Literature," illustrating how Han's insistence on tracing multiple roots rather than one singular Root challenges the monocultural, essentialized notion of Chineseness that prevails hegemonically in the discussion of Chinese modernity. The last section analyzes Han's "Homecoming," a story centered on an educated youth's compulsive return to the village where he was rusticated. Moving beyond the conventional interpretation of identity crisis, the present study illuminates a different sense of time toward which Han gestures—a multi-directional and displaced temporality, to which the unconscious and the repressed both claim access.


In 2001 Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner introduced the bill that would eventually result in the Antitrust Modernization Commission. One of the three areas he suggested for review was the role of state attorneys general in enforcing antitrust laws, a concern prompted by the states' efforts in the Microsoft litigation. The AMC devoted substantial effort to this area, eventually adopting eight recommendations relating to state enforcement. None of these recommendations, however, proposed any real change in the status quo. In this paper I first review the options that the AMC considered. I argue that the Commission did not recommend cutting back state enforcement mainly because, after examining the data, it could find little indication that state enforcement has been problematic. I next argue that the modernization of state enforcement requires an effort to improve its effectiveness, something that was apparently not on the AMC's agenda. In this part of the paper I review some of the benefits of state enforcement and suggest that the effectiveness of state enforcement could be improved through greater centralization of the enforcement effort, more enforcement planning, and increased financial resources. The increased financial resources could be obtained through an amendment to Section 4E of the Clayton Act, requiring courts to distribute to the states, for use in their enforcement efforts, part of the monetary recovery in parens patriae cases.


The distribution of Ca2+ and Na+ conductances on neuronal precursor cells was investigated during differentiation. Ionic conductances on the soma or on the growth cone were isolated by superfusing all other parts of the cells with sucrose. Conductances on the neuritic shaft were detected as additional conductances after removing sucrose from the neuritis shaft. Neuronal precursor cells were isolated from chick dorsal root ganglia by selectively killing differentiated neurons. Cultured precursor cells differentiated into morphological and functional mature neurons. Functionally undifferentiated precursor cells (during the first 10 hr in culture) expressed only low-voltage- activated (LVA) Ca2+ currents. High-voltage-activated (HVA) Ca2+ and Na+ currents appeared delayed after more than 10 hr in culture. Voltage- dependent conductances, if expressed by a cell, were present on all parts of the surface membrane at all stages of differentiation. LVA Ca2+ conductances were well represented on the growth cone as well as on the soma in functionally undifferentiated precursor cells. During differentiation of precursor cells, LVA Ca2+ and HVA Ca2+ as well as Na+ conductances were expressed on the somatic membrane, on the neuritic shaft, and on the growth cone. These results demonstrate the expression of Ca2+ channels on growth cones during differentiation.


An individual planning agent does not generally have sufficient computational resources at its disposal to produce an optimal plan in a complex domain, as deliberation itself requires and consumes scarce resources. This problem is further exacerbated in a distributed planning context in which multiple, heterogeneous agents must expend a portion of their resource allotment on communication, negotiation, and shared planning activities with other cooperative agents. Because other agents can have different temporal grain sizes, planning horizons, deadlines, and access to distinct local information, the delays associated with local deliberation and, in turn, shared negotiation are asynchronous, unpredictable, and widely variable. We address this problem using a principled, decisiontheoretic approach based on recent advances in Generalized Semi-Markov Decision Processes (GSMDPs). In particular, we use GSMDPs to model agents who develop a continuous-time deliberation policy offline which can then be consulted to dynamically select both deliberation-level and domain-level actions at plan execution time. This scheme allows individual agents to model other cooperative agents' actions essentially as asynchronous events, e.g., that might or might not fulfill a request (uncertain effect) after a stochasticallydetermined delay (uncertain event duration). With this approach, the decision-theoretic planner for the individual agent can make near-optimal execution-time decisions that trade off the risks and opportunities associated with their own actions, other agents' actions, and asynchronous external threats.


Good medical writing is like good writing in any discipline: the writer should explain complex concepts and ideas clearly and accurately and engage the reader. In this article, I provide four suggestions to help clarify writing on complex subjects: avoiding nominalizations, using language precisely, using parallel construction, and placing information where readers expect to find it. Applying these principles to science and medical writing can help readers understand difficult concepts more easily the first time they read your document.


Viewing constitutional law from a global perspective informs us about trends and concurrences that might otherwise go unnoticed. The main focus for this paper is how a new European legal tradition is being forged from two of the most influential Western traditions, the common and civil law. The term hybridization is used to refer to this phenomenon whereby there is convergence between different legal systems. This does not necessarily alter national sovereignty or substitute one system over another. It cannot be measured by success or failure of one legal system over another. It is a common sharing that is best understood through an understanding of the constitutional and legal culture of different countries. In the first instance this hybridization was driven by private law. This has now given way to a European Administrative Law with important constitutional consequences, particularly for the role of courts and institutions. The hybridisation process in the European Union provides an important example for comparative law. The Treaty of Lisbon is the most recent manifestation of how convergence of legal systems in 27 Member States may be achieved while maintaining elements of national and legal sovereignty at the level of the Member State. It holds lessons for the study of constitutional law and its analysis in a global environment. Human rights similarly may provide an overarching framework that permits hybridization while retaining national societal influences. In that context Japan is a useful case study that similarly shows how adaptation may be accommodated through importing different legal systems while retaining national cultural and societal attitudes. Hybridization requires legal transfers to be studied but equally to recognise the constitutional, legal and cultural consequences of change. * Professor of Law, University of Warwick. MCELDOWNEY.DOC 5/14/2010 9:17:02 AM 328 PENN STATE INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 28:3


measures of strategic power into more comprehensible terms. " The study examines the full range of effects that nuclear war would have on civilians: direct effects from blast and radiation; and indirect effects f rom economic , social , and pol i t icai disrupt ion. Part icular at tent ion is devoted to the ways in which the impact of a nuclear war would extend over time. Two of the study's principal findings are that conditions would continue to get worse for some time after a nuclear war ended, and that the effects of nuclear war that cannot be calculated in advance are at least as important as those which analysts attempt to quantify. This report provides essential background for a range of issues relating to strategic weapons and foreign policy. It translates what is generally known about the effects of nuclear weapons into the best available estimates about the impact on society if such weapons were used. It calls attention to the very wide range of impacts that nuclear weapons would have on a complex industrial society, and to the extent of uncertainty regarding these impacts. Several years ago, OTA convened a panel of distinguished scientists to examine the effects of a limited nuclear war. The report and testimony of that panel, which were published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, remain valid. That panel recommended that a more thorough and comprehensive study of the effects of nuclear war be undertaken. This study is


A a Small mutual funds once flourished in nineteenth century Europe and North America. They still abound in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In recent years they have come back to European and North American cities with the immigrants from the global South. Some of the small mutual savings funds use the accumulated sums to provide financial assistance to members in distress and thus fulfil an insurance function. Others make loans regardless of their members' individual needs, in which case it is the savings or credit function that predominates. In this volume, five authors describe and analyse the results of their fieldwork among mutual fund members in Hyderabad, Yogyakarta, Ayelitsa (a township near Cape Town), among Surinamese in both Paramaribo (Suriname) and Amsterdam, as well as among Senegalese Peul who migrate from Tilonge to Dakar and on to Paris. The studies are based on field observations and personal interviews. The two editors, Abram de Swaan and Marcel van der Linden, provide a common comparative approach, and a shared historical and theoretical perspective. The essays explore the varieties and the logic of mutual funds, emphasizing the importance of peer pressures as a 'social constraint' to increase 'self constraint' on spending. Cooperation in a mutual fund, whether for insurance or saving purposes, can proffer the participants advantages which they can not realize on their own.


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This is the fascinating story of one of the world's most admired and enduring motorcycle companies. Early in the last century, driven by an obsession for quality and reliability, BMW applied the knowledge gained from its manufacture of airplane engines to build a breed of motorcycles that aimed a notch above the crowd. From its early racing victories, the company learned how to make tough, reliable machines that would win races - and allow motorcyclists to go anywhere in the world with confidence. The book details the history of BMW Motorrad, from its inception in 1917 to the present. During its life, the company has endured wars, post-war restrictions on its production, world recessions, and intense competition from formidable Japanese manufacturers. But in spite of the fierce marketplace in which it operates, the company has survived and flourished, owing in no small part to the deeply ingrained principles that have guided the company from its beginning: a passion for quality and reliability, and a willingness to apply new motorcycle technologies to achieve those objectives. BMW of the twenty-first century is a company whose pace of innovation and new product introductions is stunning.


