Plants are a rich source of many natural products most of which have been extensively used for human welfare, and treatment of various diseases. Jatropha curcas, a multipurpose, drought resistant, perennial plant belonging to Euphorbiaceae family is gaining a lot of economic importance because of its several potentials in industrial application and medicinal values. J. curcas has been used as traditional medicine to cure various infections. Researchers had isolated and characterized numerous biologically active compounds from all parts of this plant. In addition, the mechanisms of action of these active compounds have been studied in relation to the applications in traditional medicine. Before exploiting any plant for medicinal application, it is crucial to have complete information about the medicinal uses of each part of the plant. The medicinal uses of the leaves, fruit, seed, stem bark, branches, twigs, latex and root of J. curcas are discussed in this review. If the full potential of the plant is to be revealed, much more research is required to develop herbal medicine using modern science and technology. A potential aspect based on markets for all of its medicinal products should be conducted thoroughly, to promote the ability of this plant to cure so many illnesses.

 Key words: Medicinal plant, traditional medicine, active compounds, diseases, treatment.


Women with mutations in the BRCA2 tumor suppressor gene have a greatly elevated risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. The BRCA2 protein has been implicated in DNA repair and recombination, but the full spectrum of its cellular activities is still unclear. Daniels et al. (see the news story by Marx) provide tantalizing evidence that BRCA2 may regulate the fidelity of cytokinesis, the process by which two daughter cells separate at the completion of cell division. BRCA2 deficiency causes delays in cytokinesis and an increase in the frequency of binucleate cells, a measure of defective cytokinesis. This potential role of BRCA2 in daughter cell separation may help to explain why BRCA2-deficient tumor cells often contain an abnormal complement of chromosomes. M. J. Daniels, Y. Wang, M. Y. Lee, A. R. Venkitaraman, Abnormal cytokinesis in cells deficient in the breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2. Science 306, 876-879 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text] J. Marx, Possible new role for BRCA2. Science 305, 1691 (2004). [Summary] [Full Text]


Swarm robotics is a field dedicated to the study of the design and development of certain multi-robot systems. Often times, these groups prove to be more beneficial than a single complex robot as swarms typically provide a more robust and potentially more efficient solution. One such case is the task of escorting a specified target while addressing any potential threats discovered in the environment. In this work, a control algorithm for a high volume, decentralized, homogeneous robot swarm was developed based upon a technique commonly used to model incompressible fluids known as Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). This proposed solution to the asset protection problem was tested against a more commonly accepted method for robot navigation known as potential fields. An alternate algorithm was developed based on this technique and manipulated to perform the same basic duty of asset protection. Both algorithms were tested in simulation using ARGoS as an environment and Swarmanoid's Footbots as robot models. Five experiments were run in order to examine the functionality of both of these algorithms in relation to formation control and the protection of a mobile asset from mobile threats. The results proved the proposed SPH based algorithm comparable to the potential fields based method while minimizing the escape window and having a slightly higher response rate to introduced threats. These results hint that the concept of using fluid models for control of high volume swarms should further be explored and seriously considered as a potential solution to the asset protection problem.


This report covers the design of a product to help stroke survivors who are suffering from chronic spasticity manage their everyday activities. In the Netherlands alone, 44.000 people suffer from a Cerebro-Vascular Accident (CVA) each year. A CVA, more commonly known as a stroke, results in brain trauma with afflictions such as paralysis, fatigue and spasticity. It is possible to recover some, if not all, motor function though intensive physiotherapy, which requires long-term stay at a rehabilitation clinic in severe cases. Due to limited room and staff, only 12% of stroke survivors end up rehabilitating in a clinic. The remaining survivors are sent home, and will to travel to the clinic 3-5 times per week for therapy as part of the outpatient rehabilitation. Adjuvo Motion, a young start-up, aims to improve the situation of stroke survivors by bringing the rehabilitation centre to their home through the Adjuvo Platform, which allows them to perform exercises in the context of virtual tasks. They proposed an assignment to extend their product portfolio with a Range of Motion assessment device that is suited for those suffering from spasticity. Spasticity occurs in roughly 60% of stroke survivors with varying degrees of intensity. It is caused by the damaged parts of the brain sending conflicting signals to the muscles, causing them to contract. This inhibits the survivor's ability to perform daily tasks, but can be solved temporarily with stretching exercises. A solution to compensate for these spastic forces using a passive-assist device was proposed at the start of this project. The project was divided into four stages: Analysis, Synthesis, Embodiment and Evaluation. During the Analysis stage, interviews with a Physiotherapist and stroke survivor and literature studies regarding anatomy, the state of the art and relevant technologies were used to create a framework for the design of a smart passive-assist glove. Looking at competing products, there is a demand for passive assist and Range of Motion assessment functionalities, yet a combination of these in a single device is not yet present in the market. During the Synthesis stage, the design problem of the passive assist device was split into three groups: Orthoses; the connections to the body, Passive Assist; the compensation medium, and RoM measurement; the sensing mechanism(s). These three groups were further split into sub-problems, the solutions to which were compiled into a Morphological Chart. By combining the solution within this chart, three promising concept designs were created: One upgrade to the existing sensor glove, one full integration of sensing and passive assist, and one passive assist glove with removeable sensors. To evaluate these concepts, eight criteria were established and weighted with the help of a physiotherapist. In order to create an objective assessment, the criteria were kept strictly quantitative and the three designs were first scored against the Raphael Smart Glove by Neofect using early prototypes. These scores were then used to evaluate the designs relative to each other, which resulted in an overall higher score for the concept with separable electronics. Making the sensor part of the brace removeable allowed the product to be used during daily life as well as physiotherpy exercises, and proved a key benefit in keeping the product clean. Based on the chosen design, four iterations of prototypes were made, which were tested with healthy subject. During this stage, it became clear that flex sensors are be best suited to create a range of motion assessment for spastic stroke patients, since it is less important to know how well they perform a task, and more important to know if they can actually perfrom it. Based on a quantified use case, the four sub-assemblies; the Wrist Wrap, Finger Modules and Sensor Module, and their connections were materialized in the Embodiment design stage. When selecting production methods, the main challenge was a small batch size of 1000 units, which made conventional techniques for mass production, such as Injection Molding, less attractive. This stage ended in an assesment of the product's production price and durability: The product would cost €250 to make, and would last for 2.5 years before the Velcro connection on the Wrist Wrap would become too weak to sustain the spasticity forces. In the Evaluation stage, the product was evaluated on the seven most important requirements established during the analysis stage. For several of these, a user test was performed, again with healthy subject. While the Adjuvo Auxilius passed most theoretical requirements, the user tests on healthy subjects could not be used to draw any conclusions regarding its effectiveness on spastic stroke patients. However, since the product's working principle is based on that of existing spasticity compensation products, the prediction is that the Auxilius will be an effective therapy supplement. The result of this project is the Adjuvo Auxilius; a spasticity-compensation glove with modular sensors, which can be added to allow virtual (stretching) exercises through the Adjuvo Motion's platform. The results of these exercises are used to create a remote assessment of the patients motor skills, and to adjust the therapy if needed.


Relay systems improve both coverage and system capacity. Toward this direction, a full-duplex (FD) technology, being able to boost the spectral efficiency by transmitting and receiving simultaneously on the same frequency and time resources, is envisaged to play a key role in future networks. However, its benefits come at the expense of self-interference (SI) from their own transmit signal. At the same time, massive multiple-input massive multiple-output systems, bringing unconventionally many antennas, emerge as a promising technology with huge degrees-of-freedom. To this end, this paper considers a multi-pair decode-and-forward FD relay channel, where the relay station is deployed with a large number of antennas. Moreover, the rate-splitting (RS) transmission has recently been shown to provide significant performance benefits in various multi-user scenarios with imperfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). Engaging the RS approach, we employ the deterministic equivalent analysis to derive the corresponding sum-rates in the presence of interferences. Initially, numerical results demonstrate the robustness of RS in half-duplex (HD) systems, since the achievable sum-rate increases without bound, i.e., it does not saturate at high signal-to-noise ratio. Next, we tackle the detrimental effect of SI in FD. In particular, and most importantly, not only FD outperforms HD, but also RS enables increasing the range of SI over which FD outperforms HD. Furthermore, increasing the number of relay station antennas, RS appears to be more efficacious due to imperfect CSIT, since SI decreases. Interestingly, increasing the number of users, the efficiency of RS worsens and its implementation becomes less favorable under these conditions. Finally, we verify that the proposed DEs, being accurate for a large number of relay station antennas, are tight approximations even for realistic system dimensions.


