We assess the role of traditional authorities during an acute health crisis, the 2014–15 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. We exploit plausible exogenous variation in the political competition for local chieftaincy positions and find evidence that traditional leaders helped shape the course of the epidemic. Locations with more "powerful" chiefs experienced substantially fewer recorded Ebola cases. We argue that this result is consistent with a view of traditional authorities as "stationary bandits," in which leaders are locally embedded and thus benefited directly from controlling the spread of the disease. Subsequently, control measures were most effectively implemented by more powerful chiefs.


Implement the powerful multimedia and interactive capabilities offered by HTML5, including style control tools, illustration tools, video, audio, and rich media solutions. Understand how HTML5 is changing the web development game with this project-based book that shows you-not just tells you-what HTML5 can do for your websites. Reinforce your practical understanding of the new standard with demo applications and tutorials, so that execution is one short step away. HTML5 is the future of the web. Literally every web designer and developer needs to know how to use this language to create the types of web sites consumers now expect. This new edition of the bestseller teaches you to enhance your web designs with rich media solutions and interactivity, using detailed descriptions and hands-on projects for every step along the way. The second edition contains completely updated information, including more on mobility and video standards, plus new projects. The companion website, visualizetheweb.com, is packed full of extra information, online code libraries, and a user forum, offering even more opportunity to learn new skills, practice your coding and interact with other users.


Cochran, Julia Kennedy, ed. Ed Kennedy's War: V-E Day, Censorship, and the Associated Press. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2012. 248 pp. $34.95. Ed Kennedy reported in Europe for die Associated Press from 1935 until Nazi Germany's capitulation to the United States Army on May 7, 1945. By his account, he was the most prolific journalist of World War II, having filed more dispatches and more scoops dian any other newsman in die European theater. Yet, the wire service forced his retirement at 40 under ignominious circumstances, and his memoirs did not find a publisher until 2012. Kennedy's wartime memoirs debut in this edition, which is the seventh book in Louisiana State University Press' series, "From Our Correspondent," and is dedicated to forgotten works and unpublished memoirs by pioneering foreign correspondents. The series is edited by John Maxwell Hamilton, who was a distinguished foreign correspondent. Kennedy's May 7, 1945, wire service dispatch announcing the end of the European war was published by thousands of newspapers and broadcast stations around the world, making it possibly the most important news bulletin in the history of journalism. However, Allied military authorities censured Kennedy for violating an embargo on the news, which was delayed by President Harry Truman to allow the Soviet Army to announce the peace on the next day. Competing correspondents, such as United Press International's Walter Cronkite, howled protests of cheating. The president of the Associated Press, Robert McLean, publically expressed the company's regret for Kennedy's sending his dispatch before the military embargo was lifted, effectively undercutting him before Kennedy had a chance to explain himself. On grounds that the Allies had violated the embargo when the peace news was released via German radio prior to Kennedy's dispatch, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower subsequently exonerated him and reinstated his journalistic credentials. Neverdieless, the controversy ended his career with the Associated Press at the zenith of his powers. He returned to the United States, declined numerous big media offers, and chose to finish his newspaper career as editor and publisher of the Monterey (California) Peninsula Herald, where he served with great distinction until his death in 1963. For his part, Kennedy did not harbor a grudge over his fate, which had journalistic ethics winning out over expethency. "My vindication was evidence, of course, that if the AP had supported me instead of allowing itself to be panicked into a cowardly retreat, it would have come through with flying colors." On his office wall, he kept a framed copy of his May 7, 1945, bulletin published on the front page of the New York Times. …


The author critically examines the role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In recent years, it is noted, the organisation's agenda of trade liberalisation, its perceived lack of accountability and insensitivity to human rights have attracted intense criticism. It has been asserted that provisions of WTO agreements concerning agricultural trade and intellectual property directly affect the ability of governments to fulfil their human rights obligations.

Conversely, supporters of the WTO argue that by expanding global trade the organisation assists in raising living standards. While it is generally acknowledged that trade has an important role in improving livelihoods, studies indicate that trade liberalisation has not necessarily achieved this result for many WTO members. The author assesses these claims from a human rights perspective and explores the relationship between trade, human rights and development. The first part of the article, published in Volume 12(2), sketched the history and functions of the WTO, discusses the linkages between trade liberalisation, human rights and development, and assesses the human rights obligations of the WTO. It notes that most WTO Member States have assumed legal obligations through ratification of universal human rights treaties and concludes that the WTO's trade liberalisation agenda should be more responsive to human rights. This part explores the human rights implications of two controversial WTO agreements: the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property and the Agreement on Agriculture.


Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are an important component of benthic communities in the Great Lakes and are exploited by a host of predators, including waterfowl. In this study, we analyze diet content and stable isotope and organochlorine contaminant patterns in Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis), Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), Redhead (Aythya americana), Canvasback (Aythya valisineria), and Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collected from three sites (Fighting Island, western Lake Erie, Big Creek) in the lower Great Lakes. Lesser and Greater Scaup from Fighting Island were classified as either zebra mussel (≥67% of diet) or macrophyte (≥85% of diet) consumers. Bufflehead, Canvasback, Mallard, and Redhead consumed mainly (≥89%) macrophyte at Fighting Island. Zebra mussel was the principal food of Lesser Scaup (>99%), Greater Scaup (97%), and Bufflehead (72%) in western Lake Erie. Stable isotope analysis revealed enrichment of δ15N in Lesser Scaup (≥2.24‰), Greater Scaup (≥1.28‰), and Bufflehead (≥0.63‰) that exploited mussels relative to conspecifics with macrophyte diets and relative to mussel prey.

Representative contaminants of low (hexachlorobenzene [HCB]), moderate (PCB [polychlorinated biphenyl] 153), and high (PCB 180) hydrophobicity were examined in waterfowl. Lipid-normalized concentrations of PCBs 153 and 180 were significantly higher in scaup and Bufflehead that consumed Dreissena than in individuals that ate mainly macrophytes. Among taxa that consumed primarily Dreissena concentrations of PCBs 153 and 180 were significantly higher in individuals from Lake Erie than in those Fighting Island. Principal components analysis revealed broad differences in contaminant patterns of waterfowl based principally on diet.

Results from this study illustrate that Dreissena has become a primary food source of some waterfowl in the lower Great Lakes and serves as an effective conduit for transfer of persistent organic contaminants to higher trophic levels.


Scientists and public administrators are devoting increasing attention to the Po River, in Italy, in view of concerns related to the impact of increasing urbanisation and exploitation of water resources. A better understanding of the hydrological regime of the river is necessary to improve water resources management and flood protection. In particular, the analysis of the effects of hydrological and climatic change is crucial for planning sustainable development and economic growth. An extremely interesting issue is to inspect to what extent river flows can be naturally affected by the occurrence of long periods of water abundance or scarcity, which can be erroneously interpreted as irreversible changes due to human impact. In fact, drought and flood periods alternatively occurred in the recent past in the form of long-term fluctuations. This paper presents advanced graphical and analytical methods to gain a better understanding of the temporal distribution of the Po River discharge. In particular, we present an analysis of river flow variability and persistence properties, to gain a better understanding of natural patterns, and in particular long-term changes, which may affect the future flood risk and availability of water resources.


