Many Americans today expect that the law can, should, and will be used to ensure a level playing field in public life. Americans expect the law to eliminate, insofar as possible, any unfair advantage that might be gained through the use of special connections to those who exercise the power of government. There are numerous rules applicable to judges, lawyers, and public officials that each seek to promote equal treatment for all persons by limiting the ability of persons to use special connections and privileged relationships to gain an advantage in public affairs.
There were two threads of development in America during the twentieth century that may account for the presence of such rules. The first involves the search for social equality, including the struggles between the rich and poor, black and white, and residents and new immigrants. The second relates to a very different but parallel search for ethical certainty. The rise of consumerism, the nature of the American media, and the "statutorification" of American law have been integral parts of that quest.
These developments suggest that the present American preoccupation with ethics in government is neither surprising nor likely to cease. Yet, the pursuit of good government may pose a difficult challenge. The task may be to separate the types of favors and relationships that corrupt government and abuse power from those that do nothing more than smooth the rough edges of an imperfect legal system. It is not easy to draw the line separating practices which give government a human face and make its actions efficient from other forms of conduct which unfairly handicap innocent persons. The challenge is to decide how much ethics in government is enough, but not too much. That, of course, is a difficult question.


"I cannot think of a better book for aspiring and working actors, craftspeople, artists, and managers" Kent Thompson, Artistic Director, Denver Center Theatre Company, Past President TCG Board of Directors "It's time for a new look at the complexity and richness of America's growing theatrical landscapre and Jim Volz is just the person to provide that overview" Lesley Schisgall Currier, Managing Director, Marin Shakespeare Company Working in American Theatre is a coast-to-coast overview of the opportunities awaiting theatre practitioners in every discipline. Featuring tips from America's top theatre professionals, this resource offers job-search and career-planning strategies, as well as detailed information on over 1,000 places to work in the American theatre, including regional companies, Broadway and commerical theatre, Shakespeare festivals, touring theatres, university/resident theatres, youth and children's theatres, and outdoor theatres. Offering an overview of the evolution of American theatre and behind-the-scenes stories of the regional movement, this single volume is an indispensable tool at every stage of your career.


We propose a novel model reduction approach for the approximation of non linear hyperbolic equations in the scalar and the system cases. The approach relies on an offline computation of a dictionary of solutions together with an online $L^1$-norm minimization of the residual. It is shown why this is a natural framework for hyperbolic problems and tested on nonlinear problems such as Burgers' equation and the one-dimensional Euler equations involving shocks and discontinuities. Efficient algorithms are presented for the computation of the $L^1$-norm minimizer, both in the cases of linear and nonlinear residuals. Results indicate that the method has the potential of being accurate when involving only very few modes, generating physically acceptable, oscillation-free, solutions.


This study reports on the use of in situ data obtained in midlatitude and tropical ice clouds from airborne sampling probes and balloon-borne replicators as the basis for the development of bulk scattering models for use in satellite remote sensing applications. Airborne sampling instrumentation includes the twodimensional cloud (2D-C), two-dimensional precipitation (2D-P), high-volume precipitation spectrometer (HVPS), cloud particle imager (CPI), and NCAR video ice particle sampler (VIPS) probes. Herein the development of a comprehensive set of microphysical models based on in situ measurements of particle size distributions (PSDs) is discussed. Two parameters are developed and examined: ice water content (IWC) and median mass diameter Dm. Comparisons are provided between the IWC and Dm values derived from in situ measurements obtained during a series of field campaigns held in the midlatitude and tropical regions and those calculated from a set of modeled ice particles used for light-scattering calculations. The ice particle types considered in this study include droxtals, hexagonal plates, solid columns, hollow columns, aggregates, and 3D bullet rosettes. It is shown that no single habit accurately replicates the derived IWC and Dm values, but a mixture of habits can significantly improve the comparison of these bulk microphysical properties. In addition, the relationship between Dm and the effective particle size Deff, defined as 1.5 times the ratio of ice particle volume to projected area for a given PSD, is investigated. Based on these results, a subset of microphysical models is chosen as the basis for the development of ice cloud bulk scattering models in Part II of this study.


This article aims to reflect upon the relevance of Decolonization methodologies with the Theses on Feuerbach. Somehow, all the Indigenous scholars started from new Marxist like Paulo Freire, Frantz Fanon, but not from classic Marx. To us, the German Ideology of young Marx only resembles the pioneering sources of Indigenous methodology. This discussion is thus a reflection of our studies and a philosophic endeavor to talk about the marginal people of the world, and the scholars who engaged in and with the oppressed. However, we are not prepared to turn our attention away from all the vastness of Marx to a collection of potentially equally relevant to Indigenous methodology. This article concludes that the Theses on Feuerbach is the core of Marxist archaeology of knowledge or philosophy as a whole and has been wading in the Indigenous paradigm.


AbstractBackground: Physical activity has emerged as a determining factor in reducing the risk of chronic diseases. Previous studies have shown that self-reported physical activity tending to be overestimated in comparison with physical activity measured objectively. In this study we investigate the consistency between those methods and the association to cardiovascular risk factors in older adults. Methods: The study population consisted of 1403 men and women aged 70, living in Umea, Sweden. Physical activity was objectively assessed for seven days by the Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometer in intensity levels of light, moderate and vigorous. For self-reported assessment the International physical activity questionnaire was used. Data from the survey were calculated in metabolic equivalents minutes/week for walking, moderate and vigorous activity level. Results: Self-reported activity levels of moderate and vigorous correlated significantly with light activity measured by accelerometers for both men (r=0.21, p< 0.01) and women (r=0.19 p<0.01). Self-reported walking correlated with moderate activity level from the accelerometer, for men (r=0.40 p< 0.01) and for women (r= 0.40, p< 0.01). Waist, Body Mass Index and triglycerides were significant (p<0.01) for all activity levels measured by accelerometers in women. Individuals with BMI ≥ 25 showed stronger correlations between walking METs and light activity compared to individuals with BMI <25. Conclusion: Overall individuals at the aged of 70 tend to overestimate physical activity at higher intensities in IPAQ compared to accelerometers.Keywords: Physical activity - Accelerometry - International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Measurement - Elderly


Who is the American bureaucracy's master in national government? At least three different sets of answers have been proposed. The first answer claims a single master of American bureaucracy, be it the president, Congress, or the courts. The second denies that there is any master over the bureaucracy and claims the existence of bureaucratic autonomy. In the middle of the two theories, there lies multiple masters theory. This dissertation attempts to advocate multiple masters theory by answering such questions as "Is the conception of multiple masters only theoretically conceivable, or is it historically supported?" or "Does the historical record suggest that multiple masters scheme was seriously in play in actual American constitutional dialogue?" To be a master, one should have at least one of the following powers— budget, personnel, information, and regulatory review. This dissertation focuses on one of them— the appointing power. To look at it historically, this dissertation chose four distinct periods of American history. They are the founding era, Jacksonian era, Republican era, and the Carter Administration. These eras were related to the four important civil service reform acts: the two Tenure of Office Acts of 1820 and 1867, Pendleton Act of 1883, and the CSRA of 1978. Congressional debates recorded in Congressional Record were analyzed to find evidences supporting multiple masters perspective. There were evidences that support the significant existence and role of the multiple masters perspective in all the four eras analyzed. Although weakened in the 1978 debate, the multiple masters theory was supported in important congressional debates by leading politicians of the day, providing historical foundation for the theory. The multiple masters perspective provides a need to construct a normative foundation for bureaucrats to adopt, because bureaucrats, in many cases, cannot avoid making decisions on which master to choose and which to ignore at a given time on a given issue. Under the multiple masters scheme, bureaucrats may have to play the role of balance wheel in the constitutional order, using their statutory powers and professional expertise to favor whichever constitutional masters need their help to preserve the purpose of the Constitution itself.


Over the last 40 years, clinical legal education has undergone considerable expansion. More clinics are being offered, more students are enrolling in clinical courses, and more clinical professors are receiving tenure than ever before. However, simultaneous with these successes, some schools continue to wrestle with underperforming clinical law programs. While much has been written about how to start a law school clinic, little has been written to advise law schools on how to turn around a clinic that is struggling. This article tells the story of one such clinic. It describes the financial commitment, facilities acquisitions, programmatic improvements, and personnel changes that were necessary to reconstruct one of the oldest law school clinics in the country. The lessons told remind readers that there are no "quick fixes" to reconstructing a clinical law program. However, with commitment, collaboration, and the support of the entire law school community, it can be done.


Few issues have a greater impact on our lives than water.  Water is a paradox: seemingly it is abundant and renewable resource, whereas only a tiny amount of it can be accessed and drinkable. Moreover, global water resources are unevenly distributed and many of them have been contaminated. Millions of people struggle with water scarcity, many times leading to water related international conflicts. Water is an international public good, with CPR and collective action problems, calling for international cooperation and actions to solve. Well-developed ancient civilizations have disappeared because of human environmental degradation, bad resource management and related socio-political problems. We should learn the lessons from our ancestors therefore wisely manage our natural resources. Such socio-cultural aspects as sustainable water governance, policy and communication can be as important as high-tech engineering for human survival from a historic perspective. Our paper is a theoretical overview and analysis of the most challenging water related issues and problems, providing theoretical as well as practical, policy oriented solutions in the end.