The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a family counseling instrument that measures maternal spiritual characteristics. Particularly, the instrument aims to measure three domains of spirituality namely, Maternal Piety, Mercy and Accountability. These characteristics are considered as the characteristics for functional Muslim mothers. The study is designed into three phases. The first phase is a pilot study of a focus group from an Islamic Integrated Primary School (IIPS). In this phase, Cronbach's alpha is employed to assess the reliability index. Accordingly, Principle Component Analysis is employed to explore the underlying dimensions of Maternal Piety, Mercy and Accountability. The second phase is an ex-post facto study that involved 12 IIPS in the Klang Valley of Malaysia. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is utilized to examine the construct validity of the instrument. Structural EquationModeling (SEM) is used to investigate the relationship between maternal spiritual characteristics and mother-child attachment as supporting evidence for the criterion-related validity. The third phase was a cross-sectional study that involved 1000 students (age 13-17) from various secondary schools (inclusive of religious and non religious schools) of 4 states in Malaysia. In this phase, multistage cluster sampling technique is employed to select 200 students from each age group of Form 1,2,3,4 and 5. The results provide evidence that the instrument has sound psychometrics properties. This instrument has succeeded the standard Cronbach's alpha > .70 for internal consistency and proportion variance explained > 50 % for the dimensions of Maternal Piety , Mercy and Accountability . The goodness-of -fit measures GFI, AGFI, IFI, TLI, and CFI > .90 and RMSEA < .08 are evidences for construct validity. Moreover, the criterion-related validity is supported with the findings of significant positive relationship between maternal spiritual characteristics and mother-child attachment. In short, Maternal Spiritual Characteristics Scales (MSCS) is a reliable and valid instrument. Hence, it may be used for the assessment in family counseling and other related studies.


This IBM Redbooks publication gives an overview of Cloud solutions, followed by detailed information and usage scenarios for IBM CloudBurst in a System x environment. Cloud computing can be defined as a style of computing in which dynamically scalable resources, such as CPU, storage, or bandwidth, are provided as a service over the Internet. Cloud computing represents a massively scalable, self-service delivery model where processing, storage, networking, and applications can be accessed as services over the Internet. Enterprises can adopt cloud models to improve employee productivity, deploy new products and services faster and reduce operating costs-starting with workloads, such as development and test, virtual desktop, collaboration, and analytics. IBM provides a scalable variety of cloud solutions to meet these needs.This IBM Redbooks publication helps you to tailor an IBM CloudBurst installation on System x to meet virtualized computing requirements in a private cloud environment. This book is intended for IT support personnel who are responsible for customizing IBM CloudBurst to meet business cloud computing objectives.


Background and purpose: One of the most prominent concerns for the water consumers is pathogenic microorganism contamination. Wells and underground water resources are the main resources of drinking water in Sari city, Iran. The main objectives of the research project were to explore the distribution and frequency of mycoflora in wells and underground water resources of the city and their contamination effects on humans. Materials and methods: Three reservoirs and 18 wells or underground water resources were analyzed. Water samples were then filtered and analyzed according to the World Health Organization guidelines. Each filter and 0.2 ml of suspension inoculated on SDA+CG media. For fungal growth, plates were incubated at 27'C for 7-10 days. The fungi were identified by standard mycological techniques. Results: Fungal colonies were isolated from all samples. From total of 160 fungal colonies isolated from wells water, 14 species of fungi were distinguished. Rhodotorula (54.4%), Monilinia (13.7%), Alternaria (6.9%) were the most commonly isolated. Drechslera, Rhizopus, and Exserohilum (0.6%) had the lowest frequency. There was no significant difference between fungal elements isolated from three major reservoirs (P>0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that resources of drinking water from an area have to monitored and if its fungal CFU be greater than a certain value, medical and health preventive measures should be taken before the water is used by human. In this context, public and private awareness should also be provided through the media, broadcasting, teachers and scholars. [Yousefi Z. *Aghili S.R., Ebrahimzadeh R. Salmanian B. Investigation of Fungi in drinking water resources, as a source of contamination tap water in Sari, Iran, IJHS 2013; 1(1): 84-91] http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir


IZA DP No. 14837 NOVEMBER 2021 TRAP'd Teens: Impacts of Abortion Provider Regulations on Fertility & Education Targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP laws) are the fastest growing abortion restriction in the U.S. These often result in clinic closures, limiting abortion access. We study how women's exposure to these laws in adolescence affects their fertility and educational attainment. For this study, we codify the legal history of all TRAP laws ever implemented. We explore the impacts of TRAP laws on teen births using an event-study analysis and stacked differences-in-differences methodology to avoid issues of negative weighting inherent in two-way fixed effects approaches. Consistent with other evidence on abortion access, we find that impacts on births are large and robust for Black women. Black teen births in states that implemented TRAP laws increased by 3 percent relative to changes in states without these restrictions. We offer evidence that these impacts are driven by reductions in abortion access, abortion use, and contraception use among Black teens. We further document that adolescent exposure to TRAP laws has downstream impacts on education. We find that Black women first exposed to TRAP laws before age 18 are 1 to 3 percentage points less likely to initiate and complete college. This study documents the important role that abortion access plays in reducing the harmful economic impacts of unintended teen motherhood. The findings suggest that modern abortion restrictions are harming women's efforts at economic advancement and are perpetuating racial inequality. JEL Classification: J13, I24, I14, J15, J16


Most autopilots of existing Miniature Unmanned Air Vehicles (MUAVs) rely on control architectures that typically use a large number of sensors (gyros, accelerometers, magnetometers, GPS) and a computationally demanding estimation of flight states. As a consequence, they tend to be complex, require a significant amount of processing power and are usually expensive. Many research projects that aim at experiments with one, or even several, MUAVs would benefit from a simpler, potentially smaller, lighter and less expensive autopilot for their flying platforms. In this paper, we present a minimalist control strategy for fixed-wing MUAVs that provides the three basic functionalities of airspeed, altitude and heading turnrate control while only using two pressure sensors and a single-axis rate gyro. To achieve this, we use reactive control loops, which rely on direct feedback from the sensors instead of full state information. In order to characterize the control strategy, it was implemented on a custom-made autopilot. With data recorded during flight experiments, we carried out a statistical analysis of step responses to altitude and turnrate commands as well as responses to artificial perturbations.


Title of Dissertation: DETECTING HIGH-ENERGY EMISSION FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH EGRET AND GLAST David Nathan Wren, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Steven M. Ritz NASA's GSFC The research described in this dissertation explores the detection of highenergy emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with EGRET and GLAST. Data from the EGRET experiment were searched for evidence of ∼1-250 MeV emission that preceded or followed gamma-ray bursts on a time scale of hours. This led to the discovery of a gamma-ray burst with high-energy, post-quiescent emission from the prompt phase that was coincident with lower-energy (keV) emission. To do detailed event filtering studies for the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), the flight software event filter was embedded in the standard science analysis environment. The event trigger rate, reasons why it must be reduced, and hardwarelevel methods of reducing it are studied. Much work was done to improve the performance of the prototype event filter, and additional work was done to develop algorithms to allow the LAT to distinguish Earth albedo photons from celestial gamma-rays, and to eliminate albedo events from the data stream. It is shown that it is possible to reduce the background rate to meet LAT mission requirements, while simultaneously keeping the gamma-ray acceptance rate high enough to exceed the relevant LAT requirements for those events. Using the onboard event filter, real-time, onboard, gamma-ray burst detection was then studied. A detection algorithm had been developed by members of the LAT collaboration, but the algorithm required a lower onboard background rate than the basic LAT requirement for downlink, in addition to knowledge of incident gamma-ray directions. Therefore, several methods of reducing the background rate to acceptable levels were provided, and onboard track reconstruction methods were created and tested. GRB detection was tested for two background filters and two track reconstruction methods for simulated bursts that had realistic light curves and spectral characteristics. With prototype background cuts, track reconstruction, and burst detection algorithms, the LAT burst detection requirements were exceeded. Suggestions were offered about how to enhance burst detection performance in the coming months before GLAST is launched. DETECTING HIGH-ENERGY EMISSION FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH EGRET AND GLAST by David Nathan Wren Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Advisory Committee: Dr. Steven M. Ritz, Advisor (NASA/GSFC) Professor Gregory W. Sullivan, Chairman and Advisor (UMD) Professor Jordan A. Goodman Professor M. Coleman Miller Professor Douglas A. Roberts c © Copyright by David Nathan Wren 2005 To "the girl behind the gamma rays"


One hundred years after J. M. Barrie published the novel Peter and Wendy, Maria Tatar revisits a story that, like Alice in Wonderland, bridges the generations, animating both adults and children with its kinetic energy. The adventures of the Darling children with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell in Neverland are the seminal tale of escape and fantasy. Inspired by Barrie's real-life adventures with the five Llewelyn Davies boys he adopted, the story of Peter Pan has a deep and controversial history of its own that comes alive in Tatar's new edition. This brilliantly designed volume-with period photographs, full-color images by iconic illustrators, commentary on stage and screen versions, and an array of supplementary material, including Barrie's screenplay for a silent film-will draw readers into worlds of incandescent beauty, flooding them with the radiance of childhood wonder and the poignancy of what we lose when we grow up.


GPU-based clusters are widely chosen for accelerating a variety of scientific applications in high-end cloud environments. With their growing popularity, there is a necessity for improving the system throughput and decreasing the turnaround time for co-executing applications on the same GPU device. However, resource contention among multiple applications on a multi-tasked GPU leads to the performance degradation of applications. Previous works are not accurate enough to learn the characteristics of GPU application before execution, or cannot get such information timely, which may lead to misleading scheduling decisions. In this paper, we present GScheduler, a framework to detect and reduce interference for co-executing applications on the GPU-based cloud. The most important feature of GScheduler is to utilize GPU usage pattern extractor for detecting interference between applications. It is composed of key function-call graph extractor and key GPU resource usage vector extractor, the former is used to detect the similarity of GPU usage mode between applications, while the latter is used to calculate the similarity of GPU resource requirements in-between. In addition, an interference aware scheduler is proposed to minimize the interference. We evaluated our framework with 26 diverse, real-world CUDA applications. When compared with state-of the-art interference-oblivious schedulers, our framework improves system throughput by 36% on average, and achieves a 30.5% reduction of turnaround time on average.