Information is lacking on ecosystem effects of understory burning in mesic mixed-oak (Quercus spp.) forests of the southern Appalachians. Native Americans used periodic fires in these forests for driving game and opening the forest. In April 1998, we conducted a lowto moderate-intensity fire in a cove–hardwood forest in the Nantahala National Forest, western North Carolina. In March 1998, before burning, permanent plots were established along three parallel transects to measure forest floor mass, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N); soil nutrient (NO3 –, NH4 +, PO4 –, Ca, Mg, and K) availability; and vegetation mortality and regeneration. Forest floor material was sampled by components: small wood, litter (Oi), and a combined fermentation and humus component (Oe + Oa). Soil nutrient availability was estimated using cation and anion exchange membrane sheets. Vegetation measurements included the overstory and understory layers. All parameters were resampled during summer 1998 and 1999 in the same manner as the pre-burn inventories. Burning reduced the total mass, carbon, and nitrogen of the Oi layer by 92%, 93%, and 91%, respectively. Reductions in mass, carbon, and nitrogen of the Oe + Oa layer were 48%, 46%, and 56%, respectively. Burning resulted in increased exchangeable K, Ca, Mg, NH4, PO4, and NO3 availability in soil on the burned area compared with the control. One year after burning, there were no significant differences in exchangeable nutrients between the burned and the control area. Overstory mortality was substantial, with 55% of the trees killed by the fire. However, most of the mortality occurred in trees 20 cm DBH were killed. In the understory, all the aboveground stems were killed; although 50% of these individuals sprouted during the growing season (July 1998), some of these sprouts did not survive through the following year (July 1999). Moderate-intensity understory burning may be a useful tool to restore mesic mixed-oak communities in the southern Appalachians. Reintroduction of fire into these ecosystems may be beneficial by increasing soil nutrient availability, promoting regeneration and survival of Quercus spp., increasing diversity of understory species, and reducing abundance of shade-tolerant and fire-intolerant species such as Acer rubrum. keywords: ecosystem analysis, forest floor, North Carolina, prescribed fire, population dynamics, soil nutrients, southern Appalachians. Citation: Elliott, K.J., J.M. Vose, B.D. Clinton, and J.D. Knoepp. 2004. Effects of understory burning in a mesic mixed-oak forest of the southern Appalachians. Pages 272–283 in R.T. Engstrom, K.E.M. Galley, and W.J. de Groot (eds.). Proceedings of the 22nd Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference: Fire in Temperate, Boreal, and Montane Ecosystems. Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL.


Calibration studies of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sinistral coiling, hereinafter referred to as N. pachyderma (s.)) in the South Atlantic raise questions about the interpretation of this species' carbon isotope composition as a paleoceanographic tracer of Southern Ocean surface nutrient contents. Carbon isotope disequilibrium between δ13C of total CO2 (TCO2) of seawater and δ13C of N. pachyderma (s.) increases systematically between 70° and 40°S. Several effects could cause the observed carbon isotope disequilibrium, including a combination of foraminiferal diet, calcification temperature, and carbonate ion chemistry. Combining these corrections to the δ13C of N. pachyderma (s.) improves the reconstruction of the δ13C of seawater TCO2 between 0 and 200 m in the modern South Atlantic. With these corrections applied, the δ13C for equilibrium calcite reconstructed from N. pachyderma (s.) at the Last Glacial Maximum is very similar to preindustrial values, suggesting that one cannot rule out the possibility that surface nutrient concentrations in the South Atlantic Ocean were comparable to today. However, the magnitude of the uncertainties associated with these corrections make it difficult to assess absolute paleonutrient concentrations with much confidence.


This Occasional Paper looks at the specific regime set up by the ECT in comparison with general international law, taking into account the travaux preparatoires and the two cases under the ECT in which specific performance has been discussed (Mohamad Ammar Al-Bahloul vs. Republic of Tajikistan and Nykomb Synergetics Technology Holding AB vs. Latvia).
As opposed to general international law and other investment treaty regimes, both pecuniary (i.e., economic compensation) and non-pecuniary (i.e., orders for specific performance) remedies are available to arbitral tribunals instituted under Article 26 of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). However, the award has to expressly provide for the Contracting Party to opt to pay monetary damages in lieu of non-pecuniary remedies in cases of Treaty breaches related to acts of sub-national governments or authorities.
The provision on both non-pecuniary and pecuniary remedies is coherently accompanied by a specific provision concerning the implementation of awards rendered pursuant to the ECT. Article 26(8) of the ECT in its last sentence imposes upon the respondent Contracting Party not only an obligation to enforce pecuniary obligations under an award (as Article 54(1) of the ICSID Convention establishes) but also an obligation to make specific provision to the purpose in relation to any award (independent of whether the remedy granted is pecuniary or non-pecuniary). The provision, therefore, secures the effective implementation of ECT awards, especially when specific performance is awarded against respondent Contracting Parties.


This article describes an application of three well-known statistical methods in the field of game-tree search: using a large number of classified Othello positions, feature weights for evaluation functions with a game-phase-independent meaning are estimated by means of logistic regression, Fisher's linear discriminant, and the quadratic discriminant function for normally distributed features. Thereafter, the playing strengths are compared by means of tournaments between the resulting versions of a world-class Othello program. In this application, logistic regression -- which is used here for the first time in the context of game playing - leads to better results than the other approaches.


Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have received an increasing attention to understand genotype-phenotype relationships. The Bayesian network has been proposed as a powerful tool for modeling single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-trait associations due to its advantage in addressing the high computational complex and high dimensional problems. Most current works learn the interactions among genotypes and phenotypes from the raw genotype data. However, due to the privacy issue, genotype information is sensitive and should be handled by complying with specific restrictions. In this work, we aim to build Bayesian networks from publicly released GWAS statistics to explicitly reveal the conditional dependency between SNPs and traits. First, we focus on building a Bayesian network for modeling the SNP-categorical trait relationships. We construct a three-layered Bayesian network explicitly revealing the conditional dependency between SNPs and categorical traits from GWAS statistics. We then formulate inference problems based on the dependency relationship captured in the Bayesian network. Empirical evaluations show the effectiveness of our methods. Second, we focus on modeling the SNP-quantitative trait relationships. Existing methods in the literature can only deal with categorical traits. We address this limitation by leveraging the Conditional Linear Gaussian (CLG) Bayesian network, which can handle a mixture of discrete and continuous variables. A two-layered CLG Bayesian network is built where the SNPs are represented as discrete variables in one layer and quantitative traits are represented as continuous variables in another layer. Efficient inference methods are then derived based on the constructed network. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods. Finally, we present STIP, a web-based SNP-trait inference platform capable of a variety of inference tasks, such as trait inference given SNP genotypes and genotype inference given traits. The current version of STIP provides three services which are SNP-trait inference, Top-k trait prediction and GWAS catalog exploration.


We report here a new cationic bis-cyclometallated iridium(III) complex, 1, with deep-blue emission at 440 nm and its use in Light-emitting Electrochemical Cells (LECs). The design is based on the 2′,6′-difluoro-2,3′-bipyridine skeleton as the cyclometallating ligand and a bis-imidazolium carbene-type ancillary ligand. Furthermore, bulky tert-butyl substituents are used to limit the intermolecular interactions. LECs have been driven both at constant voltage (6 V) and constant current (2.5 mA cm−2). The performances are significantly improved with the latter method, resulting overall in one of the best reported greenish-blue LECs having fast response (17 s), light intensity over 100 cd m−2 and a reasonable efficiency of almost 5 cd A−1.


We selected EV's components and specification for the manufacturing of electric vehicles. and We made electric vehicle directly. Typical feature of our EV is method of motor drive. Two motors are installed to each rear wheel. So when our EV turn the corner, we need to control at each rear wheels. we measured steering angle, motor rpm and vehicle speed using DAQ. and We made program that control each wheel operation dependent on vehicle speed and steering angle. We used LabVIEW for date maesurment and making program.


While several psychological theories of rape have been developed, Tannen's ' miscommunication' model is dominant, informing 'expert' and popular accounts alike. Rape is constructed as an extreme example of miscommunication – whereby women's 'failure' to say 'no' is interpreted by men as sexual consent. Kitzinger and Frith have demonstrated that young women have an implicit understanding of the normative interactional structure of refusal, and it is this that explains their difficulty in 'just saying no' to unwanted sex. However, Kitzinger and Frith's study could not demonstrate, but only argue, that young men share this sophisticated understanding, such that women saying 'no' should not be necessary to refuse sexual intimacy. Here we extend Kitzinger and Frith's study, via the analysis of data from two focus groups held with young men. We demonstrate that, as Kitzinger and Frith suggested, men not only do have a refined ability to hear verbal refusals that do not contain the word 'no', but also – and importantly – an equally refined ability to 'hear' the subtlest of non-verbal sexual refusals.