Abstract The disposal of spent fuel assemblies (SFAs) by companies currently producing nuclear power in Finland is the responsibility of a company named Posiva Oy. Posiva Oy has decided to use the KBS-3 (Swedish abbreviation for nuclear fuel safety; version 3) concept. In KBS-3, SFAs are placed in metal canisters, which are themselves deposited deep into crystalline rock. The disposal process in Finland will last many decades. To efficiently assign SFAs to canisters, in this paper we study the minimax canister formation problem. In this problem, we assume we are given two sets of data: (a) a schedule specifying the number of disposal canisters per year and (b) the decay heat of each SFA for every disposal year. The goal in the problem is to assign SFAs to canisters so that the largest canister heat load is minimized. The minimax canister formation problem is a variant of a well-known optimization problem: makespan minimization on unrelated parallel machines. We developed heuristic methods for solving the minimax canister formation problem. Using our methods and predicted SFA amounts and properties for Finland, we obtained high-quality solutions in numerous test cases. We also investigated how the uncertainty in SFA burnups affects the canister heat loads.


This study was designed to test for synergism (increased stress) or antagonism (decreased stress) among multiple environmental stressors using additive, multiplicative, and simple comparative effects models. Model predictions were compared to empirical results of laboratory experiments measuring interactions among thermal stress, toxin exposure, and low food on reproduction and survival of two species of cladoceran zooplankton. Stress was defined operationally as a reduction in reproduction or survival relative to optimal conditions over a 7‐d period. These experiments are particularly applicable to episodic stresses such as those associated with short‐term heat waves. Toxin or low food in combination with 30C temperatures were generally more harmful than high temperature alone. However, most multiple stress effects were antagonistic, in that effects in combination were not as severe as predicted based on the sum or the product of their individual effects. In rare cases, interaction among stressors even diminished effects of the worst single stressor. Optimal conditions for reproduction and survival occurred at 25C, high food and 0 mg liter‐1 toxin (a surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate). Suppressive effects of stressors examined individually ranked: high temperature (30C) > SDS (10 mg liter‐1 ɥ low food (∼100 mg C liter‐1) > low temperature (20C). Daphnia pulex isolated from a pond which experiences high summer temperatures throughout was more tolerant of 30C conditions than Daphnia pulicaria isolated from a lake with a cold‐water refuge. Differences were observed in individuals exposed as either adults or as 24‐h neonates.


We propose a method for detecting differential gene expression that exploits the correlation between genes. Our proposal averages the univariate scores of each feature with the scores in correlation neighborhoods. In a number of real and simulated examples, the new method often exhibits lower false discovery rates than simple t-statistic thresholding. We also provide some analysis of the asymptotic behavior of our proposal. The general idea of correlation-sharing can be applied to other prediction problems involving a large number of correlated features. We give an example in protein mass spectrometry.


A good stunning method must render an animal unable to experience pain and sensation prior to hoisting and slaughter. The three basic types of stunning methods which are classified as being humane (i.e., painless) in the United States, Europe and other foreign countries are captive bolt (penetrating and nonpenetrating), electrical, and C02 (carbon dioxide) gas anesthesia. The physiological mechanisms of stress are the same before and after the onset of unconsciousness. The release of epinephrine as a result of stress inducers has an effect on the quality of the meat and it is therefore desirable to use a stunning method which produces a minimum of epinephrine secretion. A literature review indicates the following stunning methods most reliably rendered the animal insensible to pain and minimized detrimental effects to forehead. Cows, steers, heifers, calvespenetrating or nonpenetrating (where brains are being saved) captive bolt or gunshot to the forehead. Shoot behind the poll for heavy Zebu or Brahman cattle only. Market weight pigs (180-250 lb; 80-112 kg.] -electric stunning minimum of 1.25 amps. at 300 to 600 volts with 1 to 3 second application time. Sheeppenetrating captive bolt, gunshot, or electric stunning with sharp pin electrodes or electrodes soaked in brine to insure electrical contact


Abstract. Many theories have been proposed detailing how aerosols might impact precipitation, predicting both increases and decreases depending on the prevailing meteorological conditions and aerosol type. In convective clouds, increased aerosol concentrations have been speculated to invigorate convective activity. Previous studies have shown large increases in precipitation with increasing aerosol optical depth, concluding an aerosol effect on precipitation. Our analysis reveals that these studies may have been influenced by cloud effects on the retrieved aerosol, as well as by meteorological covariations. We use a regime-based approach to separate out different cloud regimes, allowing for the study of aerosol–cloud interactions in individual cloud regimes. We account for the influence of cloud properties on the aerosol retrieval and make use of the diurnal sampling of the TRMM satellite and the TRMM merged precipitation product to investigate the precipitation development. We find that whilst there is little effect on precipitation at the time of the aerosol retrieval, in the 6 h after the aerosol retrieval, there is an increase in precipitation from cloud in high-aerosol environments, consistent with the invigoration hypothesis. Increases in lightning flash count with increased aerosol are also observed in this period. The invigoration effect appears to be dependent on the cloud-top temperature, with clouds with tops colder than 0 °C showing increases in precipitation at times after the retrieval, as well as increases in wet scavenging. Warm clouds show little change in precipitation development with increasing aerosol, suggesting ice processes are important for the invigoration of precipitation.


This policy brief summarizes a conference on recent developments in the analysis of current account sustainability held by Research Department of the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) and Banco de la Republica de Colombia organized on April 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. The purpose of the conference was to bring together economists from central banks, finance ministries, international organizations, and academics to discuss recent developments and new perspectives on the analysis of current account sustainability. The discussion was divided into three sections: i) methodological issues, ii) practical issues and iii) policy discussion, which are summarized in this document.


A compact guided-wave optical switch is realized by integrating one-dimensional photonic crystals with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) actuators. The ON-OFF switching is achieved by physically moving a photonic crystal defect. Experimental results show an extinction ratio of 11 dB at 1.56-/spl mu/m wavelength and a 0.5-ms time constant of the step response.


When you open the PDF file using Adobe Reader, the Commenting tool bar should be displayed automatically; if not, click on 'Tools', select 'Comment & Markup', then click on 'Show Comment & Markup tool bar' (or 'Show Commenting bar' on the Mac). If these options are not available in your Adobe Reader menus then it is possible that your Adobe Acrobat version is lower than 9 or the PDF has not been prepared properly.


Variants in the growth factor receptor-bound protein 10 (GRB10) gene were in a GWAS meta-analysis associated with reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) if inherited from the father, but inexplicably reduced fasting glucose when inherited from the mother. GRB10 is a negative regulator of insulin signaling and imprinted in a parent-of-origin fashion in different tissues. GRB10 knock-down in human pancreatic islets showed reduced insulin and glucagon secretion, which together with changes in insulin sensitivity may explain the paradoxical reduction of glucose despite a decrease in insulin secretion. Together, these findings suggest that tissue-specific methylation and possibly imprinting of GRB10 can influence glucose metabolism and contribute to T2D pathogenesis. The data also emphasize the need in genetic studies to consider whether risk alleles are inherited from the mother or the father.


Punjab province is
 the major wheat producing tract of the country and one-third of its
 total cultivated area is rainfed where rainfall is erratic and
 uncertain. This situation is a major limiting factor for wheat
 production. Understanding of genetic mechanism of drought tojerance
 is imperative to develop suitable wheat genotypes for these areas.
 Forty wheat genotypes possessing diverse genetic makeup were tested
 in field under medium rainfall conditions at Barani Agricultural
 Research Institute (BARI), Chakwal and under high rainfall
 conditions at Pir Mehr Ali Shah, Arid Agriculture University,
 Rawalpindi. From these genotypes, eight contrasting genotypes (four
 each drought tolerant, Inqlab-91, MAW-1,Saleem-2000 and 2KC033 and
 drought susceptible No. 2495, 3C061, 3C062 and 3C066) were screened
 out on the basis of more/less yield reduction and were crossed in
 all possible combinations at BARI, Chakwal. F1 hybrids alongwith
 parents were grown at BARI, Chakwal under two conditions; irrigated
 and rainfed. Data were recorded for drought and yield related
 attributes and were analyzed to understand the genetic mechanisms of
 these traits.
 Results of genetic analysis and graphical analysis revealed that
 over dominance action of genes for number of fertile tillers per
 plant, number of grains per spike, 1000 grain
 weight, number of spikelets per spike, grain filling period, grain
 filling rate, grain yield per plant, dry weight at maturity, harvest
 index and protein contents remained unchanged under irrigated and
 rainfed conditions. Similarly additive type gene action was observed
 for peduncle length, plant height and number of days to maturity
 under both irrigated and rainfed conditions. Over dominance type of
 gene action for number of days to heading and flag leaf area under
 irrigated conditions changed to dominance under rainfed and for
 spike length under irrigated conditions changed to additive under
 rainfed conditions. Genrtic effects controlling for the expression
 of yield and yield components shifted due to the changed
 environments. Graphic presentation indicated that parental genotypes
 shifted their positions from recessive to dominant or the midway or
 vice versa, for the same trait in response to environmental change.
 It was noted from the graphs that gene control of certain traits was
 also modified due to change in environment. Recessive gene control
 for number of days to heading, grain yield per plant and harvest
 index under irrigated conditions changed to dominant gene control
 under rainfed while dominant gene control of 1000 grain weight under
 irrigated condition changed to recessive under rainfed condition.
 However, it was also found that gene action for many characters
 remained unchanged over environments. Genotypes Inqlab-91 and MAW-1
 displaying similar constitution under both sowing conditions showe
 that these contained stable genes for those particular characters.
 The screened genotypes and breeding material so generated will serve
 as raw material for the breeders to develop high yielding and
 drought tolerant wheat varieties for the rainfed areas


First generation cyberlaw scholars were deeply influenced by the uniqueness of cyberspace, and believed its technology and scope meant it could not be controlled by any government. Few still ascribe to this utopian vision. However, there is now a growing body of second generation cyberlaw scholarship that speaks not only to the differential character of cyberspace, but also analyzes legal norms within virtual spaces while drawing connections to our experience in real space. I call this the New Virtualism. Situated within this emerging scholarship, this article offers a new approach to privacy in cyberspace by drawing on what Orin Kerr calls the internalist or virtualist perspective. The virtualist approach to privacy in cyberspace shifts the focus away from the concept of privacy itself, which has been over theorized and categorized by privacy theorists, to analyzing and theorizing persons in cyberspace and how they ought to be understood. It focuses on virtual persons and the distinct privacy concerns they raise, and reconnects ideas about informational and data privacy to traditional normative justifications for privacy based on personhood. Adopting a virtualist approach to privacy in cyberspace has conceptual, normative, constitutional, and public policy benefits.


