PATRICIA MCNERNEY [*] I INTRODUCTION Staff in the Senate like to joke that there are one hundred Secretaries of State, so I start by noting that my comments do not presume to be on behalf of any particular senator. Rather, this comment will simply outline some of the problems as I see them, and some actions that have been taken to date by Congress. The Senate takes seriously its constitutional role of advice and consent to the ratification of treaties. While counsel to the Foreign Relations Committee, I worked on numerous treaties during the past five years. The Committee gives its advice and consent to an average of about fifty treaties a Congress. These treaties relate to such mundane topics as maritime borders and migratory birds, and to topics such as bilateral extradition, tax, and investment. Two of the most worrisome and controversial multilateral U.N. treaty negotiations in my portfolio included the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Change Conventions [1] and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (the "ICC,,). [2] Although the United States has signed one of the two treaties, neither has been submitted to the United States Senate for its advice and consent. Undoubtedly both as currently drafted would fail to get the two-thirds support necessary for ratification. There is some comparison to be made between the two treaties. Although the subject matters are very different, as a matter of treaty law, both treaties represent a growing trend in multilateral treaty negotiations. The treaties erode aspects of sovereignty by placing international legal obligations more directly on the citizens of nations--whether in their individual or corporate capacity--rather than governments. For example, the Rome Treaty would permit trial of individuals without a nation's consent. Such trials could result in imprisonment, revoking the most fundamental right of a democratic society, that of liberty. The Kyoto Protocol creates and grants value to a new property right, carbon emissions, and establishes an institution called the Clean Development Mechanism that would regulate the investment of businesses seeking to obtain credit for environmentally sound technology used abroad. The nearly simultaneous negotiation of both these treaties suggests the U.S. Administration is increasingly comfortable with a more robust legislative role for U.N. institutions. Therein lies the tension between the Senate and the Executive Branch in the debate on the ICC Treaty. Ironically, these multilateral treaties are negotiated far away from the seats of government. For example, when a U.S. Treasury team negotiates a bilateral tax treaty, they sit down with key government officials in both of their capitals. The United States generally has a bottom-line that must be acceptable to both parties before it is willing to initiate treaty discussions. Once accepted, the negotiations begin and enable a fair amount of information sharing, which serves to strengthen domestic institutions, particularly in developing countries, and ensure that key U.S. concerns form the basis of the treaty. In large multilateral treaty negotiation settings, countries often cannot afford to send delegations and instead depend on delegates of non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") to represent them, some of whom may have their own agenda at these negotiations that may be inconsistent with the interests of the country they are representing. In Rome, I witnessed one instance in which an NGO was accredited by a small nation to sit in the nation's chair and speak on behalf of that country. Rather than strengthening domestic institutions, such negotiations stretch budgets of small nations and inevitably lead to new and costly international institutions located in distant cities. Today, the United States pays assessed contributions to more than fifty international organizations and contributes on a somewhat voluntary basis to some thirty others. …


This article develops a fresh account of the meaning and constitutional function of Section 2, the Voting Rights Act's core provision of nationwide application, which has long been portrayed as conceptually opaque, counterproductive in effect, and quite possibly unconstitutional. Section 2 on my account delegates authority to the courts to develop a common law of racially fair elections, anchored by certain substantive and evidentiary norms, as well as norms about legal change. The central substantive norm is that injuries within the meaning of Section 2 only arise when electoral inequalities owe to race-biased decision-making by majority-group actors, whether public or private. But as an evidentiary matter, plaintiffs need only show a "significant likelihood" of race-biased decision-making, rather than proving it more likely than not. So cast (and with a few more details worked out), Section 2 emerges as a constitutionally permissible response to, inter alia, the largely unrecognized problem of election outcomes that are unconstitutional because of the racial basis for the electorate's verdict – a problem that generally cannot be remedied through constitutional litigation. My account of Section 2 has numerous practical implications. Most importantly, it suggests that electoral arrangements that induce or sustain race-biased voting are vulnerable under Section 2, irrespective of their potentially "dilutive" effect on minority representation. My account also resolves a number of prominent circuit splits over the application of Section 2. And it clears the ground for overruling the many Section 2 precedents that rest on the constitutional avoidance canon.


This study examined the relationship between anxiety, depression, perceived self-efficacy and biographical variables, before and after the termination of a first trimester pregnancy. Seventy-six participants were recruited from three health facilities in the Western Cape, South Africa. Scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory and a Self-Efficacy Scale revealed that high levels of state-anxiety and moderate levels of depression were experienced before abortion. Levels of anxiety and depression generally decreased significantly within a three-week period after the abortion. High self-efficacy was related to lowerlevels of anxiety and depression. Higher levels of education and self-efficacy and low levels of depression, trait-anxiety and gestational age were significantly related to healthy short-term adjustment. It was shown that pre-abortion depression and self-efficacy scores had the power to predict post-abortion depression.


An initial public offering (IPO) is a financing instrument which emerges when privately owned companies sell their stocks to the public for the very first time (Bodie et al. 2006). Anomalies surrounding the IPOs predominantly originate from the differences between an IPO's offer price and the first day's closing price, which is known as initial returns. This study investigates the volatility of the initial returns for 28 selected OECD countries from 2001 to 2010. Volatility in this context arises from the variability in the initial returns of a set of IPOs at any given time (Lowry, 2010). Academic literature considers volatility in the IPOs initial returns as a proxy to the price forecasting error due to asymmetric information in an IPO environment. Therefore, the primary intention of this study is to investigate the role of selected signaling variables, i.e., underwriters' reputation, auditors' reputation and ownership retention on the volatility of the IPOs' initial returns in 28 OECD countries from 2001 – 2010 and further determine the moderating effects of institutional arrangements on this relationship. The institutional arrangements considered are transparency levels (proxied by Corruption Perception Index) and Country of Legal Origin (Common law vs. Non-common Law). This study seeks to contribute to the literature by analyzing the abovementioned relationship in an international setting since the issue of volatility and how it varies with the legal system of a country and the protection provided to investors remain an open question. The cross-sectional dataset used in this study adopts the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method, using the multivariate regression for all the variables tested. The empirical findings can be classified into four main sections; • the basic relationship between the signaling variables (underwriters' reputation, auditors' reputation and ownership retention) and the volatility of IPOs' initial returns • the interaction between the abovementioned variables and their impact on the volatility of initial returns • the moderating effect of the transparency levels of a country on the abovementioned relationships • the role of country of legal origin (common law and non-common law countries) on the above relationship The empirical evidence documents a negative relationship between underwriters'/auditors' reputation against the volatility of the IPOs' initial returns, whilst a positive relationship is denoted for ownership retention. In most instances, the results are not significant in the non-common law countries, suggesting that legal origin plays a pivotal role in an IPO environment. As for the interactions amongst the signaling variables, significant relationships are noted in most instances for both the common law and non-common law countries. Transparency level of a country significantly moderates the abovementioned relationships in common law countries but no significance is documented for non-common law countries except for the auditors' reputation. The results of this study provide some insights on the signaling role of underwriters' reputation, auditors' reputation and ownership retention on the volatility of IPOs' initial returns and the importance of two institutional arrangements, i.e., the country of legal origin and transparency levels of a country in an IPO environment.


Sex in Development examines how development projects around the world intended to promote population management, disease prevention, and maternal and child health intentionally and unintentionally shape ideas about what constitutes "normal" sexual practices and identities. From sex education in Uganda to aids prevention in India to family planning in Greece, various sites of development work related to sex, sexuality, and reproduction are examined in the rich, ethnographically grounded essays in this volume. These essays demonstrate that ideas related to morality are repeatedly enacted in ostensibly value-neutral efforts to put into practice a "global" agenda reflecting the latest medical science.

Sex in Development combines the cultural analysis of sexuality, critiques of global development, and science and technology studies. Whether considering the resistance encountered by representatives of an American pharmaceutical company attempting to teach Russian doctors a "value free" way to offer patients birth control or the tension between Tibetan Buddhist ideas of fertility and the modernization schemes of the Chinese government, these essays show that attempts to make sex a universal moral object to be managed and controlled leave a host of moral ambiguities in their wake as they are engaged, resisted, and reinvented in different ways throughout the world.

Contributors. Vincanne Adams, Leslie Butt, Lawrence Cohen, Heather Dell, Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Shanti Parikh, Heather Paxson, Stacy Leigh Pigg, Michele Rivkin-Fish


The Google Books and Open Content Alliance (OCA) initiatives have become the poster children of the access digitization revolution. With their sights firmly set on creating digital copies of millions upon millions of books and making them available to the world for free, the two projects have captured the popular imagination. Yet, such scale comes at a price, and certain sacrifices must be made to achieve this volume. With its greater visibility, most studies have focused on Google Books, addressing limitations of its image and metadata quality. Yet, there has been surprisingly little comparative work of the two endeavors, exploring the relationship between these two peers and their deeper similarities, rather than their obvious surface differences. While the academic community has lauded OCA's "open" model and condemned the proprietary Google, all is not always as it seems. Upon delving deeper into the underpinnings of both projects, we find Google achieves greater transparency in many regards, while OCA's operational reality is more proprietary than often thought. Further, significant concerns are raised about the long-term sustainability of the OCA rights model, its metadata management, and its transparency that must be addressed as OCA moves forward.