Objectives There has been considerable discussion about anorectal Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) in women, with some calling for anorectal CT screening, but little about anorectal Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG). Given that urogenital NG is more strongly associated with pelvic inflammatory disease, this is an evidence gap. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the associations between anorectal CT in women and CT positivity at other sites (urogenital/oropharyngeal) and with anal intercourse, and compares these with anorectal NG within the same study populations. Methods Electronic databases were searched for English-language studies published to October 2018 using the following terms: ("Chlamydia" OR "Chlamydia trachomatis") AND (("anal" OR "rect*" OR "anorect*") OR ("extra?genital" OR "multi?site")). Studies were included if anorectal NG data were available. Random-effects meta-analyses calculated pooled estimates; heterogeneity was investigated using meta-regression. Results 25 studies were eligible. Anorectal CT positivity ranged from 0% to 17.5%, with a summary estimate of 8.0% (95% CI 7.0 to 9.1; I2=88.5%). Anorectal NG positivity ranged from 0% to 17.0%, with a summary estimate of 2.1% (95% CI 1.6 to 2.8; I2=92.7%). The association between urogenital and anorectal positivity was stronger for NG than CT (summary prevalence ratio (PR)=89.3 (95% CI 53.1 to 150.3; I2=80.1%), PR=32.2 (95% CI 25.6 to 40.7; I2=70.3%), respectively), and between oropharyngeal and anorectal positivity it was stronger for NG than CT (PR=34.8 (95% CI 10.2 to 118.2; I2=89.9%), PR=8.8 (95% CI 6.8 to 11.5; I2=58.1%), respectively). Anal intercourse was associated with anorectal NG (PR=4.3; 95% CI 2.2 to 8.6; I2=0.0%) but not with anorectal CT (PR=1.0; 95% CI 0.7 to 1.4; I2=0.0%). Conclusions Anorectal CT is more common than anorectal NG, but anorectal NG is more strongly associated with anal intercourse, urogenital and oropharyngeal NG, suggesting that ongoing discussion about anorectal CT should also include NG. Longitudinal data are required to further understanding of the aetiology of anorectal STIs and assess whether anorectal screening is needed in women. Trial registration number CRD42df017080188.


Assuming learning to be a lifelong process, it is important to provide older adults with the opportunities to pursue educational activities. The growing number of older adults in America and globally has led to an increased demand for educational programs in many nations. As a concept, lifelong learning emphasizes the potential to provide useful learning opportunities for older adults. Lifelong learning has become an international issue; many countries have developed lifelong learning policies. The United States and Japan represent two nations that have taken very different approaches in implementing lifelong learning for older adults. This paper examines the programs available to older adults in the United States and Japan. It is suggested that variations in lifelong learning policy and programs are explained by cultural and social structural differences between the United States and Japan. Recommendations for expanding and improving existing programs are also considered.


Deep generative models have achieved conspicuous progress in realistic image synthesis with multifarious conditional inputs, while generating diverse yet high-fidelity images remains a grand challenge in conditional image generation. This paper presents a versatile framework for conditional image generation which incorporates the inductive bias of CNNs and powerful sequence modeling of auto-regression that naturally leads to diverse image generation. Instead of independently quantizing the features of multiple domains as in prior research, we design an integrated quantization scheme with a variational regularizer that mingles the feature discretization in multiple domains, and markedly boosts the auto-regressive modeling performance. Notably, the variational regularizer enables to regularize feature distributions in incomparable latent spaces by penalizing the intra-domain variations of distributions. In addition, we design a Gumbel sampling strategy that allows to incorporate distribution uncertainty into the auto-regressive training procedure. The Gumbel sampling substantially mitigates the exposure bias that often incurs misalignment between the training and inference stages and severely impairs the inference performance. Extensive experiments over multiple conditional image generation tasks show that our method achieves superior diverse image generation performance qualitatively and quantitatively as compared with the state-of-the-art.


Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in Nepal. Compounded by the remote terrain, endemic poverty, and a lack of access to health facilities, the use of misoprostol has advantages over the standard use of oxytocin for PPH management. Drawing on our qualitative study of a pilot intervention managed by the Nepal Family Health Programme, we map the institutional relationships involved in the design, implementation, and practices for bringing misoprostol into national policy. In the intense and competitive global and national policy arena, sustained lobbying and getting the 'right people' on board were as powerful drivers as the quality of the intervention itself. The case study takes us to the heart of the debate around the politics of generation of evidence for interventions in global health programmes, and ultimately the question of accountability for health policy and practice.