The purpose of development of multimedia prototype courseware "Mari Mangenal ABC"
is to simplify of help teacher to teach dyslexic student for Bahasa Melayu subject in Year
1 in identifying small letter that have the same shape. Small letter like b,d,u,n,p,q,m and
w. This courseware help teacher involve in solving problem regarding in identifying a
small letter that confuse the dyslexic student because of the same letter shape. Our new
prototype courseware enables teacher and student more funny and learning session in the
class. The old learning method can cause dyslexic student fell so bored, less
concentration and easy forget what they learn. It also exposed to learning environment
more cheerful and more interesting. This learning technique is one of the opening step to
prepared learning process more active compare to old technique whereby multisensory
learning was applied. For instance dyslexic student will put their hands on the screen
when teacher teaching how to write the correct small letter. Beside that it focused on how
to pronounce the letter correctly. It can influence dyslexic students become more active
with hand gesture, listening and speaking. Parent are also encouraged to use this
prototype courseware "Mari Mengenal ABC" to help their children to recognized small
letter. To make sure this courseware can be used 5 sample were given to Bahasa Melayu
teacher Year 1 for evaluating effectives of this courseware after it used. Some
suggestions have been collected after testing done against dyslexic student.


This article presents a computational investigation of the dilute gas-solid flow's loss coefficient and reattachment length in a horizontally placed backward-facing step. The article's primary objective is to study the effect of the inter-particle collision and three significant parameters, namely, inlet solid-phase volume fraction(αs=0.0002,0.005), particle size (dp = 70 µm and 200 µm), and solid-particle density (ρs = 1500 kg/m3 and 3000 kg/m3). The numerical procedure uses the Eulerian-Eulerian approach in conjunction with the Kinetic theory of Granular Flow and the four-way coupling approach. The outcomes show that the loss coefficient and the reattachment length increase as the inter-particle collision intensifies with the system. Moreover, these parameters show higher values with small particle sizes and higher solid-phase volume fractions. The reattachment length is higher with less dense solid particles and higher with heavier solid particles.


(Applause Books). At the beginning of 1992, no one had heard of Quentin Tarantino. By mid-1995, Quentinmania was in high gear, and he was being hailed as the hip new Oscar-toting messiah of film making. In this irreverant personal biography and in-depth study, Jeff Dawson interrogates Tarantino about his early influences, his use of violence, and accusations of plagiarism. Dawson takes the reader behind the scenes of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Destiny Turns on the Radio, to get a glimpse of Quentin through the eyes of Harvey Keitel, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth and other Tarantino gang members interviewed for this book. Includes dialogue that didn't make it into the final cut, as well as the original plot twists for True Romance and Natural Born Killers that got axed by the censors. Includes great color and black & white photos throughout.


The production of high-performance carbon nanotube (CNT) materials demands understanding of the growth behavior of individual CNTs as well as collective effects among CNTs. We demonstrate the first use of grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering to monitor in real time the synthesis of CNT films by chemical vapor deposition. We use a custom-built cold-wall reactor along with a high-speed pixel array detector resulting in a time resolution of 10 msec. Quantitative models applied to time-resolved X-ray scattering patterns reveal that the Fe catalyst film first rapidly dewets into well-defined hemispherical particles during heating in a reducing atmosphere, and then the particles coarsen slowly upon continued annealing. After introduction of the carbon source, the initial CNT diameter distribution closely matches that of the catalyst particles. However, significant changes in CNT diameter can occur quickly during the subsequent CNT self-organization process. Correlation of time-resolved orientation data to X-ray scattering intensity and height kinetics suggests that the rate of self-organization is driven by both the CNT growth rate and density, and vertical CNT growth begins abruptly when CNT alignment reaches a critical threshold. The dynamics of CNT size evolution and self-organization vary according to the catalyst annealing conditions and substrate temperature. Knowledge of these intrinsically rapid processes is vital to improve control of CNT structure and to enable efficient manufacturing of high-density arrays of long, straight CNTs.


Note-by-Note Cooking is a landmark in the annals of gastronomy, liberating cooks from the constraints of traditional ingredients and methods through the use of pure molecular compounds. 1-Octen-3-ol, which has a scent of wild mushrooms; limonene, a colorless liquid hydrocarbon that has the smell of citrus; sotolon, whose fragrance at high concentrations resembles curry and at low concentrations, maple syrup or sugar; tyrosine, an odorless but flavorful amino acid present in cheese--these and many other substances, some occurring in nature, some synthesized in the laboratory, make it possible to create novel tastes and flavors in the same way that elementary sound waves can be combined to create new sounds. Note-by-note cooking promises to add unadulterated nutritional value to dishes of all kinds, actually improving upon the health benefits of so-called natural foods. Cooking with molecular compounds will be far more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable than traditional techniques of cooking. This new way of thinking about food heralds a phase of culinary evolution on which the long-term survival of a growing human population depends. Herve This clearly explains the properties of naturally occurring and synthesized compounds, dispels a host of misconceptions about the place of chemistry in cooking, and shows why note-by-note cooking is an obvious--and inevitable--extension of his earlier pioneering work in molecular gastronomy. An appendix contains a representative selection of recipes, vividly illustrated in color.


The Veins of the Earth: Property, Environment, and Cosmology in Nanbu County, 1865-1942 Tristan G. Brown During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) in Nanbu County, land was not only measured in quantitative dimensions, but also assessed through cosmological principles. These understandings of land often framed property claims while shaping rural geographies in the county under study. Drawing on 700 cases from the Nanbu Archive, this dissertation makes two related claims. First, in the mountainous periphery of Northern Sichuan, situated knowledge of land pervaded contracts, genealogies, stone inscriptions, and official handbooks. This information, composed of vernacular place-names, localized land boundaries, expressions of patrimonial merit and status, and cosmological dimensions of property, was often immediately understandable only to the members of a lineage or community, but could be interpreted by the state if needed. One type of situated information was geomantic information, which regularly entered the magistrate's court. Local officials engaged this information in legal practice and took geomantic claims or documentation into consideration during litigation. Sites holding great geomantic significance, such as ancient trees, graves, and temples, were often identified by locals as the landmarks or borders of private estates, market towns, or the county itself; these understandings were regularly woven into the administrative documents of the state. During the Qing, such interpretations were even extended to a local shrine of a Muslim (Qadiri) saint. Through routine engagement with these interpretations of the earth throughout the increasing landed commercialization of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — in processing lawsuits, the Nanbu County yamen (state administrative office) ordered landscapes concerning geomancy to be officially illustrated more than any other genre of claim — the Qing state legitimated highly situated knowledge of the land within the local property regime while upholding geomantic information as a binding mechanism for the regulation of common lands and resource access. The dissertation's second point is that, while it is well-known that the early decades of the twentieth century saw increased state penetration into local society across China, Nanbu maintained a remarkable degree of continuity with its imperial heritage. Land surveyors working in the early twentieth century struggled to extract structured knowledge of land from the layered territorialities of the county's terrains that had persisted from the Qing. This process was highly negotiated and often interpretive, rather than based on precise statistical surveying or the clear directives of a hegemonic state. Through exploring the legal, environmental, and religious dimensions of a single county's terrains in the late imperial period, this study identifies situated geomantic information as one of the key arenas for the projection of — and limitations on — state power in the county in relation to the property system. The dissertation also provides the first English-language history of Nanbu, a county with a remarkably complete administrative and legal archive from 1656 to 1951.


The role of Horizontal Equity ("HE") in tax policy has continued to generate controversy and debate. One way to encapsulate the question after all this time is to ask — if we started with HE as our motivating concept in designing a tax system where would we be? If HE says treat equals the same, what does our tax system look like? The answer is — we don't know because the term has no independent meaning for fairness and equality. We must turn to some theory of distributive justice to determine equality and to determine an appropriate tax burden. At this point HE collapses into one concept, which is generally referred to as Vertical Equity ("VE"). The crucial point is not that this single concept is VE, but that VE and HE are together a single concept which lacks normative content and is itself only a proxy for theories of distributive justice. For those who remain committed to a gut sense that HE means something, we would say, "yes, but a different something." While HE is not helpful in designing a tax system because it provides no guidance about what the system should look like, support for HE has persisted because of a shared belief that government should communicate the rationale for treating people differently. The difficulty is that while HE may tell us that government should communicate the rationale for different treatment, it does not tell us what that different treatment should be. Support for the role of HE may also be rooted in the notion that government should be even-handed in its enforcement of tax laws. HE is not helpful, however, in insuring even-handed enforcement since, in a world of finite resources, not every taxpayer can be audited. In deciding who should be audited, it is necessary to refer to something beyond HE. But perhaps the close link of tax policy to the process of tax policy creation and the administrative practice explains the unstated but visceral commitment to HE that has continued to spark debate over the past 20 years.


: Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the competitiveness of agriculture in new member states of the European Union. Design/Methodology/Approach: The competitiveness of agriculture was evaluated based on characteristics describing relations between production factors, their productivity, and the significance of agriculture in international trade. The survey was carried out for 2007 and 2017 using selected cluster analysis methods and principal component analysis (PCA). Findings: In both analyzed years, two groups of countries having similar characteristics describing the competitiveness of agriculture were identified. A clear difference was observed between new and old EU member states in terms of the agricultural sector's competitiveness. The first group characterized by better values adopted for the analysis of variables in 2007 was countries of the so-called "old Union," consisting of 15 member states (excluding Portugal and Greece), and in 2017 this group did not include Austria. An additional value of the survey was that it identified the characteristics that had the largest share in explaining the variability of the analyzed phenomenon, creating grounds for formulating recommendations concerning measures in the European Union's agricultural policy. Practical Implications: Considering the diagnosed factors that, to the largest extent, determined the classification of the countries to a specific group according to the level of agricultural competitiveness, it is possible to formulate recommendations regarding measures undertaken under CAP. They should be oriented at boosting the dynamics of structural changes in the agriculture of new member states. Originality/Value: This paper focuses on a wide range of variables. Groups of countries most similar in terms of agricultural competitiveness were identified, and the characteristics of countries that had the largest influence on the above-mentioned classification were compared and defined.


We present a unique multi-antenna RFID reader (a sensor) embedded in a robot's manipulator that is designed to operate with ordinary UHF RFID tags in a short-range, near-field electromagnetic regime. Using specially designed near-field antennas enables our sensor to obtain spatial information from tags at ranges of less than 1 meter. In this work, we characterize the near-field sensor's ability to detect tagged objects in the robots manipulator, present robot behaviors to determine the identity of a grasped object, and investigate how additional RF signal properties can be used for "pre-touch" capabilities such as servoing to grasp an object. The future combination of long-range (far-field) and short-range (near-field) UHF RFID sensing has the potential to enable roboticists to jump-start applications by obviating or supplementing false-positive-prone visual object recognition. These techniques may be especially useful in the healthcare and service sectors, where mis-identification of an object (for example, a medication bottle) could have catastrophic consequences.


An agonist-antagonist myoneural interface in a subject with a transtibial amputation improves prosthetic control. A leg up for neuroprosthetics Amputation severs bone, nerves, and muscles used for limb movement, limiting an amputee's ability to sense and control a prosthesis. Here, Clites et al. tested autologous muscle-nerve interfaces created at the time of below-knee amputation in a human subject. Compared to four subjects with traditional amputations, the subject who received two agonist-antagonist myoneural interfaces in his residuum (which were connected via synthetic electrodes to his powered prosthesis) exhibited greater joint placement control and reflexive behavior during stair walking. The subject noted little delay between intentional activation of the muscles in his residuum and movement of his prosthesis and expressed a strong sense of embodiment (identifying the prosthesis as part of him). Agonist-antagonist myoneural interfaces could help restore natural sensation to prosthetic joints. Humans can precisely sense the position, speed, and torque of their body parts. This sense is known as proprioception and is essential to human motor control. Although there have been many attempts to create human-mechatronic interactions, there is still no robust, repeatable methodology to reflect proprioceptive information from a synthetic device onto the nervous system. To address this shortcoming, we present an agonist-antagonist myoneural interface (AMI). The AMI is composed of (i) a surgical construct made up of two muscle-tendons—an agonist and an antagonist—surgically connected in series so that contraction of one muscle stretches the other and (ii) a bidirectional efferent-afferent neural control architecture. The AMI preserves the dynamic muscle relationships that exist within native anatomy, thereby allowing proprioceptive signals from mechanoreceptors within both muscles to be communicated to the central nervous system. We surgically constructed two AMIs within the residual limb of a subject with a transtibial amputation. Each AMI sends control signals to one joint of a two-degree-of-freedom ankle-foot prosthesis and provides proprioceptive information pertaining to the movement of that joint. The AMI subject displayed improved control over the prosthesis compared to a group of four subjects having traditional amputation. We also show natural reflexive behaviors during stair ambulation in the AMI subject that do not appear in the cohort of subjects with traditional amputation. In addition, we demonstrate a system for closed-loop joint torque control in AMI subjects. These results provide a framework for integrating bionic systems with human physiology.


The Value Added Tax (VAT) Act, 2013 changed the categorization of animal feeds from the zero-rated category to the taxable category. In this brief, we use the case study of poultry farmers to demonstrate the implications of implementing the VAT Act, 2013 on livestock production. Imposing a 16 per cent VAT on animal feeds has not only increased the price of animal feeds by a similar margin, but has also led to a decline of profits by between 70 and 100 per cent in the case of poultry farmers. The increase in input prices coupled with lower output prices has forced some small scale farmers to withdraw from the enterprise in the face of declining profits. As a result of non-competitiveness of farmers in the subsector, the country risks adverse long run effects on poverty, nutrition and unemployment as well as infiltration of cheap imports in the long run. To reverse this adverse effect, we recommend zero-rating VAT on animal feeds. Policy Brief No. 10 October, 2013


The action research project entitled Engaging pre-service TESOL teachers in authentic workplace learning aimed to enhance the TESOL practicum experience of pre-service teachers in the Graduate Diploma of Education at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. Integrated into the relevant TESOL curriculum unit was the requirement that pre-service teachers work with a small group of Year 8-10 ESL students for one hour a week for six weeks in a partner school. During this time they conducted a needs analysis with the students, determined proficiency levels against the relevant progress map and then prepared and taught lessons designed to assist the students in their English language development across the four macro skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The results of the action research project indicated strong support for this form of authentic workplace learning and the continuation of its integration into the curriculum unit.


This article describes 4 online workshops designed to assist college students with improving their time management, textbook reading, memory and concentration, and overall academic performance. These workshops were created to work equally well with imaginative, analytic, common-sense, and dynamic learners. Positive student feedback indicated that these workshops met students' perceived needs and expectations. Computers have become an essential aspect of education. Because of the easy accessibility of computers and the high comfort and skill level most college students have with them, computers have become the first resource to which many students turn when seeking information. For these reasons, college counselors can use computers to efficiently and effectively provide information to many college students. This article describes four online study skills workshops: the rationale for their development, the Experiential Learning model theory used to design them, the application of this model to these workshops, the rate of usage, and the students' evaluation. Use of computers has been integrated into higher education in many ways, including online instruction (Johnson, Aragon, Shaik, & Palma-Rivas, 2000; Richards & Ridley, 1997; Stoney & Oliver, 1998) and computer-assisted instruction (Mitra & Hutlett, 1997; Ouellette, 1999). In addition, health education programs (Carr, 2001; Dijkstra, De Vries, & Roijackers, 1999; Weerakoon, Stiernborg, & Wong, 1999) and counseling services (Sampson, Kolodinsky, & Greeno, 1997; Zalaquett & Sullivan, 1998) are also currently delivered via computers. College counselors can assist students by integrating the use of resources for online study skills into their counseling practice. Although many students seek counseling for serious mental health concerns, they also frequently report academic difficulties. For example, one university counseling center found that the percentage of students who reported academic skills as a concern increased over a 13-year period (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003). Between 1988 and 1992, 8.5% of students reported study skills as a concern. This increased to 24.66% in the 1992 to 1996 period and increased again to 34.46% for the period from 1996 to 2001 (Benton et al., 2003). Computer resources can be used to help address students' academic concerns and free counselors to focus the counseling sessions on psychological issues. Providing counseling services via computers and the Internet is in its infancy because of ethical concerns about confidentiality and the adequacy of online intervention (Sampson et al., 1997). Zalaquett and Sullivan (1998) reported usage and evaluation data for self-help computer screens on topics including study skills, anxiety, and relaxation. Student evaluations suggested significant improvement in the users' knowledge of the topic presented on screen; 90% of these students found the screens easy to use and indicated that they would recommend them to other students (Zalaquett & Sullivan, 1998). Although Zalaquett and Sullivan's study obtained positive results from the use of information screens to impart information to students, the use of interactive study skills workshops as an adjunct to counseling has yet to be explored. Rationale for Online Study Skills Workshops Many college students have excelled in high school while exerting minimal effort. Some of these students are able to make the necessary adjustments in their study skills without assistance when they begin college; others seek assistance from Internet or campus resources. Assistance with study skills is a service provided by many counseling centers. Many universities have made information about study skills available to students on the Internet; however, the information tends to be presented passively, not actively. Students can read and print out material but are not provided with the guidance necessary to become involved with the information and integrate it into their regular study routine. …


High-resolution X-ray spectra of O-type stars revealed less wind absorption than expected from smooth winds with conventional mass-loss rates. Various solutions have been proposed, including porous winds, optically thick clumps, or an overall reduction of the mass-loss rates. The latter has a strong impact on the evolution of the star. Our final goal is to analyze high-resolution X-ray spectra of O-type stars with a multi-temperature plasma model in order to determine crucial stellar and wind parameters such as the mass-loss rate, the CNO abundances, and the X-ray temperature plasma distribution in the wind. In this context we are developing a modeling tool to calculate synthetic X-ray spectra. We present here the main ingredients and physics necessary for such a work. Our code uses the most recent version of the AtomDB emissivities to compute the intrinsic emissivity of the hot plasma as well as the CMFGEN model atmosphere code to evaluate the opacity of the cool wind. Following the comparison between two formalisms of stellar wind fragmentation, we introduce, for the first time in X-rays, the effects of a tenuous inter-clump medium. We then explore the quantitative impact of different model parameters on the X-ray spectra such as the position in the wind of the X-ray emitting plasma. For the first time, we also show that the two formalisms of stellar wind fragmentation yield different results, although the differences for individual lines are small and can probably not be tested with the current generation of X-ray telescopes. As an illustration of our method, we compare various synthetic line profiles to the observed O viii λ18.97 line in the spectrum of ζ Puppis. We illustrate how different combinations of parameters can actually lead to the same morphology of a single line, underlining the need to analyze the whole spectrum in a consistent way when attempting to constrain the parameters of the wind.