Abstract Personal ornaments from the sepulchral cave of Gro&bgr;e Ofnet (Germany): implications for the social organisation of the last Swabian Mesolithic societies. The Gro&bgr;e Ofnet head burials have been interpreted as evidence of interpersonal violence within the last Mesolithic societies of Western Europe. This study aims to characterize mobility and territoriality of the last hunter -gatherers in order to understand their social organization. We submit the personal ornaments associated with the head burial to taphonomic, archaeozoological, technological, morphometric, and functional analyses in the aim to document the variability in raw material procurement, bead manufacture, length of use, and mortuary practices. Our results indicate complex acquisition patterns of the ornaments, including multidirectional exchange networks. Homogeneity in the bead manufacture suggests contacts between contemporaneous groups that shared the same technical traditions. Distributions of ornaments associated with each skull and use-wear patterns indicate an intergenerational transmission of the beads. We conclude that the last Swabian Mesolithic groups maintained active networks by perpetuating exchanges across large areas. Previous works have interpreted hostile intergroup relationship as evidence of a decrease in their mobility. Our results highlight that, in the case of Ofnet, such a reduction in mobility can be largely counterbalanced by the perpetuation of large scale exchange networks.


Abstract This article contributes to ongoing public and scholarly debates about evangelical social engagement in the United States. I illustrate that, for some conservative evangelical men, activism is fused to the cultural construction of masculinity. My central argument is that, despite becoming invested in 'new' acts of social engagement, these conservative evangelicals continue to rely on a familiar cultural script that uses individualist logics, rather than structural logics, to address social problems. My primary example is a relatively recent men's movement, Acts29, and its commitment to anti-human trafficking campaigns. This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork and textual data collected between January 2009 and March 2011.


The aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT) is a basic‐helix‐loop‐helix/Per‐ ARNT‐Sim (bHLH/PAS) transcription factor that is involved in multiple signaling pathways. This study focuses on the tissue distribution and subcellular localization of ARNT during embryological development of the mouse and chicken. Two different species were chosen to determine the consistency of the ARNT staining pattern. Immunohistochemical techniques were used to stain sections of embryos over three developmental time points for each species. Mouse tissues evaluated from embryonic day 10.5, 12.5, and 15, exhibited predominant nuclear staining with little change in expression patterns over time. Chicken tissues evaluated from embryonic day 2, 4, and 10 also showed predominant nuclear staining within all cells and little change in expression over developmental time, as well as, low levels of cytoplasmic ARNT staining in some cells. Importantly, in all tissues, the level of ARNT staining within the nuclear compartment was greater than staining observed in the cytoplasm. Thus, the overall conclusions from these studies are that i) the predominant subcellular localization of ARNT protein is nuclear, and ii) that mouse and chicken appear to maintain ARNT protein expression in many cell types over developmental time. These data support vertebrate ARNT as a nuclear transcription factor and a model in which dimerization partners require nuclear localization for interaction. Anat Rec 260:327–334, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The performance of a fiber Bragg grating strain sensor constructed with 3 $\times$ 3 coupler is investigated. A 3 $\times$ 3 coupler Mach-Zehnder (M/Z) interferometer is used as wavelength discriminator, interrogating strain-induced Bragg wavelength shifts. Two quadrature-phase-shifted intensities are synthesized from the as-coupled interferometer outputs, and digital arctangent demodulation and phase unwrapping algorithm are applied to extract the phase information proportional to strain. Due to the linear relation between the input strain and the output of quadrature signal processing, signal-fading problems eliminated. In the experiment, a fiber grating that was surface adhered on an aluminum beam was strained in different ways, and the photodetector signals were transferred and processed in a computer-controlled processing unit. A phase recovery fo 7.8 $\pi$ pk-pk excursion, which corresponds to ~650 $\mu$ strain pk-pk of applied strain, was demonstrated. The sensor system was stable over the environmental intensi쇼 perturbations because of the self-referencing effect in the demodulation process.


Purpose: To evaluate the content of trace elements in Galium incanum SM. subsp. centrale Ehrend. Methods: The air-dried aerial parts of the plant material were used and its water extract (2 % w/v infusion) was analysed for trace elements using x-ray fluorescence (XRF ) spectrometry. Results: The aqueous extract depicted significant concentrations of macro- and micro-nutrients with heavy metal and metal oxide content of 4.07 - 6.02 and 3.19 - 4.01 % for powdered plant material and water extract, respectively. The contents of Ca (22840 ppm) and K (8204 ppm) were the highest among all the elements while Zn (45.9 ppm) and Fe (328 ppm) were also detected in significant amounts. Zn, Mn and Cu showed the highest content while those of Mg, Al, K, Ca, Fe and P lowest in the water extract. Conclusion: The presence of significant levels of Ca, K, Na, Fe, Zn, Mg, Mn and Cu in G. incanum subsp. centrale showed that this plant has notable nutrient elements. The traditional use of Gallium species as a diuretic may be attributed to its rich content of potassium.


ABSTRACT China has been making efforts to establish a universal health care coverage system through multiple social health insurance schemes. As these insurance schemes cover different populations with different financing and reimbursement levels, large disparities remain in health care access and health outcomes among people covered. The government has launched an urban-rural integration policy for social health insurance to reduce disparities in access and health outcomes. We adopt a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach to estimate the effects of this integration policy on health care utilization, financial risk protection, and health status, using nationally representative Chinese household survey data. The results show that the integration policy has significantly improved financial risk protection and self-assessed health of rural residents in China, which could be attributed to a decline in out-of-pocket payment. The low-income rural residents benefit most from this policy. There is no evidence that it has pronounced effects among urban residents. Greater efforts to increase reimbursement rates and to expand beneficiary populations could help to mitigate remaining urban-rural disparities. The findings in this study would contribute to a better understanding of the impacts of health insurance expansion in low- and middle-income countries. JEL code: I18, I10


A model is developed for the rheology of a three-phase suspension of bubbles and particles in a Newtonian liquid undergoing steady flow. An `effective-medium' approach is adopted, which treats the bubbly liquid as a continuous medium which suspends the particles. The resulting three-phase model combines separate two-phase models for bubble suspension rheology and particle suspension rheology, which are taken from the literature. The model is validated against new experimental data for three-phase suspensions of bubbles and spherical particles, collected in the low bubble capillary number regime. Good agreement is found across the experimental range of particle volume fraction (0 ≤ φp ≤ 0.5) and bubble volume fraction (0 ≤ φb ≤ 0.3). Consistent with model predictions, experimental results demonstrate that adding bubbles to a dilute particle suspension at low capillarity increases its viscosity, whilst adding bubbles to a concentrated particle suspension decreases its viscosity. The model accounts for particle anisometry and is easily extended to account for variable capillarity, and bubbles which are larger than the particles, but has not been experimentally validated for these cases. This model is a significant step forward, because it allows the viscosity of many magmas and lavas - which typically contain both crystals and bubbles - to be calculated more accurately.

The model is then used to explain three volcanological problems. Firstly, it is proposed that in a jammed magma mush, the pervasive formation and growth of bubbles of magmatic gas can push the crystals apart, unjamming the mush. Further bubble growth would then lead to a dramatic reduction in viscosity. This concept is tested using analogue suspensions, and it is demonstrated that the growth of bubbles alone is sufficient to mobilize an initially jammed particle suspension. Secondly, lava morphologies found in the crystal-rich 1780 flow field on Volcan Llaima, Chile, are described. Within the 1780 flow field, occur: well-developed `a`ā, with broad, leveed channels; well-developed pāhoehoe; slabby pāhoehoe with transitions to and from `a`ā; and a cluster of features that have been termed "`a`ā mounds", which are interpreted to be higher viscosity analogues of rootless shields found on Hawai'i, and comparable to megatumuli and terraces found on Mount Etna. It is proposed that this crystal-rich lava was able to flow as pāhoehoe because bubbles lowered its viscosity. Thirdly, a recent lava flow from Kīlauea is analysed, and the various factors that control viscosity quantified. These include bubble and crystal fractions, crystal shapes, and dissolved volatile contents. These factors are then used to understand down-flow changes in morphology. In each of these volcanological problems, understanding the three-phase rheology is important for understanding the problem, and the related flow behaviour and hazards.


The Journal of Religious Studies of the University of Chitral (UOCHJRS) is a tri-lingual peer- reviewed publication that brings out thoughtful original research of interdisciplinary nature with a focus on various inter-related areas of religious studies and theology. While aiming at scholarly study of Islam and the Muslim world it covers all other areas of knowledge ranging from history to developmental science apart from dealing with ethical questions. It tends to make an in-depth inquiry into Islam and provide a forum to global Muslim societies by promoting diffusion, exchange, discussion of research findings and interaction among academics from various areas of learning. It pursues an approach where scholars from different Schools of Thought can contribute towards promotion of common grounds and seeks to encourage interfaith and Intra-faith understanding which will eventually bring harmony in the society.


