Demographic studies in plants appear simple because unlike animals, plants do not run away. Plant individuals can be marked with, e.g., plastic tags, but often the coordinates of an idividual may be sufficient to identify it. Vascular plants in temperate latitudes have a pronounced seasonal life–cycle, so most plant demographers survey their study plots once a year often during or shortly after flowering. Life–states are pervasive in plants, hence the results of a demographic study for an individual can be summarized in a familiar encounter history, such as 0VFVVF000. A zero means that an individual was not seen in a year and a letter denotes its state for years when it was seen aboveground. V and F here stand for vegetative and flowering states, respectively. Probabilities of survival and state transitions can then be obtained by mere counting.
Problems arise when there is an unobservable dormant state, i.e., when plants may stay belowground for one or more growing seasons. Encounter histories such as 0VF00F000 may then occur where the meaning of zeroes becomes ambiguous. A zero can either mean a dead or a dormant plant. Various ad hoc methods in wide use among plant ecologists have made strong assumptions about when a zero should be equated to a dormant individual. These methods have never been compared among each other. In our talk and in Kery et al. (submitted), we show that these ad hoc estimators provide spurious estimates of survival and should not be used.
In contrast, if detection probabilities for aboveground plants are known or can be estimated, capturerecapture(CR) models can be used to estimate probabilities of survival and state–transitions and the fraction of the population that is dormant. We have used this approach in two studies of terrestrial orchids, Cleistes bifaria (Kery et al., submitted) and Cypripedium reginae (Kery & Gregg, submitted) in West Virginia, U.S.A. For Cleistes, our data comprised one population with a total of 620 marked ramets over 10 years, and for Cypripedium, two populations with 98 and 258 marked ramets over 11 years. We chose the ramet (= single stem or shoot) as the demographic unit of our study since there was no way distinguishing among genets (genet = genetical individual, i.e., the "individual" that animal ecologists are mostly concerned with). This will introduce some non–independence into the data, which can nevertheless be dealt with easily by correcting variances for overdispersion. Using ramets instead of genets has the further advantage that individuals can be assigned to a state such as flowering or vegetative in an unambiguous manner. This is not possible when genets are the demographic units. In all three populations, auxiliary data was available to show that detection probability of aboveground plants was > 0.995.
We fitted multistate models in program MARK by specifying three states (D, V, F), even though the dormant state D does not occur in the encounter histories. Detection probability is fixed at 1 for the vegetative (V) and the flowering state (F) and at zero for the dormant state (D). Rates of survival and of state transitions as well as slopes of covariate relationships can be estimated and LRT or the AIC machinery be used to select among models. To estimate the fraction of the population in the unobservable dormant state, the encounter histories are collapsed to 0 (plant not observed aboveground) and 1 (plant observed aboveground). The Cormack–Jolly–Seber model without constraints on detection probability is used to estimate detection probability, the complement of which is the estimated fraction of the population in the dormant state.
Parameter identifiability is an important issue in multi state models. We used the Catchpole–Morgan–Freeman approach to determine which parameters are estimable in principle in our multi state models. Most of 15 tested models were indeed estimable with the notable exception of the most general model, which has fully interactive state- and time-dependent survival and state transition rates. This model would become identifiable if at least some plants would be excavated in years when they do not show up aboveground.
Our analyses for three analyzed populations of Cleistes and Cypripedium yielded annual ramet survival rates ranging from 0.86–0.96. Estimates of the average fraction dormant ranged from 0.02–0.30, but with up to half a population in the dormant state in some years. Ultrastructural modeling enables interesting hypotheses to be tested about the relationships of demographic rates with climatic covariates for instance. Such covariate modeling makes the CR approach particularly interesting for evolutionary–ecological questions about, e.g., the adaptive significance of the dormant state.

Previous and foreseeable future applications of CR in plant ecology
Since the paper by Alexander et al. (1997), it has become increasingly clear that CR models may be useful for demographic analysis of plant populations. In the future, we are likely to see increasing use of these methods that were originally developed for animal populations. Here is a summary about all previous applications that I have come across. I am grateful if readers point out to me any titles that I may have missed.
If a reliable way to mark seeds can be devised, CR might indeed provide the analysis tool for tackling one of the ultimate frontiers in plant population ecology: the dynamics of the seed bank. Indeed, the first ever application of CR to plants that I have come across (Naylor, 1972) used a fluorescent dye to mark seeds and a Lincoln–Peterson–type estimator to estimate the seed bank size in an agricultural weed. The application of CR to plants with dormancy has been treated by hefferson et al. (2001, 2003), Kery et al. (submitted) and Kery & Gregg (submitted). Population size, and survival rates of plants whose aboveground states are easily overlooked have been estimated for an elusive prairie plant (Alexander et al., 1997; Slade et al., 2003) and for a tropical savannah tree (Lahoreau et al., 2003). For plot–based plant demographic studies, we have shown previously that (not surprisingly) different life–states may have different detection probabilities, and that this may seriously bias inference from population modelling (Kery & Gregg, 2003).
It is somewhat astonishing that there still appear to be no applications of CR to the analysis of plant populations and communities. For instance, species richness, patch occupancy, population extinction rates, and species turnover in communities are all still based on adding up the raw data, even though the animal literature has plenty of papers showing more adequate ways of estimating these quantities (e.g., Boulinier et al., 1998; Nichols et al., 1998). I have submitted a note (Kery, submitted) describing the use of the Cormack–Jolly–Seber model to estimate extinction probabilities for plant populations in a manner exactly analogous to patch occupancy models (MacKenzie et al., 2002, 2003). It is perhaps in plant community ecology where we will see most future applications of CR.


This paper considers various ways of using balance sheet policy (BSP) to provide monetary policy stimulus, including the BSPs put in place by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, the choice between fixed-size and flow-based asset purchase programs, policies targeting interest rate levels rather than the quantity of asset purchases, and programs aimed at increasing more direct lending to households and firms. For each of these BSP options, we evaluate benefits and costs. We conclude by observing that BSPs' relative effectiveness and thus optimal configuration will depend on the shocks affecting the economy. Consequently, it would be valuable for the Federal Reserve to keep a variety of tools at its disposal and employ the ones that best fit the situation that it faces.


A polarization-independent metamaterial analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) at microwave frequencies for normal incidence and linearly polarized waves is experimentally and numerically demonstrated. The metamaterial consists of coupled "bright" split-ring resonators (SRRs) and "dark" spiral resonators (SRs) with virtually equal resonance frequencies. Normally incident plane waves with linear polarization strongly couple to the SRR, but are weakly interacting with the SR, regardless of the polarization state. A sharp transmission peak (i.e., the transparency window) with narrow spectral width and slow wave property is observed for the metamaterial at the resonant frequency of both, the bright SRR and the dark SR. The influence of the coupling strength between the SRR and SR on the frequency, width, magnitude, and quality factor of the metamaterial's transparency window is theoretically predicted by a two-particle model, and numerically validated using full-wave electromagnetic simulation. In addition, it is numerically demonstrated that the EIT-like metamaterial can be employed as a refractive-index-based sensor with a sensitivity of 77.25 mm/RIU, which means that the resonance wavelength of the sensor shifts 77.25 mm per unit change of refractive index of the surrounding medium.


The objective of this research is to study the role of emotional prosody in expressive language acts understanding by children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Twenty-six children and adolescents with ASD and twenty-six typically developing controls performed a computerized task featuring emotional prosody, either embedded in a discrepant context or without any context at all. The experimental task was to determine the emotional state of the speaker. When the prosody was embedded in a discrepant context, they relied less on the emotional prosody than the controls, but only when it was positive. We discuss these findings with respect to executive and inferential deficits presents in ASD.


Multimedia streaming applications have substantially changed the market policy of an increasing number of content providers that offer streaming services to the users. The need for effective video content delivery re-fueled interest for caching: since the Web-like workload of the 90s are not longer fit to describe the new Web of videos, in this work we investigate the suitability of the publicly available Netflix dataset for caching studies. Our analysis shows that, as the dataset continuously evolves (i) a steady state description is not statistically meaningful and (ii) despite the cache hit ratio decreases due to the growth of active movies in the catalog, simple caching replacement approaches are close to the optimum given the growing skew in the popularity distribution over the time. Additionally, we point out that, since the dataset reports logs of movie ratings, anomalies arise when ratings are considered to be movie views. At the same time, we show anomalies yield conservative caching results, that reinforces the soundness of our study.


Background: Community engagement has become mainstream practice in many sectors,
such that many might say that it has become another box to be ticked when planning and
delivering projects. There are many potential benefits of community engagement to the
residents, local stakeholders and external delivery agencies; however gaps have been
identified in the evaluation of impact, barriers and facilitators of community engagement
(NICE, 2008). This study prospectively looks at how the process of community engagement
under the Well London programme (a five-year health promotion programme which
addresses physical activity, diet and mental wellbeing) was delivered in multiple deprived
neighbourhoods, and how this process influenced the different stakeholders and the health
promotion projects delivered.
Methods: This study used a mixed method approach to examine the process, perceptions,
impacts, incentives, barriers and challenges of community engagement. Data were
collected through literature review, questionnaire surveys, participant observation,
qualitative interviews and evidence from documentary sources.
Results: The study found that the World Cafe and appreciative enquiry approaches used
were useful and effective tools for engaging communities; and the primary motivation for
residents' participation was the desire to belong to a community which they could help
shape for the better. Key lessons from the process are the need to manage the
expectations of local stakeholders and residents by effectively communicating
programme goals and limitations; and the need for sufficient time to build relationships and
trust for engagement. Residents' level of engagement was influenced by past experiences
of consultation processes, local politics and regeneration. There is a need to have good
knowledge of the community that is being engaged, and to know the local context and
peculiarities which differentiate communities.
Conclusion:
Residents of different ages, gender and cultures engage differently and processes should
be sensitive to, and accommodate these differences. The impact of the CEP on the design
and delivery of projects was inconclusive.