We report the optical properties of high quality V-groove GaAs/Al0.3Ga0.7.As quantum wires (QWRs) with different thicknesses of the GaAs layer. The systematic investigation of photoluminescence (PL) and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectra as a function of the wire size combined with model calculations allows us to study in detail the effect of two-dimensional quantum confinement on valence band mixing and polarization anisotropy. We show that the polarization anisotropy of PL spectra critically depends on localization effects thus making any polarization analysis based on extended states insufficient at low temperature. The influence of exciton localization and surface corrugation on PLE spectra is also clarified; the observed large polarization anisotropy is unambiguously related to the one-dimensional (1D) character of our QWRs. Comparison of the experimental results obtained for all three QWR samples with theoretical predictions is clearly compatible with a strong suppression of the 1D band-edge singularity in PLE spectra. The temperature dependence of PL and PLE spectra for QWRs of different thicknesses is investigated. We are able to measure photoluminescence up to room temperature due to high quantum efficiency. Additionally, large subband spacings and small inhomogeneous broadenings allow us to perform PLE measurements up to high temperature (100 – 200 K, depending on the wire size). A thermally-enhanced transfer of carriers from the side-QWs into the QWRs is evidenced and attributed to increasing 2D exciton mobilities with increasing temperature and to the combination of classical activation and tunneling through the potential barrier due to the "necking" in the side quantum Wells (QWs) next to the QWRs. A strong impact of disorder on the PL (PLE) peak position and on the line shape is clearly shown. The evolution of the PL and PLE peak positions with increasing temperature together with a line shape analysis of PL spectra indicates the dominance of excitonic effects over the whole temperature range. The enhancement of the lowest-energy PLE peak with respect to higher-energy transitions with increasing temperature is explained in terms of an effective mobility edge. The variation of the full width at half maximum of PL and PLE spectra with increasing temperature is attributed to the combined effects of structural disorder and exciton-phonon scattering. We measure PL spectra of our high-quality QWRs through holes which vary from 2.0 μm clown to 0.2 μm in width (micro-PL experiments). For sufficiently thin QWRs it is possible to observe directly the localization of 1D excitons in local potential minima. PL spectra detected through the smallest apertures (0.2 μm) are attributed to recombination of excitons in isolated quantum dot (QD)-like potentials wells. Homogeneously broadened lines can be resolved. The correlation between structural disorder and micro-PL features is studied. We determine the most realistic wire morphology as inferred from studios on planar and non-planar A1GaAs and GaAs layers by transmission electron and atomic force microscopy. A localization potential due to fluctuations of the wire cross-section along the wire axis is estimated and used to evaluate the impact of disorder on the optical properties. The effect of exciton-exciton interactions on the PL properties of localized excitons is evidenced. A shift to high energy of the exciton resonance at exciton densities much below the Mott density is attributed to the predominantly repulsive interaction between excitons due to the Pauli exclusion principle. The formation of multi-excitonic states in the dot-like structure is also evidenced by the evolution of the finely structured PL spectrum with increasing excitation density. We also investigate the diffusion of 1D excitons as a function of temperature (5 60 K): In this temperature range, larger diffusivities are found for thinner wires. This result, in striking contrast with similar investigations in 2D systems, is explained by the strong suppression of elastic scattering in 1D structures due to the reduced phase space and by the wire-size dependent contribution of intersubband scattering. Finally, a decrease of the diffusivity with increasing excitation power density is explained in terms of exciton-exciton interactions.


Tackling domestic abuse is a key priority for the Scottish Government and its partners. There is evidence of a correlation between the occurrence of certain football matches in Scotland and increased reports of domestic abuse. There is, however, limited evidence that explains this link. This literature review was commissioned by the Scottish Government to examine existing evidence about the relationship between domestic abuse and football.


Maybe you're not really naked Environmental liability lawsuits against lenders continue to send shock waves throughout banking, and with good reason. Public and private litigants found a new strategy for cleaning up the environment: Sue the banks! With the average cost to clean up a single "Superfund" hazardous waste site reaching $30 million, banks make attractive targets. In dealing with such claims, bankers must realize that existing insurance policies may cover the cost of defending lender liability lawsuits and paying any judgments that result. Through a thorough examination of their own insurance policies - and those of all other parties having anything to do with a given parcel of polluted land - coverage can be found and the bottom line preserved. Success depends on fully understanding the risks; taking precautions; and pursuing coverage when the first two measures fail. Owner, operator, cop. The most common environmental liability claim is that the lender has become the "owner/operator" of a contaminated site. Such suits have been brought under state and federal environmental laws which impose strict, retroactive, and joint and several liability on any party which has used, owned, or operated a contaminated site. Strict liability means that cleanup costs can be imposed on "potentially responsible parties" without regard to their fault and without regard to efforts taken to prevent contamination. Retroactive liability means that a party can be held liable for pollution that took place years ago - even before the particular statute involved was enacted. Joint and several liability means that one party may be held liable for all cleanup costs, even it others contributed to the contamination. These principles have been applied to banks which foreclosed and then became "owners," responsible for past owners' sins. The principles have also been extended to banks which did not foreclose, but exercised some sort of management control over the site. In the 1990 Fleet Factors decision, a federal appeals court ruled that a lender may be held liable for cleanup if "involvement with the management of the facility is sufficiently broad to support the inference that it could affect hazardous waste disposal decisions if it chose." Earlier this year the Supreme Court refused to review this decision. Lenders may be enmeshed in yet a third type of liability - failure to police the borrower's environmental practices. Consider a recent case from a federal court in Rhode Island. A real estate subdivision was built with a septic system that deposited raw sewage into an adjacent river. For two decades the river was closed to shellfishing and swimming. The state issued orders to stop the pollution, but these were never enforced. Fed up, a local citizens group sued, under the federal Clean Water Act, to shut down the sewer system. Not to be outdone, state officials filed a second lawsuit, this time naming the present landowners and their lenders as defendants (O'Neil v. Q.L.C.R.I., Inc.). The original theory was that these institutions were mortgage holders, who would be held liable for the pollution if and only if they foreclosed. Later the state's attorney general upped the ante and accused the banks of "aiding and abetting" violations of state and federal environmental statutes. According to the attorney general, the lenders "knew of the sewage problem and could have conditioned loans on the fixing of the sewage problem." That was enough for the court to proceed with this novel theory of lender liability for borrower pollution. The court found no irony in the fact that the state, which did not enforce its own orders to stop the pollution, could sue the lenders for failing to stop the pollution. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has recently proposed giving lenders some relief. (See the Washington column.) Lenders would not be held liable unless they take an active role in managing borrowers' daily operations. …


Hydrologic, meteorological, and other environmental data were collected from water years 1998 to 2000 near two recently constructed storm-water retention basins near DuPont, Washington. A mixture of gypsum, grass seeds, and mulch was added to soils of one of the basins to slow infiltration by water. Six monitoring wells were installed in May 1997 near the two retention basins: one upgradient of the basins, four adjacent to the basin without gypsum, and one near the basin with the gypsum soil amendment. Water-quality samples were collected to monitor possible changes in ground-water chemistry. Ground-water levels in selected wells were measured both manually with a steel tape and with automatic monitoring systems. Water level of an intermittent pond in the gypsum-treated basin was monitored, as were selected meteorological and other environmental variables. The hydrologic, meteorological, and other environmental data are presented in this report.


The present study sought to understand the relationship between attitudes and prevention knowledge ofHIV I AIDS among matriculation students. HIV infection rates has reached epidemic proportions in South Africa and has serious consequences for individuals, particularly for adoiescellts as they make up the largest percentage ofthe vulnerable age group aged between 15 and 29. Given the high risks that adolescents are faced with, many awareness and prevention programmes have been implemented. These programmes have focused particularly on attitudinal and behavioural change towards HIV I AIDS prevention. The reason for this is that all sexual behaviour is mediated, facilitated and or justified by cognitions and beliefs (Vanwesenbeeck, Bekker & Van Lenning 1998). The sample was selected from a boys schoo~ which chose to remain anonymous and a girls high school in Westville, Durban. Questionnaires aimed at assessing knowledge regarding the spread and prevention ofHIV/AIDS were administered. Questionnaires aimed at assessing their attitudes towards prevention ofHIV/AIDS were also administered to learners. Learners had been exposed to awareness and life skills programmes as part of their curriculum. Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance was used as a framework to understand the relationship between one's attitudes and behaviour. The findings indicated that most respondents had adequate knowledge regarding HIV I AIDS spread and prevention. The results also indicated that there was a correlation between knowledge and attitudes but it was not a strong relationship suggesting that there may have been external factors that may have impacted on the relationship thus placing adolescents at a relatively high risk to the HIV infection. This according to Festinger's (1957) theory suggests that there is some inconsistency between attitudes and behaviour towards HIV I AIDS prevention amongst learners. The findings of the study also highlight the need for future research in this area, which would better inform and improve intervention programmes that have been targeted at adolescents in high schools.