Introduction Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death. Studies show that depression is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality among cardiovascular (CV) patients. Depression contributed to patients' unfavorable prognosis after a cardiac event, hamper cardiac rehabilitation, and increase hospital re-admission rate among CV patients. Studies show that 15 – 30% of CV patients experience depression. Early detection and intervention for depression among cardiovascular patients can reduce morbidity and mortality rates. Understanding factors contribute to the risk of depression and its management among cardiovascular patients is necessary to adequately address the complex nature of depression as co-morbidity among Arab CV patients in the Middle East region. Objectives: (1) To evaluate the prevalence and severity of depression among patients who have confirmed diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases; and (2) To find ways to manage depression among male and female Arab CV patients. Methods: Using non-probability, convenient sampling method, a cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1000 Arab CV patients of which 688 (69%) male and 312 (31%) females between January, 2013 and September, 2014 at the Heart Hospital in Qatar. Inclusion criteria were ≥ 20 years of age, agreeing to participate in the study (98% response rate), and having final confirmation of acute cardiac conditions. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using structured survey questionnaires which included an Arabic demographic questionnaire and the Arabic version of the Beck Depression Inventory 2nd Edition (BDI-II) - a self-report instrument, which had been translated into Arabic and validated for its validity and reliability. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS version 20. Results: Almost half of the male and female participants were Qatari nationals (46%). Citizens of the Levant countries (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan) constituted 20% and North African countries (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) constituted 17% of the participants. 80% of the patients had no depressive symptoms, 15% of the patients had Mild Mood Disturbance and 5% had symptoms of clinical depression. Almost twice as many females (29%) than males (16%) were found to suffer from Mild Mood Disturbance and Clinical Depression. Approximately half of both male and female patients who scored ≥ 17 on the BDI-II (suggesting symptoms of clinical depression) refused psychiatric assistance. Chi Square tests indicated that age and socioeconomic factors, nationality, marital status, monthly income, employment, occupation, financial stress and support were significantly related to gender and depression (all p < 0.001). Conclusion: (1) In-depth systematic assessment of mental health status and screening for depression should be performed routinely for all patients who had diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases, particularly females. (2) Public awareness and education about mental health are critical in order to reduce the stigma associated with accessing treatment for it. (3) Practices, treatments and diagnostic tools for depression should be thoroughly investigated and adapted to the Arab Middle Eastern context in order to facilitate the development of culturally appropriate mental health care and uptake of cardiac interventions and rehabilitation. (4) Health policy makers should encourage and support psychiatric training and primary health care providers should be trained to provide psychiatric assistance to CV patients. (5) Socioeconomic related factors influence the mental health of male and female CV patients differently and accordingly their CV conditions and outcomes. (6) To effectively manage and treat depression among Arab CV patients, health care providers should be encourage to integrate gender differences approach into clinical practice.


Abstract The use of resistant plants may enhance or reduce the ability of natural enemies to control pest insects. We conducted a series of experiments to compare the effectiveness of lacewing larvae, Chrysoperla plorabunda (Fitch), in suppressing populations of the Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko), on susceptible and resistant wheat. Caged plants were inoculated with the same initial density of aphids, and predators were added to half the plants after nearly two aphid generations. Additional plants were used to estimate aphid densities on resistant and susceptible plants when predators were introduced. In one comparison, the effects of plant resistance and predation were synergistic; lacewing larvae caused a greater proportional reduction in aphid density on a tolerant-resistant line (carrying the Dn 4 gene) than on its near-isogenic susceptible parent. Higher predation rates on the resistant line persisted over a wide range of predator/prey ratios. The combined effects of predation and plant resistance were mostly additive in other experiments, including a comparison of an antibiosis-resistant line (possessing the Dn 1 gene) and its near-isogenic parent. In no comparison was lacewing effectiveness lower on the resistant line. Our results suggest that even modest reductions in aphid population growth (as might occur on tolerant-resistant plants) can be sufficient to produce a synergistic level of pest suppression.


The Lower Eocene Green River Formation has yielded a large number of hitherto mostly undescribed birds. In this study, I describe a new species and genus as the first representative of Zygodactylidae from the New World. Furthermore, new specimens are referred to Gallinuloides wyomingensis (Galliformes), Messelornis nearctica (Gruiformes), and "Neanis" kistneri (?Galbulae). Based on the new specimens, I reveal additional information on the osteology and the systematic affinities of these species. The new specimens corroborate the fact that there is a strong similarity between the Green River avifauna and that of the roughly contemporaneous avifauna of Messel (Germany). In both sites, Messelornithidae and small arboreal birds are predominant in the fossil record.


Purpose Approximately 30% of adults over the age of 50 years present with altered vocal function. Our understanding of how these changes manifest acoustically and perceptually is derived from relatively modest-sized studies using a diversity of tools. Voice changes can arise from the onset of disease or disorder, but also age-related physiological changes, which may not reflect pathology as such. Here, we bring together data on acoustic, perceptual, and instrumental assessments (electroglottography), with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the changes occurring across these measurement domains. We consider these changes in the context of different acoustic features, software programs, and perceptual protocols. Method Studies of voice function in healthy older adults over the age of 50 years were sought. Literature was systematically searched with 746 abstracts reviewed. Forty-seven studies were included in the review. A meta-analysis of included studies compared voice acoustic parameters between sex and age. Sixteen acoustic parameters collected from 1,475 participants were analyzed in the meta-analysis. These included some previously unpublished analyses using data provided by authors of included studies. Results Data from the systematic review suggest that older individuals are perceived to present with higher overall scores of dysphonia and roughness, breathiness, strain, and instability. Acoustically, males have significantly higher scores on measures of perturbation, including noise-to-harmonic ratio and absolute jitter. The meta-analysis outcomes suggest that participants aged 80-89 years produce significantly higher fundamental frequency, jitter percent, shimmer percent, and shimmer in decibels compared to participants aged 60-69 years and a significant increase in relative average perturbation, jitter percent, and shimmer in decibels compared to participants aged 70-79 years. Limited data were available comparing acoustic measures using the same acoustic software. Conclusions Variations in fundamental frequency and frequency and amplitude perturbation increase as healthy adults age. It was difficult to draw definitive conclusions based on existing literature due to variability in hardware used, limited descriptions of study cohorts, or missing data from statistical analysis. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11868663.


— The wireless sensor networks adversaries can make use of the traffic information's to locate the monitored objectsin platform as a ser-vice(Paas) , e.g., to hunt endangered animals or kill soldiers. In this paper, we first define a hotspot phenomenon that causes an obvious inconsistency in the network traffic pattern due to the large volume of packets originating from a small area. Second, we develop a realistic adversary model, assuming that the adversary can monitor the network traffic in multiple areas, rather than the entire network or only one area. Using this model, we introduce a novel attack called Hotspot-Locating where the adversary uses traffic analysistechniques to locate hotspots. Finally, we propose a cloud-based scheme for efficiently protecting source nodes' location privacy against Hotspot-Locating attack by creating a cloud with an irregular shape of fake traffic, to coun-teract the inconsistency in the traffic pattern and camouflage the source node in the nodes forming the cloud. To reduce the energy cost, clouds are active only during data transmission and the intersection of clouds creates a larger merged cloud, to reduce the number of fake packets and also boost privacy preservation. Simulation and analytical results demonstrate that our scheme can provide stronger privacy protection than routing-based schemes and requires much less energy than global-adversary-based schemes.


This investigation examined the development of young children's behaviors on swings in the outdoor play environment and their emerging understanding of the physics principles associated with those behaviors. The children's language interactions were also examined in an effort to determine the relationship between language and cognitive development in their construction of physical knowledge. The procedures involved observing the children's behaviors and collecting samples of their spontaneous language interactions during their swinging activities. Informal interviews were also conducted with individual and groups of children. The findings indicate that young children's swinging behaviors develop in eight hierarchical stages. As these behaviors develop, children experiment with the physics principles of balance, gravity, force, resistance, and resonance. Children's swinging behaviors develop in a social context. Many early behaviors are acquired through observing and modeling other children. Language provides the medium for more-experienced peers to assist novice swingers through encouragement and direct instruction. The stage development of swinging behaviors is compared to Cratty's Theory of Perceptual-Motor Development and Harrow's Taxonomy of the Psychomotor Domain. Children's cognitive processing and language interactions are discussed in the context of Piagetian and Vygotskian theories of development. Implications for instruction and suggestions for further research are discussed.


Na-ion batteries are currently the focus of significant research activity due to the relative abundance of sodium and its consequent cost advantages. Recently, the pyrophosphate family of cathodes has attracted considerable attention, particularly Li2FeP2O7 related to its high operating voltage and enhanced safety properties; in addition the sodium-based pyrophosphates Na2FeP2O7 and Na2MnP2O7 are also generating interest. Herein, we present defect chemistry and ion migration results, determined via atomistic simulation techniques, for Na2MP2O7 (where M = Fe, Mn) as well as findings for Li2FeP2O7 for direct comparison. Within the pyrophosphate framework the most favourable intrinsic defect type is found to be the antisite defect, in which alkali-cations (Na/Li) and M ions exchange positions. Low activation energies are found for long-range diffusion in all crystallographic directions in Na2MP2O7 suggesting three-dimensional (3D) Na-ion diffusion. In contrast Li2FeP2O7 supports 2D Li-ion diffusion. The 2D or 3D nature of the alkali-ion migration pathways within these pyrophosphate materials means that antisite defects are much less likely to impede their transport properties, and hence important for high rate performance.