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This paper presents the sanctuary of Zeus Ammon at Kallithea, Chalcidice, where three related deities were worshipped. The cult of Dionysos and probably that of the Nymphs began in the late 8th century BC or earlier in a cave in the southern part of the sanctuary. The cult of Zeus Ammon was introduced in the first half of the 4th century BC, and in the second half of the century a Doric peristyle temple and an open-air corridor running parallel to the temple and flanked by two rows of monumental bases that supported sculpture were built. The cult of Asclepios was introduced in the same period. In the 2nd century AD the sanctuary reached its apogee: the area was reorganized, the old buildings were altered and new edifices (two oblong buildings for spectators in front of the temple of Zeus Ammon, a balneum-therapeuterion etc.) were built.


Background: The purpose of this survey was to assess the knowledge of rural schoolteachers with respect to vision, ocular conditions, and other visual-related aspects of the classroom. The educational level of the respondents was also attained. Methods: A series of two surveys was handed out at the four schools in Gooding, Idaho to ascertain education level and familiarity with vision or ocular terms that related to the classroom. In Gooding, there is a grade school, middle school, high school, and alternative school. The survey was handed to each teacher and completion was voluntary and anonymous. Of approximately 80 teachers, 39 responded to the first survey and 41 responded to the second. The survey data was compiled for graphs and conclusions. Results: The education level of teachers in the Gooding School District is approximately 34% BA, 43% BS, and 24% Masters. Many of the teachers were familiar with myopia, astigmatism, and ocular anatomy. Few were familiar with other refractive errors, binocular vision, accommodation, and treatments for visual problems. The majority had no college and CE training about vision in the classroom. Few had basic training from a college course, textbook, or CE. Approximately half of the respondents were interested in learning more about vision in the classroom, a third showed some interest, and the remaining showed no interest. Conclusions: Though this is not a large-scale survey, the results show a trend for the average educator in rural Idaho. This information may also be applied to the average person or parent since most of the respondents had little or no training about vision. The survey shows a definite need for teacher education with regards to vision and its effects in the classroom. Teachers are in a unique position to observe students and recognize vision problems. With the appropriate treatment, most vision problems can be corrected and a student's academic performance enhanced.


Abstract Aerophytic phototrophs, colonizers of different substrates exposed to air, among which are rock substrates in cave habitats, are in general not sufficiently investigated and studied. From the ecological point of view, seasonal/temporal variations and parameters that influence aerophytic phototrophic communities through seasons still remain largely unknown. Seasonal analysis of phototrophic microorganisms from biofilms developed at entrances of Samar and Jezava caves in Eastern Serbia was performed four times a year. All identified phototrophic representatives were assigned to a certain division or group. The relationship between documented groups and different measured, determined and observed ecological parameters was illustrated using principal component analysis (PCA). A high diversity of cyanobacteria and algae was observed as a result of seasonal sampling: 141 taxa in Samar and 61 taxa in Jezava Cave. Cyanobacteria were dominant in both caves (coccoid forms prevailing) and were followed by Bacillariophyta. Bacillariophyta were positively correlated with light intensity and sites where seeping water was present, and cyanobacteria with water content in biofilm, Chl a and relative air humidity. Higher diversity of phototrophs was documented in December and March, and lower in May and August in both caves with Chl a values having the same trend as the diversity of phototrophic microorganisms. This was especially the case with biofilms in which diversity was more prone to seasonal changes and where Cyanobacteria dominated. Only 24 taxa were documented during all four seasons in Samar Cave (Cyanobacteria, Bacillariophyta and Chlorophyta representatives) and three in Jezava Cave (Cyanobacteria only).


For established manufacturing nations, increased competitive pressure has been the way of life since the late 1970s. For the most part however, production decision making in manufacturing industry has not changed to meet these new challenges. It usually takes a subordinate strategic role to the marketing and finance functions with the consequence that it accepts a reactive role in the corporate debate.

The outcome is that strategic initiatives and developments are predominantly based on corporate marketing-decisions at the "front end" with manufacturing being forced to react at the "back end" of the debate. Since manufacturing managers come late into these discussions, it is difficult for them to successfully influence corporate decisions. All too often, the result is the formulation and later development of strategies which manufacturing is unable to successfully support. That is not to say that this happens for want of trying - strong is the work ethic in the manufacturing culture. However, if the basic link between the manufacturing processes and infrastructure (ie manufacturing strategy) and the market is not strategically sound, then the business will suffer.

There are many reasons why manufacturing is typically reactive in the strategic debate. One important factor is the lack of appropriate concepts and language with which to explain or contribute to corporate decisions. This research has been undertaken to help redress this deficiency.

The work began in the early 1980s. Upto that time, both the professional and academic contributions to the field of manufacturing strategy principally concerned statements which highlighted the problem and alerted manufacturing industry as a whole to its size and potential. However, there were in addition some important early pointers as to ways of overcoming the inadequacy of production's contribution to strategy formulation as well as some alternative approaches which firms needed to consider as ways of improving their overall performance. The inability of the production executive to contribute appropriate functional inputs provided the stimulus to undertake this work and to endeavour to build on initial insights as a way of taking forward the subject area of manufacturing strategy.

The core of this thesis concerns these developments. Reported here are three contributions to this field of study all of which have been tested in different firms and are increasingly being used by academics, consultants and businesses as a way of helping to gain essential insights into what is a complex problem.

The three facets are:

• Typically, corporate strategies are composites of functional statements which are inadequately debated one with another in order to understand and test the coherence of the approaches proposed. The result is that the opportunity to fashion corporate strategies supported by all the functions within a business is not adequately pursued. In addition, the necessity to develop corporate strategy in this way and the advantages which ensue have gone unrecognised

• The reactive role of manufacturing results in a lack of strategic direction within this function. As a result, typical developments and investments tend to take the form of operational responses undertaken without strategic context. One outcome of the research is a methodology which provides a way in which a business can develop a manufacturing strategy which links manufacturing developments and investments to the needs of its agreed markets. Two applications of this are provided in Chapter 4

• It is most important for an industrial company to recognise that it is attempting to support the inherently changing nature of its markets with manufacturing investments the characteristics of which are fixed in nature and will not change without further investments and developments. Product profiling is a methodology for enabling companies to assess the current level of match between its markets and manufacturing and to recognise the extent to which decisions will effect this in the future. Examples of its application illustrating different sources of mismatch are given in Chapter 5


The maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky) is a serious pest of economic importance in stored grains. It causes major damage to stored maize grain thereby reducing its weight, quality and germination. An experiment was conducted in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replications to screen 32 maize genotypes against maize weevil in no-choice and free-choice conditions at Entomology Division, Khumaltar, Lalitpur (Room temperature: Maximum 24-32°C and Minimum 18-27°C). The findings showed that the maize genotypes had different response to maize weevil damage ranging from susceptible to tolerance. The genotypes Manakamana-3, Lumle White POP Corn and Ganesh-2 showed their tolerance to S. zeamais as evidenced by lower number of weevil emerged/attracted, lower amount of grain debris release and lower proportion of bored grains, while the genotype ZM-627 was the most susceptible to weevil damage in both tests. The other remaining genotypes were intermediate types. This information is useful to improve grain protection in storage and varietal improvement/release program.


This thesis describes the research which have been conducted on the self adjusting multinozzle electrospraying technique, applied in an electrostatic wind energy converter (EWICON). An EWICON system directly converts wind energy to electrical energy by the displacement of charged droplets in the opposite direction of an electric field. Electrospraying referrers to a process where nozzles are formed by so called Taylor cones. These cones form the nozzles which spray an aerosol of charged droplets. The self adjusting technique offers advantages compared to other methods with respect to electrospraying properties and utilization of material. For practical implementation, the following components have been simulated and tested. First the electrode configuration was optimized for electrospraying. This configuration exists of two cylindrical conductors at a distance of 42 mm and a diameter ratio of 1 to 8. This ratio appeared to be able to generate the desired electric field for stable electrospraying while minimizing the velocity in which the charged droplets are attracted back to the system. A wind shield was designed and applied to locally increase wind speed and provide stable Taylor cone formation. Secondly the creation of charged droplets was examined with this setup. A mixture of 30% ethanol and 70% demineralized water appeared to be the most suitable spraying liquid. Experiments were conducted to observe the relation between the flow rate and applied potential and the number of Taylor cones with the coresponding current. From these experiments can be concluded that it is desirable to generate a large number of Taylor cones while maintaining an as low as possible flow rate and charging potential. Higher potential will result in unstable spraying and corona discharges. It was discovered that the number of cones could be significantly be increased by making use of the hysteresis effect. Finally the charging system was placed on an insulated self-supplying platform to complete the EWICON system. Experiments have been conducted, using a wind generator, to assess the performance according to output power. Results were compared to a similar needle configuration (using needles as nozzles) investigated by D. Djairam. There has been a significant improvement according to previous charging experiments with the self adjusting multinozzle system. However, the system efficiency is low compared to the needle system, due to the inability of removing all charged droplets from the system by the wind. A comparable output power could be achieved, when all charged droplets would be removed and improvements are realized according to the output power per nozzle. In this stage of this research, the advantages of the self adjusting character of the systems are being outweighed by the sensitivity to variations in flow rate, wind speed and electric field distribution. Another important aspect is the humidity of the surrounding air which causes leakage currents and disturbing the electrospraying process. In general, it can be concluded that the self adjusting multinozzle system offers perspective for implementation in an EWICON system. However, further research should be conducted to improve electrical, as well as aerodynamic performance.