This paper outlines steps in adapting and improving methods to successfully manage large-scale cognitive pretesting of multilingual survey instruments. The study is based on a U.S. Census Bureau project that pretested the Chinese and Korean translation of the American Community Survey (ACS) Language Assistance Guide (LAG). By following a systematic process and guided by sociolinguistic research framework, we were successful in adapting the methodology in the current literature. Furthermore, we added and implemented the following steps in the process: conducting a systematic translation review process prior to cognitive testing, using a systematic method to identify and recruit non-English speakers, adopting a consistent method to report results, and implementing a project management approach to control and monitor the progress of interviewing. These steps proved to be advantageous and effective in managing a large-scale multilingual pretesting project.


Current technology has an important role in many areas, offering numerously possibilities and activities, which were considered traditionally in the past, now can be found on the web.
Is already known that we are living in a digital era, where society needs contributed to technological developments and created a more accessible and usable web.
Basically we can say that e-learning is a strategy for making information and knowledge in a certain domain more accessible. E-learning represents a way for fast delivering of knowledge and is helping us learning anything, anywhere and anytime.
In year 2003, Derek Stockley defined the e-learning as "the delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic means. E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to provide training, educational or learning material. "
As the technology is evolving day by day, also the e-learning needs to evolve in order to keep up.
Web and semantic technologies are a very complex and abstract domain, being very adaptable in any field, like IT, business or banking and they are regarded as an advantage. Currently, the idea of web and semantic technologies has spread greatly and the newest version is web 3.0.
Web 3.0 appeared because people need to optimize the relationship between the user and the web environment.
The new web 3.0 facilitates the using of electronic media in e-learning environment, providing a more flexible integration approach. Semantic technology offers the possibility for the machine to understand human requirements, using semantic structures. The evolution of web and semantic technologies, highlight the advantages of using those in e-learning.
The potential of semantic technologies is applied on e-learning and used to provide great quality education. It can be said that e-learning is depending on semantic technologies.
The new web 3.0 and semantic technologies are applied in e-Learning, offering benefits and improvements for the e-learning environment.


Naturally-occurring iron nanoparticles constitute a quantitatively-important and biogeochemically-active component of the broader Earth ecosystem. Yet detailed insights into their chemical speciation is sparse compared to the body of work conducted on engineered Fe nanoparticles. The present contribution briefly reviews the analytical approaches that can be used to characterize natural Fe nanoparticles, before detailing a dedicated synchrotron-based X-ray spectro-microscopic investigation into the speciation of suspended Fe nanoparticles collected from fluvial, marine, and lacustrine surface waters. Ferrous, ferric and magnetite classes of Fe nanoparticles (10–100 nm) were identified, and all three classes exhibited a high degree of heterogeneity in the local bonding environment around the Fe center. The heterogeneity is attributed to the possible presence of nanoparticle aggregates, and to the low degrees of crystallinity and ubiquitous presence of impurities (Al and organic moieties) in natural samples. This heterogeneity further precludes a spectroscopic distinction between the Fe nanoparticles and the larger sized Fe-rich particles that were evaluated. The presented results provide an important baseline for natural nanoparticle speciation in pristine aquatic systems, highlight the degree of inter-particle variability, which should be parameterized in future accurate biogeochemical models, and may inform predictions of the fate of released engineered Fe nanoparticles as they evolve and transform in natural systems.


Biochar's high porosity and negative surface charge allows for numerous soil and plant benefits such as increased water retention, high nutrient availability, and plant growth. By analysing biochar's effect of all of these factors, a system can be put in place in which soils can be remediated with the proper soil amendments. This report discusses and tests the effects of varying rates of biochar on pH levels, cation exchange capacity, and nutrient exchangeability (of calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium) in soil. Corn plants were also grown in soils of varying amendment types and analysed for plant growth and germination to determine soil effects on the plant. Testing showed significant differences between treatment types in all areas tested except plant germination. A 2:1 ratio of biochar to compost produced the best overall results for the soil used in testing. This treatment maintained acceptable levels of exchangeable nutrients while raising pH and cation exchange capacity, and also raised the plant growth in the soil by 30%. However, for added soil health, gypsum or calcium fertilizer should be added to the soil to remediate low calcium exchangeability. This testing confirmed that biochar does have a strong positive influence on soil and plant health when used in combination with compost. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in diabetic liver disease development. Diabetes impairs complex I activity and increases ROS production in liver mitochondria. The complex I produces ROS in forward electron transfer (FET) or in reverse electron transfer (RET) modes depending on the site of electron transfer blocking and the availability of respiratory substrates. Complex I activity depends on the phospholipid cardiolipin and the redox state of reactive thiols in the enzyme. Neither the underlying factors leading to complex I dysfunction nor the mode of ROS production have been elucidated in liver mitochondria in diabetes. We tested in liver mitochondria from streptozotocin (STZ) -induced diabetic rats if the addition of cardiolipin or β-mercaptoethanol, a thiol reducing agent, recovers complex I activity and decreases ROS production with substrates inducing ROS production in FET or RET modes. Decreased complex I activity and enhanced ROS generation in FET mode was detected in mitochondria from diabetic rats. Complex I activity was fully restored with the combined treatment with cardiolipin plus β-mercaptoethanol, which also abated ROS generation in FET mode. This suggest that therapies restoring cardiolipin and reducing mitochondrial thiols might be useful to counteract impaired complex I activity and excessive ROS production in liver mitochondria in diabetes.


Windy areas, waterfalls, reservoirs, high tide locations are extremely helpful for generating clean and economical electrical energy by proper harnessing mechanism. Throughout the globe in last three to four decades generation of electricity out of these renewable sources has created wide interest. Induction generators are widely preferable in wind farms because of its brushless construction, robustness, low maintenance requirements and self protection against short circuits. However poor voltage and frequency regulation and low power factor are its weaknesses. The magnitude of terminal voltage and frequency is completely governed by the rotor speed, excitation and load. The mutual inductance plays a vital role in building up of the terminal voltage. Apart from modeling a self excited induction generator, this thesis carried out a detailed dynamic analysis of self excited induction generator to analyze the effect of speed, excitation capacitance, and mutual inductance on dynamic power variations and frequency of power exchange and on torque variations. A V/f scalar voltage control scheme utilizing an IGBT based sinusoidal pulse width modulated inverter is simulated without load and with load to know the effect of proportional gain of PI controller on the shape of ac side current and on its frequency, simultaneously extracting the information on dynamic active power and reactive power variations for a fixed prime mover speed. As wind speed is continuously varying, the V/f scalar control scheme is simulated for a continuously varying wide range of prime mover speed. The generated constant ac voltage source is useful to frequency insensitive loads like lighting, heating. The available dc voltage across the DC link capacitor could be used to charge batteries and for further extension to a fixed frequency load, after being converted to ac source of same frequency using another converter.


The Chandigarh City of India is known for its urban parks, gardens and well planned landscaping. In a research case study undertaken during 2002-2006, an assessment about the annual recreational value of this city's urban greenery was made by using travel cost method on the domestic tourists. The consumer surplus per visit enjoyed by domestic tourists was estimated. Governments in developing countries are generally facing resource crunch for the maintenance of existing parks/gardens and for the creation of new ones. A mechanism of charging a proper entrance fee for the city's parks and gardens has been discussed by meaningfully utilising this consumer surplus on one hand and revenue generation for the local administration, on the other. The results of the study would be useful for green space and urban land use planning as well as for overall sustainable urban development.


The term "geopolymer" was introduced by Davidovits in the 1970s. The prefix "geo" was selected to symbolize the constitutive relationship of the binders to geological materials, natural stone and/or minerals. Geopolymer is mineral polymers of inorganic polymer glasses with structure resembling natural zeolitic materials. Previously, geopolymer formation used source materials such as clay (e.g. kaolin and calcined kaolin) or industrial by-product (e.g. slag and fly ash). The precursor material plays an important role in the formation of geopolymer. The source material provides silicon (Si) and aluminum (Al) for reaction by an alkali activator solution. The Si and Al contents in the source materials dissolve in the alkaline activator solution and then polymerize to form a polymeric Si-O-Al-O framework which becomes the binder. Geopolymeric materials are attractive because of their excellent mechanical properties; durability and thermal stability can also be achieved. Owing to their low calcium content, they are more resistant to acid attack than materials based on Portland cement. In addition, they are of great interest because of the reduced energy requirement for their manufacture and the higher sustainability. Recently the search for alternative low cost and easily available materials led among oth- ers to Clay. Clay generally consists of a mixture of different clay minerals and associated minerals, which are strongly affected by the nature of the parent rocks. These materials are extensively distributed over the surface of the world and may show certain reac tivity after a thermal activation process shows a great potential to be utilized in geo- polymer technology. This article presents the potential of different types of clay as the source materials for geopolymerization reaction in terms of morphological properties. Moreover, the mechanical and microstructural properties of geopolymer made with various kinds of clay and its potential application are also presented.