Marine sponge is known as a "gold mine" of natural products from marine environment. Many novel bioactive compounds have been isolated from marine sponges and sponge-associated microorganisms such as antibiotics, anti-cancer compounds, protease inhibitors, etc. In this study, we selected a gene encoding protease inhibitor from metagenome of a sponge collected in Quang Tri to express in Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21(DE3). The gene PI-DN9 encoding protease inhibitor (1.3 kb) was cut off cloning vector pUC57/PI-DN9 containing gene PI-DN9 and inserted into expression vector pET-32a(+), the recombinant vector pET-32a(+)/PI-DN9 then was transformed and expressed in the E. coli strain BL21(DE3). Results showed that recombinant protein (50 kDa) was expressed successfully at 25°C, 1 mM of IPTG in 5 hours. The recombinant protein was purified using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography column. Western blot assay and bioactive assay showed good activity of the purified protein.


Recent experimental findings indicate that sec- ondary organic aerosol (SOA) represents an important and, under many circumstances, the major fraction of the organic aerosol burden. Here, we use a global 3-D model (IMPACT) to test the results of different mechanisms for the production of SOA. The basic mechanism includes SOA formation from organic nitrates and peroxides produced from an explicit chemical formulation, using partition coefficients based on thermodynamic principles together with assumptions for the rate of formation of low-volatility oligomers. We also in- clude the formation of low-volatility SOA from the reac- tion of glyoxal and methylglyoxal on aqueous aerosols and cloud droplets as well as from the reaction of epoxides on aqueous aerosols. A model simulation including these SOA formation mechanisms gives an annual global SOA produc- tion of 120.5 Tg. The global production of SOA is decreased substantially to 90.8 Tg yr 1 if the HOx regeneration mech- anism proposed by Peeters et al. (2009) is used. Model pre- dictions with and without this HOx (OH and HO2) regenera- tion scheme are compared with multiple surface observation datasets, namely: the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) for the United States, the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP), and aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) data measured in both the Northern Hemisphere and tropical forest regions. All model simulations show reasonable agreement with the or- ganic carbon mass observed in the IMPROVE network and the AMS dataset, however observations in Europe are signifi- cantly underestimated, which may be caused by an underesti- mation of primary organic aerosol emissions (POA) in winter and of emissions and/or SOA production in the summer. The modeled organic aerosol concentrations tend to be higher by roughly a factor of three when compared with measurements at three tropical forest sites. This overestimate suggests that more measurements and model studies are needed to exam- ine the formation of organic aerosols in the tropics. The mod- eled organic carbon (OC) in the free troposphere is in agree- ment with measurements in the ITCT-2K4 aircraft campaign over North America and in pollution layers off Asia during the INTEX-B campaign, although the model underestimates OC in the free troposphere in comparison with the ACE-Asia campaign off the coast of Japan.


Molecular tension sensors have contributed to a growing understanding of mechanobiology. However, the limited dynamic range and inability to specify the mechanical sensitivity of these sensors has hindered their widespread use in diverse contexts. Here, we systematically examine the components of tension sensors that can be altered to improve their functionality. Guided by the development of a first principles model describing the mechanical behavior of these sensors, we create a collection of sensors that exhibit predictable sensitivities and significantly improved performance in cellulo. Utilized in the context of vinculin mechanobiology, a trio of these new biosensors with distinct force- and extension- sensitivities reveal that an extension-based control paradigm regulates vinculin loading. To enable the rational design of molecular tension sensors appropriate for diverse applications, we predict the mechanical behavior, in terms of force and extension, of additional 1020 distinct designs.


In recent years most western democracies have experienced a shift from elite to mass higher education, with the United States leading the way. This text compares the experience of this very important social change within different nation states. Whilst recognising the critical global economic forces that appear to explain the international nature of the change, it sees the issues as rooted within different national traditions.
There is a particular focus upon the discourse of access, especially the political discourse. The book addresses questions such as: * How has expansion been explained? * Has expansion been generated by state intervention or by a
combination of economic and social forces? * What are the forms of political intervention? * What points of agreement and conflict are generated within the wider society by expanding access? Chapters: 1) The rise of mass higher education 2) Values, discourse and politics: an Australian comparative perspective 3) The politics of access to higher education in France 4) Bildung or Ausbildung? Reorienting German higher education 5) The value of higher education in a mass system: the Italian debate 6) Access to Dutch higher education: policies and trends 7) Access to higher education in the Nordic countries 8) Mass Higher Education in Poland: coping with the 'Spanish Collar' 9) British higher education and the prism of devolution 10) Access to higher eduction in England: who is in control? 11) A transatlantic persuasion: a comparative look at America's path towards access and equity in higher education 12) Conclusion: the reshaping of mass higher education


OBJECTIVE
There has been a growing recognition of the need for better pharmacologic management of chronic pain among older adults. To address this need, the National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium sponsored an "Expert Panel Discussion on the Pharmacological Management of Chronic Pain in Older Adults" conference in September 2010 to identify research gaps and strategies to address them. Specific emphasis was placed on ascertaining gaps regarding use of opioid and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications because of continued uncertainties regarding their risks and benefits.

DESIGN
Eighteen panel members provided oral presentations; each was followed by a multidisciplinary panel discussion. Meeting transcripts and panelists' slide presentations were reviewed to identify the gaps and the types of studies and research methods panelists suggested could best address them.

RESULTS
Fifteen gaps were identified in the areas of treatment (e.g., uncertainty regarding the long-term safety and efficacy of commonly prescribed analgesics), epidemiology (e.g., lack of knowledge regarding the course of common pain syndromes), and implementation (e.g., limited understanding of optimal strategies to translate evidence-based pain treatments into practice). Analyses of data from electronic health care databases, observational cohort studies, and ongoing cohort studies (augmented with pain and other relevant outcomes measures) were felt to be practical methods for building an age-appropriate evidence base to improve the pharmacologic management of pain in later life.

CONCLUSION
Addressing the gaps presented in the current report was judged by the panel to have substantial potential to improve the health and well-being of older adults with chronic pain.


What is the essential role of the law of enterprise organization? The dominant view among business law scholars today is that organizational law — the law of partnerships, corporations, private trusts, and their variants — serves primarily to structure relations between business owners, on the one hand, and business creditors, on the other. Under this "asset partitioning" theory, organizational law's main purpose is to shield business assets from claims of creditors of the business's owners, thereby giving business creditors a structurally senior claim on business assets. By relieving business creditors of the need to inspect the creditworthiness of business owners, the theory goes, organizational law allows creditors to economize on information. This Article challenges the primacy of the asset-partitioning theory. It identifies another role of organizational law that may be every bit as essential as asset partitioning. That role is property relinquishment: Organizational law provides a mechanism for business co-owners to relinquish their legally cognizable property interests in specific business assets. The Article demonstrates that this property-relinquishment feature was present even in the traditional Anglo-American common law of partnership, despite outward appearances to the contrary. Unlike the asset-partitioning theory, which centers on relations with third parties, the property-relinquishment theory centers on relations among business co-owners. It is primarily concerned with commitment problems rather than information problems. The Article draws connections between the property-relinquishment theory of organizational law and three other areas of scholarly inquiry: the "anticommons" literature in property; the conceptual foundations of bankruptcy law; and the economic theory of the firm.


Mutations of APC appear to initiate sporadic and inherited forms of human colorectal cancer. Although these mutations have been well characterized, little is known about the function of the APC gene product. Two cellular proteins that associate with APC were identified by nucleotide sequence analysis and peptide mapping as the E-cadherin-associated proteins alpha- and beta-catenin. A 27-residue fragment of APC containing a 15-amino acid repeat was sufficient for the interaction with the catenins. These results suggest an important link between tumor initiation and cell adhesion.


Two studies were performed to detect aetiology of acute diarrhoea in hospitalized children aged under five years in Tripoli, Libya. In the first study, two hundred and thirty-six stool samples were obtained. Of these, 118 were from patients admitted for acute diarrhoeal disease, and 118 age and sex-matched concurrent controls were admitted for other reasons. In the second study, eight hundred and ten stool specimens were collected 405 from patients and the same number from controls. All were admitted to the AIjala Children's Hospital, Tripoli, Libya. The first study was conducted between August 1st 1997 and 31st October 1997 and the second study was conducted between January 1st 2003 and 31st December 2003. One or more enteric pathogens were isolated from 55.9% of patients and 13.6% of controls in the first study and 68.1 % of patients and 12.6% of controls in the second study.

In the first study, the organisms were identified from stool of patients; Escherichia coli 22.9%, rotavirus 15.3%, Campylobacter 7.6%, Proteus 7.6%, Klebsiella 4.2%, Entamoeba histolytica 4.2%, Cryptosporidium 2.5% and Giardia lamblia 1.7%, Salmonella was not isolated in both studies, because not growth on ordinary media were used (MacConkey agar and Blood agar) but usually growth on Salmonella-Shigella medium where not used.