Increasing rates of obesity and the associated effects on health of the U.S. population are often in the news recently. Obesity is typically defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 where BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. Based on self-reported height and weight data from 400,000 individuals, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 27% of the U.S. population is obese with the highest rates among adults 50 to 69 years of age, non-Hispanic blacks—especially women, Hispanics, and individuals with less than a high school degree. Also, rates of obesity tend to be higher in the Midwest and South. Calculated rates of obesity using measured instead of self-reported height and weight are even higher.


Oliver Williamson argues that the attributes of the employment contract, like intermediate transactions in general, are essentially driven by the specificity of assets. In the case of the organization of work it is the particular attributes of labour that determines the transaction costs of any given governance structure. The paper presents a stylized account of the transaction cost model of the efficient organization of work, stressing an underlying tension and ambiguity in the transaction cost framework. The paper exploits a unique dataset to test, for the first time with British data, Williamson's transaction cost predictions concerning the nature of employment contracts. Williamson tacitly assumes that asset specificity is exogenous in general. However, there is evidence in the literature that labour specificity is endogenous to employment contracts. The paper endeavours to demonstrate that there is empirical evidence to suggest that specialized labour is indeed endogenous in the transaction cost model. The major implication is that the organization of work cannot be considered as an example of the efficient organization of intermediate transactions.


The liver is a major site for the metabolism of xenobiotic compounds due to its abundant level of phase I/II metabolic enzymes. With the cost of drug development escalating to over $400 million/drug there is an urgent need for the development of rigorous models of hepatic metabolism for preclinical screening of drug clearance and hepatotoxicity. Here, we present a microenvironment in which primary human and rat hepatocytes maintain a high level of metabolic competence without a long adaptation period. We demonstrate that co-cultures of hepatocytes and endothelial cells in serum-free media seeded under 95% oxygen maintain functional apical and basal polarity, high levels of cytochrome P450 activity, and gene expression profiles on par with freshly isolated hepatocytes. These oxygenated co-cultures demonstrate a remarkable ability to predict in vivo drug clearance rates of both rapid and slow clearing drugs with an R2 of 0.92. Moreover, as the metabolic function of oxygenated co-cultures stabilizes overnight, preclinical testing can be carried out days or even weeks before other culture methods, significantly reducing associated labor and cost. These results are readily extendable to other culture configurations including three-dimensional culture, bioreactor studies, as well as microfabricated co-cultures.


The semi-supervised support vector machine (S3VM) is a maximum-margin classification algorithm based on both labeled and unlabeled data. Training S3VM involves either a combinatorial or non-convex optimization problem and thus finding the global optimal solution is intractable in practice. It has been demonstrated that a key to successfully find a good (local) solution of S3VM is to gradually increase the effect of unlabeled data, a la annealing. However, existing algorithms suffer from the trade-off between the resolution of annealing steps and the computation cost. In this paper, we go beyond this trade-off by proposing a novel training algorithm that efficiently performs annealing with an infinitesimal resolution. Through experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed infinitesimal annealing algorithm tends to produce better solutions with less computation time than existing approaches.


The nutritional requirements for the vegetative growth of B. stearothermophilus strains NCIB 8919, NCTC lO,OO3 (wild) were found to be DL-methionine, biotin, nicotinic acid, thiamin, glucose and mineral salts. Strains NCIB 8920 required in addition L-tryptophan. B. stearothermophilus NCTC lO,OO3 (mutant) grew in a medium containing only glucose and mineral salts. Separate chemically defined media for the growth of Bacillus stearothermophilus strains NCIB 8919, 8920, NCTC lO,OO3 (wild) and NCTC lO,OO3 (mutant) were developed. Optimally aerated culture of B. stearothermonhilus NCTC lO,OO3(mutant) required 1.0 x 10-4 M. Mn2+ and 2.4 x 10-3 M. glutamic acid for optimal sporulation. Specific nutrient depletion of growth affected percentage sporulation. Spore suspensions of B. stearothermophilus NCTC 10,003 (mutant) were prepared from media in which sulphate (SO4-), nitrogen (N-),phosphate (Po4-), carbon (C-), magnesium-carbon simultaneously (Ng-C-) depleted growth. The heat resistance, dormancy and chemistry of these spores varied considerably. B. stearothermophilus NCTC 10,003 10,00310,00(mutant) spores prepared from carbon depleted cultures containing high and low concentrations of calcium, iron or manganese showed variations in heat resistance,dormancy and chemical composition. Progressive increase in the concentration of medium calciumfrom 1.0 X 10-5  M to 1.4 X 10-4 M. progressively increased theheat resistance of B. stearothermophilus NCTC 10,003 (mutant) spores prepared from nitrogen depleted cultures (N-). The thermodynamic functions for germination rate, magnesium and manganese release of N- and SO4- spores were within the range expected of enzymic reactions. The thermodynamic functions for the breaking of dormancy in SO4- spores and that for the release of D.P.A. were identical. Sublethal heating of SO4- spores (96.5°C and below) induced dormancy in these spores, whereas heating above 96.5°C gave rise to heat activation. Pooled results of the chemical analyses of all spore types studied showed that the concentration of D.P.A. and calcium were positively related to heat resistance whereas magnesium concentration and Mg/Ca molar ratio were inversely proportional to heat resistance.


The carport, a nondescript functional space within a majority of Puerto Rican houses, often accommodates different social practices throughout the year. Daily household activities such as laundry and childcare often take place in the carport, but it is also a site for landmark events such as birthdays, social gatherings, and Christmas parties. Designed exclusively for car storage, the carport is often used for everything but the car. In order to understand how this space came to be repurposed, this article focuses on the history of the introduction of the car and carport in Puerto Rico. The transformation of a single-use space into an all-purpose space with distinct cultural signifiers happened soon after the spread of the carport. The history of the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico is tied to the story of changes to the North American house form, particularly the most utilitarian spaces within the domestic sphere. The carport reflects the dreams and illusions of upward mobility and how that came crashing down in a seemingly economic free fall that began roughly in 2007 and has continued spiraling out of control.


A new decomposed version of three-port adaptors for wave digital filters (WDFs) is proposed, which is especially suitable for floating-point arithmetic and for implementation on digital signal processors (DSPs). By using the proposed three-port adaptor, the concept of modified wave digital filters (MWDFs) is appropriately extended to WDFs involving any n-port adaptors (n is integer). The resulting MWDFs preserve all the important properties of WDFs, in particular, those relating to stability.<<ETX>>


CO2 interaction with aquifer and seal on geological timescales Ph.D., University of Edinburgh, 2008 Jiemin Lu Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been identified as a feasible technology to reduce CO2 emissions whilst permitting the continued use of fossil fuels. Injected CO2 must remain efficiently isolated from the atmosphere on a timescale of the order of10 years and greater. Natural CO2-rich sites can be investigated to understand the behaviour of CO2 in geological formations on such a timescale. This thesis examines the reservoir and seal on one such oilfield. Several hydrocarbon fields in the South Viking Graben of the North Sea naturally contain CO2, which is thought to have charged from depth along the western boundary fault of the graben. The Miller oil field which contains ~ 28 mol% CO2, of isotopic composition δC = -8.2‰. The Upper Jurassic Brae Formation reservoir sandstones and the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (KCF) seal have been exposed to the CO2 accumulation since its emplacement. Rock samples from the reservoir sandstone and bottom of the seal mudrock were examined using multiple techniques, including XRD, SEM, fluid inclusion and carbonate stable isotope analyses. The sandstones show no features directly attributable to abundant CO2 charge. SEM analyses reveal significant heterogeneities in diagenesis within the KCF. The silt/sand lithologies of the KCF have undergone a diagenetic history similar to that of the Brae Formation sandstones. In contrast, the KCF shales display a distinctly different diagenesis of dominant dissolution of quartz and feldspar with little evidence of mineral precipitation. In both the Brae Formation and the KCF, pore-filling kaolinite, illite and carbonates are relatively late diagenetic events which can be associated with CO2-induced feldspar dissolution. Mudrock X-ray diffraction mineralogical data reveal abrupt vertical mineralogical variations across the reservoir crest in the Miller Field, while such variations are absent in a low-CO2 control well in the same geological settings. This suggests that reactions induced by abundant CO2 dissolved feldspar and produced kaolinite, carbonates and quartz in the seal, while oil emplacement inhibited the reactions in the oil leg. However, petrographic evidence and comparison between different sections argue against CO2 reactions as the sole cause for such large mineralogical variations, especially for quartz. The vertical mineralogical variations to a certain extend represent original sedimentary heterogeneity. Linear variations of carbonate δC with depth were discovered in both shale and silt/sand lithologies of the KCF in a 12m zone immediately above the reservoir. These features are absent in the low-CO2 control well. These trends are interpreted as dissolution of original carbonates by CO2 slowly ascending from the reservoir. New carbonates precipitated from a carbon source with upwards decreasing δC due to mixing between three carbon sources with different C isotopes at systematically varying ratios. The isotopes in the reservoir and the bottom of the seal suggests initial CO2 charge at about 70-80 Ma. CO2 infiltration rate is estimated at about 9.8×10g·cm·y. Geochemical modelling was applied to reconstruct the reservoir fluid evolution by calibrating it to mineralogy, fluid chemistry, diagenesis and fluid inclusion data. The modelling suggests that CO2 migrated into the reservoir together with a saline basinal fluid derived from the underlying evaporites at ~ 70 Ma. The CO2 and basinal water charge imposed an important influence on the mineral reactions and fluid chemistry. This study suggests that the KCF has formed an excellent CO2 seal, with no substantial breach since its charge at 70-80 Ma.