Understanding the Deccan Trap Large Igneous Province in western India is important for deciphering the India–Seychelles rifting mechanism. This book presents 13 studies that address the development of this province from diverse perspectives including field structural geology, geochemistry, analytical modelling, geomorphology and geophysics (e.g., palaeomagnetism, gravity and magnetic anomalies, and seismic imaging). Together, these papers indicate that the tectonics of Deccan is much more complicated than previously thought. Key findings include: the Deccan province can be divided into several blocks; the existence of a rift-induced palaeo-slope; constraints on the eruption period; rift–drift transition mechanisms determined for magma-rich systems; the tectonic role of the Deccan or Réunion plumes; sub-surface structures reported from boreholes; the delineation of the crust–mantle structure; the documentation of sub-surface tectonic boundaries; post-Deccan-Trap basin inversion; deformed dykes around Mumbai, and also from the eastern part of the Deccan Traps, documented in the field.


This thesis investigates the ecology of benthic macroinvertebrates inhabiting rivers in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region, and covered the countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. In these countries, river monitoring focuses mainly on physical and chemical
parameters, pollutants, and other human toxic substances. Only in parts of India and Nepal biological monitoring is applied using the ASPT (Armitage et al. 1983) adapted to the indigenous rivers. In none of the countries exists a comprehensive assessment method to evaluate rivers as ecosystems, which are mainly ruled by various anthropogenic influences. In addition, the knowledge of benthic macroinvertebrates for biological monitoring purposes is still incomplete. On this perceived need, two objectives become central issues of this the-
sis. 1. The thesis introduces an approach to obtain information about substrate and current preferences of benthic invertebrates for river assessment in regions where knowledge is scarce. A substrate specific sampling of 271 reference sites was conducted located in the lower mountains and the lowland areas. Statistical data analysis revealed significant substrate and current preferences for 50 taxa of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Odonata, Mollusca, and Oligochaeta. On basis on the preferences four metrics were developed. The metric Lithal comprises 34 taxa with significant preferences for stony substrates (fine gravel size to bedrock size). Metric Lithophil contains 21 taxa with strong linkage to stones but also found at other substrates. Metric Lithobiont consists of 13
taxa exclusively found at stones. Metric Lotic consists of 11 taxa with significant preferences for moderate to faster current velocities. From these four metrics Lithal, Lithophil and Lotic
are able to detect the impact of hydromorphological degradation. A 20 point system was developed to allocate scores for substrate and current preferences of taxa. Seven taxa of Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera reveal low ecological potential to habitat alteration.
2. An assessment system was developed based on benthic invertebrates. 198 sites, located in 5 different ecoregions and covering degradation gradients, were sampled twice (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon) applying a multi-habitat sampling procedure. Out of 38 environmental parameters we constructed complex PCA gradients, separately for the stressors organic pollution, eutrophication, floodplain land-use and hydromorphological degradation. Correlation analysis between invertebrate metrics and environmental parameters revealed candidate metrics, which are most responsive to river deterioration and
from which redundant metrics were deleted and robust metrics were selected. The range of the index under reference conditions was defined and a 5-class river quality system was generated.


Genomewide linkage analysis has been extremely successful at identification of the genetic variation underlying single-gene disorders. However, linkage analysis has been less successful for common human diseases and other complex traits in which multiple genetic and environmental factors interact to influence disease risk. We hypothesized that a highly heritable complex trait, in which the contribution of environmental factors was relatively limited, might be more amenable to linkage analysis. We therefore chose to study stature (adult height), for which heritability is approximately 75%-90% (Phillips and Matheny 1990; Carmichael and McGue 1995; Preece 1996; Silventoinen et al. 2000). We reanalyzed genomewide scans from four populations for which genotype and height data were available, using a variance-components method implemented in GENEHUNTER 2.0 (Pratt et al. 2000). The populations consisted of 408 individuals in 58 families from the Botnia region of Finland, 753 individuals in 183 families from other parts of Finland, 746 individuals in 179 families from Southern Sweden, and 420 individuals in 63 families from the Saguenay-Lac-St.-Jean region of Quebec. Four regions showed evidence of linkage to stature: 6q24-25, multipoint LOD score 3.85 at marker D6S1007 in Botnia (genomewide P<.06), 7q31.3-36 (LOD 3.40 at marker D7S2195 in Sweden, P<.02), 12p11.2-q14 (LOD 3.35 at markers D12S10990-D12S398 in Finland, P<.05) and 13q32-33 (LOD 3.56 at markers D13S779-D13S797 in Finland, P<.05). In a companion article (Perola et al. 2001 [in this issue]), strong supporting evidence is obtained for linkage to the region on chromosome 7. These studies suggest that highly heritable complex traits such as stature may be genetically tractable and provide insight into the genetic architecture of complex traits.


Hydrothermally synthesized electrically conductive perovskite strontium ruthenate (SrRuO3) nanoparticles were added into a binder solution and then cast onto fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass to form a mesoporous SrRuO3 counter electrode (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The high porosity and large specific surface area of the SrRuO3 CE allows easier and faster diffusion of electrolyte into the pores and involves more triiodide (I3−) in the redox reaction, thereby resulting in a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE, 7.16%) than that of our published research on sputtered SrRuO3 film CEs (6.48%). Furthermore, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) endowed with excellent intrinsic catalytic activity and high conductivity were decorated onto the SrRuO3 CE by a dipping technique to form a SRO–GQD hybrid. The synergistic effect of SrRuO3 and GQDs contributes to more active catalytic sites as well as faster ion diffusion and electron transfer than a pristine SrRuO3 CE, thereby resulting in increased electrocatalytic ability towards I3− reduction. As a result, our fabricated DSSCs based on the optimized SRO–GQD CE achieve an impressive PCE of 8.05%, much higher than that of the reference device assembled with a conventional platinum (Pt) CE (7.44%). The SRO–GQD CE also exhibits an excellent long-term electrochemical stability in I3−/I− electrolyte. Overall, the SRO–GQD hybrid can be considered as a highly efficient Pt-free CE for practical applications of DSSCs.


Quench sensitivity in two Al-Mg-Si alloys, one Cu-free and the other with low Cu additions (~0.1 wt%), both having the same amounts of other solutes, has been investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and corresponding material hardness. A two stage hardness evolution during an isothermal heat treatment was observed with slow cooling after solution heat treatment. This effect was less pronounced in the Cu-added alloy. However maximum hardness was not influenced by cooling rate, which could be related to higher precipitate number densities and volume fractions. Both alloys were over-aged faster in the slow cooling conditions.


In this thesis, after a general introduction, we first review some differential geometry to provide the mathematical background needed to derive the key equations in cosmology. Then we consider the Robertson-Walker geometry and its relationship to cosmography, i.e., how one makes measurements in cosmology. We finally connect the Robertson-Walker geometry to Einstein's field equation to obtain so-called cosmological Friedmann-Lemaitre models. These models are subsequently studied by means of potential diagrams.


This research aims at exploring the errors made by Arab Postgraduate Students at USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) in Malaysia in the use of prepositions and adverb particles, as speakers of English as a second language (ESL) from a performance analysis perspective. More specifically, this study was an attempt to investigate the frequency, kind and any developmental tendencies of these errors. The results of this research revealed that Arab ESL speakers committed varied kinds of errors in the use of prepositions and adverb particles. The number of the errors in the use of prepositions and adverb particles were analyzed and conclusions were produced based on the nature of error. Analysis of the corpus revealed that errors made were, mainly, based on the function and replacement of the prepositions and adverb particles. This study is a qualitative study.


Alteration of flow regimes due to change in climate and its potential impact on habitat and species has become a major cause of concern for riverine ecosystems. Areas that are more vulnerable to such changes are semiarid river systems or regions experiencing intermittent flow and cyclic droughts. Although ecological changes are expected to occur with flow regime alterations, the biological changes cannot be predicted until the flow in such regions is analysed. This study addresses this concern by providing an analysis of flow for a semiarid river basin in the Central Great Plains from a 50 and 100‐year projection climate data. The projected data for these two periods are then compared with 30‐year historical data to determine changes in flow. Five major components of flow regime, magnitude, duration, and timing of annual extreme water conditions, frequency and duration of high and low pulses, and rate and frequency of water condition changes, were examined with respect to climate change for their impact on the ecology of the basin. This analysis strongly suggests that inter‐ and intra‐annual changes in flow regimes will result in the intensified drying of the basin represented by the increased number of low flow periods followed by higher occurrences of high flow events of shorter duration with expected changes in climate.


The novel international legal regime of the rights and status of indigenous peoples has emerged in direct response to the concerted efforts and demands of indigenous communities regarding the survival and the flourishing of their distinct cultures. Its high point, as of yet, has been the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, now enjoying virtually universal support. This article locates the regime of the Declaration within post-World War II value-oriented international law; it highlights its novel, essentially communal rights to culture, self-determination, and land; and it assesses its content within existing sources of international law. It ends with an appraisal of the progress made, and an evaluation of the challenges ahead.