Progress in stereo algorithm performance is quickly outpacing the ability of existing stereo data sets to discriminate among the best-performing algorithms, motivating the need for more challenging scenes with accurate ground truth information. This paper describes a method for acquiring high-complexity stereo image pairs with pixel-accurate correspondence information using structured light. Unlike traditional range-sensing approaches, our method does not require the calibration of the light sources and yields registered disparity maps between all pairs of cameras and illumination projectors. We present new stereo data sets acquired with our method and demonstrate their suitability for stereo algorithm evaluation. Our results are available at http://www.middlebury.edu/stereo/.


Our premise for this literature review is the global demographic change caused by the world's population living longer and becoming older, and extensive international migration leading to multicultural societies. Increasing age leads to health problems, often long-term or chronic, requiring investments in health care. Worse health and dissimilarities in pattern of morbidity/ mortality have been found in foreign-compared to Swedish-born persons, so it is reasonable to assume that this affects use of health care. The exploratory review focuses on elderly migrants' (>65 years) use of healthcare. The databases Pub Med, EBSCO, CINAHL and ERIC were searched in 2000-2013. A limited number of studies were found; few had a comparative approach, most were from the USA, and focused on migrants from the former Soviet Union or countries in South-East Asia. A range of factors were identified that influence patterns of health care use: language fluency, ability to communicate, self-reported health status, prevalence of chronic disease, physical distance from care provision, availability of transport to reach care, cost of care, the health insurance system, cultural norms and values regarding different forms of care, level of education, and length of residence in the host country. Most studies treated health care from a general perspective and collected data from community and hospital settings, without analysing usage separately. Some studies indicated elderly migrants making use of health care less than other groups but the pattern is not unambiguous: other studies show that there is an overuse of health care. It is therefore difficult to show any particular pattern, or possible differences in use, regarding community versus in-patient care. Studies focusing on migrants' actual use of health care are few and further research is needed, especially because elderly people form the largest group of users of health care and will be even larger in the future.


This paper proposes a framework to describe the influence of customer behaviour in the establishment of a satisfying business-to-business e-commerce strategy. A description of electronic sales channels typologies as well as of the attributes characterizing them is provided. The approach, based on conjoint analysis, allowing calculation of customer utility and probability of choice is explained. The results drawn from an industrial application provide reliable information about customer wishes at the individual level. They also demonstrate how the preference structure of customers can differ significantly, resulting in the choice of different e-sales channels. The obtained estimation of customer preferences constitutes an important input for evaluating the profitability of a given e-commerce strategy before implementing it. Thus, this approach, based on customer behaviour analysis, constitutes the first step of an overall process supporting e-commerce strategy establishment.


A series of 60 K high frequency single-stage coaxial pulse tube cryocoolers has been developed to provide reliable low-noise cooling at 60 K for space-borne long wave infrared focal plane arrays. The development goal and a simulation model are briefly introduced, then optimizations of the novel heat exchanger configurations, the temperature mismatch of the tubes, and the characteristics mismatch of the compressor and cold finger are described. Experiments show that our best cooler prototype has achieved 8.0% of Carnot at 60 K, and can typically provide 2 W at 60 K with 104 W of electric input power and a 300 K reject temperature. It is also shown that 2.5W of cooling capacity at 60K can be achieved when the input power is increased to 127 W. Further optimization is underway, and it is feasible that the thermodynamic performance goal can be realized in the near future.


Transuranium elements in the environment are mainly derived from nuclear weapons testing and the nuclear fuel cycle. Of growing concern are illicit nuclear trafficking and the threat of terror acts. The development of rational methods, for environmental monitoring and for tracing sources of nuclear and radioactive materials in the environment, is constantly required. Traditionally, the actinides have been determined by radiometric techniques. These analyses can be time consuming for elements at low concentrations and with long half-lives. This thesis addresses the determination of actinides, especially plutonium, in environmental samples with ICP-QMS (inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometry). The ICP-QMS instrument was equipped with an USN (ultrasonic nebuliser), which proved to be a successful combination for the determination of plutonium at low concentrations in acidified solutions after separation with anion exchange. The detection limit for plutonium was in the range 10-30 pg/l with a RSD of 1-10%. The suitability of chemical separation was evaluated for anion exchange, liquid-liquid-extraction and extraction chromatography. The outlined procedure, including sample dissolution, chemical separation and analysis, for determination of actinides in environmental matrices proved to be accurate and reliable. Quality assurance of the procedure was performed during an intercomparison exercise and with reference materials. The detection accuracy has also been validated with α-spectrometry and ICP-SFMS. The procedure has been applied to saline sediments and fresh water sediments as well as several fresh water matrices.


"Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs" is the thirteenth chapter of Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species, first published in England in 1859. The book details part of Darwin's argument for the common ancestry of life and natural selection [4] as the cause of speciation. In this chapter, Darwin summarizes the evidence for evolution [5] by connecting observations of development in organisms to the processes of natural selection [4]. Darwin shows how the theory of special creation, which claims that God directly created all organisms in their current form, is inferior to the theory of natural selection [4] for its ability to explain the diversity of life. In this chapter, Darwin also discusses classification and homology as they relate to natural selection [4].


INTRODUCTION
Patient safety within dental education is paramount. Wrong site surgery (WSS) tooth extraction is not uncommon and is a significant Never Event (NE) in dentistry. This study aims to explore dental schools' undergraduate experience of NEs, safety interventions implemented and the impact on student experience.

METHODS
All 16 UK Dental Schools were surveyed via e-mail.

RESULTS
The response rate was 100%. A modified WHO checklist was used within institutions (94%) including pre-operative briefings and recording teeth on whiteboards (81% respectively). Students were directly supervised performing extractions (63%) utilising a 1:4 Staff: Student ratio. WSS by students was reported in 69% of schools, with student experience being impacted by an increased patient safety focus.

DISCUSSION
This study demonstrated an increased utilisation of an adapted WHO checklist. Modification of practices to ensure patient safety was demonstrated at all schools, irrespective of student WSS occurrences. Institutions experiencing student NEs commonly implemented WHO checklists and recording teeth for extraction on whiteboards. Other strategies included direct staff supervision and pre-operative briefings.

CONCLUSION
UK Dental Schools have increased the emphasis on patient safety by the implementation of national healthcare models e.g. WHO checklists and pre-operative briefings. These strategies both aim to improve communication and teamwork. Increased levels of staff supervision foster greater quality of teaching however, this has resulted in reduced student clinical experience. A proposed minimum standard for undergraduate surgery is suggested to ensure safe and competent dental practitioners of the future.


The principal strength of search engines is that they enable people to retrieve information easily. This power, however, represents a threat to privacy. Personal information, such as home addresses and membership in organizations, can be easily retrieved by individuals all over the globe. This has caused widespread concern among citizens and privacy organizations alike. Google has stated that it is not willing to censor information, but wants the internet community to decide whether or not certain types of data should be made public [1]. To help inform this debate, we are conducting a study on public perception of private information available through search engines. In particular, we focus on how people perceive certain types of information, and on its temporal nature. This paper presents the results from a pilot study designed to spark interest in the issues, and to inform the construction of future work in this area.


Background: Acute postoperative pain is an important surgical side effect that may delay patient discharge in ambulatory operations; moreover, the strategies used to alleviate pain may cause side effects that require longer hospitalization to recover. In this clinical trial, we compared two current anesthetic methods with special concerns about postoperative pain intensity beside other important components of ambulatory anesthesia.Methods: This clinical trial was conducted on two age-matched groups of 75 members who underwent ambulatory breast surgery. Patients in the first group (GA) underwent general anesthesia with propofol plus remifentanil by employing a laryngeal mask airway. In the second group (LA), the surgeon used infiltration of 2% lidocaine in the breast tissue and midazolam was applied as premedication. At the end of surgery, paracetamol was administered to all patients in both groups. The pain score was evaluated when the patients were fully awake using a numerical pain rating scale. Patients with severe pain received analgesia. The length of postanesthesia care unit (PACU) stay was recorded for each patient.Results: None of the patients in the LA group were satisfied because of the experience of needle insertion into their breast tissue (P = 0.001). The patients in the LA group experienced more pain in PACU requiring adjuvant analgesia (P = 0.001). Patients in the LA group had longer PACU admission (P = 0.001).Conclusions: Patients in the LA group had higher pain scores and were dissatisfied with the plan of their anesthesia. This may confirm the role of preemptive analgesia or the effect of emotional stress of breast tissue needling in wakeful patient.


"Media Production Techniques" (MPT) is a three-hour, 200-level introductory course in the college of liberal arts in a communication program. Two to three sections are offered in fall and spring semesters. Enrollment ranges from 15-20 students. The course takes place in a computer lab on campus, and due to the space, the maximum amount of students that can enroll is 20. The class meets either three times a week for 50 minutes each or twice a week for an hour and fifteen minutes each. The class is run by either a professor or teaching assistant.