In the second study, enteropathogens identified were: rotavirus 30.4%, Escherichia coli 16.5%, Entamoeba histolytica 12.5%, Campylobacter 6.7%, Giardia lamblia 3.7%, Cryptosporidium 3.2%, Klebsiella 2.9%, Proteus 2.2%.

Libyan children under six months of age were the most susceptible to acute diarrhoea requiring admission to the hospital. This was remarked in 46.6% of patients in the first study and 43.2% in the second. Exclusive breast feeding in Libyan children was of a very low percentage. In the first study it was 19.5% and in the second 29.1%.

Children use dummies were about 3 times more at risk of diarrhoea than the non users in the first study (OD: 5.95,95%, CI: 1.120-2.37, p<0.001) and RR: 3.1 and (0: : 2.986ý 95%. Cl: 2.13-4.16, P<0.001) and RR: 23 in the second, this fell to children being twice as much at risk of contracting diarrhoea.

Watery stool was the most common stool consistency of patients in both studies. Fever was the most common clinical feature associated with acute diarrhoea in the two studies (72.9% and 71.6% respectively). Vomiting was present in 51.7% of patients among the first study and 58.3% among the second. Moderate and isotonic dehydration were the most common degree and type of dehydration across both studies. In the second study, Rotavirus peaked during the winter (cold season) while bacteria and parasites peaked during the summer and autumn seasons.

API 20E and API Campy were used to identify bacterial isolated by cultures and the number of confirmed cases decreased from 142 to 112 samples.

Polymerase Chain Reaction was adopted in the second study to confirm detection of Campylobacter spp. these were identified by API Campy technique, where all Campylobacter spp. were identified as the same as detected by API Campy and for 24 samples.


VIII. Summary
The type of fungus infection of the extremities known as mycetoma is comparatively rare in North America. It is relatively more common in the tropics and sub-tropics then in the temperate zone, and apparently more common in semi arid regions than elsewhere. The majority of the reported cases have occurred among Mexicans (probably Indians). Its onset may occur at any age period, though it is most common between the ages of twenty and thirty. The occurrence of a case in a woman is very unusual. Most of the cases are laborers by occupation, and of these the majority are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The other cases regardless of occupation, appear to have lead quite active lives out of doors.
The extent to which the patients habitually went barefooted is very striking. Associated with habitual barefootedness, a large proportion of patients received injuries to the affected foot, either of the nature of contusions or incisions, before the onset of the disease. Presumptively the trauma either inoculated the fungus into the subcutaneous tissues or otherwise favored invasion.
Usually the earliest sign of invasion consists in the appearance of one or more fungating nodules on the skin, sometimes at the site of the previous trauma, which sooner or later are crowned with a discharging sinus. Early swelling of the foot is another common symptom, at first local and later general, which may or may not be painful. Less frequently the first symptoms may be variously (1) the formation of vesicles, or (2) an abscess, or (3) a pigmentation of the skin. In all except one case the feet were the site of invasion, the left foot being more commonly attacked than the right. In one instance both feet were involved. The hand was only involved once.
The disease tends to run a slowly progressive course extending over a considerable period of years (as long as sixteen years) with apparently no tendency to self limitation, though but slight spread beyond the affected extremity is noted. The affected member may be swollen to several times the normal size, which may seriously interfere with locomotion. There is an absence of any definite systemic reaction. Marked weakness associated with emaciation is common.
Over the skin of the invaded area are invariably present a variable number of discharging sinuses. If nodules are present the sinuses open on the nodule summits. Nodules are not invariably present, and there is some suggestion that their presence or absence varies with the causative organism. From the sinuses is discharged a scanty volume of a thin sero-sanguinolent fluid, in which may be occasionally noted the characteristic granules. The nodules are most in evidence on the dorsum of the foot and may either be discrete or confluent. The activity of any given sinus is apparently of rather short duration, and where nodules exist, their formation precedes the appearance of a sinus.
Internally, there is very extensive disorganization of all the tissues of the invaded area. Fatty tissue disappears and the muscles disintegrate. There is a marked hyperplasia of dense connective tissue which tends to undergo an early hyaline degeneration which may account for the purplish color quite characteristic of the invaded areas. The invaded area is penetrated in every direction by fistulous channels or sinuses, which open externally through the nodules noted. These sinuses are lined by granulation tissue infiltrated with round cells and in their lumen may be found either necrotic debris, serous fluid, extravasated blood and a varying number of the characteristic granules which usually lie in cavernous expansions in the sinus. These sinuses may extend to the bones and granules may lie in excavations in the bony tissue. The bones of the invaded area undergo a rarifying and hyperplastic osteitis and may become very spongy. Joint involvement is apparently rare. The process appears to show a tendency to spread along fascial planes.
Histologically, the most characteristic feature appears to be the proliferation of fibroblasts, either with the granulation tissue which lines the sinuses and which tends constantly to effect their closure, or independantly of the granulation tissue. There is but a limited accumulation of polymorphonuclear leucocytes, which are chiefly found in the immediate vicinity of a granule. No evidence of phagocytosis of the fungus by any type of cell was noted. Round or oval multinucleated giant cells are common. Russell's bodies are frequently seen. The changes in the skin are solely secondary to those taking place within the foot. The development of a nodule appears to be due to the internal pressure in the subcutaneous tissues produced by an extending sinus. The skin does not present any change of note. The extensive production of granulation tissue is responsible for the frequency with which blood appears in the discharge from a sinus, as well as the evidences of a past and recent hemorrhage into the tissues.
The granules are dense circumscribed colonies of the causative organism, which was not found apart from these aggregations. They are visible to the naked eye, and may vary from black, to white or pale ocher in color. The light colored grains are soft in consistency. According to the type of fungus producing the grains, the North American cases may be divided into three groups.
The first group includes but a single case. This is the sole case in which the granules were black in color and from which were cultivated a hyphomycete probably identical with Madurella mycetoma, Laveran, a recognized cause of black grained mycetoma in India, Africa and Italy. The tissue reaction in this case differed from that presented by the other cases. In addition to the hyperplasia of dense connective tissue, there was an abundance of a peculiar type of giant cell, frequently in contact with the granule, a proliferation of endothelial cells so that tubercle like structures were formed and very little evidence of suppuration. There were no fungating nodules on the skin.
The second group is likewise represented by but a single case in which the granules were white in color and from which were cultivated a hitherto undescribed ascomyte reported as Allescheria Boydii, Shear. The small piece of biopsy tissue removed from this case did not permit a histological study of value. There were no fungating nodules on the skin.
Most of the remaining reported cases may be assigned to the third group, in which the granules vary from white to ocher in color and are composed of a streptothrix belonging to the genus Actinomyces. Study of a culture from one case showed it to to differ from the previously described species of Actinomyces, and the name of Actinomyces mexicana, Boyd and Crutchfield, is proposed. Clinically and pathologically the characteristics of the disease in this group of cases does not differ from that usually accepted for that group of fungus infections known as actinomycosis, and variously produced by several other species of this genus. The granules are however, of a larger size and not surrounded by the same type of clubs as those noted in the characteristic clinical types of actinomycosis produced either by A. bovis or A. israeli. The organism is powerfully proteolytic, as is also the Allescheria, a property that may account for the ability to produce the sinuses. The fungating nodules of the skin are characteristically found in the cases of this group.
From a therapeutic standpoint the treatment is wholly surgical. A variety of drugs have been employed, both locally and systemically but without effect. Surgical treatment involves an excision of the area of invasion, which if seen early may only require the removal of a small area of tissue, but if the process is extensive amputation of the member may be the best course to pursue. In any event, the line of the excision should pass into the healthy tissue well beyond any apparent evidence of invasion, as other wise not all the fungus may be exterpated, and the process continue to extend.


Symbolically and historically, the attributes associated with homeownership are positive; however, in light of the 2006 housing crash and subsequent 2008 financial crisis, scholars and laypeople continue to reassess the sacred position homeownership holds in U.S. culture and the market economy. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study explored the meanings that five former homeowners associate with the lived experience of foreclosure. The findings reveal a juxtaposition that intersects the hopes and dreams of homeownership with the grief and loss of foreclosure. This polarizing experience uncovers the need for innovative policy and practice interventions. A discussion of implications for social work policy and practice include strengthening the bridge of micro- and macro-level interventions and addressing hopes, dreams, disenfranchised grief, and loss in the context of homeownership and foreclosure.


The Integral Simplex Using Decomposition (ISUD) algorithm has been developed recently to solve large set partitioning problems (SPPs) in a primal way, i.e., moving from an integer solution to an improved adjacent one until optimality is reached. More recent works intended to enlarge its applications and to increase its performances. We cite namely the distribution version of ISUD called DISUD which implements the multi-agent system approach. In this work, we develop a distributed integral column generation (DICG) algorithm that extends DISUD to the column generation context in order to solve practical vehicle and crew scheduling problems. The computational tests on large bus drivers scheduling and aircrew pairing problems show that DICG gets good results and outperforms a distributed version of the well-known restricted master heuristic (RMH). DICG yields optimal or near optimal solutions in less than one hour.