In the last decades, evaluation has become an essential tool for policymakers, because it provides unbiased estimates of a policy effect. The purpose of an evaluation is to explore the causal relationship between the implementation of a policy and its effects – the "impact". In the programming period 2007-2013, the European Commission – and the member States of the EU – have focused their attention on the development of innovation policies within Regional Innovation Systems: for this reason, the innovation policies have been particularly involved in evaluation processes.
Six Italian regions have created the Poli di innovazione (Innovation poles), networks of universities, services centres, incubators, public and private laboratories, and enterprises, whose goals are to foster the creation of networks and to stimulate firms' economic performance through the support in R&D activities. Due to the novelty of the policy, this research is a first attempt to evaluate the Poles, using the Tuscan context as case study. Tuscany Region have supported the creation of twelve poles, facilitating the access to a call for tender for the purchase of R&D qualified services. Using matching and difference-in-differences methods, it has been estimated the Average Treatment on the Treated – in terms of Total Factor Productivity and Labor Productivity – for three possible cases: subsidized SME, SME members of the Poles, subsidized SME members of the Poles. In addition, it has been implemented a model that include network centrality measures to assess the effect of the Poles on the performance of the firms. It emerges that the subsidized firms which belong to the poles experience on average a productivity gain towards the end of the period of subsidization, and the centrality of their pole have a positive effect, which is particularly relevant for the top enterprises – in terms of productivity.


Extended Kalman filter (EKF) solution for attitude and heading estimation was proposed with code phase GPS measurements aiding the micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The estimation was carried out assuming GPS update rates of 1, 4, 5 and 10 Hz while the IMU update rate was assumed to be 40 Hz. GPS outage durations of 20 s and 15 s were considered for a total simulation duration of 500 s. The role of GPS measurements and its update rate for attitude and heading estimation is brought out clearly. The design, development and simulation studies of the EKF are presented in this paper. 1000 Monte Carlo simulations, each of 500 s, with and without GPS outages are carried out to check the robustness of the proposed estimator.


In 1948, the U.S.S.R. began a global campaign of illegal whaling that lasted for three decades and, together with the poorly managed "legal" whaling of other nations, seriously depleted whale populations. Although the general story of this whaling has been told and the catch record largely corrected for the Southern Hemisphere, major gaps remain in the North Pacific. Furthermore, little attention
has been paid to the details of this system or its economic context. Using interviews with former Soviet whalers and biologists as well as previously unavailable reports and other material in Russian, our objective is to describe how
the Soviet whaling industry was structured and how it worked, from the largest scale of state industrial planning down to the daily details of the ways in which whales were
caught and processed, and how data sent to the Bureau of International Whaling Statistics were falsified. Soviet whaling began with the factory ship Aleut in 1933, but by 1963 the industry had a truly global reach, with seven
factory fleets (some very large). Catches were driven by a state planning system that set annual production targets. The system gave bonuses and honors only when these were met or exceeded, and it frequently increased the following year's targets to match the previous year's production;
scientific estimates of the sustainability of the resource were largely ignored. Inevitably, this system led to whale populations being rapidly reduced. Furthermore, productivity was measured in gross output (weights of whales
caught), regardless of whether carcasses were sound or rotten, or whether much of the animal was unutilized.
Whaling fleets employed numerous people, including women (in one case as the captain of a catcher boat). Because
of relatively high salaries and the potential for bonuses, positions in the whaling industry were much sought-after. Catching and processing of whales was highly mechanized
and became increasingly efficient as the industry gained more experience. In a single day, the largest factory ships could process up to 200 small sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus; 100 humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae; or 30–35 pygmy blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda. However, processing of many animals involved nothing more than stripping the carcass of blubber and then discarding the rest. Until 1952, the main product was whale oil; only later was baleen whale meat regularly utilized.
Falsified data on catches were routinely submitted to the Bureau of International Whaling Statistics, but the true catch and biological data were preserved for research and administrative purposes. National inspectors were present at most times, but, with occasional exceptions, they worked
primarily to assist fulfillment of plan targets and routinely ignored the illegal nature of many catches. In all, during 40 years of whaling in the Antarctic, the U.S.S.R. reported 185,778 whales taken but at least 338,336 were actually killed. Data for the North Pacific are currently incomplete, but from provisional data we estimate that at least 30,000 whales were killed illegally in this
ocean. Overall, we judge that, worldwide, the U.S.S.R. killed approximately 180,000 whales illegally and caused a number of population crashes. Finally, we note that Soviet illegal catches continued after 1972 despite the presence of international observers on factory fleets.