Trials of those responsible for large-scale state brutality have captured public imagination in several countries. Prosecutors and judges in such cases, says Osiel, rightly aim to shape collective memory. They can do so hi ways successful as public spectacle and consistent with liberal legality. In defending this interpretation, he examines the Nuremburg and Tokyo trials, the Eicnmann prosecution, and more recent trials in Argentina and France. Such trials can never summon up a "collective conscience" of moral principles shared by all, he argues. But they can nonetheless contribute to a little-noticed kind of social solidarity. To this end, writes Osiel, we should pay closer attention to the way an experience of administrative massacre is framed within the conventions of competing theatrical genres. Defense counsel will tell the story as a tragedy, while prosecutors will present it as a morality play. The judicial task at such moments is to employ the law to recast the courtroom drama in terms of a "theater of ideas," which engages large questions of collective memory and even national identity. Osiel asserts that principles of liberal morality can be most effectively inculcated in a society traumatized by fratricide when proceedings are conducted in this fashion. The approach Osiel advocates requires courts to confront questions of historical interpretation and moral pedagogy generally regarded as beyond their professional competence. It also raises objections that defendants' rights will be sacrificed, historical understanding distorted, and that the law cannot willfully influence collective memory, at least not when lawyers acknowledge this aim. Osiel responds to all these objections, and others. Lawyers, judges, sociologists, historians, and political theorists will find this a compelling contribution to debates on the meaning and consequences of genocide.


The main focus of the paper is to present the concept of a newly developed Uniaxial Shear Tester (UST) and to investigate the correlation between results from the UST and the Superpave Shear Tester (SST), a tool broadly recognised for asphalt mix design and rutting susceptibility evaluation. In this study, the UST testing principles, finite element analysis of stresses and comparison of measured data are presented. The correlation was assessed on the basis of two tests, the repeated shear test and the small amplitude oscillation test also referred as the shear frequency sweep test. It was shown that the material characteristics determined from UST and SST are highly correlated. The dependencies are discussed in the sense of linear correlation and correlation coefficients. Test variability is discussed in the paper.


New technologies are changing the world of communication networks and even more so their management. Cloud computing and predictive analytics have removed the need for specialized compute hardware and created products that continuously search for and find insights in management data. Virtualization of networks and network functions, SDN and NFV, are beginning to be mature enough for production networks resulting in much more flexible and dynamic networks. IoT and M2M traffic and new customer demands are driving new thinking and demands for 5G networks. Almost every aspect in the control and management of networks has seen new dimensions of flexibility and dynamicity, with the notable exception of the policies that drive them. This paper discusses the need to add adaptiveness to classic policies, describes a novel approach for adaptive policies, shows how adaptive policies will form part of future network frameworks and architectures, and finally discusses early use cases developed for mobile operators.


Context. The star formation properties of early-type galaxies (ETGs) are currently the subject of considerable interest, particularly whether they differ from the star formation properties of gas-rich spirals. Aims. We perform a systematic study of star formation in a large sample of local ETGs with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and dust emission, focusing on the star formation rates (SFRs) and star formation efficiencies (SFEs) of the galaxies. Methods. Our sample is composed of the 260 ETGs from the ATLAS 3D survey, from which we used the cold gas measurements (H i and CO). We estimated the SFRs from stellar, PAH, and dust fits to spectral energy distributions created from new AKARI measurements and with literature data from WISE and 2MASS. Results. The mid-infrared luminosities of non-CO-detected galaxies are well correlated with their stellar luminosities, showing that they trace (circum)stellar dust emission. CO-detected galaxies show an excess above these correlations, uncorrelated with their stellar luminosities, indicating that they likely contain PAHs and dust of interstellar origin. PAH and dust luminosities of CO-detected galaxies show tight correlations with their molecular gas masses; the derived current SFRs are typically 0.01–1 M ⊙ yr -1 . These SFRs systematically decrease with stellar age at fixed stellar mass, while they correlate nearly linearly with stellar mass at fixed age. The majority of local ETGs follow the same star formation law as local star-forming galaxies and their current SFEs do not depend on either stellar mass or age. Conclusions. Our results clearly indicate that molecular gas is fueling current star formation in local ETGs, which appear to acquire this gas via mechanisms regulated primarily by stellar mass. The current SFEs of local ETGs are similar to those of local star-forming galaxies, indicating that their low SFRs are likely due to smaller cold gas fractions rather than a suppression of star formation.


In the study presented here, the problem of calculating deflection of stati-cally indeterminate continuous beams and structural frames is addressed. Theelastic line equation, taught in many standard courses in structural mechan-ics is used to determine the structure deflections.In the investigated method,the structure is divided into a simply supported members in which the elas-tic line equation is applied to calculate the deflection shape of the structure.The results are compared with the finite element method (FEM) and goodagreement is obtained. Moreover, the advantage of this method is that it issimplified, general, not time-consuming, and it can be standardised to thistype of structures.


All relevant research papers, reviews, letters reporting original research, editorials and case reports are indexed for inclusion. All papers cited are in the English language unless otherwise stated in brackets. Significant papers are cited with full source data and an abstract. Papers are arranged within the headings in alphabetical order by journal title, volume and part number. The bibliography is intended to be as near comprehensive as possible; the Editorial Board has advised on those journals to be included and a list of those given priority in indexing is given below. Over 1000 journals received at the University of Leeds are scanned for relevant material and data are cited within 1–8 weeks of publication.


To evaluate the effect of soy-hulls (SH) inclusion in a ground corn-based diet with either distillers dry grains with solubles (DDGS) or soybean meal (SBM) as the protein source (PS), on growth and carcass characteristics of feedlot cattle offered free-access hay; one-hundred and nineteen crossbreed steers (initial BW 566 ± 42kg) were blocked by weight, randomly assigned to 8 pens, and fed for 104 ± 10d. Four dietary treatments were evaluated: 1) DDGS without SH inclusion, 2) DDGS and high inclusion of SH, 3) SBM and low inclusion of SH, and 4) SBM and high inclusion of SH. Diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous. Grass-hay was offered ad-libitum and separate from the concentrates in a different bunk (GrowSafe system). Data was analyzed as a 2×2 factorial considering the fixed effects of treatments and their interaction, and the random effects of block and steer within block. For gain to feed and kidney-pelvic-heart fat (KPH), an interaction occurred (P ≤ 0.10) between PS and SH inclusion (Table 1 and 2, respectively). With greater inclusion of SH, feed efficiencies of steers fed SBM improved compared with feed efficiencies of steers fed DDGS. Steers fed SBM and high SH had the lower KPH content. Feeding SBM increased (P = 0.05) final body weight, tended to increase (P = 0.06) the average daily gain, and decreased (P = 0.05) hay intake compared with steers fed DDGS (Table 1). No differences were observed (P ≥ 0.14) in carcass characteristics between PS and SH inclusion, except for backfat thickness which increased (P = 0.03) with lower SH inclusions (Table 2). These data suggest that opting for SBM as an alternative of DDGS as the protein source of ground corn-based diets, could conceivably enhance the finishing performance of feedlot steers regardless of the SH inclusion levels, and improve feed efficiency with greater levels of dietary SH.


Background: Journals with high impact factors (IFs) are the "coin of the realm" in many review, tenure, and promotion decisions, ipso facto, IFs influence academic authors' views of journals and publishers. However, IFs do not evaluate how publishers interact with libraries or academic institutions. Goal: This provisional system introduces an evaluation of publishers exclusive of IF, measuring how well a publisher's practices align with the values of libraries and public institutions of higher education (HE). Identifying publishers with similar values may help libraries and institutions make strategic decisions about resource allocation. Methods: Democratization of knowledge, information exchange, and the sustainability of scholarship were values identified to define partnership practices and develop a scoring system evaluating publishers. Then, four publishers were evaluated. A high score indicates alignment with the values of libraries and academic institutions and a strong partnership with HE. Results: Highest scores were earned by a learned society publishing two journals and a library publisher supporting over 80 open-access journals. Conclusions: Publishers, especially nonprofit publishers, could use the criteria to guide practices that align with mission-driven institutions. Institutions and libraries could use the system to identify publishers acting in good faith towards public institutions of HE.