Solid acids of amorphous silica-alumina (a-SA) and amorphous silica-alumina-phosphate (a-SAPO) were prepared by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). Careful tuning of the acidity of the solid acids was enabled by capitalizing on the advantage of FSP in preserving the metal stoichiometry (i.e., Si, Al, P) in the product nanoparticles. Although the amount of acids on these non-porous solid acids is an order of magnitude lower than the well-recognized strong acidic ZSM-5 zeolite, both exhibit comparable acid strengths. The a-SA and a-SAPO were characterized by a mixture of Bronsted (B) and Lewis (L) acids, and the B/L ratios were composition-tunable. The highest B/L ratios were recorded for a-SA (Al/(Al + Si) = 0.4) and a-SAPO (Si/(P + Si) = 0.25), giving the highest yields of levulinic acid (≥40% carbon yield) from the conversion of glucose in the aqueous phase without requiring the addition of liquid acids or metal halides. Under the same conditions, the almost exclusive Bronsted acid ZSM-5 yielded only 17% levulinic acid. The FSP-made solid acid catalyst exhibited good reusability over at least 4 consecutive runs.


In the previous work, the authors formulated the balance laws of mass, momentum, angular momentum and energy of the lattice element used for recrystallization. These laws were summed up over a phase in a representative volume element (RVE) and averaged in the RVE so as to develop the discrete balance laws for single phase. Furthermore, the balance law of angular momentum was separated into a bulk and a lattice parts through the orderestimation with the representative lengths both in macroscopic and microscopic scales. In this paper, the RVE converges on a material point so that the laws are rewritten in the integration form. When the laws are summed up all over the phases and averaged in them, the balance laws of mass, momentum, angular momentum and energy for nuclei and matrix as mixture are formulated, using an useful theorem proposed for the mixing summation of unsteady terms. At this time, the macroscopic part of the balance law for angular momentum results in the usual equation of angular momentum, so that the stress tensor keeps symmetry even if the lattice rotation is considered. While, the microscopic one is localized as an equation of spin angular momentum for lattice, which is suggested to be equivalent to the evolution equation of crystal orientation in KWC type phase-field model. Moreover, the increase law of entropy for mixture is also formulated. During this process, the entropy flux is defined by use of relative mass flux and chemical potential of phase transformation.


The present study investigates the effect of a psychophysiological intervention, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), on athletic performance. It evaluates whether a single EFT treatment can produce an improvement in high- performance men's and women's PAC-10 college basketball team members (n = 26). The treatment group received a 15 minute EFT session while a performance-matched attention control group received a placebo intervention of similar dura- tion. Performance was measured on free throws and vertical jump height. The time frame of data collection and treatment simulated an actual basketball game. A statistically significant difference between the two groups was found for free throws (p<.03). On post-test, players who received the EFT intervention improved an average of 20.8%, while the atten- tion control group decreased an average of 16.6%. There was no difference between treatment groups in jump height. When performance was analyzed separately by gender, trends toward significance were found for the women's team on both performance measures with better results for the EFT intervention group. This indicates that EFT performed as an intervention during the course of an athletic event may improve free throw performance.


We propose that management education, and therefore managers, could benefit from a bringing together of two distinct traditions within management learning: the recent interest in applying critical perspectives to management theory and practice, and the longer standing tradition of action-based learning. The characteristics of such an approach would be that it would emphasize learning that is questioning of structures and organizational practices, would be situated in the workplace, and would encourage a focus on collective learning and reflection. In developing these propositions we draw on examples from our organizational experience as well as on current debates within management education. In dealing with the implications for management educators, we acknowledge that our proposed merger would not be without criticism from proponents of both traditions. INSETS: Action-Based Learning and the Review of Bidding…;An Attempt to Engage With Power Relations…;Critical Action Learning and Leading Performance.


Context. Radio activity has been observed in a large variety of stellar objects, including in the last few years, ultra-cool dwarfs.

Aims. To explore the extent of long-term radio activity in ultra-cool dwarfs.

Methods. We use data taken over an extended period of 9 hr from the Very Large Array of the source 2MASS J05233822-1403022 in September 2006, plus data taken in 2004.

Results. The observation taken in September 2006 failed to detect any radio activity at 8.46 GHz. A closer inspection of earlier data reveals that the source varied from a null detection on 3 May 2004, to ≈95 µJy on 17 May 2004, to 230 µJy on 18 June 2004. The lack of detection in September 2006 suggests at least a factor of ten flux variability at 8.46 GHz. Three short photometric runs did not reveal any optical variability.

Conclusions. In addition to the observed pulsing nature of the radio flux from another ultra-cool source, the present observations suggests that ultra-cool dwarfs may not just be pulsing but can also display long-term sporadic variability in their levels of quiescent radio emission. The lack of optical photometric variability suggests an absence of large-scale spots at the time of the latest VLA observations, although small very high latitude spots combined with a low inclination could cause very low amplitude rotational modulation which may not be measurable. We discuss this large variability in the radio emission within the context of both gyrosynchrotron emission and the electron-cyclotron maser, favoring the latter mechanism.


Lecture notes, slides, and problem set illustrate methods for curve fitting and error analysis relevant to development of computational models for biomedical applications. This Teaching Resource introduces students to curve fitting and error analysis; it is the second of two lectures on developing mathematical models of biomedical systems. The first focused on identifying, extracting, and converting required constants—such as kinetic rate constants—from experimental literature. To understand how such constants are determined from experimental data, this lecture introduces the principles and practice of fitting a mathematical model to a series of measurements. We emphasize using nonlinear models for fitting nonlinear data, avoiding problems associated with linearization schemes that can distort and misrepresent the data. To help ensure proper interpretation of model parameters estimated by inverse modeling, we describe a rigorous six-step process: (i) selecting an appropriate mathematical model; (ii) defining a "figure-of-merit" function that quantifies the error between the model and data; (iii) adjusting model parameters to get a "best fit" to the data; (iv) examining the "goodness of fit" to the data; (v) determining whether a much better fit is possible; and (vi) evaluating the accuracy of the best-fit parameter values. Implementation of the computational methods is based on MATLAB, with example programs provided that can be modified for particular applications. The problem set allows students to use these programs to develop practical experience with the inverse-modeling process in the context of determining the rates of cell proliferation and death for B lymphocytes using data from BrdU-labeling experiments.


Background and Purpose: Current literature on Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) rehabilitation is limited. Current literature is focused on individuals experiencing military blast traumatic brain injuries and the management of these injuries. Thus, the purpose of this case report is to describe and implement PT management and outcomes for the young athlete presenting with PCS following a concussion. Case Description: The patient was a 14 year old male who presented to the outpatient clinic with significant impairments secondary to diagnosis of PCS. Impairments that the patient presented with were activity intolerance, increased muscle tone, headaches, and dizziness. The patient underwent manual therapy treatment consisting of soft tissue mobilizations to the cervical musculature and postural corrections, as well as, a vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) habituation program. These interventions were utilized to increase the patient's tolerance to his surroundings and to return the patient to his prior level of function. Outcomes: The patient was treated for 9 visits over a 5-week period. With manual treatment and VOR habituation exercises, improvements were seen with increased pain-free ranges of cervical motion and improved activity tolerance as demonstrated by the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (intake: 46, discharge: 4) , the Post-Concussion Syndrome Inventory (intake: 64, discharge: 7), and the Balke treadmill protocol (intake: 110 bpm, discharge: 187 bpm). Discussion: This case report describes the clinical reasoning and clinical usage of the combination of cervical manual therapy and VOR habituation exercises in a patient with PCS. This case report suggests that these interventions may be beneficial to improve activity tolerance and help a patient return to their prior level of function.


César Milstein was a scientist of the greatest distinction who made seminal contributions to our knowledge and understanding of antibodies. He advanced our knowledge of their structure, their expression, the generation of antibody diversity and the maturation of antibody affinity that occurs during the course of an immune response. Most spectacular was his discovery (jointly with Georges Köhler) of a method for obtaining monoclonal antibodies of predefined antigen specificity by fusing a continuously growing mouse myeloma cell line with a normal lymphocyte making monospecific antibody. For this, Milstein and Köhler received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1984. Although this discovery was the product of a purely academic project, its impact on medicine and technology as well as in fundamental research has been enormous, opening new avenues in diagnostics and therapy. César Milstein remained an enthusiastic, creative and passionate scientist throughout his life.


Constraint-Based Local Search (CBLS) is an approach for quickly building local search solvers based on a declarative modelling framework for specifying input variables, constraints and objective function. An underlying engine can efficiently update the optimization model to reflect any change to the input variables, enabling fast exploration of neighbourhoods as performed by local search procedures. This approach suffers from a weakness when moves involve modifying the value of a large set of input variables in a structured fashion. In routing optimization, if one implements the optimization model by means of integer variables, a two-opt move that flip a portion of route requires modifying the value of many variables. The constraint on this problems are then notified about many updates, but they need to infer that these updates constitute a flip, and waste a lot of time. This paper presents this multi-variable limitation, discusses approaches to mitigate it, and proposes an efficient implementation of a variable type that represents sequences of integers to avoid it. The proposed implementation offers good complexities for updating and querying the value of sequences of integers and some mechanisms to enable the use of state-of-the art incremental global constraints.