Increasing business transactions between Taiwan and China have caused international intellectual property disputes to become a new and serious problem for Taiwanese businessmen who have direct and indirect investments in trade. In order to solve this problem, Taiwan and China sequentially set special regulations. For example, section 74 of the Act Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area was enacted by the government of Taiwan to recognize China's civil arbitration procedures. On July 23, 2004, China established the Regulations of the Supreme People's Court Regarding the People's Courts' Recognition of the Civil Judgments Rendered by the Courts in the Taiwan Region to offer an alternate way to look at arbitration decisions that were already made in Taiwan. Arbitration is one of the current methods of resolving intellectual property disputes between China and Taiwan. Arbitration is the best option for Taiwanese businesses, due to its prompt, professional, flexible, confidential, impartial, economical, harmonious and executable advantages.


The naturally formed solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) of lithium (Li) with organic electrolytes is fragile and can result in repeated exposure of fresh Li metal to the electrolyte during plating/stripping cycles. Building an artificial SEI layer is an effective way to enhance its stability and improve the electrochemical deposition behavior of Li. Using non-Li metal substrate to construct Li metal electrode is a more applicable method than using direct Li metal anode. In this study, the possibility of electrochemical reduction of propylene carbonate (PC) as an artificial SEI formation reaction for Li metal anode was evaluated. The results show that PC reduction can be divided into two stages: in the potential region higher than 0.85 V (vs. Li/Li+), the soluble free radical anion CH3-ĊH-CH2-OCO2- is formed and can be re-oxidized. In the potential region between 0.85 and 0.55 V (vs. Li/Li+), the insoluble reduction products CH3CH(-OCO2Li)CH2-OCO2Li and Li2CO3 are formed and construct the SEI film. By controlling the PC reduction rate with limited current, the morphology and construction of the SEI film could be improved, and thus the Li plating/stripping cycling efficiency could be enhanced. This can be considered a fundamental concept for high quality artificial SEI formation.


The etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is complex and involves numerous risk factors as environmental and hereditary. Nevertheless, recent studies have established that systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation are both present in the prodromal phase and sustained during the progression of the disease. Evidence suggests that the activation of the peripheral immune system exacerbates the brain inflammatory response, which may initiate or enhance neurodegenerative processes. Understanding the impact of chronic systemic inflammation in the neuroinflammation and the progression of the disease will provide a broader view of the etiology and pathology of PD. In this chapter, we review the role of the chronic systemic inflammation in neuroinflammation and its effect on PD, considering cell types, molecular, and inflammatory mediators that predispose to the development of the disease.


The "Arab Spring," as the revolutions in some Arab countries were called by the international media, was triggered by the "Jasmine Revolt" in Tunisia, which provoked a domino effect to some Arab leaders, starting from Tunisia and spreading to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, etc. Using the insights of cognitive-pragmatics, the current article shows how the last three speeches of Husni Mubarak, the demised president of Egypt (DPE), framed the revolution in Egypt and filled person deixis. In particular, the article argues that, from the antepenultimate to the ultimate speech, the DPE, unlike his Tunisian counterpart, made little change to the initial framing of the revolution in Egypt as a strategy to maintain the sociopolitical situation as it was. As transpires from the lexical items environing person deixis, the DPE filled it with cognitive content which prevented him from coming any closer to a pragmatic rapprochement to the Egyptian people.


While the tools for analysis of prokaryotic genomes are available on the internet and are relatively easy for undergraduates to master, the challenge lies with faculty inexperienced in teaching bioinformatics. To meet this challenge we developed the Genome Solver (GS) website, a community of practice for faculty support and student learning. At the GS site, faculty can learn about face-to-face training opportunities or use the virtual training materials such as primers on the pertinent science, tools, and techniques. Faculty can also find colleagues engaged in similar work as well as relevant curricular materials. The GS site also helps facilitate sharing of student work, so that students can engage in peer-to-peer review. Finally, genomics experts also have a presence on GS and can weigh in on problems or discuss methods.


INVERSION OF THE STAR TRANSFORM Fan Zhao Vadim A. Markel We define the star transform as a generalization of the broken ray transform for image reconstruction in single scattering tomography. Using the star transform provides advantages including possibility to reconstruct the absorption and the scattering coefficients of the medium separately and simultaneously. We derive the star transform from physical principles, and derive several computationally efficient algorithms for its inversion. We discuss mathematical properties and analyze numerical stability of inversion, and obtain necessary conditions for stable reconstruction. An approach combining scattered rays and ballistic rays to improve reconstruction is provided, and total variation and L regularization are utilized to remove noise. Numerical experiments are carried out to test the algorithms of inversion, the possibility to recover the absorption and the scattering coefficients, and the effect of different regularizations.


Background
Australian bicycle helmet laws were first introduced in Victoria in July 1990 and the remaining Australian states, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory by July 1992. Previous research on helmet legislation has focused on changes in helmet wearing and bicycle-related head injury. Although it is generally accepted that bicycle helmets can reduce the risk of fatality due to head injury, there has been little research assessing the impact of helmet legislation on cycling fatalities.

Methods
An interrupted time series approach was used to assess the impact of bicycle helmet legislation on yearly-aggregated rates of bicycle-related fatalities per population from 1971 to 2016.

Results
Immediately following bicycle helmet legislation, the rate of bicycle fatalities per 1 000 000 population reduced by 46% relative to the pre-legislation trend [95% confidence interval (CI): 31, 58]. For the period 1990-2016, we estimate 1332 fewer cycling fatalities (95% CI: 1201, 1463) or an average of 49.4 per year (95% CI: 44.5, 54.2). Reductions were also observed for pedestrian fatalities; however, bicycle fatalities declined by 36% relative to pedestrian fatalities (95% CI: 12, 54).

Conclusions
In the absence of robust evidence showing a decline in cycling exposure following helmet legislation or other confounding factors, the reduction in Australian bicycle-related fatality appears to be primarily due to increased helmet use and not other factors.


ABSTRACT Internally defined ties such as friendship, trust, or closeness might enhance private transfers. The present study examines the role of these ties on top of the impact of genetic relatedness and legal family relations using families with varied access to filial support as a source of heterogeneity. We investigate, in addition to family support, financial and non-financial transfers received from unrelated individuals by mature adults in childless, dispersed (that is, with an adult child living at a significant distance from parents), and local families using the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We find that the structure of support given to mature adults indeed depends on internally defined ties that are independent from family ties, controlling for other relevant factors. The positive impact on informal support of internally defined ties concerns particularly, but is not limited to, non-financial support.


A review of the utility of network models is presented to describe multiphase flow at the pore-scale. Precise details of each set of simulations can be found in the appropriate reference and only the most pertinent results are presented here. The main aim of this paper is to highlight the effectiveness of network models as interpolative and interpretative numerical tools. Both primary and secondary capillary-dominated, two-phase displacements are considered and well-documented hysteresis effects are successfully reproduced. Waterfloods of mixed-wet media are subsequently described and associated variations in relative permeability and recovery efficiency reported. Optimum recovery is obtained from networks containing a 50-50 mix of oil-wet and water-wet pores. Finally, a discussion of unsteady-state drainage and imbibition models follows and these are applied to waterfloods in finely-laminated porous media. Results highlight the complex interactions between capillary forces, viscous forces and geological structure.


A rotational temperature comparative study of OH radical vs. N2+ was carried out on a low-power helium microwave-induced plasma. Under the prevailing conditions, N2+ was found to provide twice as many usable lines for temperature measurement than did hydroxyl radical. For the particular torch design used, both species exhibited slightly increasing rotational temperatures at lower flow rates. At fixed conditions, OH consistently indicated higher rotational temperatures than those of the molecular nitrogen ion. Positional studies revealed a slightly increasing temperature near the center of the plasma. This work suggests that N2+ may provide a number of advantages over OH radical as a thermometric probe species in the determination of plasma rotational temperature.