This thesis aims to establish how high school librarians in Scotland and America can become effective evidence-based decision-makers. Initial data collection consisted of written questionnaires to elicit background data from librarians on the extent of their evidence-based practice. Three main themes emerged: collaboration; interprofessional relationships and roles; and decision-making. These themes are discussed in more detail. A range of qualitative methodologies was designed and implemented to gain more in-depth information on practice and viewpoints, involving librarians and stakeholders. A draft model was created of the effective evidence-based practitioner in a high school library, based on an interpretation of findings and readings from the literature. After member-checking and validating by stakeholders, a final model was produced. This emergent model focuses not on the role of the school librarian in isolation, but stresses the importance of interrelationships involving the librarian. The study makes an original contribution to knowledge by giving a better understanding of the effective evidence-based high school librarian in the wider context of education. There is also a contribution to knowledge by adding to the general theory of workplace decision-making and evidence-based practice which is applicable outwith the school sector, and the pragmatic solution-driven model of decision-making is introduced. Key findings give an insight into the complexity of the school library situation, and highlights that ideally there will be positive relationships between school management, school librarian and collaboration. When these come together, it can mean an increase in student achievement, and more effective evidence-based decisions can be made. Findings also demonstrate links between these elements with evidence, national bodies and skills and qualities needed to be an effective evidence-based high school librarian, and identify how the new and complex expectations made of school librarians can be met. Recommendations are made to help stakeholders improve practice.


During the 20th century anglo-western traditions of outdoor education (OE) have emphasized the transformative benefits of wild and unfamiliar land to personal development. It is argued that such places provide a 'liminal' space of new possibilities in which identity can change. Since the 1990's OE has also explored the contribution it is, could and should make to education for sustainable development (SD). The conclusion so far is that it has much to offer with regards to connection to, understanding of, relationships with and action for the environment. More recently OE has embraced the contribution it can make to engaging people in places – place-based education. This paper explores whether the liminal spaces in which personal development can occur could extend beyond environmental outcomes to include the social dimension of (SD). OE creates less structured 'liminal' spaces in which the voices of participants can be heard. They become actors in the social construction of their norms, values and behaviours. However, whilst this explains how OE can destabilize the power relationships that maintain identity and social norms so allowing personal transformation to take place, up until now the link with environmental norms has not been made. Recently Waite (2013) and Preston (2014) show how liminal spaces can also include the construction of the place as well as the community of people. In recent action research I hypothesized that including young people in the politics of places whilst destabilizing their current social constructions would allow new meanings linked to SD to emerge. This would be a significant contribution from this field. I will present evidence from two case studies that indicate that, by deterritorialising the experiences from normative OE, taking a values oriented approach to the social and environmental experiences of participants, a different approach to programming and the power relations in the learning community OE can impact significantly on environmental and social outcomes for SD.


The cooperation and aggression between five laboratory colonies of Monomorium pharaonis were compared using an aggressiveness test and pupa-carrying test in laboratory arenas. The colonies were derived from field collections in different parts of Europe and USA. Generally, inter-colony aggressiveness was low and acceptance of pupae from other colonies was high. Workers from one colony (Lužiny, CZ), however, frequently displayed aggressive behavior when paired with workers from other colonies, and the Lužiny pupae were avoided by workers of other colonies in pupa-carrying tests. Behavioral tests were only partly consistent with the phylogenetic relatedness of ants because the Wisconsin colony (USA) grouped with the Lužiny colony (and not with the other three colonies) in the phylogenetic analysis but grouped with the other three colonies in the behavioral tests.


The air-handler fan pressurisation method can be a practical way to estimate envelope leakage in large scale or tall buildings where a conventional blower door test is not practical. Standards such as CGSB 149.15 describe desirable test conditions and protocols for such tests. However, because of the variety of building air handling system constructions and site conditions, and limited time and budget available for testing, one may not be able to perform the test under the recommended standard conditions, especially when the system configuration and operation at the site are unfavourable. This study describes air-handler fan pressurisation tests performed for two existing buildings having problematic site conditions affected the ability to perform standard test protocols. Envelope leakage was measured with and without sealing of elevator shafts. Both buildings were found to have standard leakage flow rates that exceed typical levels, with or without elevator shaft leakage. This paper provides some insight into what should be done to ensure a successful air-handler fan pressurisation test by describing what was done to deal with undesirable site conditions which could occur in many buildings. Practical applications: This study shows that air-handler fan pressurisation tests can be performed even in problematic buildings by improving test conditions at the site by adjusting the system operation and by utilising site specific measurement techniques and instrumentation. The applicability of recently developed fan airflow and outdoor intake flow measuring sensors to the air-handler fan pressurisation test is also discussed. However, it also shows that perfect implementation of standard air-handler fan pressurisation test procedure may be difficult in real buildings for a reasonable cost. Published case studies providing methods for solving various practical problems at the test site are very rare. This paper is useful for engineers who are seeking practical information about the air-handler fan pressurisation.


Actinobacteria of the acI lineage are often the numerically dominant bacterial phylum in surface freshwaters, where they can account for > 50% of total bacteria. Despite their abundance, there are no described isolates. In an effort to obtain enrichment of these ubiquitous freshwater Actinobacteria, diluted freshwater samples from Lake Grosse Fuchskuhle, Germany, were incubated in 96-well culture plates. With this method, a successful enrichment containing high abundances of a member of the lineage acI was established. Phylogenetic classification showed that the acI Actinobacteria of the enrichment belonged to the acI-B2 tribe, which seems to prefer acidic lakes. This enrichment grows to low cell densities and thus the oligotrophic nature of acI-B2 was confirmed.


Waterborne polymers, including waterborne polyurethanes (WPU), polyester dispersions (PED), and polyacrylate emulsions (PAE), are employed as environmentally friendly water-based coatings and adhesives. An efficient, fast, stable, and safe cross-linking strategy is always desirable to impart waterborne polymers with improved mechanical properties and water/solvent/thermal and abrasion resistance. For the first time, click chemistry was introduced into waterborne polymer systems as a cross-linking strategy. Click cross-linking rendered waterborne polymer films with significantly improved tensile strength, hardness, adhesion strength, and water/solvent resistance compared to traditional waterborne polymer films. For example, click cross-linked WPU (WPU-click) has dramatically improved the mechanical strength (tensile strength increased from 0.43 to 6.47 MPa, and Young's modulus increased from 3 to 40 MPa), hardness (increased from 59 to 73.1 MPa), and water resistance (water absorption percentage dropped from 200% to less than 20%); click cross-linked PED (PED-click) film also possessed more than 3 times higher tensile strength (∼28 MPa) than that of normal PED (∼8 MPa). The adhesion strength of click cross-linked PAE (PAE-click) to polypropylene (PP) was also improved (from 3 to 5.5 MPa). In addition, extra click groups can be preserved after click cross-linking for further functionalization of the waterborne polymeric coatings/adhesives. In this work, we have demonstrated that click modification could serve as a convenient and powerful approach to significantly improve the performance of a variety of traditional coatings and adhesives.


Abstract Gene flow between crop fields and wild populations often results in hybrids with reduced fitness compared to their wild counterparts due to characteristics imparted by the crop genome. But the specifics of the evolutionary outcome of crop‐wild gene flow may depend on context, varying due to local environmental conditions and genetic variation within and among wild populations and among crop lines. To evaluate context‐dependence of fitness of F1 hybrids, sunflower crop lines were crossed with nine wild populations from across the northern United States. These crop‐wild hybrids and their wild counterparts were grown under agricultural conditions in the field with and without wheat competition. Hybrids were far less fecund than wild plants, yet more likely to survive to reproduce. There was considerable variability among wild populations for fecundity and the specific crop line used to generate the crop‐wild hybrid significantly affected fecundity. The fitness deficit suffered by crop‐wild hybrids varied by population, as did the rankings of the crop‐wild hybrids from three different crop lines. Wheat competition decreased fecundity and survival considerably and hampered seed production of wild plants more than that of hybrids. Genotype × environment interactions indicated that the response of fitness to competition differed by population. Consequently, the fitness of hybrids relative to wild plants varied considerably among wild populations and was not consistent across environments. Notably, relative fitness of hybrids was greater under competitive conditions. This research is the first study of its kind to demonstrate that the consequences of crop‐wild gene flow are context dependent and contingent on the genetics of the specific wild populations and the local biotic and abiotic conditions.


This paper reports results of an extensive Monte Carlo simulation analysis on the impact of DP-QPSK pulse shape in high-spectral efficiency WDM transmission at 112 Gb/s per channel. The pulse shapes studied include NRZ, 50% duty cycle RZ and 67% duty cycle RZ. Both symbol-aligned and symbol-interleaved formats are investigated and compared for nonlinear transmission tolerance on common dispersion maps used in terrestrial long-haul systems. The RZ pulse shape shows the greatest improvement in nonlinear tolerance with symbol-interleaving. However, symbol-interleaving only provides significant benefit in optical line systems designed to preserve the pulse shape during transmission, such as systems based on distributed dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). The duty cycle of the RZ pulse has only a minor impact on nonlinear performance, and even systems based on the NRZ pulse shape can gain significant benefit from symbol-interleaving.


Phylogenetic relationships among assumed Gondwanan aquatic inland invertebrate fauna are generally largely neglected, and biogeographical hypotheses for these organisms are generally inferred from historic (palaeogeographical) and contemporary distribution patterns. The distribution of the monogeneric thermophilic freshwater fairy shrimp family Streptocephalidae (Streptocephalus) provides a particularly useful framework to test the three contrasting biogeographical scenarios proposed for the evolution of this group: (1) the genus evolved in Laurasia and subsequently dispersed into Africa and North America; (2) the genus evolved and dispersed out of Africa and (3) the current distribution of the genus is the result of vicariance following the fragmentation of Gondwana. In the present study, the phylogenetic relationships of species in this genus are examined with the use of two mitochondrial genes (12S rRNA and COI mtDNA), while the phylogenetic relationships among the North American species and selected African taxa was investigated using the nuclear fragment (5.8S-ITS-1-18S). Phylogenetic results indicate that Streptocephalus probably evolved in Gondwana and that the current distribution patterns are a consequence of a combination of vicariance and limited dispersal. The implications for the evolution of continental freshwater crustaceans are discussed. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2004, 82, 313–327.