"During the past several decades dramatic improvement has occurred in agricultural productivity and livelihoods in South and East Asia, stimulated by the Green Revolution and supported by several other factors. Nevertheless, hundreds of millions of rural people in less-favored environments of this region still live in poverty and received limited benefit from the Green Revolution. To address these problems, alternative technological approaches to the conventional Green Revolution technologies are being advocated to address the problems of poor farmers in less-favored areas of Asia, including low external input and sustainable agricultural approaches, organic agriculture and biotechnology. This paper reviews the literature on agricultural technology options in South and East Asia, drawing conclusions concerning technology strategies to reduce poverty among poor farmers in less-favored areas of this region. Among the main conclusions of the review are the following: 1. There is no technology approach that will work in all of the diverse circumstances of South and East Asia. 2. It is difficult, but not impossible, to identify and promote technologies that will substantially improve the livelihoods of poor people in less-favored areas. 3. Key requirements for technologies to be taken up by farmers and to have a substantial impact on reducing poverty are that the technology is profitable in a relatively short period of time; does not substantially increase risks; and is consistent with farmers' endowments of knowledge, management skill, land, labor, and other assets. 4. New technologies, by themselves, are not sufficient to bring about sustainable rural development and elimination of rural poverty, although they can have a major impact. Effective institutions and a stable and supportive policy environment are also critical. 5. Effective farmers' organizations accountable to poor farmers are a critical need for the success of all technologies in reaching the poor. Such organizations are needed to reduce the costs and improve the effectiveness of technical assistance efforts for all technologies, and are particularly important for technologies that require effective collective action and for increasing smallholders' access to markets for organic and other high value products. 6. Improved methods of technology dissemination are needed to reach poor farmers in less-favored areas. Top down technology transfer approaches that worked well with simple technology packages do not work as well with complex technologies that have to be adapted to local circumstances based on agro-ecological principles and local conditions. These lessons should give pause to advocates one particular technological approach as the solution for poor farmers in less favored environments of Asia and elsewhere. What farmers need are not technology dogmas but options that can work in their context, combining what is useful from different approaches. This requires a pragmatic approach to learning what works well where and why. In pursuit of such pragmatic options for farmers, research and development programs should not ignore the potentials of traditional farming practices or intensive Green Revolution type technologies, which are well suited to farmers' needs in many contexts." - from authors' abstract.


. We introduce AudioScopeV2, a state-of-the-art universal audio-visual on-screen sound separation system which is capable of learning to separate sounds and associate them with on-screen objects by looking at in-the-wild videos. We identify several limitations of previous work on audio-visual on-screen sound separation, including the coarse resolution of spatio-temporal attention, poor convergence of the audio separation model, limited variety in training and evaluation data, and failure to account for the trade off between preservation of on-screen sounds and suppression of off-screen sounds. We provide solutions to all of these issues. Our proposed cross-modal and self-attention network architectures capture audio-visual dependencies at a finer resolution over time, and we also propose efficient separable variants that are capable of scaling to longer videos without sacrificing much performance. We also find that pre-training the separation model only on audio greatly improves results. For training and evaluation, we collected new human annotations of on-screen sounds from a large database of in-the-wild videos (YFCC100M). This new dataset is more diverse and challenging. Finally, we propose a calibration procedure that allows exact tuning of on-screen reconstruction versus off-screen suppression, which greatly simplifies comparing performance between models with different operating points. Overall, our experimental results show marked improvements in on-screen separation performance under much more general conditions than previous methods with minimal additional computational complexity.


GENERATION OF DIVERSE MOLECULAR COMPLEXITY FROM CYCLOOCTATETRAENE Mohamed F. El Mansy, B.Sc, M.Sc. Marquette University, 2014 The use of simple hydrocarbons as starting materials for the synthesis of complex molecules relies on efficient methods for oxidation, functionalization or rearrangement. For example, various researchers have explored cyclopentadiene or cycloheptatriene as precursors for the preparation of a wide variety of drug candidates, natural products and synthetic products. The purpose of this research is to explore methods to transform the simple hydrocarbon, cyclooctatetraene (COT) into complex target molecules. Tricarbonyl (cyclooctatetraene)iron, readily prepared from COT, reacts with a variety of electrophiles to form (dienyl)iron cations. These steps may be regarded as branching pathways in diversity oriented synthesis. Reaction of these cations with a variety of nucleophiles, followed by oxidative decomplexation gave the corresponding racemic polyenes. Further manipulation of the generated polyenes can be effected by cycloaddition, oxidation, oxidative cleavage, rearrangement or reduction. Utilizing these reactions, a variety of stereochemically diverse polyhydroxy aminocycloalkanes ("aminocyclitols") have been prepared. The inhibitory activity of these aminocyclitols against β-glucosidase (from almonds) was reported. Conversely, ring-rearrangement metathesis of the polyenes containing a pendant olefin tether leads to a variety of carbocycles and heterocycles by what can be considered folding pathways in diversity oriented synthesis. This strategy has lead to a number of biologically active or natural product-line structures from the simple hydrocarbon cyclooctatetraene in a short number of steps.


Multiple myeloma is caused by abnormal plasma cells that accumulate in the bone marrow and interact with resident cells of the bone microenvironment to drive disease progression and development of an osteolytic bone disease. Bone marrow adipocytes (BMAds) are emerging as having important endocrine functions that can support myeloma cell growth and survival. However, how BMAds respond to infiltrating tumour cells remains poorly understood. Using the C57BL/KaLwRij murine model of myeloma, bone marrow adiposity was found to be increased in early stage myeloma with BMAds localising along the tumour-bone interface at later stages of disease. Myeloma cells were found to uptake BMAd-derived lipids in vitro and in vivo although, lipid uptake was not associated with the ability of BMAds to promote myeloma cell growth and survival. However, BMAd-derived factors were found to increase myeloma cell migration, viability and the evasion of apoptosis. BMAds are a major source of adiponectin, which is known to be myeloma-suppressive. Myeloma cells were found to down-regulate adiponectin specifically in a model of BMAds, but not in white adipocytes. The ability of myeloma cells to down-regulate adiponectin was dependent at least in part on tumour-derived TNF-alpha. Collectively our data support the link between increased bone marrow adiposity and myeloma progression. By demonstrating how myeloma cells release TNF-alpha to down-regulate BMAd-derived adiponectin, we reveal a new mechanism by which myeloma cells alter the bone microenvironment to support disease progression. in the in vivo preclinical models are strikingly similar with respect to and Furthermore, we show that localisation of BMAds along the tumour-bone interface is comparable between models. Taken together, our data suggests limited role uptake in disease pathogenesis. Future studies are needed to elucidate


The harmless constitutional error doctrine is as baffling as it is ubiquitous. Although appellate courts rely on it to deny relief for claimed constitutional violations every day, virtually every aspect of the doctrine is subject to fundamental disagreement and confusion. Judges and commentators sharply disagree about which (and even whether) constitutional errors can be harmless, how to conduct harmless-error analysis when it applies, and, most fundamentally, what harmless constitutional error even is-what source of law generates it and enables the Supreme Court to require its use by state courts. This Article offers a new theory of harmless constitutional error, one that promises to solve many of the doctrine's longstanding mysteries. There is widespread consensus that harmless constitutional error is a remedial doctrine, in which the relevant question is the appropriate remedy for an acknowledged violation of rights. But harmless error is in fact better understood as an inquiry into the substance of constitutional rights: a purported error can be harmless only if the defendant's conviction was not actually obtained in violation of the defendant's rights. That approach can help solve the doctrine's longstanding riddles. It explains why harmless error is binding on state courts; it clears up confusion about the relationship between the doctrine and statutory harmless-error requirements; it shows which errors can never be treated as harmless without effectively being eliminated; and it provides useful guidance for how courts should conduct harmless-error analysis where it applies. Most importantly, it reflects a more realistic understanding of the right-remedy relationship that makes it harder for courts to surreptitiously undermine constitutional values.


For decades nurse executives have implemented shared governance structures as a nursing management innovation to transform the nursing organization from a bureaucratic hierarchy to a more organic, relational partnership. However, there is little generalizable evaluation of the effects of shared governance on nurse and patient outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine organizational context and quality outcomes in relation to shared governance structures at VA hospitals. Structural contingency theory guided this ex post facto descriptive correlational study of the relationships between organizational context, nursing shared governance, and outcomes in VA hospitals in the United States. Veterans Health Administration administrative data from 54 VA hospitals were aggregated at the facility level for analysis. Context variables were hospital complexity level, case mix index, hospital teaching status, number of hospital beds, RN education level, and in-patient turbulence. Nurse executives reported on shared governance implementation including formal documentation of the structure in the form of policy, charter or by-laws, and total years. The outcomes analyzed were registered nurse (RN) job satisfaction, patient satisfaction, length of stay (LOS), hospital acquired Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), and hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU). Data analysis included: descriptive statistics, correlation, MANOVA, ANOVA, and regression. Results indicated that 70% of VA hospitals had formally documented shared governance structures. RN satisfaction increased with more mature shared governance. HAPUs were significantly related to shared governance maturity. Increased in-patient turbulence was predictive of shorter LOS and fewer HAPUs. This study provides evidence of the impact of shared governance structure and the context of turbulence on nurse and patient outcomes enabling VA nurse executives to make evidence-based management decisions about how to best structure the nursing organization.