Introduction I. Judicial Review of Agency Determinations A. New Jersey's Approach 1. Gallenthin Realty v. Borough of Paulsboro B. New York's Approach II. The Elusive Definition of "Blight" III. Whither "Underutilization" and "Blight?" INTRODUCTION The public controversy triggered by the United States Supreme Court's expansive decision in Kelo v. City of New London (1) put considerable political pressure on individual states to impose their own independent limits on the use of the power of eminent domain for purposes of redevelopment, in order to conform that power to commonly held notions regarding the inviolability of private property. Kelo held as a matter of federal constitutional doctrine that appropriating property for transfer to a private entity in order to encourage economic development or enhance tax revenues constituted a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. (2) But the Court emphasized that "nothing in our opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power." (3) Observing that many states already impose "public use" requirements that are stricter than the federal baseline, the Court, in effect, invited the states to temper the breadth of its controversial decision with their own independent limitations. The pressure to identify independent state grounds for invalidating the use of eminent domain for redevelopment was therefore felt by both the legislative and judicial branches of state governments. One such limitation that is grounded in the legal tradition of a number of states, including New York and New Jersey, is the principle that use of eminent domain for redevelopment should be restricted to areas that are considered "blighted." Elimination of blight through redevelopment projects has thus long been held by the courts to constitute a public benefit which satisfies the "public use" requirement of the Takings Clause. (4) Conversely, both before and after the Kelo decision, many states have required a showing of blight as a precondition to use of redevelopment powers, including eminent domain. (5) Especially after Kelo, several states have explored the concept of elimination of "blight" not only as a source of reaffirmation of a state's redevelopment authority, but at the same time as a potential limit on that same authority, which would protect areas deemed not to be blighted from condemnation for redevelopment. New Jersey and New York have facially comparable constitutional and statutory provisions regarding use of condemnation to engage in redevelopment of blighted areas. Under the Blighted Areas Clause of the New Jersey Constitution: "The clearance, replanning, development or redevelopment of blighted areas shall be a public purpose and public use, for which private property may be taken or acquired. Municipal, public or private corporations may be authorized by law to undertake such clearance, replanning, development or redevelopment...." (6) The New York Constitution states, albeit in somewhat different language, that "the legislature may provide ... for the clearance, replanning, reconstruction and rehabilitation of substandard and unsanitary areas...." (7) Pursuant to their respective constitutional provisions, both states have, either by statute (8) or by case law, (9) attempted to further elucidate the meaning of "blight." In two relatively recent decisions, the courts of last resort of both states have laid out their vision for the proper role of the judiciary in defining "blight," and thus also determined its effectiveness in limiting at least some objectionable uses of eminent domain for purposes of redevelopment. But despite the similar focus on the concept of blight, the two courts announced two very different approaches to judicial review of such determinations. In Gallenthin Realty Development, Inc. v. Borough of Paulsboro, (10) the New Jersey Supreme Court interpreted the New Jersey Constitution as imposing judicially enforceable limits on the legislative power to authorize condemnation for purposes of redevelopment, and thus strictly construed the New Jersey Local Redevelopment and Housing Law as not permitting designation of an undeveloped parcel of land as "in need of redevelopment," i. …


Mapping of late Quaternary geomorphic surfaces, and analysis of the soils and sediments buried within them, provides evidence for the history of a small study area within the Red Valley physiographic zone, Black Hills, South Dakota. Geomorphic thresholds for this grassland system are correlated with periods of major climatic change. Well-developed soils dating to the late Pleistocene and early Holocene (14,000 to 9000 yr B.P.) suggest more mesic conditions and geomorphic stability. A mid-Holocene Altithermal (ca. 8000 to 4500 yr B.P.) denudation almost completely stripped the landscape of earlier Holocene sediments and soils. A prolonged, mid-Holocene (ca. 4500 to 3600 yr B.P.) mesic period of landscape stability and soil development followed, but was abruptly terminated around 3600 yr BP. Late Holocene conditions approached stability about 1200 yr BP. After this time, alluvial terrace surfaces remained stable, while alluvial fans experienced periods of stability punctuated by midslope aggradation.


Introduction: Mussaenda philippica (Rubiaceae) is a shrub distributed in all the planes of India, Philippines and South-East Asia. Its synonyms are M. grandiflora, M. acutifolia, M. frondosa etc. The plant is preferred as medication for the treatment of jaundice, dysentery, stomachache and influenza. The current study was based on the evaluation of antiulcer property of M. philippica leaves extract. Methods: The methods used were pylorus ligated, ethanol induced and 0.2(M) NaOH induced ulcer in rats. Results: In pylorus ligation model, aqueous extract (200 mg/kg) produced a substantial reduction in ulcer index followed by decrease in gastric volume, total acidity associated with a raise in pH, which, confirmed that tested extract of the plant act by altering the mucosal barrier Thus, the gastro protective effect of this extract may be due to the presence of flavonoid in the plant. In the same way, aqueous extract of the plant showed significant effect against ethanol induced gastric ulcer in rat as compared to methanol-treated group, which, may be due to leukotriene antagonistic effect or the inhibition of 5-lipooxygenase pathway. In NaOH induced ulcer model, aqueous extract of M. philippica revealed significant antiulcer effects on the basis of pH effect and ulcer index in rats. The anti-ulcerogenic and anti-secretory effect of the tested M. philippica leaves extracts point out its possible cyto-protective effect. Conclusion: In conclusion the aqueous extract of M. philippica leaves possess potential antiulcer activity in experimental rat models.


Received: September 2014, Accepted: February 2015 Background: Musculoskeletal diseases are quite common among healthcare professionals including medical laboratory technicians. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and ergonomic risk factors in Indian medical laboratory technicians. Materials and Methods: The study sample comprised of 130 male and female laboratory technicians from the Indian healthcare industry. Samples were selected based on convenient random sampling. Data was collected using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and Quick Exposure Checklist (QEC) to evaluate the ergonomic risk factors present in Indian medical laboratories. Statistical tools applied in the present study include frequencies, percentage, mean and standard deviations, independent ttest, and chi-square test. Results: Results indicated that the major percentage of technicians (66.9%) had suffered from some kind of musculoskeletal symptoms during the last 12 months. The highest prevalence was reported in the back (44%), knees (20.7%), and neck region (18.4%). This indicated that musculoskeletal problems are prevalent among Indian medical laboratory technicians. The results showed that the levels of exposure to musculoskeletal risks were high or very high among 85.3% of technicians. The statistical analysis showed an insignificant association between the level of risk factors and the prevalence of musculoskeletal issues (P>0.05). The most common risk factors found to be awkward postures, prolonged standing, inappropriate workstation arrangement. Conclusions: Ergonomic interventions in terms of reducing risk factors, improving workstation design, eliminating awkward postures, and providing some physical training to improve upon their musculoskeletal fitness level are recommended.


A study was made of the occurrence, distribution, and concentrations of the heavy metals copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) in the soils and crops of the important horticultural area north of Toronto known as the Holland Marsh. The soils are deep organic mucks (> 85% organic matter), derived by the drainage of black marshland soils, which has been carried out over the past 40 years. A comparison is made between the Pb and Cu concentrations in undrained, uncultivated areas of the marsh and in the intensively used horticultural area. Analyses show a marked accumulation of Cu in surface layers of cultivated soils, with a mean surface concentration of 130 ppM, declining to 20 ppM at a 32-cm depth. Undrained (virgin) soils of the same marshes had < 20 ppM at all depths. Lead concentrations also declined through the profile, from concentrations of 22 to 10 ppM. In comparison, undrained areas had elevated Pb levels. Cultivation appeared to have increased Cu, but lowered Pb in the marsh. Copper and lead levels found in the crops were generally higher in the young spring vegetables than in the mature fall ones. Leafy crops, especially lettuce (Lactuca L.) and celery (Apium graveolens), accumulated highermore » Pb levels in their foliage compared with levels in root crops. Cultivation procedures, including past pesticide applications and fertilizer additions, appeared to be principal sources of Cu. Mobility from the soil and into the plant for these elements in the marsh muck soils is discussed.« less


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To determine facilitators and barriers to managing patient loss from the combined perspectives of oncology nurses and to extract essential components of a supportive intervention.

RESEARCH APPROACH
Qualitative, descriptive.

SETTING
The comprehensive National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center of a mid-Atlantic university teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
34 nurses from inpatient and outpatient adult and pediatric oncology units.

METHODOLOGIC APPROACH
Focus groups were held with oncology staff nurses to identify challenges regarding work-related bereavement, current support for managing grief and loss, and how to support interpersonal functioning and resiliency.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Work-related bereavement, bereavement support, and interventions and management strategies for bereavement and loss.

FINDINGS
Two primary themes emerged: dimensions of work-related loss and working through bereavement. Participants also provided many concrete suggestions for the creation of a supportive self-care environment.

CONCLUSIONS
Support issues were numerous, multilevel, and varied. However, addressing those concerns can improve job satisfaction and decrease compassion fatigue. The findings lay the foundation for appropriate interventions to assist nurses in managing those situations.

INTERPRETATION
Administrators, managers, and individuals interested in furthering the multifaceted goals of oncology care, including nurses themselves, are challenged to create and maintain mutually supportive environments for providing optimal care to patients and families.