Spatial understanding and the understanding of dynamic change in the spatial structure of molecules during a reaction is essential for designing new molecules. Knowing the physical processes in the reactions helps to speed up the designing process. To support the designer with the correct representation of the designed molecule as well as showing the dynamic behavior of the whole reacting system is the goal of our application. Our system shows the spatial deformation of the molecules at every time interval by minimizing the energy level of the molecules. The position and orientation of the molecules can be intuitively controlled by manipulating objects of the real world using Augmented Reality techniques. Our approach has the potential to speed up the design of new molecules and help students to understand the chemical processes better. Keywords—Augmented Chemical Reactions, Augmented Reality, chemistry, education.


The effect of hardwood admixture (15-25% birch or aspen) in kraft cooking on the strength properties of the fully bleached pulp was investigated. Results obtained from both lab- and mill-processed ECF bleached pulps showed that adding 15-25% birch or aspen to the production of fully bleached softwood kraft pulp had a minor effect on the strength properties. No significant effect was observed for the hardwood admixture on the apparent density over a wide range of breaking length. Under the conditions studied, the results showed that pulping of mixed softwood/hardwood chips (chip blending) resulted in overall better strength properties than the pulp blending at a given freeness. It was hypothesized that the softwood fibers would be cooked to a higher kappa number in the cooking of mixed softwood/hardwood chips for the same target kappa number, thus having higher fiber strength due to higher pulp viscosity and preservation of the hemicellulose. This was supported by the results from zero-span tensile strength of the long fiber fraction of the samples from chip blending and pulp blending. The implication is that some softwood kraft pulp mills can add up to 25% of hardwood chips to the kraft cooking of softwood chips without significantly affecting the overall pulp strength properties.


Amidst the sensationalist claims about the dangers of the Internet, Virtually Criminal provides an empirically grounded criminological analysis of deviance and regulation within an online community. It integrates theory and empiricism to forge an explanation of cybercrime whilst offering new insights into online regulation.

One of the first studies to further our understanding of the causes of cyber deviance, crime and its control, this groundbreaking study from Matthew Williams takes the Internet as a site of social and cultural (re)production, and acknowledges the importance of online social/cultural formations in the genesis and regulation of cyber deviance and crime.

A blend of criminological, sociological and linguistic theory, this book provides a unique understanding of the aetiology of cybercrime and deviance. Focus group and offence data are analyzed and an interrelationship between online community, deviance and regulation is established.

The subject matter of the book is inherently transnational. It makes extensive use of a number of international case studies, ensuring it is relevant to readers in multiple countries (especially the US, the UK and Australasia). Pioneering and innovative, this fascinating book will be of interest to students and researchers across the disciplines of sociology, criminology, law and media and communication studies.


This study explored the perspectives on participation in group rehabilitation in the inpatient setting for people with moderate to severe stroke. A qualitative descriptive study using in-depth semi-structured interviews ascertained the experiences and impressions of participating in a group exercise programme. Six participants were interviewed, and analysis of the data identified four main themes: Loss of self; I can't do it alone; Being part of the whole and Therapeutic approach in the context of personhood. These themes allowed identification of key components that may inform development of group exercise for people with moderate to severe stroke. People with moderate to severe stroke expressed feelings of loss of who they had been. Some were reluctant to join group exercise; the need to be part of a group was sometimes overwhelmed by doubt that they could participate in a meaningful way. Those who overcame their reluctance to join found a benefit in shared experience and mutual assistance to progress. The way they were treated and the degree their autonomy was respected by physiotherapists had a significant impact on their willingness to exercise and their enjoyment of group sessions. These findings will assist the development of a group programme to increase opportunities for activity in the inpatient stroke rehabilitation setting. Kitt C, Wang V, Harvey-Fitzgerald L, Kayes N, Saywell N (2016) Gaining perspectives of people with stroke, to inform development of a group exercise programme: A qualitative study. New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy 44(1): 58-64. doi: 10.15619/NZJP/44.1.07


Greek cafes were a feature of Australian cities and country towns from the 1910s to the 1960s. Anglophile Australians, who knew the Greeks as dagos , were possessed of culinary imaginations that did not countenance the likes of olive oil, garlic, or lemon juice. As a result, Greek cafes catered to Australian tastes and became the social hubs of their communities. After establishing the diverse and evolving nature of food offered in Greek shops since their origins in the late nineteenth century – oyster saloons, cafes, fish shops, fruit shops, milk bars, snack bars, confectioneries – this article uses the concepts of "disgust" and "hunger" to offer new insights about food and identity in Australia's Greek community and in the wider Australian culinary landscape. In particular, it applies Ghassan Hage's work on nostalgia among Lebanese immigrants to the situation of Greek proprietors and reveals how memories of a lost homeland allowed cafe families to feel "at home" in Australia. In a land of "meat-n-three-veg," a moussaka recipe the family had known for generations offered both a sense of identity and the comfort of familiarity, and Greek cafes, because they represented hope and opportunity, were familial spaces where feelings of nostalgia were affective building blocks with which Greeks engaged in homebuilding in a new land. And although their cafes did not serve Greek food, Greek proprietors and their families did eventually play a role in introducing the Australian palette to Mediterranean foods and foodways.


Examining conflict over local option liquor license laws passed in numerous states during the mid-1840s, this article exposes a pioneering moment in the history of direct democracy. Spurred by the temperance movement's crusade against alcohol and liquor licensing, local option laws empowered local voting majorities, in a referendum-like manner, to decide annually at the ballot box whether or not licenses would be issued. Based on investigation of reform literature, legislative reports, newspapers, and court opinions, this article illustrates how reformers' enlistment of the ideas of majority rule and popular political empowerment to legitimate local option prompted debates that moved beyond the propriety of restrictive liquor regulation and resulted in a widespread reassessment of fundamental tenets of American popular sovereignty. Turning to the activities of liquor dealers and others who resisted local option, this article uncovers a groundbreaking strain of dissent that coalesced in Delaware. By suggesting limits to popular political empowerment and majority rule and stressing the ability of representative democracies to protect minority rights, attorneys representing pro-liquor forces convinced Delaware's highest court to declare local option unconstitutional. Not only did their ideas reverberate in other court decisions and policy debates of the period, but they established a lasting practice of questioning ballot box legislation grounded in the ideas of James Madison and other elite thinkers concerned about the threat of majority tyranny. In the process, pro-liquor groups helped democratize the tradition of questioning majority rule for future use by other nonelite minorities.


The problem of computing the internal electromagnetic field of a homogeneous sphere from the observation of its scattered light field is explored. Using empirical observations it shown that, to good approximation for low contrast objects, there is a simple Fourier relationship between a component of the internal E-field and the scattered light in a preferred plane. Based on this relationship an empirical algorithm is proposed to construct a spherically symmetric particle of approximately the same diameter as the original, homogeneous, one. The size parameter (ka) of this particle is then estimated and shown to be nearly identical to that of the original particle. The size parameter can then be combined with the integrated power of the scatter in the preferred plane to estimate refractive index. The estimated values are shown to be accurate in the presence of moderate noise for a class of size parameters.


Inspiration from nature such as insects' foot hairs motivates scientists to fabricate nanoscale cylindrical solids that allow tens of millions of contact points per unit area with material substrates. In this paper, we present a simple yet robust method for fabricating directionally sensitive shear adhesive laminates. By using aligned electrospun nylon-6, we create dry adhesives, as a succession of our previous work on measuring adhesion energies between two single free-standing electrospun polymer fibers in cross-cylinder geometry, randomly oriented membranes and substrate, and peel forces between aligned fibers and substrate. The synthetic aligned cylindrical solids in this study are electrically insulating and show a maximal Mode II shear adhesion strength of 27 N/cm(2) on a glass slide. This measured value, for the purpose of comparison, is 270% of that reported from gecko feet. The Mode II shear adhesion strength, based on a commonly known "dead-weight" test, is 97-fold greater than the Mode I (normal) adhesion strength of the same. The data indicate a strong shear binding on and easy normal lifting off. Anisotropic adhesion (Mode II/Mode I) is pronounced. The size and surface boundary effects, crystallinity, and bending stiffness of fibers are used to understand these electrospun nanofibers, which vastly differ from otherwise known adhesive technologies. The anisotropic strength distribution is attributed to a decreasing fiber diameter and an optimized laminate thickness, which, in turn, influences the bending stiffness and solid-state "wettability" of points of contact between nanofibers and surface asperities.