Nematode (Heterodera schachtii) resistance in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) is controlled by a single dominant resistance gene, Hs1(pro-1). BvGLP-1 was cloned from resistant sugar beet. The BvGLP-1 messenger (m)RNA is highly upregulated in the resistant plants after nematode infection, suggesting its role in the Hs1(pro-1) mediated resistance. BvGLP-1 exhibits sequence homology to a set of plant germin-like proteins (GLP), from which several have proved to be functional in plant basal or defense resistance against fungal pathogens. To test whether BvGLP-1 is also involved in the plant-fungus interaction, we transferred BvGLP-1 into Arabidopsis and challenged the transgenic plants with the pathogenic fungi Verticillium longisporum and Rhizoctonia solani as well as with the beneficial endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica. The expression of BvGLP-1 in Arabidopsis elevated the H(2)O(2) content and conferred significant resistance to V. longisporum and R. solani but did not affect the beneficial interaction with P. indica in seedlings. Microscopic observations revealed a dramatic reduction in the amount of hyphae of the pathogenic fungi on the root surface as well as of fungal mycelium developed inside the roots of transgenic Arabidopsis compared with wild-type plants. Molecular analysis demonstrated that the BvGLP-1 expression in Arabidopsis constitutively activates the expression of a subset of plant defense-related proteins such as PR-1 to PR-4 and PDF1.2 but not PDF2.1 and PDF2.3. In contrast, the PDF2.1 mRNA level was downregulated. These data suggest an important role of BvGLP-1 in establishment of plant defense responses, which follow specific signaling routes that diverge from those induced by the beneficial fungus.


This article presents research on the impact of welfare reform on 90 nonprofit organizations in Southeast Michigan. Utilizing a refined survey instrument, in-depth interviews and focus groups with agency executives and staff, and the analysis of agency documents, it assesses how the racial characteristics of agencies' client populations affected the organizational consequences of welfare reform. The study confirmed that welfare reform has affected the ability of nonprofit organizations to meet the increased expectations generated by recent legislation. These effects have been particularly pronounced among agencies serving a high proportion of racial minority clients. Introduction For many years, race has played a significant role in the development of various U.S. public policies, especially those related to public assistance (Brown, 1999; Lieberman, 1998; Thompson, 1998). Federal and state welfare policies have directly or indirectly discriminated against racial minorities, particularly African Americans, from the provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935 to the implementation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. Even during eras of social reform, such as the 1960s, the focus on race produced both discriminatory policies and substantial white backlash, which, in turn, inhibited the creation of progressive policies for the working poor (Quadagno, 1996). Since the 1960s, social scientists have debated the relative significance of race or class factors in determining the socioeconomic status of racial minorities in the U.S. including their disproportionate representation on the welfare rolls (Massey and Denton, 1993; Wilson, 1996). At the same time, significant alterations in welfare policies have had a dramatic and disproportionate impact on people of color. These include the adoption of work requirements--from the 1967 Social Security Amendments to the welfare reforms of 1996--and the contraction or elimination of a broad range of supportive services (Schiele, 1998; Abramovitz, 1998). Bobo and Smith (1998) characterize these trends as a new "laissez faire" racism in the nation's welfare policies based on the perceived inferiority of African American individuals and culture. The association of welfare status with racial minorities is perpetuated by stereotypical portrayals in the media and the use of racial codes for political purposes (Schiele, 1998; Edsall, 1991). The persistent image of the so-called "welfare queen," despite ample contradictory scholarship, further reduces public support for welfare programs (Clawson and Trice, 2000; Gilliam, 1999; Zucchino, 1997). Ironically, the effects of recent welfare reforms appear to be turning some of these myths into reality as, for the first time, racial minorities begin to comprise the majority of welfare recipients in certain regions (Bischoff and Reisch, 2000). At the same time, the decline in the size of the welfare rolls since 1996 has created more sympathetic attitudes towards those who receive public assistance (DeParle, 1998). Although persons of color, particularly African Americans, have historically comprised a disproportionately high percentage of the AFDC/TANF population, this difference has become even more pronounced since the mid-1990s. National statistics reveal that the proportion of white recipients dropped from 37.4% in 1994 to 30.5% in 1999, while, during the same period, African Americans went from 36.4% to 38% of the welfare population and the proportion of Latinos increased from 19.9% to 24.5% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). In addition, welfare caseloads are becoming increasingly concentrated in urban counties, with 10 counties comprising 33% of the entire nation's welfare population (Allen and Kirby, 2000). There is also ample evidence that welfare reform has had a major impact on communities of color, especially the African American community, and the organizations that provide services to them. …


Detection of hydrogen gas is a crucial task for establishing safety and reliability of fuel cells, a key technology for the environment and our society. However, hydrogen is difficult to detect and various hydrogen sensors have many drawbacks. Here we report a novel hydrogen gas sensor, the ball surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor, using Pd or PdNi sensitive film. The ball SAW sensor is based on a novel phenomenon, diffraction-free propagation of collimated beam along an equator of sphere. The resultant ultra-multiple roundtrips of SAW makes it possible to achieve highest sensitivity among SAW sensors. Moreover, it enables to use a very thin sensitive film, and consequently the shortest response time (2s) was realized. In terms of the sensing range, it has the widest range of 10 ppm to 100 % among any hydrogen sensors including FET or resistivity sensors. The ball SAW sensor can be applied not only to hydrogen but also to any gasses and possibly to liquids.


The idea of "ecotourism" has taken off in recent years, but a crucial detail is often neglected: how do we know that an enterprise truly meets the goals and standards of ecotourism? Certification - the rating of lodges, resorts, tour operators, and other sectors of the tourism industry by independent auditors who verify environmental and social impacts - has emerged as the most promising answer. Ecotourism and Certification offers a valuable overview of ecotourism certification and lays out the basic challenges and strategies for establishing certification programs. The book begins by offering baseline information on the tourism industry, situating ecotourism within the larger tourism industry, and tracing the history of certification. The second chapter explores the concepts underlying certification, followed by a chapter that examines certification as a tool in other industries such as forestry and coffee production. The remainder of the book highlights case studies of certification schemes around the world, written by experts who have been closely involved with the projects described. Ecotourism is a promising approach to protecting threatened environments and communities around the world and certification is a key to making it effective. This is the first book to take a global look at the emergence and application of certification, and it is an important contribution for ecotourism and development professionals worldwide.


The financial costs of extreme weather are profound, not only in terms of the distress of those immediately affected but also in broader, more long-term macroeconomic and public budgetary effects. This Article focuses on the role that private and public insurance can play, both positively and negatively, on these effects. It also provides one of the most detailed analyses in the legal literature to date on the finances of three state residual-risk wind pools in the Gulf and Southeastern United States that have been created specifically with hurricane risks in mind.


We consider the sequential Bayesian optimization problem with bandit feedback, adopting a formulation that allows for the reward function to vary with time. We model the reward function using a Gaussian process whose evolution obeys a simple Markov model. We introduce two natural extensions of the classical Gaussian process upper confidence bound (GP-UCB) algorithm. The first, R-GP-UCB, resets GP-UCB at regular intervals. The second, TV-GP-UCB, instead forgets about old data in a smooth fashion. Our main contribution comprises of novel regret bounds for these algorithms, providing an explicit characterization of the trade-off between the time horizon and the rate at which the function varies. We illustrate the performance of the algorithms on both synthetic and real data, and we find the gradual forgetting of TV-GP-UCB to perform favorably compared to the sharp resetting of R-GP-UCB. Moreover, both algorithms significantly outperform classical GP-UCB, since it treats stale and fresh data equally.


A retrospective study was conducted on prenatal and postnatal mortality among the populations of seven cities in the Pakistani province of Punjab. Consanguineous marriages were strongly favoured and the coefficients of inbreeding (F) for the present generation in each locality ranged from 0-0236 to 0*0286. There was a highly significant relationship between the degree of inbreeding and mortality, with most consanguinity related deaths reported in the neonatal, infantile, and childhood periods. The findings strongly suggest that consanguinity may play a major role in the high rates of postnatal mortality observed in Pakistani communities now resident in the United Kingdom.


Apple's wireless devices have become a critical entry point into the Internet. But unlike the broader Internet, which can be construed as a relatively open communications network, the iOS app store is arguably a closed technological ecosystem. Developers must gain Apple's approval before distributing their apps through the store. Some have criticized the company's app review and approval process for being opaque and arbitrary. This process has also resulted in the rejection of both explicitly and implicitly political apps. This article analyzes Apple's guidelines and approval process, discusses content-based rejections of apps, and outlines the consequences of this process for developers' and consumers' freedom of expression. It also argues for principles that guarantee "app neutrality" while also guaranteeing device safety and quality control.


As the United States and China move toward an expansion of political and economic relations, interest in China and its culture has never been greater. "Chinese Writers on Writing" makes a contribution in illuminating this corner of the globe through the works of some of its finest writers. With more than half the works appearing in English for the first time, "Chinese Writers on Writing" features authors such as Mo Yan, whose book Red Sorghum was made into an award-winning movie by the same name; Lu Xun, known as the Chinese George Orwell; and Gao Xingjian, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. Edited by award-winning poet Arthur Sze, this is the first collection that brings together material by writers reflecting on their work, their processes, and the challenges of writing under China's political system. This is the fifth volume in the highly acclaimed Writer's World Series.


Analysing the Indian labour market poses inherent challenges given the country's size and diversity. Rather than a case of "jobless growth", India has experienced concentrated employment growth, mainly in urban areas and for men. This has been accompanied by a decline in the female labour force participation rate, which emerged as a major puzzle. Informality remains a defining feature with rising informalization in the formal sector. Some outcomes partly reflect India's overall level of economic development. At the same time, structural transformation in other countries, including those in the region, has led to greater absorption of workers, particularly women, in manufacturing. Looking at the future of work, the current situation is likely to prevail in the near future. This means that workers will continue to leave agriculture and seek employment in urban areas. But the ability of the manufacturing sector to engage workers will be constrained by the capital and skill intensity of production. More wage employment will be created but the challenge is to ensure these workers have access to social security and other benefits. As women become better educated, their participation in the labour force is likely to increase but many constraints keep them out of paid employment. Rather than focusing singularly on the threat of automation to job creation, policymakers need to address the distributional effects of technological change, particularly in terms of its skill-bias. An important goal is to improve access to technology, which would enhance productivity and working conditions.