ABSTRACT Statistics on homelessness in the City of Tshwane fail to give us ideas about the capacities homeless people have that could be used as a stepping stone for their own economic empowerment and development. Stories of homeless people considered in this research affirm that there are real people behind those 'cold' numbers. This research further unearths by means of a basic capacity inventory the potential for economic contribution that a homeless community could make in Tshwane. I found that, given the resources and support needed, the homeless community that participated in this research has the capacity to contribute, through self-employment, cooperatives, internship programmes, formal employment and so forth, to many industries in the City of Tshwane, some of which are mentioned in the article.


The unusual and interesting facts of this matter served as an opportunity for the court in Kidson & Another v Jimspeed Enterprises CC & others [2009] JOL 23455 (GNP) to refresh us on the law relating to personal servitudes, in this instance the right of habitation (right of free residence). The essence of the enquiry was whether a habitatio lapses if the servitude was unused (but not abandoned) by the holder of the right, the property having been transferred to a new owner but without the latter's knowledge of the habitatio and the physical building where the habitatio was to be enjoyed having been destroyed.


In an effort to provide a wider range of services to youth and their families than is traditionally available in routine probation, the South Oxnard Challenge Project (SOCP) employed a team approach to service delivery of an intensive probation program. The researchers interviewed juveniles who were randomly assigned to either the SOCP experimental condition or the control condition of a routine probation program. The intensive probation program, among other goals, focused on improving parent–child relationships and teaching youth how to choose better peers. At 1 year post random assignment, experimental and control youth were not significantly different on key family or peer relationship measures. Level of program intensity, implementation issues, and other problems inherent in doing this type of research are provided as possible explanations for the lack of differences. These null findings are examined in light of the recent movement toward parental involvement legislation.


This paper presents a report from a cruise onboard the R/V Falkor oceanographic vessel from the Schmidt Ocean Institute. The goal of this cruise was to demonstrate a novel approach to observe the ocean with multiple underwater, surface, and aerial vehicles, as well with the R/V Falkor also used as the base and control center for all assets. We describe the planning phase leading up to the cruise, the technical approach, developments and timeline of results and decisions made throughout the cruise.Our approach combines a set of new technologies that enabled scientists and engineers to obtain a synoptic view of the study area, with adjustable spatial and temporal resolution, and to compare data collected in near real-time to the outputs of computational models. This approach was applied to map the Pacific Ocean's Subtropical front with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions.


Session subtyping is a cornerstone of refinement of communicating processes: a process implementing a session type (i.e., a communication protocol) T can be safely used whenever a process implementing one of its supertypes T′ is expected, in any context, without introducing deadlocks nor other communication errors. As a consequence, whenever T T′ holds, it is safe to replace an implementation of T′ with an implementation of the subtype T, which may allow for more optimised communication patterns. We present the first formalisation of the precise subtyping relation for asynchronous multiparty sessions. We show that our subtyping relation is sound (i.e., guarantees safe process replacement, as outlined above) and also complete: any extension of the relation is unsound. To achieve our results, we develop a novel session decomposition technique, from full session types (including internal/external choices) into single input/output session trees (without choices). Previous work studies precise subtyping for binary sessions (with just two participants), or multiparty sessions (with any number of participants) and synchronous interaction. Here, we cover multiparty sessions with asynchronous interaction, where messages are transmitted via FIFO queues (as in the TCP/IP protocol), and prove that our subtyping is both operationally and denotationally precise. In the asynchronous multiparty setting, finding the precise subtyping relation is a highly complex task: this is because, under some conditions, participants can permute the order of their inputs and outputs, by sending some messages earlier or receiving some later, without causing errors; the precise subtyping relation must capture all such valid permutations — and consequently, its formalisation, reasoning and proofs become challenging. Our session decomposition technique overcomes this complexity, expressing the subtyping relation as a composition of refinement relations between single input/output trees, and providing a simple reasoning principle for asynchronous message optimisations.


We propose a new framework for reasoning about generalization in deep learning. The core idea is to couple the Real World, where optimizers take stochastic gradient steps on the empirical loss, to an Ideal World, where optimizers take steps on the population loss. This leads to an alternate decomposition of test error into: (1) the Ideal World test error plus (2) the gap between the two worlds. If the gap (2) is universally small, this reduces the problem of generalization in offline learning to the problem of optimization in online learning. We then give empirical evidence that this gap between worlds can be small in realistic deep learning settings, in particular supervised image classification. For example, CNNs generalize better than MLPs on image distributions in the Real World, but this is "because" they optimize faster on the population loss in the Ideal World. This suggests our framework is a useful tool for understanding generalization in deep learning, and lays a foundation for future research in the area.


This article examines the legality of race and sex classifications in casting announcements for actors, which are common in the film industry and have profound social consequences, yet have been entirely overlooked by legal scholars. Such announcements or breakdowns are used to channel people of color and women to low-paying, marginal roles. Title VII provides no categorical exception for this highly unusual practice - it makes no exception for race and contains only a narrow bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) defense with respect to sex. Divergent strands within Title VII and First Amendment law point in contradictory directions on the legality of discriminatory breakdowns. With respect to Title VII, the EEOC Guidelines opine that sex discrimination in casting may constitute a BFOQ for authenticity purposes, but this conclusion is at war with core Title VII principles. With respect to the First Amendment, the Supreme Court has held that generally applicable laws, such as Title VII, may be applied to expressive organizations without triggering heightened free speech scrutiny. Recent cases, however, created exceptions to antidiscrimination laws for the Boy Scouts and a parade group notwithstanding the aforementioned contrary precedent. I conclude that the First Amendment requires treating casting decisions with a degree of deference that Title VII would not ordinarily afford employers. But our constitutional commitment to free speech does not exact a wholesale abandonment of antidiscrimination law in this context. It can accommodate the goal of reducing the uncritical use of race/sex classifications and reserving such classifications to a subset of casting decisions in which they would demonstrably advance the narrative. Alternatively, a court might ban race/sex classifications in all breakdowns and yet recognize that the ultimate casting decision is protected by the First Amendment. This examination of casting discrimination also provides a reminder that society's tastes for certain gender conventions, such as makeup on women and the routine requirement that female actors appear in nude scenes, temper Title VII's capacious language and confine its impact. In short, there is a gap between Title VII's broad promise of equal employment opportunity and the reality of continuing differential treatment that has become naturalized and goes largely unchallenged.


A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of mobile nodes relying neither on fixed communication infrastructures nor on any base stations to provide connectivity. Each node in the MANET acts both as a host and a router. Designing an efficient and reliable routing protocol for such networks is a challenging issue. For this reason, many routing protocols have been developed, trying to accomplish this task efficiently. Since MANET change their topology frequently, routing in such networks is a challenging task. Multipath routing may improve system performance through load balancing and reduced end-to-end delay . Mobile ad hoc networks, the existing multipath routing protocol AOMDV does not consider the routing metrics such as hop count and energy while selecting the path that leads to inefficient load balancing. . We consider a scheme which could energy conservation, shortest path and load balancing, In this routing scheme, we would consider both the shortest path and the energy conservation in multipath way with proposed energy based multipath routing (E-AOMDV). E-AOMDV selects the number of paths for multipath routing with least hop count and high residual energy while retaining disjoint path selection process of AOMDV. In this review we select the better disjoint mode is contributed by analyzing the performance of E-AOMDV in both node disjoint and link disjoint mode. Keywords—MANET, E-AOMDV, NODE and LINK disjoint


The Victoria Police and the Transport Accident Commission undertook a trial project (Project ARID) in which place of drinking data were collected from across all police activities over a six-month period in a rural area of Victoria. Police in Division 4 of Region 4 (including the population centres of Seymour and Benalla, and the area east of the Hume Highway as far east as Mt Buller and as far south as Marysville) agreed to complete a small form each time they attended or came across an incident that appeared to involve alcohol. The forms were returned to the author on a weekly basis by each Police Station in the Division. Data concerning a total of 395 alcohol-related incidents were returned by police, with 36.5 per cent of these relating to drink driving and the remainder relating to incidents and offences in other areas of policing including domestic incidents, drinking or being intoxicated in public places, and assaults. Data were analysed in terms of the time and day of week of the incident, location, place of drinking, and offence type. The project demonstrated that data of this type could be an important additional source of information for police when planning enforcement strategies targeting drink driving and other alcohol-related problems in the community.


We consider a network with finite number of users where each user observes only a numerical value of its measurement. The system is interactive in the sense that each user's payoff is affected by the environment state and the choices of all the other users. This scenario can be modeled as dynamic robust game. We examine how risk-sensitive learners influence the convergence time of such a game in a specific network selection problem. Based on imitative combined fully distributed payoff and strategy learning (CODIPAS), we provide a simple class of network selection games in which a convergence to global optimum can be obtained with a very fast convergence rate. We show that the risk-sensitive index can be used to improve the convergence time in a wide range of parameters.