11 2 1 was already reported in two randomized clinical trials [3,4]. (ii) It is quite striking that all men in the placebo group completed the 12-core sampling; in the four-arm randomized trial by Galosi et al. [5], in 10% and 15% of patients in the placebo and notreatment group, respectively, the scheduled six-core biopsy session had to be prematurely interrupted due to intolerable pain, and in our series in 14% of the placebo group. The reason for this is probably the discrepancy in mean VAS score among the placebo groups of the studies, i.e. 1.6 during probe insertion and 3.2 during biopsy puncture in the series by Raber et al. [1], 5 (overall) in that reported by Basar et al. [4], and 5.5 (overall) in our series. The lower pain score in the series of Raber et al. might be due either to a less disturbing ultrasound probe or even to selection bias, but we are concerned about the representativity of the population, which could have consequently altered the real benefit of lidocaine-prilocaine anaesthesia. (iii) We agree with the authors that pain during prostate biopsy comes from both the insertion/residence of the TRUS probe into the anal canal and the biopsy punctures through the rectal mucosa, and we are convinced that the application of the anaesthetic cream should involve both locations. Accordingly, in our trial we first stratified the patients by discomfort/pain during simple TRUS at the initial clinical evaluation, and then randomized them to lidocaine-prilocaine or placebo for the subsequent prostate biopsy. Our analysis showed that in men with high compliance at TRUS, needle trauma did not significantly alter the tolerability, and that anaesthetic administration added little benefit for the subsequent biopsy; the opposite was found in patients with discomfort/pain of medium and high degree at initial TRUS, who benefited from local anaesthesia during the biopsy. On the contrary, stratification by age did not result in a statistically significant difference, unlike the result reported by Raber et al. Given that the studies so far addressing the issue of pain relief during prostate biopsy have resulted in controversial findings, as shown by many medical centres around the world still using or until recently using it routinely with no anaesthesia, we think that the anaesthesia should be reserved only for selected patients. These might be, e.g. the 'younger' ones ( < 67 years old), as suggested by Raber et al. , or those with high compliance (VAS score ≤ 2) to simple TRUS, as advised by us. Further studies aimed at seeking men potentially benefiting from pain control are, in our opinion, mandatory, before anaesthesia can be recommended as a standard procedure during prostate biopsy.


Lie symmetry group methods provide a useful tool for the analysis of differential equations in a variety of areas in physics and applied mathematics. The nature of symmetry is that it provides information on properties which remain invariant under transformation. In differential equations this invariance provides a route toward complete integrations, reductions, linearisations and analytical solutions which can evade standard techniques of analysis. In this thesis we study two problems in quantum mechanics from a symmetry perspective: We consider for pedagogical purposes the linear time dependent Schrodinger equation in a potential and provide a symmetry analysis of the resulting equations. Thereafter, as an original contribution, we study the group theoretic properties of the density matrix equation for the quantum Brownian motion of a free particle interacting with a bath of harmonic oscillators. We provide a number of canonical reductions of the system to equations of reduced dimensionality as well as several complete integrations.


We develop uniformly valid confidence regions for regression coefficients in a high-dimensional sparse median regression model with homoscedastic errors. Our methods are based on a moment equation that is immunized against nonregular estimation of the nuisance part of the median regression function by using Neyman's orthogonalization. We establish that the resulting instrumental median regression estimator of a target regression coefficient is asymptotically normally distributed uniformly with respect to the underlying sparse model and is semiparametrically efficient. We also generalize our method to a general nonsmooth Z-estimation framework where the number of target parameters is possibly much larger than the sample size. We extend Huber's results on asymptotic normality to this setting, demonstrating uniform asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators over rectangles, constructing simultaneous confidence bands on all of the target parameters, and establishing asymptotic validity of the bands uniformly over underlying approximately sparse models.


MSU-S mesoporous catalyst with [SiO2]/[Al2O3] ratio of 55 was synthesized using tetrapropylammonium hydroxide (TPAOH) as a structure directing agent and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a surfactant. The catalytic activity of the calcined sample was evaluated for the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether (DME) in a vertical fixed bed microreactor at a weight hurly space velocity (WHSV) of 5 hr-1 .Temperature ranged from 230 °C to 380 °C and pressure was kept constant at 1 bar. The catalyst was characterized by XRD; consequently, the mesoporous structure of MSU-S catalyst was verified. The activity, selectivity, and stability of MSU-S catalyst were investigated in a vertical fixed bed reactor. An increase in methanol conversion was observed by increasing temperature. The equilibrium conversion of methanol was almost reached at 380 °C and selectivity decreased from 100% to 97% as temperature rose from 200 °C to 380 °C. The stability of MSU-S (Michigan State University) catalyst was investigated for 12 hr at 380 °C and a stable methanol conversion was observed during the mentioned time.


This study explores the wear and oxidation resistance of novel CrAlYN/CrN nanoscale multilayer coatings grown by a combined high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) / unbalanced magnetron (UBM) sputtering process. Firstly, it is found that a HIPIMS substrate etching pre-treatment prior to the coating deposition effectively removes contaminants from the substrate surface and provides the base for epitaxial growth. Subsequently, an improvement in the adhesion and the tribological performance of CrAlYN/CrN is observed compared to coatings pre-treated with a conventional cathodic arc pre-treatment.Secondly, the effect of the deposition conditions on the microstructure and the subsequently arising coating properties is investigated. A variation in the energy of ions impinging at the substrate during the coating growth permits a change in the microstructure from polycrystalline columnar to partially single crystalline. Depending on the microstructure, CrAlYN/CrN reveals a maximum high hardness of 51 GPa and extremely low wear rated of 10[-17] m3N[-1]m[-1]. Modifications of the microstructure from nano-layered columnar to near-monolithic columnar are discovered with a change in the chemical composition. These structural changes only have a mild effect on the mechanical and tribological performance. Finally, the oxidation performance of CrAlYN/CrN is extensively investigated. Annealing in air leads to simultaniously occurring processes with (i) the thermal degradation of the nanolayered CrAlYN/CrN into Cr[2]N and AIN and (ii) the surface oxidation with the formation of corundum-type oxides and at long exposure times (iii) diffusion of substrate elements through the coating. The observed phase transformation into Cr[2]N and AIN may be promoted by the diffusion of the substrate element Cr into the coating. The results suggest that the oxidation performance of CrAlYN/CrN can be improved if the coating is grown under high energetic bombardment. The coating is prevented from cracking and therefore protects the substrate material more effectively from oxidative attack. Furthermore, it is found that the oxidation resistance can also be improved when changing the chemical composition. Highly Al-containing coatings form Cr[2]O[3]-Al[2]O[3] oxides which protect the underlying more effectively than (Cr,Al)[2]O[3] oxides grown on low Al-containing CrAlYN/CrN.


An efficient methodology using the Fukuyama-Mitsunobu reaction was successfully applied to prepare various Rhodamine B-based amides with the locked possibility to form a lactam ring. The procedure was developed for solid-phase synthesis, which can be advantageously applied to the synthesis of chemical libraries in a combinatorial fashion. A series of derivatives including aliphatic as well as aromatic rhodamine amides alkylated via a reaction with various alcohols were synthesized, and their spectral properties were investigated. Blocking lactamization via N-alkylation enabled us to prepare rhodamine derivatives with an excellent fluorescence response. In comparison to their non-alkylated counterparts, these derivatives exhibited pH independence and higher quantum yields.


No Japanese writer was more obsessed with desire than Tanizaki Jun'ichiro (1886-1965). Over a career that spanned half a century, he explored, with both joyful fascination and ruthless insight, the dazzling varieties of sexuality, the complementary attractions of exoticism and nostalgia, the human yearning for mastery over others, and the tense relationship between fantasy and the exterior world. His fiction is filled with portrayals of desire in all its violence, irony, pathos, and comedy. In one of Tanizaki's novels, a young engineer fascinated with the West sets out to transform a Japanese bar girl into his very own version of Mary Pickford. He succeeds to such an extent that the girl, growing tired of his immutable Japaneseness, begins to take foreign lovers. Cuckolded and humiliated though his is, the engineer is unable to leave his fantasy-come-to-life and resigns himself to enslavement. In another novel, a Westernized Japanese finds himself gradually drawn to the past. Specifically, he is attracted to his father-in-law's companion, a young woman who has been trained and costumed to play the part of an old-fashioned mistress. Though this woman is no more a flesh-and-blood embodiment of tradition than a bunraku doll, the protagonist contemplates a life with someone like her, a life defined by the pursuit of abstract, dehumanized cultural ideals. Visions of Desire locates such novels in the shifting discourse on cultural identity and cultural aspiration that permeates Japanese life. Ito argues that Tanizaki's novels do not merely end in the reification and contemplation of cultural ideals but rather problematize the desire behind such ideals. He finds in the writer's fiction a subtle understanding of cultural aspiration as a process riddled with subversions, influenced by patterns of mediation, and circumscribed by the lonely efforts of individual subjectivity. He discovers in Tanizaki's fables about the male effort to transform women into cultural icons a clear awareness of the sexual and class hierarchies that make such transformation possible. Visions of Desire is the first book in English on a writer who is possibly modern Japan's greatest novelist. It has written for both the specialist and the general reader, setting his argument in a discussion both of Tanizaki's times and of the life of a writer who believed in living out the fantasies that fueled his fictions.


Although epistemic possibility figures in several debates, those debates have had relatively little contact with one another. G. E. Moore focused squarely upon analyzing epistemic uses of the phrase, 'It's possible that p', and in doing so he made two fundamental assumptions. First, he assumed that epistemic possibility statements always express the epistemic position of a community, as opposed to that of an individual speaker. Second, he assumed that all epistemic uses of 'It's possible that p' are analyzable in terms of knowledge, not belief. A number of later theorists, including Keith DeRose, provide alternative accounts of epistemic possibility, while retaining Moore's two assumptions. Neither assumption has been explicitly challenged, but Jaakko Hintikka's analysis provides a basis for doing so. Drawing upon Hintikka's analysis, I argue that some epistemic possibility statements express only the speaker's individual epistemic state, and that contra DeRose, they are not degenerate community statements but a class in their own right. I further argue that some linguistic contexts are belief- rather than knowledge-based, and in such contexts, what is possible for a speaker depends not upon what she knows, but upon what she believes.