This study systematically proposes and defines a set of new quantitative indices named total supply capability (TSC) and its associated indices, such as available supply capability, substation supply capability, network transfer capability, maximum supply capability and expandable supply capability. The concepts in the TSC family provide new approaches to analyse and optimise distribution networks. TSC for distribution systems is comparable to the total transfer capability for transmission systems, but there are significant differences, such as the radial configuration and service restoration in TSC consideration. TSC is defined as the maximum load to serve under the expanded N−1 security guideline for the distribution system, taking into account the capacities of the substation transformers, network topology, link capacity and other constraints. Here, the expanded N−1 security means a successful, near-immediate service restoration to all loads except for the faulted section. A mathematical model for TSC is then set up and an accurate method is presented to calculate the TSC with lingo. Sample applications are provided to illustrate a new TSC-based approach to evaluate the link capacity and obtain the reconductoring proposal. The results from a real distribution system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed TSC modelling and TSC-based approach.


Accurate observation of the high spatio‐temporal variability of rainfall is crucial for hydrometeorological applications. However, the existing observations from rain gauges and weather radars have individual shortcomings that can introduce considerable errors and uncertainties. A fairly new technique to get additional rainfall information is the usage of the country‐wide commercial microwave link (CML) networks for rainfall estimation by exploiting the measurements of rain‐induced attenuation along these CMLs. This technique has seen an increasing number of applications during the last years. Different methods have been developed to process the noisy raw data and to derive rainfall fields. It has been shown that CMLs can provide important line‐integrated rainfall information that complements pointwise rain gauge and spatial radar observations. There exist several limitations, though. Robustly dealing with the erratic fluctuations of the CML raw data is a challenge, in particular with the growing number of CMLs. How to correctly compensate for the biases from the effect of wet antenna attenuation for different CMLs also remains a crucial research question. Progress is additionally hampered by the lack of method intercomparisons, which in turn is hampered by restricted data sharing. Hence, collaboration is key for further advancements, also with regard to extended interaction with the CML network operators, which is a prerequisite to achieve increased data availability. In regions where rain gauges and weather radars are available, CMLs are a welcome complement. But in developing countries, which are characterized by weak technical infrastructure and which often suffer from water stress, additional rainfall information is a necessity. CMLs could play a crucial role in this respect.


Extracellular stimuli evoke the synthesis of intracellular second messengers, several of which couple to the release of Ca(2+)from Ca(2+)-storing organelles via activation of cognate organellar Ca(2+)-channel complexes. The archetype is the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and IP3receptor (IP3R) on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). A less understood, parallel Ca(2+)signalling cascade is that involving the messenger nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) that couples to Ca(2+)release from acidic Ca(2+)stores [e.g. endo-lysosomes, secretory vesicles, lysosome-related organelles (LROs)]. NAADP-induced Ca(2+)release absolutely requires organellar TPCs (two-pore channels). This review discusses how ER and acidic Ca(2+)stores physically and functionally interact to generate and shape global and local Ca(2+)signals, with particular emphasis on the two-way dialogue between these two organelles.


Despite the large amount of variation found in the night (scotopic) vision capabilities of healthy volunteers, little effort has been made to characterize this variation and factors, genetic and non-genetic, that influence it. In the largest population of healthy observers measured for scotopic visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS) to date, we quantified the effect of a range of variables on visual performance. We found that young volunteers with excellent photopic vision exhibit great variation in their scotopic VA and CS, and this variation is reliable from one testing session to the next. We additionally identified that factors such as Circadian preference, iris color, astigmatism, depression, sex and education have no significant impact on scotopic visual function. We confirmed previous work showing that the amount of time spent on the vision test influences performance and that laser eye surgery results in worse scotopic vision. We also showed a significant effect of intelligence and photopic visual performance on scotopic VA and CS, but all of these variables collectively explain <30% of the variation in scotopic vision. The wide variation seen in young healthy volunteers with excellent photopic vision, the high test-retest agreement, and the vast majority of the variation in scotopic vision remaining unexplained by obvious non-genetic factors suggests a strong genetic component. Our preliminary genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 106 participants ruled out any common genetic variants of very large effect and paves the way for future, larger genetic studies of scotopic vision.


Abstract. The global aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM was modified to improve the representation of new particle formation in the boundary layer. Activation-type nucleation mechanism was introduced to produce observed nucleation rates in the lower troposphere. A simple and computationally efficient model for biogenic secondary organic aerosol (BSOA) formation was implemented. Here we study the sensitivity of the aerosol and cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) to these additions. Activation-type nucleation significantly increases aerosol number concentrations in the boundary layer. Increased particle number concentrations have a significant effect also on cloud droplet number concentrations and therefore on cloud properties. We performed calculations with activation nucleation coefficient values of 2×10−7s−1, 2×10−6s−1 and 2×10−5s−1 to evaluate the sensitivity to this parameter. For BSOA we have used yields of 0.025, 0.07 and 0.15 to estimate the amount of monoterpene oxidation products available for condensation. The hybrid BSOA formation scheme induces large regional changes to size distribution of organic carbon, and therefore affects particle optical properties and cloud droplet number concentrations locally. Although activation-type nucleation improves modeled aerosol number concentrations in the boundary layer, the use of a global activation coefficient generally leads to overestimation of aerosol number. Overestimation can also arise from underestimation of primary emissions.


Unusual carbonaceous matter, termed here chiemite, composed of more than 90% C from the Alpine Foreland at Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, southeastern Germany has been investigated using optical and atomic force microscopy, X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, high‐resolution Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction and differential thermal analysis, as well as by δ13C and 14C radiocarbon isotopic data analysis. In the pumice‐like fragments, poorly ordered carbon matter co‐exists with high‐ordering monocrystalline α‐carbyne, and contains submicrometer‐sized inclusions of complex composition. Diamond and carbyne add to the peculiar mix of matter. The required very high temperatures and pressures for carbyne formation point to a shock event probably from the recently proposed Holocene Chiemgau meteorite impact. The carbon material is suggested to have largely formed from heavily shocked coal, vegetation like wood, and peat from the impact target area. The carbonization/coalification high PT process may be attributed to a strong shock that instantaneously caused the complete evaporation and loss of volatile matter and water, which nevertheless preserved the original cellular structure seen fossilized in many fragments. Relatively fresh wood encapsulated in the purported strongly shocked matter point to quenched carbon melt components possibly important for the discussion of survival of organic matter in meteorite impacts, implying an astrobiological relationship.


Photograph of one of the Union Pacific Railroad's most famous passenger trains - the "Los Angeles Limited" headed by an Atlantic type 4-4-2 locomotive, Engine No. 116 as it passes through Cheyenne, Wyoming. The train consisted of seven handcrafted wooden cars - heated by potbellied iron stoves and illuminated by kerosene lamps.


There is little if any evidence that nutrition during the time of tooth formation has any clinically significant effect on caries susceptibility of erupted teeth in man. Caries, erosion and demastication are not nutritional diseases. They are, however, diet-related diseases because erupted teeth are subject to local chemical and mechanical effects of the diet contacting the teeth. Caries is the result of a chronic undermining demineralisation of the teeth by organic acids that are produced by the bacteria of the dental biofilm while fermenting carbohydrates from the human diet. Dental erosion is the result of a chronic localised loss of dental hard tissue etched away from the surface by acids derived from the diet or from gastric reflux. The physicochemical grounds of de- and remineralisation of teeth are explained using detailed diagrams. Initial caries lesions without cavitation of the surface can remineralise (heal) under conditions of low cariogenic diet and good oral hygiene. However, once the surface has broken and cavitation occurred, there is no alternative to restorative dental therapy because remineralisation is no more possible.


The evolution of natural systems that feed and sustain human populations, and indeed the evolution of modern society, has occurred in the context of a moderate and stable climate. Therefore, recent trends in climate change, most likely caused by increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radiative trace gases in the atmosphere, and the expected consequent global warming, are now a major concern. Carbon emissions from energy systems are considered one of the major contributors to climate change and are the focus of all studies on the prevention of climate changes and adaptation strategies. Two global energy scenarios (each with several options) are analysed in this paper: from a dynamic–as–usual concept to a more advanced concept with the goal of stabilising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere (equivalent to about a 60% reduction of carbon emission compared with today's level). It is shown that the stabilisation approach will require dramatic changes in energy systems: the share of non–carbon fuels will increase to about three quarters of the total primary energy consumption, which will itself grow by a factor of two by the middle of the next century. Surprisingly, the implementation costs turn out to be approximately the same for all scenarios (taking into account possible errors in the cost appraisals for several decades ahead). However, the cost distributions between energy production and use are quite different. Globally, these costs are 3–4% of the GNP, but for developing countries the share of energy investments is, on average, about 7–8% of the GNP, which is cause for concern and will greatly hamper economic and social progress in the Third World. The introduction of energy taxes or carbon taxes in developed countries and the raising of 'global energy funds' could help developing countries to overcome these difficulties. It is supposed that such a policy would stimulate economic growth in developing countries and, as a feedback, overlap the GNP losses in developed countries. The paper attempts to evaluate an optimal strategy for reducing carbon emissions for the next couple of decades, when large uncertainties surround global warming, and to show ways of establishing 'no–regret' policy.


In this review we assess the recent developments in research and practice pertaining to health education in schools. We begin by defining school health education within the broader framework of community health edu cation and promotion. The shifting priorities, purposes, and assumptions of school health education are traced and attributed. They lead to a new generation of problems and methods that call for a concentration of re search on ways to combine the classroom contributions of health education with the broader organizational, economic, and environmental supports that will predispose, enable, and reinforce behavior conducive to health.