European University-Enterprise mobility programs such as Erasmus and Leonardo Placements have been around for years. They have been aiming to provide students and graduates with an intercultural learning environment, where they can apply knowledge and skills from their studies at enterprises abroad. Enterprises have benefited from the fresh academic a well as cultural background of international students and graduates. Students have gained international experiences, developed key competences and got an insight perspective to the practical work in an enterprise. The proposed presentation aims to explore a future dimension of student mobility as a catalyst of transnational research and development cooperation between universities and enterprises. This new dimension would be of benefit for the learning outcome of students (of food related study programs) participating in mobility programs. The knowledge transfer between universities and enterprises would benefit from it, too. It would require involving students early in research activities at the university or at least facilitating student access to information about ongoing research and development activities and interests. However with that knowledge students can turn into "ambassadors" of their department and can reach in the framework of mobility programs enterprises in Europe, which might be out of reach of the day-to-day business of their home universities. The "ambassador role" could furthermore change the attitude and image of student interns at enterprises from learners (and cheap workforce in the worst case) towards "brokers" or "boundary role persons". The authors will argue that the potential of student mobility for this purpose has not been fully exploited yet. They will present how the EU2020 strategy and new EU funding programs and priorities can facilitate this new dimension of student mobility. They will discuss the potential role networks such as ISEKI can play to develop and implement the new dimension of student (and graduate) mobility.


The global economy has continued to experience lingering effects of the global financial crisis that began in 2007. Although attention was initially given to the liquidity crisis and survival of some the world's largest corporations and institutions, the financial crisis is likely to have long-lasting implications for agribusiness. As the world slowly recovers from the crisis, another round of problems are emerging as governments and international institutions attempt to unwind the positions they took in an effort to prevent the global economic bubble from bursting. Perhaps the most problematic factor for businesses is access to capital in sufficient amounts and at affordable rates. Governments and institutions, particularly in the United States (U.S.) and the European Union, have increased their financial obligations as the result of activities taken to curtail the economic crisis. These financial obligations and the associated financial risks place pressure on financial markets and tend to restrain the availability of capital and increase the cost of capital for businesses. However, the U.S. agricultural credit market has not experienced problems to the same extent as general business (commercial and industrial) and real estate credit markets have. In general, U.S. farm businesses have a strong balance sheet, adequate repayment capacity, sufficient amount of assets to offer collateral for loans, and reasonable profits. Thus, U.S. farm businesses have had an ample supply of credit at relatively low interest rates.


The present paper explores the grammatical formation and synchronic variation of relative clauses in the Northern Paiute (Western Numic; Uto-Aztecan) language, as determined by their functional and grammatical connections to nominalization. We find support for several hypotheses from the literature regarding the development of syntactic complexity along a paratactic-to-syntactic pathway. An approach that seeks functional explanations for diachronic developments helps to make sense of the data, particularly in connecting nominalization to relativation not as one of several available strategies for relative clause formation, but as part of the same complex functional and grammatical domain. Keywords: Relative clauses; nominalization; subordination; diachronic syntax


State representation learning aims at learning compact representations from raw observations in robotics and control applications. Approaches used for this objective are autoencoders, learning forward models, inverse dynamics or learning using generic priors on the state characteristics. However, the diversity in applications and methods makes the field lack standard evaluation datasets, metrics and tasks. This paper provides a set of environments, data generators, robotic control tasks, metrics and tools to facilitate iterative state representation learning and evaluation in reinforcement learning settings.


We characterize a 50-GHz comb generator with a sampling oscilloscope. With careful control of the input power, input harmonics, and comb generator temperature, we measure the output spectrum with a standard uncertainty of 0.1 dB and 0.5deg. We correct the measurements for time-base distortion, impedance mismatch, an inline attenuator, and the complex frequency response of the oscilloscope's sampler. We also report on the stability of the comb-generator spectrum and the effects of the recorded time windows, drive levels, and temperature. These results provide general guidelines for practioners of high-speed measurements and a benchmark for future inter-laboratory comparisons of harmonic phase-reference calibrations.


Los Angeles is the site of the Watts Towers, perhaps the most famous example of folk art in the world. Simon Rodia's constructed his majestic towers from steel pipes and rods, wrapped with wire mesh, and decorated with such found objects as bottles, scrap metal, sea shells, broken glass, pottery fragments, and bits of ceramic tile. Known to millions of Southern Californians and countless visitors, the Watts Towers are the quintessential example of recovering rubble and turning it into majestic works of art. But fewer people, including scholars and professional art historians, are fully aware of how Rodia's monumental achievement helped catalyze an artistic renaissance that has stunning implications for the African American creative community well into the 21st century. Since the mid-1960s, African American artists in Los Angeles have been unusually imaginative in developing artistic products enabling them to achieve widespread critical recognition and respect. In the face of continuing barriers from mainstream institutions, including major museums and commercial galleries, many of these artists have used nontraditional materials and forms to create a growing legacy of visual art that has brought them national and international visibility. Several prominent African American artists used the Watts rebellion of 1965 as a key catalyst for their collective artistic vision. Even before the smoldering remains of Watts and surrounding black neighborhoods disappeared from national consciousness, artists Noah Purifoy, Betye Saar, John Outterbridge, David Hammons, John Riddle, and others collected and transformed objects and materials into powerful artworks that often expressed trenchant anti-racist social and historical commentary. "Debris" and "garbage" from the remains of burnt and destroyed buildings and streets became the raw material for an emerging tradition of African American art in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Long before the national recycling movement began, black Los Angeles area artists initiated their own program of creative visual production from the rubble of their own communities. In short, they "recovered the rubble" and in the process brought African American visual art to new heights of visual distinction. Noah Purifoy (1917-2004) is often regarded as the key visual artist who initiated the African American focus on recovering trash to make art--the father of the African American assemblage art movement in the Los Angeles area. Throughout his career, Purifoy encouraged the use of art as a tool for social change--a premise that has long pervaded African American art history generally. Trained originally as a social worker, he turned to visual art later in life. His distinctive personal style involved the collection of discarded materials that he fashioned together into a creative whole. He taught many other black artists to use common objects to tell the stories of their people, emphasizing that these objects could actually be more effective than traditional artistic materials in communicating the struggles of people who came to America in bondage and who suffered centuries of brutal oppression. His works made him a major participant in the historic "66 Signs of Neon" exhibition, based on artworks assembled from the debris of 1965 rebellion in Watts. The exhibition included Purifoy and six other artists, including whites, and created 66 separate artworks. Most found no permanent home and the materials returned to the junk heaps from which they originally came. That rebellion, one of many during those turbulent times, revealed the huge pent-up rage among African Americans, frustrated after generations of second class citizenship, poverty, unemployment, police brutality, and other egregious and more subtle manifestations of American racism. In a communication to the iconic African American art historian Samella Lewis, Purifoy revealed his perspective about his emerging artistic strategy: While the debris was still smoldering, we ventured into the rubble like other junkers of the community, digging and searching, but unlike others, obsessed without quite knowing why. …


Summary
Feeding tests on six species of laelaptid and haemogamasid mites and one species of dermanyssid mite are reported. Haemogamasus ambulans (Thorell) appears to have generalized tastes, feeding on fluid or dried blood of vertebrates, flea feces, and living or dead arthropods. Reproduction and indefinite maintenance on diets of arthropods or dried blood were demonstrated. Skin penetration of vertebrate hosts was exhibited only rarely. Echinolaelaps echidninus (Berlese) and Haemolaelaps glasgowi (Ewing) also proved to be general feeders, but additionally, the latter species attacked intact, vertebrate skin, feeding on exuding tissue fluids. In limited tests, Brevisterna utahensis (Ewing) did not penetrate intact skin but fed quite readily on either dry or fluid blood. Haemogamasus oudemansi Hirst fed on free, liquid blood, but refused to penetrate skin or to feed on dry blood. Haemogamasus liponyssoides Ewing appears to be an obligatory blood feeder. It penetrated intact host skin and engorged on blood. It would not feed on dried blood or on small arthropods. Ornithonyssus bacoti (Hirst), serving as a control, pierced the host skin and fed on blood.


Deformation of Earth9s crust and lithosphere is characterised by elastic, viscous and brittle material behaviour. The implementation of this complex rheology is a challenge for numerical models owing to variations in laboratory and natural data, the choice of equations to describe the deformation processes and the different flavours of their numerical representation. I discuss some of the current issues associated with the role of elasticity in crust- to lithosphere-scale processes, the implementation of brittle behaviour in continuum models and the use of laboratory viscous flow laws. Results of numerical models show that the style of lithosphere deformation is strongly influenced by strength contrasts between materials. Numerical models can be used to evaluate the role of such strength contrasts and of the individual rheological components by testing model sensitivity to variations in parameter values.