This paper outlines some of the ways I and my research were defined by Bamu speakers living at Kamusi, the headquarters of the Wawoi Guavi logging concession in the Western Province of PNG. These definitions often involved stories about Mesede and other great Bamu ancestors. The stories about Mesede outlined Bamu experiences of colonial and post-colonial development and suggested that Mesede had the power to transform the Bamu's current poverty and marginalisation. The possibility that Mesede could institute a new epoch of development was linked to the Bamu's ability to maintain inalienable ties with Mesede despite his removal overseas. Mesede's story also required me to acknowledge, and productively respond to, past appropriations by Australians, and others, of Mesede. His history placed me in a project of im/possible reciprocity that should have involved me in returning Mesede to his rightful place.


The opening chapters of the thesis illustrate, with the help of authentic documents, details of Dancourt's biography both from the point of view of his domestic life and his career at the Comedie Francaise. Then follows a study of his prologues from which we gain an insight into his dramatic theories and aspects of life in the contemporary theatre. Chapter IV offers a review of Dancourt's complete works, and traces his evolution in choice of subject-matter and manner of presentation. His plays are studied in relation to a wide variety of dramatic works his predecessors and contemporaries. Chapter V concerns that part of Dancourt's work which is devoted to topics of contemporary interest. These include his satire of certain individuals, his exploitation of contemporary events and his satire of rival forms of entertainment. All these points are treated with reference to the relevant historical, social and literary background. The next two chapters centre around the 'social' content of Dancourt's plays which dramatize the manners of fashionable Parisian society, both aristocratic and bourgeois. These plays are explained with reference to the realities from which they sprang, as well as to works by writers of other forms of literature. Chapter VIII illustrates the importance of rustic themes in Dancourt's plays. Unlike in the previous chapter, the emphasis is placed on the dramatic qualities of these comedies and on their character portrayal rather than on what light they throw on the social scene. Finally, Chapter IX offers an estimate of Dancourt's success as a playwright at the Comedie Francaise and at Court both during his lifetime and posthumously. A comparison is made between his success and the criticism offered by contemporary and eighteenth-century commentators whose opinions are studied in the light of prevailing trends of literary criticism.


Aim/Purpose International PhD students suffer a lot of stress. However, many studies about international students focus on identifying the stressors these students experience rather than the stress-coping strategies, and those that explore international students' coping behaviour often report maladjustments. Background This study intended to fill the research gap by examining the strategies that Chinese students employed to psychologically adjust to their PhD study. Methodology Narrative inquiry method was employed to give voice to the research participants. Six Chinese doctoral students in social sciences in Australian universities were purposefully sampled and interviewed three times during their candidature in order to gain an in-depth understanding of their lived experiences of stress-coping. Contribution This paper provides positive stress-coping strategies used by six Chinese doctoral students, which can be used by international doctoral students or those who work with doctoral students from abroad to improve their psychological well-beings. Findings These Chinese PhD students adopted positive stress-coping strategies of regulating their emotions and retaining their motivation. They adopted illusory and interpretive forms of secondary control by reframing realities to obtain psychological peace when faced with stress. The ways that Chinese PhD students handled stress suggest that the Chinese moral education and the characteristic motivation for learning attributed them with positive personal characteristics to battle the adverse conditions. Recommendations for Practitioners Institutions/departments can initiate support groups for PhD students from the same disciplines where students can express their stress, seek assistance from senior doctoral students and exchange their strategies. Psychological Adjustment of Chinese PhD Students 596 Institutions/departments can also support international doctoral candidates by taking a more flexible approach to policies and procedures concerning doctoral students taking leave both in terms of when it is taken and the duration. Recommendation for Researchers Researchers can focus on international doctoral students' positive stress-coping experiences as well as negative experiences to present a balanced picture of the doctoral journey. Impact on Society The findings from this research on doctoral students' stress-coping can equip doctoral students with strategies to handle their psychological challenges, which in turn may enhance their overseas doctoral experiences, reduce the dropout rates, and raise awareness of supervisors and institutions about doctoral students' psychological well-beings. Future Research Future research can examine the stress-coping experiences of other international doctoral students, focusing not only from the individual psychological angle but from the academic and social perspectives.


The Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and its successor the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) do not fully explain how to model continuing resources. Applying the FRBR/LRM Work-Expression-Manifestation-Item (WEMI) model to continuing resources such as magazines, journals, and newspapers has been difficult and controversial and many serialists remain unconvinced that the FRBR model is appropriate for serials. This study examines the challenges of modelling continuing resources. LRM introduced a number of changes to the WEMI model to accommodate continuing resources. Particularly notable was the introduction of the serial work and the serial manifestation and establishment of the created by relationship linking a manifestation to an agent that created the manifestation.

Although serials and integrating resources are both considered to be continuing resources, they are distinct and require different modelling approaches. Integrating resources are complete bibliographic units that are frequently revised while serials are aggregates of discrete parts collected and issued over time. Because they are complete bibliographic units, integrating resources, regardless of how or how frequently they are updated, can be modelled as monographs. LRM introduced the serial work to recognize the intellectual effort of compilers, editor, and other similar agents. However, LRM's new 'created by' relationship between agents and manifestation also provides a means to recognize this effort and makes serial works redundant. In spite of the LRM accommodations, modelling serials remains problematic. Treating the serial as a whole as a manifestation is inconsistent with the view of manifestations as static entities. An entity for serials that functions equivalently to the monographic item also remains elusive. Further changes to the WEMI model will likely be necessary before the WEMI model can accommodate serials.


We demonstrate the effect of the spectral shape of broadband light sources in a task-based approach for assessment of signal detection and resolution in optical coherence tomography. We define two binary tasks: The signal is either present or absent and the signal can be either resolved or not. In a transparent sample bounded by two uniform interfaces we study the minimum detectable change in the index of refraction as well as the minimum resolvable distance between the layers in correlation with the source spectral shape and power. Results show that the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) for a signal-detection task is not affected by the shape of the spectrum but solely by its optical power, whereas spectral shaping has an effect, which we quantify, on the AUC for the resolution task. Moreover, the AUC is demonstrated in relation to the concept of system sensitivity for a signal-detection task.


Theories of government–international court relations assume that judges share an interest in expanding the reach of their court. Yet, casual observation suggests that international judges vary in their activist orientations and that governments selectively appoint judges. This article explores a new data set of dissents in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to estimate the ideal points of judges. The results show that activism-restraint is indeed the main dimension of contestation among judges. Variation in judicial activism cannot be accounted for by different legal cultures of judges or by levels of domestic human rights observance in the judges' countries of origins. Instead, aspiring European Union (EU) members and governments more favorably disposed toward European integration appoint more activist judges. These results imply that politics matters in the appointment of international judges and that EU expansion was an important driving force behind the ECHR's increased activism. More generally, the analysis suggests that agent selection is an important and understudied tool for influencing international organizations.Earlier versions of this article were presented at seminars at the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, George Washington, the University of Wisconsin, William and Mary, Princeton, and Georgetown as well as the 2006 Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association. I much appreciate comments and suggestions from the participants in those seminars, two anonymous referees, Karen Alter, Freek Bruinsma, Rachel Cichowski, Allison Danner, Darren Hawkins, Larry Helfer, Christopher Joyner, Charles Lipson, Emily Meierding, Andrew Moravcsik, Kimberly Morgan, Eric Posner, Mike Tierney, and Andreas von Staden. I thank Jamie Druckman, Andrew Roberts, and Paul Warwick for making data on cabinet composition available.


The strength of the roof/pillar/floor system is controlled by the component with the lowest strength. In some coal seams the floor can be the weakest component and in these situations bearing capacity concepts drawn from foundation engineering can be applied. The low strength floors tend to be clay-rich and can be analysed as behaving in an undrained state (effective friction angle equals zero). A simple thin-layer bearing capacity equation has been found to correctly identify problematic low strength floors. The input variables are the unconfined compressive strength of the layer, its thickness, and the width of the pillar. All reported pillar collapses should be checked against this simple relationship and removed from the pillar collapse database if floor failure is indicated.


We prove that, for sufficiently large $n$, the first player can win the strong perfect matching and Hamilton cycle games. For both games, explicit winning strategies of the first player are given. In devising these strategies we make use of the fact that explicit fast winning strategies are known for the corresponding weak games.


Background: Previous studies suggested a significant interaction between criminal attitudes, associations with criminal friends, and criminal behaviour.

Aims: The purpose of current investigation was to provide the possible mediating role of associations with criminal friends between criminal attitudes, and criminal behaviour.

Method: The Measure of Criminal Attitudes & Associates and Recidivistic Scale were administrated to 133 violent offenders from high security prison.

Results: The proposed path model tested was found to be a good fit of the observed data, with each of the respective fit indices exceeding the criteria for a good fitting model. Thus results suggest that presence and influence of criminal friends has a significant meditating effect on interaction between criminal attitudes and recidivistic behaviour.