It is hypothesized that an intention to replace the owned car initiated by need recognition (a decrease in perceived current quality level of the old car) or opportunity recognition (an increase in aspired quality level of the new car) will result in purchases of different new cars. A sample of 1083 car owners were interviewed over telephone every fourth month during 2.5 years. The results showed that replacement intentions were not affected by how the intention was formed but that the choice of model year of the new car was. A younger car was chosen if the aspired quality level increased faster across interview waves than the current quality level decreased, and an older car was chosen if the current quality level decreased faster than the aspired quality level increased. As a consequence, if replacement intentions are the result of opportunity recognition, rejuvenation of the car fleet will be faster than if replacement intentions are the result of need recognition.


It is well known that a variety of inflammatory diseases are accompanied by hypercoagulability, and a number of more-or-less longer-term signalling pathways have been shown to be involved. In recent work, we have suggested a direct and primary role for bacterial lipopolysaccharide in this hypercoagulability, but it seems never to have been tested directly. Here we show that the addition of tiny concentrations (0.2 ng.L−1) of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to both whole blood and platelet-poor plasma of normal, healthy donors leads to marked changes in the nature of the fibrin fibres so formed, as observed by ultrastructural and fluorescence microscopy (the latter implying that the fibrin is actually in an amyloid β-sheet-rich form. They resemble those seen in a number of inflammatory (and also amyloid) diseases, consistent with an involvement of LPS in their aetiology. These changes are mirrored by changes in their viscoelastic properties as measured by thromboelastography. Since the terminal stages of coagulation involve the polymerisation of fibrinogen into fibrin fibres, we tested whether LPS would bind to fibrinogen directly. We demonstrated this using isothermal calorimetry. Finally, we show that these changes in fibre structure are mirrored when the experiment is done simply with purified fibrinogen and thrombin (± 0.2 ng.L−1 LPS). This ratio of concentrations of LPS:fibrinogen in vivo represents a molecular amplification by the LPS of more than 108-fold, a number that is probably unparalleled in biology. The observation of a direct effect of such highly substoichiometric amounts of LPS on both fibrinogen and coagulation can account for the role of very small numbers of dormant bacteria in disease progression, and opens up this process to further mechanistic analysis and possible treatment. Significance statement Most chronic diseases (including those classified as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, or autoimmune) are accompanied by long-term inflammation. Although typically mediated by 'inflammatory' cytokines, the origin of this inflammation is unclear. We have suggested that one explanation is a dormant microbiome that can shed the highly inflammatory lipopolysaccharide LPS. Such inflammatory diseases are also accompanied by a hypercoagulable phenotype. We here show directly (using 6 different methods) that very low concentrations of LPS can affect the terminal stages of the coagulation properties of blood and plasma significantly, and that this may be mediated via a direct binding of LPS to a small fraction of fibrinogen monomers as assessed biophysically. Such amplification methods may be of more general significance.


Regulated entities often struggle to adapt to regulatory change and uncertainty. This is particularly true in the power and utilities sectors, where the scope and scale of project-level planning and management is broad, and changes to these processes can be highly disruptive. Regulatory disruption notwithstanding, some companies adapt to regulatory change and uncertainty better than others. Presently, there is a gap in understanding what these regulatory adaptation best practices might be for the power and utilities sectors.

When the federal Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") publicly proposed the Clean Power Plan ("CPP") in 2014, stakeholders in the power and utilities sectors were forced to reckon with the possibility that the CPP would prompt profound changes in the regulatory landscape. As of writing, however, the EPA has since proposed to repeal the CPP and replace it with the Affordable Clean Energy ("ACE") rule, a decision that significantly relaxes regulatory obligations for power companies. The ACE rule will be challenged in federal court, and its future remains in doubt.

This case study will focus on the CPP as a means of investigating the best practices and ongoing challenges of adapting to regulatory uncertainty. The study will provide an in-depth analysis of the approach taken by three companies whose projects and/or financial investments would be implicated by the CPP. The three companies have been interviewed by the Author, and have developed unique and potentially transformative approaches to regulatory uncertainty, while at the same time offering cautionary tales and lessons learned.