Childe Hassam (1859-1935) created an immense body of work in the Impressionist style, comprising oil paintings, watercolours, pastels, and prints. His distinctive and enchanting images, with their focus on effects of colour and light, are widely admired and are included in the collections of every major museum in the United States. In this handsomely illustrated book, the authors, all experts in the field, take a fresh look at Hassam's responses to his vibrant and complicated era. Their texts study his striking portrayals of cities and country sites in America and Europe. Also explored are his late works - those completed after 1900 - when Hassam felt increasingly challenged by both modern life and modern art. These include tranquil interior vignettes, iconic images of New England churches, and his great Flag series. Hassam's life and career in Boston, New York, Paris, New England, and East Hampton as well as his travels are covered in fresh and insightful chapters. Essays on more specific subjects focus on Hassam's pride in his ancestry; his interest in architecture, gardens and allegorical themes; his accomplishments as a watercolourist and printmaker; his frames; the marketing of his art; and the contemporary critical response to it. The book, which also contains a chronology of Hassam's career and a comprehensive exhibition chronology, accompanies the first major museum retrospective of Hassam's works since 1972. Childe Hassam, American Impressionist examines this great artist's work in the context of his credo that "the man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of everyday life around him".


ABSTRACT Overexploitation of a single target species often results in fish community changes. Commercial and recreational overexploitation of walleye (Sander vitreus) in Shoal Lake, Ontario, in the early 1980s resulted in a ban on walleye fishing. In this study, we summarize potential changes in the catch-per-unit-effort of large-bodied fishes (abundance and biomass in gill nets) and small-bodied fishes (abundance in shoreline seines) for most years in the period 1979–2001. Through our analysis of gill net data, we found that the collapse of walleye was followed by increases in the abundance and biomass of yellow perch (Perca flavescens), cisco (Coregous artedi), and white sucker (Catostomus commersoni). Lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) also increased following the collapse, but this pattern was confounded by reduction in the lake whitefish commercial harvest. We found no evidence that the collapse of walleye benefited potential competitors (e.g. northern pike, Esox lucius). The collapse also resulted in semi-annual alternations between minnow (Pimaphales spp.) and a combination of yellow perch and shiners (Notropis spp.). Overall, our results are consistent with the general literature showing that the overexploitation of a top predator affects the broader community and with the walleye literature showing that these community shifts tend to reflect a top-down, trophic cascade that stems more from predator–prey relationships than from competitive relationships. Our case study provides important insight into the structure and function of aquatic food webs and the trophic ecology of top predators.


We describe the algorithm that selects the main sample of galaxies for spectroscopy in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) from the photometric data obtained by the imaging survey. Galaxy photometric properties are measured using the Petrosian magnitude system, which measures flux in apertures determined by the shape of the surface brightness profile. The metric aperture used is essentially independent of cosmological surface brightness dimming, foreground extinction, sky brightness, and the galaxy central surface brightness. The main galaxy sample consists of galaxies with r-band Petrosian magnitudes r ≤ 17.77 and r-band Petrosian half-light surface brightnesses μ50 ≤ 24.5 mag arcsec-2. These cuts select about 90 galaxy targets per square degree, with a median redshift of 0.104. We carry out a number of tests to show that (1) our star-galaxy separation criterion is effective at eliminating nearly all stellar contamination while removing almost no genuine galaxies, (2) the fraction of galaxies eliminated by our surface brightness cut is very small (∼0.1%), (3) the completeness of the sample is high, exceeding 99%, and (4) the reproducibility of target selection based on repeated imaging scans is consistent with the expected random photometric errors. The main cause of incompleteness is blending with saturated stars, which becomes more significant for brighter, larger galaxies. The SDSS spectra are of high enough signal-to-noise ratio (S/N > 4 per pixel) that essentially all targeted galaxies (99.9%) yield a reliable redshift (i.e., with statistical error less than 30 km s-1). About 6% of galaxies that satisfy the selection criteria are not observed because they have a companion closer than the 55″ minimum separation of spectroscopic fibers, but these galaxies can be accounted for in statistical analyses of clustering or galaxy properties. The uniformity and completeness of the galaxy sample make it ideal for studies of large-scale structure and the characteristics of the galaxy population in the local universe.


In this work, I describe in detail the development of cellular patterns in mouse and chick adrenals, in an attempt to discover the morphogenetic mechanisms that produce these patterns. Mouse adrenal gland tissues (chromaffin and cortical) are intermingled during embryonic life, but sort-out near the end of gestation into a central mass (medulla) of chromaffin tissue and a surrounding cortex. Once sorting out has occurred, the cells assemble into cortical zones and medullary cords. Chick adrenal gland tissues (chromaffin and cortical) are intermingled with each other during embryonic and post-hatching life. In mouse, the zona glomerulosa develops at day 1 and by day 4 both zona glomerulosa and fasciculata are obvious. By the end of the first week postnatal the cortex possesses three zones: zona glomerulosa, fasciculata and the developing X-zone. X-zone cells start to appear on the 4th day postnatal. The zona reticularis starts to develop while the X-zone is degenerating, about 32 days postnatal. An inner capsule is formed between the medulla and cortex of the male adrenal by 35 days postnatal (this process occurs later in females, during first pregnancy). Chromaffin cells start to be arranged in groups by 4 days postnatal and assume their final position in the centre of the gland (medulla) by 7 days postnatal. Different iation of chromaffin cells into A and NA cell types takes place in postnatal life. In chick, light and dark cortical cells are seen from 15 days of incubation up to and including 19 days. Zonation of cortical tissues is not seen. Differentiation of chromaffin cells into A and NA cell types takes place during post-hatching life. Sympathetic ganglion cells may contribute to the increased number of chromaffin cells by means of differentiation. At TEM level the cell surface of mouse adrenal tissues is smooth with little sign of elongated cellular processes, throughout the period when sorting out of the tissue types is occurring. Some elongated cells are seen during sorting out stages, but not later. The cell surfaces of chick adrenal cells were similar, but were not studied during stages when significant cell sorting was occurring. No obvious changes occur with respect to cell junctions (between like and unlike cells) in all stages studied in both mouse and chick adrenals. The distribution of fibronectin was analysed in embryonic mouse and chick by means of immunofluorescent labelling. Fibronectin was found in both mouse and chick embryonic adrenals at all stages studied, within the capsule, within blood vessels, around and between cortical cells, but only around groups of chromaffin cells, not within groups. There was no evidence for any quantitative variation in fibronectin that might have created an adhesive gradient to guide cell movement. An unexpected results of this work was the discovery of cell death in both cortical and chromaffin tissues in embryonic adrenals of mouse and chick. These findings have not been reported before. Morphometric analysis showed that mouse cortical tissue grows more rapidly than chromaffin during embryonic life and that mitosis is higher among corticals than chromaffins. It showed also that the medulla does not always form precisely in the centre of the gland. In a final discussion chapter, I consider the role of cell death in the embryonic adrenal, and suggest this may be to maintain a loose enough structure to allow active cell sorting. This chapter also discusses the possible mechanisms of cell sorting and concludes that the most likely process to be involved is differential adhesion. Suggestions are also made for further work on adrenal morphogenesis.


Synthetic Biology
Finite state machines are logic circuits with a predetermined sequence of actions that are triggered depending on the starting conditions. They are used for a variety of devices and biological systems, from vending machines to neural circuits. Roquet et al. have taken a finite state machine approach to control the expression of integrases, or enzymes that insert or excise phage DNA into or out of bacterial chromosomes. The integrases altered the DNA sequence of a plasmid to record all five possible combinations of two inputs. Such circuits can be used to record the states that the cell experienced over time and can be deployed in state-dependent gene expression programs.

Science , this issue p. [10.1126/science.aad8559][1]

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aad8559


Using the tools of random matrix theory we develop a statistical analysis of the transport properties of thermoelectric low-dimensional systems made of two electron reservoirs set at different temperatures and chemical potentials, and connected through a low-density-of-states two-level quantum dot that acts as a conducting chaotic cavity. Our exact treatment of the chaotic behavior in such devices lies on the scattering matrix formalism and yields analytical expressions for the joint probability distribution functions of the Seebeck coefficient and the transmission profile, as well as the marginal distributions, at arbitrary Fermi energy. The scattering matrices belong to circular ensembles which we sample to numerically compute the transmission function, the Seebeck coefficient, and their relationship. The exact transport coefficients probability distributions are found to be highly non-Gaussian for small numbers of conduction modes, and the analytical and numerical results are in excellent agreement. The system performance is also studied, and we find that the optimum performance is obtained for half-transparent quantum dots; further, this optimum may be enhanced for systems with few conduction modes.


ABSTRACT The evidence for connections between subjective well-being and spatial factors remains inconclusive, especially with respect to the immediate living environment. To fill this gap, this paper explores the relationship between individual-level subjective well-being and spatial variables in urban areas. This resolution is achieved by utilizing finely divided geographical information system (GIS)-based neighbourhood data, and controlling for objective and subjective spatial characteristics, as well as socio-spatial factors. The results suggest that subjective well-being has some spatial nature, but the direction of these relationships is highly dependent on the subjective well-being measure used. For example, central pedestrian zones flourish in terms of quality of life, whereas the highest happiness is reported in car-oriented zones. Overall, subjective spatial characteristics are more important for well-being than objective ones.