Conclusions: Our findings add to better understanding of the factors involved in the development of criminal behaviour and possible targets of intervention to reduce levels of criminality.


Evidence based on US firms suggests that large boards restrain risk taking. We investigate whether a similar effect exists in Japan. Our results confirm that firms with larger boards exhibit lower performance variability relative to firms with smaller boards. However, this effect is less significant when firms have plenty of investment opportunities, but considerably stronger when firms have few growth options. This new finding is consistent with recent evidence indicating that larger boards are not necessarily detrimental to firm performance. The results are shown to be robust to the endogeneity of board structure and the use of alternative risk measures and estimation methods.


Automatic synthesis of realistic images from text would be interesting and useful, but current AI systems are still far from this goal. However, in recent years generic and powerful recurrent neural network architectures have been developed to learn discriminative text feature representations. Meanwhile, deep convolutional generative adversarial networks (GANs) have begun to generate highly compelling images of specific categories, such as faces, album covers, and room interiors. In this work, we develop a novel deep architecture and GAN formulation to effectively bridge these advances in text and image modeling, translating visual concepts from characters to pixels. We demonstrate the capability of our model to generate plausible images of birds and flowers from detailed text descriptions.


In order to improve the design of procedural instructions, technical writers need to know how users proceed when they are using them, from their initial reading, to execute described actions. Several kinds of activities are implicated, such as reading with understanding, action planning, carrying out specific actions, and executive control activities. This paper proposes that by taking into account design factors that affect these activities, technical writers can markedly improve the design of procedural documents. Thus, a model is suggested that combines information on how users deal with procedural documents when faced with new equipment and the mental processes involved in this interaction, together with document design recommendations aimed at enhancing the interactions between users, documents, and equipment.


Resource Discovery is an important key issue in grid systems since resource reservation and task scheduling are based on it. This paper proposes a novel semantic%b ased scalable decentralized grid RD framework. The paper integrates ontology, Peer%to%Peer network and intelligent agen ts to build the framework. The framework consists of an ontology model, an agent model, and a set of algorithms for implementing the P2P architecture and searching the shared resources. The paper shows how the framework satisfies grid RD features such as scalability, decentralization, dynamism and interoperability.


This paper reports a novel low-loss CMOS compatible coplanar waveguide (CPW) structure based on the micromachined edge-suspension of the signal line. It is revealed that, at radio or microwave frequencies, the current is highly concentrated along the edges of the signal line. Since the coupling to the low resistivity silicon substrate is dominated by the current carrying part, the substrate coupling and loss can he effectively suppressed by removing the silicon along and underneath the edges of the signal lines. The edge-suspended structure has been implemented by a combination of deep reactive ion etching and anisotropic wet etching. The suspended structure shows much reduced loss (0.5 dBlmm at 39 GHz) and strong mechanical strength that is provided by the silicon underneath the center of the signal line.


This dissertation presents a discussion of argument realization on the basis of theta-roles and case. Parametric variation between languages like Greek, on the one hand, and languages like Italian and French, on the other, is captured by a theory of lexico-syntactic operations on theta and case features very much based on Reinhart s Theta System.
The comparison of Greek and Italian/French reveals that Greek lacks reflexivization and reciprocal formation of benefactors, as well as certain types of impersonals. This follows from one generalization: only the argument that would otherwise appear in the accusative case may be reduced in all instances of argument alternations in Greek. These facts are explained under the hypothesis that suffixes and clitics have different case properties. The morphological reflection of argument reduction through a suffix, as in Greek, is accompanied by obligatory absorption of the verbal accusative feature. If the morphological reflection of argument reduction is manifested by a clitic, as in Italian/French, a wider array of case marking, including dative or nominative, is involved. Reflexives, reciprocals and impersonals thus appear in a larger variety of case-configurations.
Two case-related operations are distinguished. Case-absorption, which originates from the Government and Binding framework of the 80s and results in the elimination of a case feature, and Case-checking, which has mostly been developed in the Minimalist framework of the 90s, and results in the expression of a case feature on a given nominal complex. It is argued that both mechanisms are needed to properly account for the behaviour of valency affecting clitics/suffixes and object clitics.
This thesis is of interest to researchers concerned with argument structure realization, and the way lexical information affects the syntactic derivation, and to scholars working on Greek and on Generative Syntax more in general.


Abstract This paper evaluates detritiation of air contaminated with tritium in the form of water vapor using a scrubber column filled with structured packing. This technique is based on isotopic exchange between tritiated water vapor and liquid water. In combination with a catalytic oxidizer operated at room or slightly elevated temperature, the scrubber column can also decontaminate air contaminated with tritiated molecular hydrogen. Mass transfer rates measured for structured packings made of stainless steel and copper alloy confirmed high efficiency of the detritiation process. Study of the effect of various operation parameters on column efficiency allows optimization of column operation. It was demonstrated that this technique is competitive with the drying technique with respect to the decontamination factor (DF) provided and the amount of tritiated water to be generated. Benefits offered by the wet scrubber technology are based on the nature of the isotopic exchange process. No need for regeneration allows reduction in the number of units and as such decreases the capital cost of the facility for continuous operation. The DF can be controlled by changing the flow rate of feedwater.


This thesis describes a novel harmonic domain approach for assessing the steady state performance of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices. Existing harmonic analysis techniques are reviewed and used as the basis for a novel iterative harmonic domain model for PWM FACTS devices. The unified Newton formulation adopted uses a combination of positive frequency real valued harmonic and three-phase fundamental frequency power-flow mismatches to characterise a PWM converter system. A dc side mismatch formulation is employed in order to reduce the solution size, something only possible because of the hard switched nature of PWM converters. This computationally efficient formulation permits the study of generalised systems containing multiple FACTS devices. This modular PWM converter block is applied to series, shunt and multi-converter FACTS topologies, with a variety of basic control schemes. Using a three-phase power-flow initialisation and a fixed harmonic Jacobian provides robust convergence to a solution consistent with time domain simulation. By including the power-flow variables in the full harmonic solution the model avoids unnecessary assumptions regarding a fixed (or linearised) operating point, fully modelling system imbalance and the associated non-characteristic harmonics. The capability of the proposed technique is illustrated by considering a range of harmonic interaction mechanisms, both within and between FACTS devices. In particular, the impact of transmission network modelling and operating point variation is investigated with reference to ac and dc side harmonic interaction. The minor role harmonic distortion and over-modulation play in the PWM switching process is finally considered with reference to the associated reduction in system linearity.


What is the influence of glacial processes in driving erosion and uplift across the European Alps? It has largely been argued that repeated erosion and glaciation sustain isostatic uplift and topography in a decaying orogen. But some parts of the Alps may still be actively uplifting via deep lithospheric processes. We add insight to this debate by isolating the role of post-glacial topographic forcing on erosion rates. To do this, we quantify the topographic signature of past glaciation on millennial-scale erosion rates in previously glaciated and unglaciated catchments at the easternmost edge of the Austrian Alps. Newly measured catchment-wide erosion rates, determined from cosmogenic 10Be in river-borne quartz, correlate with basin relief and mean slope. GISderived slope–elevation and slope–area distributions across catchments provide clear topographic indicators of the degree of glacial preconditioning, which further correlates with erosion rates. Erosion rates in the easternmost, non-glaciated basins range from 40 to 150 mm ky−1 and likely reflect underlying tectonic forcings in this region, which have previously been attributed to recent (post 5 Ma) uplift. By contrast, erosion rates in previously glaciated catchments range from 170 to 240 mm ky−1 and reflect the erosional response to local topographic preconditioning by repeated glaciations. Together, these data suggest that Holocene erosion across the Eastern Alps is strongly shaped by the local topography relict from previous glaciations. Broader, landscape-wide forcings, such as the widely debated deep mantle-driven or isostatically driven uplift, result in lesser controls on both topography and erosion rates in this region. Comparing our data to previously published erosion rates across the Alps, we show that post-glacial erosion rates vary across more than 2 orders of magnitude. This high variation in post-glacial erosion may reflect combined effects of direct tectonic and modern climatic forcings but is strongly overprinted by past glacial climate and its topographic legacy.