Leprosy is a well known but poorly understood disease; even its sources and modes of infection transmission are still contentious issues. The World Health Organization has made important contributions to leprosy research and control through inclusion of leprosy in the multi-agency Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and by leading a global leprosy elimination initiative.

In 1991 the World Health Assembly (WHA) passed a resolution to "eliminate leprosy as a public health problem" by the year 2000. The implications of this resolution have dominated discussion and activity in the leprosy community in the past 15 years. A footnote to the WHA resolution explained that elimination was to be defined in this context as a reduction in prevalence below 1 per 10 000.

This is important. Prevalence at any point in time (e.g. 31 December) is a function of duration, as well as of incidence, and the primary strategy of the initiative has been to reduce prevalence by reducing treatment duration through the institution of short-course multiple-drug regimens. It was also hoped that use of these shorter-term and more-effective drug regimens would reduce infection transmission, and thus effectively reduce incidence of infection and ultimately of disease.

The programme has had a massive effect on reported prevalence. According to data submitted to WHO — the global figures are presented annually in the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER), most recently in August 2006 — the elimination target was reached globally (using the total human population as a denominator) in 2000, and by the end of 2005 all but six countries reported year-end prevalence below 1 per 10 000.

That much is a success. However, if one looks closely at the published data, it is not clear what has actually happened.

The elimination initiative has encouraged some major changes. These include changes in case-finding policies: massive house-to-house surveys inevitably find cases and lead to peaks of case detection, but many cases found early in a year are removed by the end of December, and hence not included in reported prevalence. There have been changes in classification: a new system based upon numbers of lesions is applied differently in different countries, making data inconsistent with previous classification systems. Other changes are in registration, as some countries have not registered cases with single lesions or have required confirmation of all diagnoses by district teams, both of which practices reduce official prevalence. In terms of treatment, some countries have not followed WHO guidelines, instead maintaining cases on treatment for long periods, which inflates prevalence. Information on these changes is not available, though this information is essential for interpreting data from individual countries. These data should be included with the WER annual reports.

Though prevalence has come down, the extent to which there has been a reduction in incidence is less clear. Some analyses have suggested that little or no reduction has occurred as a result of the initiative.1 Incidence declines started in many countries long before this programme; these are attributable to improving socioeconomic conditions and to the Bacille Calmette–Guerin vaccine.

Interestingly, there is no evidence that the global initiative has led to the disappearance ("local eradication") of infection or disease from any population, and leprosy continues to appear throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, southern Europe and even in the US states of Louisiana and Texas (where it may be a zoonosis associated with armadillos).

This persistence adds to the list of mysteries about this ancient disease. Perhaps more time will be required to show the recent initiatives' impact on incidence. Or perhaps there is no effect, because we are failing to understand some important aspect of the disease's natural history; there is some evidence that the leprosy bacillus may be maintained as a silent transient infection in nasal cavities in endemic areas.2,3 Research is needed to examine these questions.

It is not difficult to argue that the elimination concept has, in this instance, now served its purpose, and that it might even become detrimental to public health. The programme's rhetoric has led to the impression in some quarters that leprosy no longer exists. This is wrong, but the distinction between eradication and elimination is widely misunderstood.

By encouraging repeated changes of definitions, ascertainment procedures, and diagnostic and registration conventions, the initiative has in effect eliminated our ability to monitor and understand what has actually happened. And it has come close to eliminating leprosy research.4 Neither funders nor young researchers are attracted to an officially "eliminated" disease — even if it is still ubiquitous. The main leprosy journal of the past 70 years (the International Journal of Leprosy) published its last issue in March 2005, and there is now little active research on the disease, despite our continued ignorance of its natural history.

Leprosy and associated disabilities are not going to disappear for a very long time, if ever. As recognized in WHO's Global Strategy 2006–2010, there will be continued need for leprosy research capability and for specialist clinical expertise.5 WHO should discontinue its rhetoric about eliminating leprosy, lest these essential efforts against the disease be eliminated as well. ■


Models of phenotypic evolution fit to phylogenetic comparative data are widely used to make inferences regarding the tempo and mode of trait evolution. A wide range of models is already available for this type of analysis, and the field is still under active development. One of the most needed development concerns models that better account for the effect of within- and between-clade interspecific interactions on trait evolution, which can result from processes as diverse as competition, predation, parasitism, or mutualism. Here, we begin by developing a very general comparative phylogenetic framework for (multi)-trait evolution that can be applied to both ultrametric and nonultrametric trees. This framework not only encapsulates many previous models of continuous univariate and multivariate phenotypic evolution, but also paves the way for the consideration of a much broader series of models in which lineages coevolve, meaning that trait changes in one lineage are influenced by the value of traits in other, interacting lineages. Next, we provide a standard way for deriving the probabilistic distribution of traits at tip branches under our framework. We show that a multivariate normal distribution remains the expected distribution for a broad class of models accounting for interspecific interactions. Our derivations allow us to fit various models efficiently, and in particular greatly reduce the computation time needed to fit the recently proposed phenotype matching model. Finally, we illustrate the utility of our framework by developing a toy model for mutualistic coevolution. Our framework should foster a new era in the study of coevolution from comparative data.


The boom in the capabilities and features of mobile devices, like smartphones, tablets, and wearables, combined with the ubiquitous and affordable Internet access and the advances in the areas of cooperative networking, computer vision, and mobile cloud computing transformed mobile augmented reality (MAR) from science fiction to a reality. Although mobile devices are more constrained computationalwise from traditional computers, they have a multitude of sensors that can be used to the development of more sophisticated MAR applications and can be assisted from remote servers for the execution of their intensive parts. In this paper, after introducing the reader to the basics of MAR, we present a categorization of the application fields together with some representative examples. Next, we introduce the reader to the user interface and experience in MAR applications and continue with the core system components of the MAR systems. After that, we discuss advances in tracking and registration, since their functionality is crucial to any MAR application and the network connectivity of the devices that run MAR applications together with its importance to the performance of the application. We continue with the importance of data management in MAR systems and the systems performance and sustainability, and before we conclude this survey, we present existing challenging problems.


This paper contributes to a growing literature on understanding drivers of pre-industrial inequality by constructing social tables for colonial Ghana. Ghana is generally perceived as fairly equal in terms of income distribution, both historically and today. We show, however, that income inequality rose rapidly during the colonial period, to inequality levels comparable to many contemporary African countries. We argue that the introduction and expansion of cocoa cultivation at the end of the 19th century in the forest belt of the country marked the most important development that shaped both national and regional inequality trends. Initial land abundance in the forest area provided opportunities for its population to engage in cocoa growing which increased the overall standards of living in the forest area. Areas where soil quality did not favour cocoa growing fell behind in terms of living standards, resulting in increasing national income inequalities from the 1930s onwards. Due to high set up costs of cocoa farms and increasingly polarized access to economic resources, only a wealthy minority was able to establish substantial cocoa farms, gaining much more than other social classes. The capital intensity of the export crop along with access to economic resources such as land seems an important factor driving inequality trends in Africa.


In recent years, a large number of urine-diverting dehydration toilets (UDDTs) have been installed in eThekwini to ensure access to adequate sanitation. The initial purpose of these toilets was to facilitate faeces drying, while the urine was diverted into a soak pit. This practice can lead to environmental pollution, since urine contains high amounts of nutrients. Instead of polluting the environment, these nutrients should be recovered and used as fertiliser. In 2010 the international and transdisciplinary research project VUNA was initiated in order to explore technologies and management methods for better urine management in eThekwini. Three treatment technologies have been chosen for the VUNA project. The first is struvite precipitation, a technology which has already been tested in multiple projects on urine treatment. Struvite precipitation is a simple and fast process for phosphorus recovery. Other nutrients, such as nitrogen and potassium, remain in the effluent and pathogens are not completely inactivated. Therefore, struvite precipitation has to be combined with other treatment processes to prevent environmental pollution and hygiene risks. The second process is a combination of nitrification and distillation. This process combination is more complex than struvite precipitation, but it recovers all nutrients in one concentrated solution, ensures safe sanitisation and produces only distilled water and a small amount of sludge as by-products. The third process is electrolysis. This process could be used for very small on-site reactors, because conversion rates are high and the operation is simple, as long as appropriate electrodes and voltages are used. However, nitrogen is removed and not recovered and chlorinated by-products are formed, which can be hazardous for human health. While urine electrolysis requires further research in the laboratory, struvite precipitation and nitrification/distillation have already been operated at pilot scale.


This is retrospective study of breast cancer in Qatar during period 1999-2002, using cancer registry data A total 214 patients were diagnosed with breast cancer; with incidence of5/10,000 of population per year; account-ing for 13.3% of new cancer cases and 29.9% of all female cancer. Male breast cancer is rare accounting for 3.2% of total number. Qatari patients were 23% and non-Qatari patients were 36.2%. The disease more common in ages between 46-55years old accounting for 64% of total breast cancer; patients usually presented beyond or equal to Stage II and with distant metastasis in 7% of cases, patients com-monly present with invasive ductal carcinoma and histo-logical Grade 2 & 3, it has been noticed that were decrease in incidence of Stage III & IV and decrease in Stage I & II which reflect improvement in patient awareness of this problem.