A flexible and fully biofuel-powered electronic skin enables continuous, multiplexed, and multimodal wireless sensing. Existing electronic skin (e-skin) sensing platforms are equipped to monitor physical parameters using power from batteries or near-field communication. For e-skins to be applied in the next generation of robotics and medical devices, they must operate wirelessly and be self-powered. However, despite recent efforts to harvest energy from the human body, self-powered e-skin with the ability to perform biosensing with Bluetooth communication are limited because of the lack of a continuous energy source and limited power efficiency. Here, we report a flexible and fully perspiration-powered integrated electronic skin (PPES) for multiplexed metabolic sensing in situ. The battery-free e-skin contains multimodal sensors and highly efficient lactate biofuel cells that use a unique integration of zero- to three-dimensional nanomaterials to achieve high power intensity and long-term stability. The PPES delivered a record-breaking power density of 3.5 milliwatt·centimeter−2 for biofuel cells in untreated human body fluids (human sweat) and displayed a very stable performance during a 60-hour continuous operation. It selectively monitored key metabolic analytes (e.g., urea, NH4+, glucose, and pH) and the skin temperature during prolonged physical activities and wirelessly transmitted the data to the user interface using Bluetooth. The PPES was also able to monitor muscle contraction and work as a human-machine interface for human-prosthesis walking.


The function of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) depends on the major energy-generating compounds (i.e., ammonia and oxygen). The diversification of AOA and AOB communities along ecological gradients of substrate availability in a complex environment have been much debated but rarely tested. In this study, two ecosystems of maize and rice crops under different fertilization regimes were selected to investigate the community diversification of soil AOA and AOB upon conversion of an upland field to a paddy field and long-term field fertilization in an acid soil. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction of ammonia monooxygenase ( amoA ) genes demonstrated that the abundance of AOA was significantly stimulated after conversion of upland to paddy soils for more than 100 yr, whereas a slight decline in AOB numbers was observed. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis fingerprints of amoA genes further revealed remarkable changes in the community compositions of AOA after conversion of aerobic upland to flooded paddy field. Sequencing analysis revealed that upland soil was dominated by AOA within the soil group 1.1b lineage, whereas the marine group 1.1a-associated lineage predominated in AOA communities in paddy soils. Irrespective of whether the soil was upland or paddy soil, long-term field fertilization led to increased abundance of amoA genes in AOA and AOB compared with control treatments (no fertilization), whereas archaeal amoA gene abundances outnumbered their bacterial counterparts in all samples. Phylogenetic analyses of amoA genes showed that Nitrosospira cluster-3-like AOB dominated bacterial ammonia oxidizers in both paddy and upland soils, regardless of fertilization treatment. The results of this study suggest that the marine group 1.1a-associated AOA will be better adapted to the flooded paddy field than AOA ecotypes of the soil group 1.1b lineage, and indicate that long-term flooding is the dominant selective force driving the community diversification of AOA populations in the acid soil tested.


Machine learning (ML) depends on data to train and verify models. Very often, organizations outsource processes related to data work (i.e., generating and annotating data and evaluating outputs) through business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and crowdsourcing platforms. This paper investigates outsourced ML data work in Latin America by studying three platforms in Venezuela and a BPO in Argentina. We lean on the Foucauldian notion of dispositif to define the data-production dispositif as an ensemble of discourses, actions, and objects strategically disposed to (re)produce power/knowledge relations in data and labor. Our dispositif analysis comprises the examination of 210 data work instruction documents, 55 interviews with data workers, managers, and requesters, and participant observation. Our findings show that discourses encoded in instructions reproduce and normalize the worldviews of requesters. Precarious working conditions and economic dependency alienate workers, making them obedient to instructions. Furthermore, discourses and social contexts materialize in artifacts, such as interfaces and performance metrics, limiting workers' agency and normalizing specific ways of interpreting data. We conclude by stressing the importance of counteracting the data-production dispositif by fighting alienation and precarization, and empowering data workers to become assets in the quest for high-quality data.


Background Cystic fibrosis manifests as a multisystem disease, despite this female fertility is relatively preserved with levels approaching that of the non-cystic fibrosis population. We reviewed pregnancies in cystic fibrosis patients over a 10-year period from a UK adult cystic fibrosis centre by considering maternal and fetal outcomes. Methods We conducted a retrospective case-note review of pregnancies during 2003–2013 using respiratory and obstetric records. Results We observed moderate falls in lung function immediately after delivery, which persisted at 12 months postpartum. We found that a decline in lung function at delivery was a marker for further decline in function during the subsequent postpartum period. We found baseline lung function was predictive of gestational age at delivery. We observed a high incidence of haemoptysis. Conclusion Consistent with current guidance we found pregnancy is feasible and well tolerated in the majority of patients with cystic fibrosis. There was a high incidence of haemoptysis, which warrants further study.


Recent state and municipal budget crises have generated a great deal of consternation among market participants and policymakers; they have also led scholars to debate the merits of bailouts or other forms of debt relief. This Essay considers why the mechanisms that were supposed to control state and local fiscal behavior ex ante have not worked. In the aftermath of the state and municipal debt crises of the nineteenth century, states adopted a series of constitutional reforms intended to constrain state and local fiscal behavior. In addition, the debt markets and the Tieboutian market in jurisdictions should theoretically prevent states and municipalities from overspending. Neither the fiscal constitution in the states nor the markets have prevented state and local fiscal difficulties, however; indeed, they have arguably contributed to those difficulties. Nevertheless, much of the current debate over bailouts and state bankruptcy reprises the longstanding skepticism of ordinary state and local political processes. This Essay argues that this distrust of local democratic decisionmaking is unwarranted, that efforts to constrain fiscal politics are destined to fail, and that the solution to state and local fiscal crises is largely a matter of politics and not a matter of institutional design.


The phenomenology of shamanism has been the focus of much contemporary psychological interest. However, it is arguable that the concept of "shamanic states of consciousness" is neither well defined nor sufficiently understood. We critically examine the term "shamanic states of consciousness" and argue that affixing the qualifier "shamanic states" to consciousness results in a theoretical confusion of consciousness and its content, that is, consciousness is mistaken for the content of consciousness. We refer to this fallacy as the "consciousness/content fallacy." We argue that this fallacy is avoided if one replaces "shamanic states of consciousness" with "shamanic patterns of phenomenal properties," an extrapolation of the term "phenomenal field." Implications of the consciousness/content fallacy for "states of consciousness" studies are also considered. ********** Shamanism may be defined as "a body of techniques and activities that supposedly enable its practitioners to access information that is not ordinarily attainable by members of the social group that gave them privileged status" (Krippner, 2002, p. 962). The shaman performs a social-role function by using this information to serve the community (Walsh, 1989a). Many scholars (e.g., Eliade, 1964; Heinze, 1991; Ripinsky-Naxon, 1993) concur that altered states of consciousness (ASCs) are an integral part of shamanism, "particularly those ASCs involving ecstatic journeying, (i.e., soul flight or out-of-body experience)" (Krippner, p. 966). Harner (1990) refers to ASCs experienced by these practitioners as shamanic states of consciousness. Some years ago, Peters (1989) remarked that the study of shamanism and "the Shamanistic State of Consciousness ... is the focus of much current psychological interest" (p. 115). (i) Peters' contention has been evidenced by the emergence of numerous experimental (e.g., Bittman, et al., 2001; Harner & Tryon, 1992, 1995; Kremer & Krippner, 1994; Woodside, Kumar, & Pekala, 1997), non-experimental (e.g., Houran, Lange, & Crist-Houran, 1997), methodological (Rock & Baynes, 2005; Walsh, 1993a, 1993b, 1995), and theoretical (e.g., Krippner, 2000, 2002; Walsh, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c, 1990a, 1990b, 1994) studies broadly situated within the domain of psychology. Indeed, shamanism is generating increasing interest as a complementary therapeutic strategy in the traditional medical and psychological arenas (e.g., Bittman et al., 2001). For example, Harner and Tryon (1992) conducted a study of 40 experienced shamanic practitioners and found that depression, tension-anxiety, anger, confusion, fatigue and total mood disturbance were statistically significantly lower after journeying with drumming compared to baseline. Consequently, the principles of shamanic practice may prove relevant to clinical psychologists (Krippner, 2002). As previously stated, shamanism is associated with what have traditionally been referred to as ASCs (Winkelman, 1997). That is, such shamanic techniques as listening to monotonous drumming, perceptual deprivation, and ritualistic dancing are considered to facilitate purported shifts in consciousness. Thus, shamanism may be of interest to cognitive psychologists concerned with the nature of human consciousness (Krippner, 2002). Over the past few decades, several psychologists (e.g., Noll, 1983, 1985; Peters, 1981, 1989; Peters & Price-Williams, 1980; Walsh, 1993b, 1995) have postulated various phenomenological (i.e., subjective) elements of "shamanic states of consciousness" (e.g., altered volitional control, altered body image) in an attempt to operationalize the term. However, it is arguable that the concept of "shamanic states of consciousness" is neither well defined nor sufficiently understood (Rock & Krippner, in press). Indeed, we will demonstrate that a fallacy herein referred to as the "consciousness/content fallacy" occurs when one moves from the key definitional elements of the term "consciousness" to "shamanic states of consciousness" and recommend that the latter term be supplanted with "shamanic patterns of phenomenal properties. …


Bertrand Russell changed Western philosophy forever. He tackled many puzzles--how our minds work, how we experience the world, and what the true nature of meaning is. In "Introducing Bertrand Russell "we meet a passionate eccentric, active in world politics, who had outspoken views on sex, marriage, religion, and education.