Author(s): Fujita, K. Sydny | Abstract: This report provides and update to and expansion upon our 2008 LBNL report "An Analysis of the Price Elasticity of Demand for Appliances," in which we estimated an average relative price elasticity of -0.34 for major household appliances (Dale and Fujita 2008). Consumer responsiveness to price change is a key component of energy efficiency policy analysis; these policies influence consumer purchases through price both explicitly and implicitly. However, few studies address appliance demand elasticity in the U.S. market and public data sources are generally insufficient for rigorous estimation. Therefore, analysts have relied on a small set of outdated papers focused on limited appliance types, assuming long-term elasticities estimated for other durables (e.g., vehicles) decades ago are applicable to current and future appliance purchasing behavior. We aim to partially rectify this problem in the context of appliance efficiency standards by revisiting our previous analysis, utilizing data released over the last ten years and identifying additional estimates of durable goods price elasticities in the literature. Reviewing the literature, we find the following ranges of market-level price elasticities: -0.14 to -0.42 for appliances; -0.30 to -1.28 for automobiles; -0.47 to -2.55 for other durable goods. Brand price elasticities are substantially higher for these product groups, with most estimates -2.0 or more elastic. Using market-level shipments, sales value, and efficiency level data for 1989-2009, we run various iterations of a log-log regression model, arriving at a recommended range of short run appliance price elasticity between -0.4 and -0.5, with a default value of -0.45.


The present article is a recollection of my career in science over the past 45 years, which has focused on protein science ever since my PhD study in Cambridge, UK. Upon return to Mahidol University, research initially focused on proteins involved in male reproduction and later turned to glycosidase enzymes in plants. This focus led to the establishment of the Centre for Excellence in Protein Structure, the first centre on protein research in Thailand. My interests included abnormalities in proteins giving rise to diseases such as genetic diseases and cancer, which is now the focus of the laboratory of biochemistry at the Chulabhorn Research Institute. In addition to research, I have always enjoyed working for scientific societies at national and international level, where I have served as President of the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists, President of the Science Society of Thailand, and founding President of the Protein Society of Thailand.


Widespread in North American forest regions including the Rocky Mountains, the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus) was once the most numerous predatory bird in Eurasian boreal forests. Synthesising the results of unique long-term studies of Boreal Owls, this book explores hunting modes, habitats and foods, prey interactions, mating and parental care, reproduction, dispersal, survival and mortality, population regulation and conservation in boreal forests. Providing a detailed introduction to the species, the authors study the complex interactions of Boreal Owls with their prey species. They examine the inter-sexual tug-of-war over parental care, and the behavioural and demographic adaptations to environmental conditions that predictably and markedly fluctuate both seasonally and multi-annually. They also question whether Boreal Owls are able to time their reproductive effort to maximise lifetime reproductive success. Discussing the effect of modern forestry practices on owl populations, the book also examines how Boreal Owls could be managed to sustain viable populations.


Lactococcus lactis is a non-pathogenic and non-colonising bacterium, which is being
developed as a vaccine delivery vehicle for immunisation by mucosal routes. To
determine whether lactococci can express the Chicken Anaemia Virus capsid protein
(VP1) in immunogenic fonn, we have constructed a recombinant DNA, which
constitutively expresses the VP1 as N-terminal fusion protein with Open Reading
Frame-32 under the control of lactococci promoter P32 in vector pMG36e.
Chicken anaemia virus (CAV) is a member of the newly categorised Circoviridae, a
family of circular negative single-stranded DNA viruses. CAY VP1 gene (1.4 kb)
was amplified by PCR from CAV genome which was isolated from infected Marek's
disease virus transformed lymphoblastoid cell line (MDCC-MSB 1) cell lysate and
cloned into pCR® 2.1-TOPO vector for sequencing. The sequenced VP1 gene,
lacking its own promoter, was cloned into the lactococcal expression vector pMG36e and transformed into E. coli JM109 as the intermediate host. The
recombinant plasmid was sub-cloned into L. lactis MG1363 by electroporation.
Several independent verifying methods such as sequencing, Southern hybridisation
and restriction enzymes analysis have confirmed the insertion of VP1 gene into
pMG36e. The complete sequence of VP1 gene has 99.65% homology compared to
the published CAV Cux-1 VP1 gene. A total of 5 base difference was seen to result
in change of 3 amino acids sequence in the polypeptide chain. The expression of
fusion protein was studied until transcriptional level. Transcription of fusion gene
from strains of recombinant L. lactis MG1363 were analysed by Northern
hybridisation. Northern hybridisation has detected transcription of fusion gene in
recombinant L. lactis MG1363 carrying pMG36e-VP1 and produced mRNA with the
size of 1.4 kb.
On the basis of these results, it is concluded that the recombinant DNA pMG36e was
successfully constructed in bacteria E. coli JM109 and subcloned into L. lactis
MG1363. The recombinant DNA in L. lactis MG1363 is capable to express the
fusion protein up to transcriptional level. Therefore, recombinant L. lactis MG1363
can be used as a potential vaccine delivery system against CAV infections.


The Spanish version of this paper can be found at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1879915This paper explores the reorganization of security and coercive power in Peru in response to the needs of foreign owned mining companies in an environment of social protest and opposition. It begins with an analytical description of the domestic legal regime that structures security services in Peru. In this context, it undertakes a case study of Forza, one of Peru's oldest and most powerful private security companies, recently purchased by a transnational security company. Forza's human rights record is explored through the trajectory of three on-going human rights cases. These cases signal a deep interpenetration of the economic and political power of foreign-owned mining companies, Forza and the Peruvian justice system. The paper then analyzes the Forza case study in terms of the applicable systems of law. At the level of domestic law, the Peruvian system and the investors' home state legal systems are considered. At the international level, three distinct normative systems are reviewed: public international human rights law, private international foreign investment law, and corporate social responsibility mechanisms. This overview provides some insight into how the "global gap" in the enforcement of domestic law and the asymmetry in the enforcement of international law function together to produce the conditions of impunity in the Forza case study. Using the case study itself as an example, this paper concludes by proposing a methodological approach to international lawyering and legal academic work in relation to social movements.


Deep and liquid securities markets appear to be an exception to a worldwide pattern in which concentrated ownership dominates dispersed ownership. Recent commentary has argued that a dispersed shareholder base is unlikely to develop in civil law countries and transitional economies for a variety of reasons, including (1) the absence of adequate legal protections for minority shareholders, (2) the inability of dispersed shareholders to hold control or pay an equivalent control premium to that which a prospective controlling shareholder will pay, and (3) the political vulnerability of dispersed shareholder ownership in left-leaning "social democracies". Nonetheless, this article finds that significant movement in the direction of dispersed ownership has occurred and is accelerating across Europe. But can this trend persist in the absence of strong legal protections for minority shareholders and in the presence of high private benefits of control? To understand how dispersed ownership might both arise and persist in the absence of the supposed legal and political preconditions, this article reconsiders the appearance of dispersed ownership in the late 19th and early 20th Century in the U.S. and the U.K. and contrasts their experience with those of France and Germany over the same period. During this era, the private benefits of control were high, and minority legal protections in the U.S. were notoriously lacking, as the famous Robber Barons of the age bribed judges and legislators and effectively employed regulatory arbitrage to escape even minimal anti-fraud regulation. Nonetheless, strong self-regulatory institutions (most notably, the New York Stock Exchange) and private bonding mechanisms by which leading underwriters pledged their reputational capital by placing directors on the board of sponsored firms enabled the equity market to expand and dispersed ownership to arise. In contrast, in the U.K., the London Stock Exchange for a variety of path-dependent reasons played a far more passive role and did not become an effective self-regulator until much later in the 20th Century. Yet, dispersed ownership also arose, although at a slower pace. The lesser role for private self-regulation in the U.K. may have been the consequence of its lesser need for self- regulation as a functional substitute for formal law, given both earlier legislation in the U.K. and lesser exposure to judicial corruption and regulatory arbitrage. In contrast to the New York and London Exchanges, the Paris Bourse over this same period made little, if any, effort to develop a self-regulatory structure or to upgrade listing or disclosure standards. Why not? The answer seems closely associated with the fact that it operated as a state-administered monopoly whose stockbrokers were formally considered civil servants and who were legally denied the ability to trade as principals for their own account. Facing no competition and composed of members having little incentive to promote or enhance its reputational capital, the Paris Bourse did not innovate and fell behind the London Stock Exchange. The intrusive role of state regulation, which discouraged private self-regulatory initiatives, appears to have a factor in its competitive decline. In Germany, the state strongly supported the growth of large private banks and enacted a punitive tax on securities transactions. Because the German central bank offered very liberal rediscounting terms to the principal private banks, they were able to satisfy the capital needs of German industry without resort to the equity market. In this respect, concentrated ownership seems less to have evolved naturally than to have been subsidized by the state. Prospectively, this article argues that "functional convergence" will dominate "formal convergence" and that the principal mechanism of functional convergence may be private self- regulation. However, rather than reject the "law matters" hypothesis, this article suggests that one of the principal advantages of common law legal systems is their decentralized character, which encourages self-regulatory initiatives, whereas in civil law systems the state may monopolize all law-making initiatives. Further, this article proposes that legal reforms, while important, are likely to follow, rather than precede, market changes - as happened in both the U.S. and the U.K. Once however a constituency for liquid and transparent securities market is thus created, it will predictably seek and secure legislation that fills in the enforcement gap that self-regulation leaves. Both in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe today, the growth of securities markets has been largely divorced from politics.