The thesis focuses on the individual differences which can explain the variability in listening comprehension among adult Chinese learners of English. Although there is now a large number of studies on listening comprehension among second language (L2) learners, individual differences in listening have received less attention than individual differences in reading. The thesis aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge in this field of research.
Listening comprehension was measured with two different tests (the College English Test Band 4 listening section and the Cambridge Preliminary English Test listening section). Four groups of explanatory variables were included in the study: linguistic knowledge, sentence processing speed, cognitive factors and learners' use of English in daily life. Structural equation models of listening comprehension were built based on Andringa, Olsthoorn, Van Beuningen, Schoonen and Hulstijn (2012). This model was tested among 187 Chinese learners of English (one group in China, N = 147; the other group in the UK, N = 40). The results indicate that the listening comprehension of learners in China was significantly lower than that of Chinese learners in the UK. Linguistic knowledge, frequency of English use in daily life and aural sentence processing speed were key predictors of listening in these groups. Phonological knowledge was the most important predictor of listening comprehension among the variables measuring linguistic knowledge and word recognition from speech explained variance in listening comprehension over and above the contribution of word segmentation from speech. When the two groups of learners were considered separately word recognition from speech was the most important predictor for learners in China whilst for learners in the UK, learners' grammar knowledge and the reasoning ability were key. Finally a comparison of both listening tests revealed that the listening section of the CET4 only measures learners' ability to comprehend information explicitly available in the text and not inferencing skills. Pedagogical implications for teachers and learners of English and test developers in China and in the UK are provided based on these findings.


The mixing of different sized soil particles is known to affect soil properties such as density, porosity, hydraulic conductivity, and soil water retention. To better understand how the mixing controls soil water retention characteristics, a set of laboratory experiments was performed using binary mixtures of coarse and fine particles with seven different mixing fractions. For each mixture, the water retention characteristics, porosity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity were obtained. To enhance the effects of mixing, coarse and fine sands with a relatively large particle size contrast were used. Results showed that at equal to or above the fine fraction of ∼0.3, the fine particles controlled the behavior. Starting from the fine‐only sample, introducing more coarse particles to the fine particles led to rather gradual changes in the water retention characteristics. Wall effects at the coarse–fine particle interfaces were presumed to be responsible for the changes in the water retention curves. The water retention curves for the mixtures with a fine fraction lower than 0.3 were controlled by the coarse particles yielding the displacement pressure similar to that of the coarse sand. Furthermore, it was inferred that different mixing fractions led to different spectra of pore sizes, suggesting that a parametric model with sufficient flexibility is needed to describe the water retention characteristics of binary mixtures.


BACKGROUND
Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) have superficial skin colonization by Staphylococcus aureus and an increased number of T helper type 2 (Th2) cells in their peripheral blood. Our previous study showed that josamycin, a macrolide antibiotic, had excellent bactericidal activity against S. aureus strains isolated from AD patients and simultaneously inhibited Th1 and Th2 cell development mediated by Langerhans cells. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of topical application of josamycin on AD-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice.

METHODS
Josamycin (0.1%) was topically administered to NC/Nga mice with AD-like skin lesions induced by 2, 4, 6-trinitrochlorobenzene (TNCB). The therapeutic effects of josamycin were assessed by measurement of the skin severity scores, histological changes in the lesioned skin, serum levels of total IgE, and expression of interferon (IFN)-γ and interleukin (IL)-4 in lymph nodes and skin lesions.

RESULTS
Topical treatment with josamycin significantly suppressed the increase in the skin severity score in NC/Nga mice. This suppressive effect was equal to that of betamethasone, and was associated with a decrease in the density of cellular infiltration into the dermis, the mast cell count in the dermis and the serum IgE level. Furthermore, topical application of josamycin reduced the expression of IFN-γ and IL-4 in auricular lymph node cells and the skin lesions.

CONCLUSION
The present results show that topical application of josamycin inhibits the development of AD-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice. This suggests that topical application of josamycin to AD lesions colonized by S. aureus would be beneficial for control of AD by acting on superficially located S. aureus and by inhibiting the development of Th1 and Th2 cells.This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.


While as a well-established therapy for medically intractable epilepsy, clinical evidence of relevant adverse events of ketogenic diet (KD) has also been reported. We asked whether this kind of diet would have deleterious effects on normal brain function by evaluating KDinduced biochemical changes in hippocampus as well as neurobehavioral changes occurring in normal animals. Fifty-four Sprague-Dawley rats on postnatal day 28 (P28) were randomly assigned to three groups: normal rats fed with KD qd (daily for 4 weeks, NS+KD) or qod (every other day for 4 weeks, NS+KOD), and normal rats fed with standard normal laboratory diet (NS+ND). Neurobehavioral changes were observed on P35, P42 and P49. The hippocampal mossy fiber sprouting, the expression levels of zinc transporters (ZnTs) and lipid metabolism related genes were detected by Timm staining, real-time RT-PCR and Western blot analysis on P58, respectively. The results revealed that there were no significant differences in the three reflection tests (surface righting, cliff avoidance, forelimb suspension) among the three groups. KD-treated NS+KOD and NS+KD groups showed a significant delay of negative geotaxis reflex only on P35, but not on P42 and P49. In respect with open field test, daily KD treatment only leaded a reduction in exploratory activity and increased grooming times, but induced no significant changes in the score of vertical activity and delay time. KD qod treated rats (NS+KOD) displayed a slight delay in the place navigation test on P35 compared with that in NS+KD group. There were no significant differences in Timm staining among the three groups. In parallel with these changes, KD treatment (both NS+KD and NS+KOD) induced significantly down-regulated mRNA levels of Apoa1, Pdk4, and upregulated expression of ApoE, ANXN7, cPLA2 in hippocampus when compared with NS+ND group (except ApoE in NS+KOD group). Notably, both the mRNA and protein levels of cPla2 in NS+KOD rats were significantly down-regulated compared with that of NS+KD group, but still markedly higher than that in the NS+ND group. No significant difference was found in concern with ZnTs among the three groups. Our data suggest that early life daily KD treatment in normal rats KD may have no long-term adverse effects on most of the neurobehavioral parameters, but minor neurobehavioral damage may exist. The hippocampal lipid metabolism signaling pathway, especially cPLA2, may be the target of protective effect of KD on long-term brain injury after developmental seizures.


We report near-infrared (IR) to mid-IR (up to 3.4 μm wavelength) multimode waveguiding in deep buried channel waveguides fabricated inside rare-earth ion-doped ceramic YAG for the first time to our knowledge. Waveguide laser operation at around 2 μm wavelength with multi- or single-transverse modes is also preliminarily demonstrated from these waveguides.


There has recently been considerable interest generated in the significance of changes in the peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease. Previously, monoclonal antibodies that recognized T cells (Leu 1+ cells), T helper/inducer cells (Leu 3a+ cells), and T suppressor/cytotoxic cells (Leu 2a+ cells), have been used to enumerate these subsets. Using 2 new monoclonal antibodies (anti-Leu-8 and anti-Leu-15), in addition to the above 3 antibodies, and 2-colour flow cytometry, we have enumerated the total T, T helper/inducer, T suppressor/cytotoxic, T helper (Leu 3a+8-), T inducer (Leu 3a+8+), T suppressor (Leu 2a+15+), and T cytotoxic (Leu 2a+15-) cells in 22 patients with hyperthyroid Graves' disease, 38 patients with 131I-treated Graves' disease and 10 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. All patients and controls were female. We found that hyperthyroid patients with Graves' disease had significantly lower T suppressor/cytotoxic cells (p less than 0.05) than did controls, and that this was mainly due to a decrease in T suppressor cells (p less than 0.01). Furthermore, patients with severe hyperthyroidism had a more significant decrease in T suppressor/cytotoxic (p less than 0.001) and T suppressor (p less than 0.001) cells, and an increase in the T helper/inducer:T suppressor/cytotoxic (p less than 0.01) and T helper:T suppressor (p less than 0.01) cell ratios. Patients who were euthyroid more than 1 year after 131I therapy for Graves' disease had normal T cell subsets and ratios, whether or not TSH receptor antibody or other thyroid auto-antibody titres were elevated. Ten females with Hashimoto's thyroiditis also had normal T cell subsets.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Prior research has highlighted the relationship between speeding and increased frequency and severity of traffic crashes. There is evidence to suggest that police speed enforcement, in particular speed camera operations, can be an effective tool for reducing traffic crashes. This qualitative study used focus groups with Queensland drivers to investigate knowledge, support, and impact on self-reported speeding behaviour of a variety of police speed enforcement methods. A number of interesting themes emerged. There were many incongruities regarding participants perceptions of current police speed enforcement policies and practices. While participants perceived police speed enforcement as a revenue-raising tool for the Government, paradoxically they also reported it as serving a road-safety benefit. Non-camera based methods, such as on-road traffic patrols, received stronger support and was associated with greater self-reported compliance to speed limits than camera-based methods. Support for camera-based methods, such as mobile speed camera vans and fixed cameras, was contingent upon overt operations and greater perceived transparency in criteria used for choosing camera locations. There was also variation in the impact of camera-based methods on self-reported speeding with some participants reporting greater compliance, either site-specific or network-wide, while others reported no or little impact on speeding behaviour. Potential policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.