Synopsis: A Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA) or "green bank" has the potential to direct responsible government incentives towards a group of critical clean energy technologies that currently lack much-needed government support - "emerging" technologies that are proven at the demonstration level, but due to a lack of access to financing and proven track record have yet to be deployed at a commercial scale in the U.S. This type of government support is essential in the path towards creating renewable technologies that can compete in the market with conventional power generation and contribute to a material reduction in future carbon emissions. This article explains why emerging technologies are the right target for CEDA support and provides principles that should inform the passage and implementation of a CEDA program. These principles include the need to ensure CEDA supports low-carbon technologies and that the program operates within the confines of reasonable taxpayer and risk management protections. The authors look to the Department of Energy Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program experience to enlighten these principles. This article should be useful for those engaged in energy finance, in both the public policy and private legal and investment sectors. I. INTRODUCTION The existential threat of climate change has made the transition to a low carbon economy a national and global imperative. This imperative requires a complete transformation in American energy policy, which, since about the time of the Industrial Revolution, has prioritized the availability of affordable fossil fuel-derived power as a driver of American economic growth. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has analyzed an "ambitious but achievable" set of policies to cause a 50-85% reduction in international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 (as compared with 2000 levels), the reduction level likely required to avoid some of the most severe and permanent potential impacts of global warming.1 In light of the Department of Energy?s domestic reference case predictions of a 9% increase in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions above 2008 levels by 2035 and insufficient increases in renewable energy generation and efficiency over the same period, the United States cannot currently ensure our country achieves its proportionate share of the global emissions reduction target to avoid crossing an irreversible threshold of global atmospheric carbon concentration.2 Government intervention to support the deployment of renewable energy is imperative in our attempts to stave off disastrous climate change, and this intervention must also begin to create a level playing field for renewable energy sources. Congress has heavily subsidized the extraction, processing, and infrastructure that support the production of fossil fuel electricity so that coal, oil, and natural gas remain available at a relatively low cost. Such energy sources account for over 85% of energy consumed in the U.S.3 In recognition of this support and its impacts, President Obama has proposed "eliminating [twelve] tax breaks for oil, gas, and coal companies; closing loopholes that would raise nearly $39 billion over the next decade."4 The fossil fuel industry further benefits from the fact that the costs of carbon emission continue to be externalized in the absence of a carbon price. Renewable energy and efficiency technologies, by contrast, have not benefited from a similar long-standing, multi-layered subsidy system that has leveraged decades of massive private conventional generation investment. Therefore, the renewable power sector has had difficulty competing, cost-wise, with fossil fuel generating capacity. Given the gravity of the threat posed by climate change and the aforementioned subsidies, the current low-carbon demand drivers will not be enough on their own to deploy the magnitude of efficiency and renewable energy resources required to achieve the emissions savings the IPCC has deemed critical. …


Based on insights from executives across the globe, this planning guide captures the unique challenges faced by leaders of a family business and presents an approach to help these operations survive and thrive across generations. Leading a company is a much different experience for those in a family-run business than for their contemporaries in nonfamilial environments. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the skill set and mindset required to lead family enterprises, and it introduces the four critical areas in which family businesses differ from traditional companies—management structures, governance mechanisms, entrepreneurial advantages, and stewardship practices. In a fascinating convergence of entrepreneurship, family relations, and corporate principles, the authors present two frameworks to better understand the best practices of leading a family business: a firm-level frame focused on these four critical areas of difference (architecture, governance, entrepreneurship, and stewardship) and an individual one that mirrors these in terms of the skill set and mindset successful leaders need to develop. Craig and Moores consider the differences between leadership in family enterprises and non-family enterprises; the entrepreneurial capabilities needed by executives in family-based firms; and the use of power, identification, and motivation in managing their responsibilities both at home and in the workplace. Case studies provide a real-life look at the inner workings of family operations across the globe.


Combined petrofabric, microstructural, stable isotopic, and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronologic data provide a new perspective on the Cenozoic evolution of the northern Snake Range metamorphic core complex in east-central Nevada. This core complex is bounded by the northern Snake Range detachment, interpreted as a rolling-hinge detachment, and by an underlying shear zone that is dominated by muscovite-bearing quartzite mylonite and interlayered micaschist. In addition to petrofabric, microstructural analysis, and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar geochronology, we use hydrogen isotope ratios (δD) in synkinematic white mica to characterize fluid-rock interaction across the rolling-hinge detachment. Results indicate that the western flank of the range preserves mostly Eocene deformation (49–45 Ma), characterized by coaxial quartz fabrics and the dominant presence of metamorphic fluids, although the imprint of meteoric fluids increases structurally downward and culminates in a shear zone with a white mica 40 Ar/ 39 Ar plateau age of ca. 27 Ma. In contrast, the eastern flank of the range displays pervasive noncoaxial (top-to-the-east) fabrics defined by white mica that formed in the presence of meteoric fluids and yield Oligocene–Miocene 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages (27–21 Ma). Evolution of the Oligocene–Miocene rolling-hinge detachment controlled where and when faulting was active or became inactive owing to rotation, and therefore where fluids were able to circulate from the surface to the brittle-ductile transition. On the western flank (rotated detachment), faulting became inactive early, while continued active faulting on the eastern flank of the detachment allowed surface fluids to reach the mylonitic quartzite. The combined effects of synkinematic recrystallization and fluid interaction reset argon and hydrogen isotope ratios in white mica until the early Miocene (ca. 21 Ma), when the brittle-ductile transition was exhumed beneath the detachment.


Background: Insulin therapy is often met with apprehension among diabetic patients due to the inconvenience and discomfort of injecting oneself. Past attempts to develop an inhaled insulin has been met with such obstacles as inefficiency, cost issues, and patient acceptance. Technosphere® insulin (MannKind Corporation, Valencia, CA) is a rapid acting inhalable insulin that is indicated for prandial use and is currently in phase III clinical trials. It is showing promising results and this systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy of Technosphere insulin as compared to traditional injectable insulin. Methods: An exhaustive search was conducted using Medline-OVID, CINAHL, EBMR Multifile, and Web of Science with the key terms: Technosphere®, Afresa®, and Afrezza® for relevant studies. A search on the MannKind Corp. website was conducted for additional articles and data. Selected articles were assessed for quality using GRADE. Results: Two studies met inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review. The first study is a randomized controlled trial that demonstrated the use of prandial inhaled Technosphere insulin to be non-inferior to injectable biaspart insulin in terms of HbA1c lowering capacity. In addition, patients treated with Technosphere insulin experienced fewer hypoglycemic episodes, less weight gain, and increased patient satisfaction. The second study is a randomized controlled trial that compares the pharmacokinetic profile of Technosphere insulin to that of regular human insulin. Technosphere insulin was found to have a significantly higher maximum concentration (Cmax), faster onset of action (tmax), and a quicker elimination (t1/2) compared to that of regular human insulin. Conclusion: Inhaled Technosphere insulin was shown to be non-inferior to injectable biaspart insulin in terms of HbA1c lowering capacity and has a pharmacokinetic profile similar to that of other rapid acting insulins. Technosphere insulin was also found to be associated with less weight gain, fewer hypoglycemic episodes, and greater patient satisfaction. Although not currently FDA approved, Technosphere insulin seems to be a viable alternative to prandial injectable insulin.


Abstract Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory deployed a small network of 14 three-component digital seismographs during August 1982 in the Mono Craters area, which is located just north of Long Valley caldera. The network recorded small earthquakes located to the south of Long Valley. One event shows a clear arrival between the P and S phases, which is interpreted as a reflected phase similar to that observed by other researchers in the Long Valley area. The reflected phase follows the P arrival by approximately 4.3 sec and has an apparent velocity of approximately 7.0 km/sec. Particle motions indicate that the reflection arrives at the surface as a P wave. Travel-time, amplitude, and particle motion modeling of the P , S , and reflected waves suggest that the reflected phase is best modeled as a P to P reflection from the base of a low-velocity layer. The layer is approximately 19 km thick and has a velocity contrast of 17 per cent with the basement rocks. The low-velocity layer extends to the lower crust and is floored with high-velocity (greater than 7.0 km/sec) material. A zone of partial granitic melt underlain by higher velocity basaltic rocks could account for the computed velocity structure.


ABSTRACT:In this article, the author examines the contrasting worldviews of specific philosophers, architects, and physicists in an attempt to identify a position that would represent a viable alternative to the concept of universalization. In the history of civilization, he asserts, almost all wars have been of a territorial nature. Territories tend toward uniformity and universalization. He contrasts this worldview with reflections on oceanic thinking, which perceives bodies of water such as the Mediterranean as mediators between continents as well as between opposing worldviews, connecting and dividing at the same time. The sea, however, does not connect in order to homogenize but rather creates distance as an important prerequisite for true communication, thus linking multiplicity in all its variety as a viable alternative to universalism. The author moves on to scrutinize the cosmopolitan attitude as a paradox that on the one hand is oriented to the particular individual and on the other hand to an imaginary world community, that is, the universal. Taking this notion further to consider today's world that is saturated with the imaginary and symbolic power of the Internet, the author proposes that cosmopolitanism could be understood as an adequate expression for the technologically advanced world community by its capability to strike a balance between the individual and the world as a whole, on one side, and synthetic identity generated by culture and technology, on the other. Nevertheless, deviating from all of these worldviews, the author concludes with a short reflection, inspired by two films, on an alternative to cosmopolitanism that he calls cosmoethics, which employs ethics as the guiding principle of thought and action and commits to a practice that stays in close contact not only with real but also with diverse realities.