Essay I examines the market efficiency issues at the Nord Pool power exchange in the September 1995 – July 2002 period. A unique characteristic of this electricity exchange is the high hydropower proportion in the traded electricity; water in the hydro reservoir acting as hydropower inventory therefore plays an important role in the pricing of electricity. Inventory holding and the seasonality of both the supply and demand of hydropower generate interand intra-year autocorrelation in power prices. I present a theoretical discussion on why power price persistence invalidates the applicability of a market efficiency concept based on the random walk theory. To lend support for the theoretical argument, I conduct an empirical investigation consisting of various unit roots and cointegration methods to tackle the data problems/properties, and results show that weekly spot and futures prices are cointegrated. Philips-Loretan's nonlinear least square is applied in testing the restriction of the coefficient according to the market efficiency hypothesis. The Wald statistic shows that the cointegration vector being (1, -1) is not binding. Residual testing using a Ljung-Box Qstatistic confirms serial correlation. These findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction. Essay II models electricity prices in the context of the Nord Pool power exchange which has a considerable proportion of hydropower supply. Since hydropower is storable in a producer perspective and the system price is a uniform price for all sources of electricity supply, the applicability of the rational expectation competitive commodity storage model to characterize the spot and futures/forward prices is validated. I further show the nonlinearity between futures/forward prices and water reservoir content as inventory. I perform a BDS test (a test for nonlinearity), Hsieh's third-order moment test (a test that discriminates between different types of nonlinearities) and a nonlinear causality test to portray the nonlinear relationship using short/long maturities contracts. Empirical evidence shows that futures/forward prices are nonlinearly connected with water reservoir content via variance changes, and that the detection of causality varies as maturities change from short to long. These findings provide strong support for the credibility of the arbitrage argument and in a certain case verify the existence of the non-arbitrage condition. Essay III investigates convenience yield behavior at the Nord Pool power exchange given the considerable storable hydropower being traded. Several hypotheses are tested concerning the behavior and determinants of convenience yield from holding hydropower as inventory. The results reveal that 1) convenience yield has a negative relationship with hydro reservoir content as inventory, 2) convenience yield behavior can be statistically explained within a standard financial call option framework and the call option component can explain a large portion of variability in convenience yield, 3) convenience yield varies on both a yearly and a monthly basis, and 4) there is an asymmetry of volatility of convenience yield during high/low hydro inventory periods. Keyword: Nord Pool, market efficiency, cointegration, rational expectation competitive storage model, BDS test, Hsieh's third order moment test, nonlinear causality, EGARCH, convenience yield, call option. Daniel Deng, Center for Finance, Department of Economics, Goteborg University, SE-40530 Goteborg, Sweden. Tel: +46-31-7734178 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


This essay explores the interdependence between statebuilding, narcotics and conflict through an analysis of interviews and a survey conducted, in the spring of 2005, in the Laghman and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan. Rural Afghanistan is characterized by weak conflict-processing mechanisms, combined with a high propensity towards the escalation of violence. State-sponsored institutions for conflict processing hardly exist, and donor attempts to prop up traditional institutions, such as the village shura, as a substitute for local government have failed to produce tangible results. Farmers widely acknowledge the benefits of opium as one of the few available cash crops. As a result, competition over scarce land and propensity for violence are affected indirectly by the drug economy. The study concludes with a criticism of current poppy eradication efforts. Under an informal 'eradication contract', provincial leaders are induced to comply with the request of the central government to reduce opium cultivation, in exchange for increased political autonomy and the promise of donor funds.


Surface pressure against area isotherms for dilute monolayers of a homologous series of 1,2-diacyl-lecithins spread at the oil/water interface are presented as a function of temperature and salt concentration. Comparative results for di-C14-cephalin monolayers are used to distinguish head-group effects. Over the whole range of areas studied the isotherms are independent of chain length and salt concentration but vary with head-group, with lecithins giving the higher pressures. From conventional Amagat-type plots the monolayers are non-ideal. Apparent co-areas for both lecithins and cephalins are large with the lecithins showing a marked positive temperature coefficient. Negative entropies of compression calculated from the lecithin data are larger than those for single chain ionised molecules spread at the oil/water interface. These phospholipids show little evidence of cluster formation at areas higher than the phase transitions reported in part 1, but undergo complex configurational changes on compression which depend on medium range dipolar interactions and steric interaction of the chains.


Many insects have triplets of camera type eyes, called ocelli, whose function remains unclear for most species. Here, we investigate the ocelli of the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, using reconstructed 3D data from X-ray micro computed-tomography scans combined with computational ray-tracing simulations. This method enables us, not only to predict the visual fields of the ocelli, but to explore for the first time the effect that hair has on them as well as the difference between worker female and male ocelli. We find that bumblebee ocellar fields of view are directed forward and dorsally, incorporating the horizon as well as the sky. There is substantial binocular overlap between the median and lateral ocelli, but no overlap between the two lateral ocelli. Hairs in both workers and males occlude the ocellar field of view, mostly laterally in the worker median ocellus and dorsally in the lateral ocelli. There is little to no sexual dimorphism in the ocellar visual field, suggesting that in B. terrestris they confer no advantage to mating strategies. We compare our results with published observations for the visual fields of compound eyes in the same species as well as with the ocellar vision of other bee and insect species.


OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of preoperative autologous blood donation (PABD) in adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery.

METHODS
Patients undergoing single-stay ASD reconstructions were identified in a multicenter database. Patients were divided into groups according to PABD (either PABD or NoPABD). Propensity weighting was used to create matched cohorts of PABD and NoPABD patients. Allogeneic (ALLO) exposure, autologous (AUTO) wastage (unused AUTO), and complication rates were compared between groups.

RESULTS
Four hundred twenty-eight patients were identified as meeting eligibility criteria. Sixty patients were treated with PABD, of whom 50 were matched to 50 patients who were not treated with PABD (NoPABD). Nearly one-third of patients in the PABD group (18/60, 30%) did not receive any autologous transfusion and donated blood was wasted. In 6 of these cases (6/60, 10%), patients received ALLO blood transfusions without AUTO. In 9 cases (9/60, 15%), patients received ALLO and AUTO blood transfusions. Overall rates of transfusion of any type were similar between groups (PABD 70% [42/60], NoPABD 75% [275/368], p = 0.438). Major and minor in-hospital complications were similar between groups (Major PABD 10% [6/60], NoPABD 12% [43/368], p = 0.537; Minor PABD 30% [18/60], NoPABD 24% [87/368], p = 0.499). When controlling for potential confounders, PABD patients were more likely to receive some transfusion (OR 15.1, 95% CI 2.1-106.7). No relationship between PABD and ALLO blood exposure was observed, however, refuting the concept that PABD is protective against ALLO blood exposure. In the matched cohorts, PABD patients were more likely to sustain a major perioperative cardiac complication (PABD 8/50 [16%], NoPABD 1/50 [2%], p = 0.046). No differences in rates of infection or wound-healing complications were observed between cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative autologous blood donation was associated with a higher probability of perioperative transfusions of any type in patients with ASD. No protective effect of PABD against ALLO blood exposure was observed, and no risk of perioperative infectious complications was observed in patients exposed to ALLO blood only. The benefit of PABD in patients with ASD remains undefined.


In the first of a series of four articles the authors explain the statistical concepts of hypothesis testing and p values. In many clinical trials investigators test a null hypothesis that there is no difference between a new treatment and a placebo or between two treatments. The result of a single experiment will almost always show some difference between the experimental and the control groups. Is the difference due to chance, or is it large enough to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a true difference in treatment effects? Statistical tests yield a p value: the probability that the experiment would show a difference as great or greater than that observed if the null hypothesis were true. By convention, p values of less than 0.05 are considered statistically significant, and investigators conclude that there is a real difference. However, the smaller the sample size, the greater the chance of erroneously concluding that the experimental treatment does not differ from the control--in statistical terms, the power of the test may be inadequate. Tests of several outcomes from one set of data may lead to an erroneous conclusion that an outcome is significant if the joint probability of the outcomes is not taken into account. Hypothesis testing has limitations, which will be discussed in the next article in the series.


This paper presents the effect of friction-induced vibration between two beams in relative motion according to Timoshenko's beam theory. This system is composed of two cantilever beams screwed together, allowing friction force to occur in the contact interface. The nonlinear behavior can be divided into two phases: stick and slip. The differential equations of motion in the two phases are developed, with the precision of the transition condition between each phase. A number of experiments are carried out in order to validate the theoretical model, the main contribution of which is to test these specimens in modes greater than one. The experiments demonstrate the influence of changing the clamping force on the stiffness of the structure and thus on its frequency and damping ratio. The comparison between theory and experiments reveals a good agreement. In addition, the tests show an increase in the modal damping ratio when the frequencies are increased. This leads to a considerable increase in energy dissipation by the structure, making it a good choice as a friction damper.