Water scarcity and related conflicts are becoming a worrying topic in Alpine regions. Moreover, lowland regions far beyond the Alps suffer from missing water from the Alps. Thus, countries are urged to act on this topic with common strategies. To support this cause, the Interreg Alpine-Space project, Alpine Drought Observatory (ADO), aims to set up a virtual observatory for the monitoring of drought in the entire Alpine region and beyond this, to derive recommendations for improved risk preparedness and efficiency of drought management.

The ADO itself will be a transnational alpine-wide operational system with a web-interface (e.g. WebGIS, periodic reports) to access data and specific impact-oriented indices for monitoring droughts and their impacts. It will provide optimized observations and forecasts for mountainous areas, which could be integrated in existing EU-level monitoring systems (e.g. European Drought Observatory). Monitoring will be based on a fusion of existing approaches (e.g. meteorological drought indices, hydrological drought indices), and newly available information (e.g. remote sensing of snow and soil moisture), to provide an optimized set of drought indices and a common drought classification. One of the further project activities will be the collection and recording of specific drought impacts. This knowledge will help to relate meteo-hydrological indices to concrete, real world effects and thus significantly enhance their applicability for drought monitoring and management.

The ADO will be tested in six case studies in all alpine countries with local partners. The case studies represent different drought issues such as agricultural drought, hydrological drought or drought impact on ecosystems. Out of the case studies, guidelines for an improved drought risk management will be developed. Findings will be upscaled to recommendations for drought governance policies for the Alps. Main beneficiaries of project findings are institutions with decision-making capacities in the field of water management, energy production, and agriculture.


O. De Clerck, H. Verbruggen, J.M. Huisman, E.J. Faye, F. Leliaert, T. Schils and E. Coppejans. 2008. Systematics and biogeography of the genus Pseudocodium (Bryopsidales, Chlorophyta), including the description of P. natalense sp. nov. from South Africa. Phycologia 47: 225–235. DOI: 10.2216/07-79.1 This study examines the diversity of Pseudocodium, a small green algal genus assigned to its own family in the order Bryopsidales. The included species are characterized by uncalcified thalli with a medulla composed of a limited number of interwoven siphons that form a cortex of distinctive utricles toward the periphery. Detailed morphological descriptions are provided for all known species. A combination of characters relating to general habit, morphology of the axes, apices and utricles distinguishes all species easily. Re-examination of Indonesian and Papua New Guinean specimens, previously reported as Pseudocodium floridanum, reveals that they belong to the recently described Pseudocodium okinawense. South African specimens formerly attributed to P. floridanum are described as a new species, Pseudocodium. natalense. Pseudocodium australasicum, a species endemic to southern Australia, does not fit the generic concept of Pseudocodium in that it does not possess a cortex composed of utricles. Putative reproductive structures have thus far only been reported for P. floridanum. Observations on Pseudocodium devriesii and P. natalense reveal very similar spherical to irregular structures formed laterally on medullary siphons in the axils of peripheral utricles. Interestingly, and confirming the earlier observations of Dawes & Mathieson, no basal cross wall is formed at the base of the reproductive structures. Instead, a translucent plug at the base of the reproductive structures prevents the cytoplasm from leaking. This suggests that Pseudocodium is not holocarpic, unlike most Halimedineae. DNA sequences of rbcL and tufA are presented for all species and the resulting phylogenies are used as a framework to study the evolution of morphological features as well as the biogeography of the genus, both at the global scale and within the Indian Ocean.


Cognitive Poetics is a new way of thinking about literature, involving the application of cognitive linguistics and psychology to literary texts. This student-friendly book provides a set of case studies to help students understand the theory and master the practice of cognitive poetics in analysis. Written by a range of well-known scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries, Cognitive Poetics in Practice offers students a unique insight into this exciting subject. In each chapter, contributors present a practical application of the methods and techniques of cognitive poetics, to a range of texts, from Wilfred Owen to Roald Dahl. The editors' general introduction provides an overview of the field, and each chapter begins with an editors' introduction to set the chapter in context. Specifically designed sections suggesting further activities for students are also provided at the end of each case study. Cognitive Poetics in Practice can be used on its own or as a companion volume to Peter Stockwell's Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction. This book is critical reading for students on courses in cognitive poetics, stylistics and literary linguistics and will be of interest to all those involved in literary studies, critical theory and linguistics.


The collective movement of animal groups often occurs in confined spaces. As animal groups are challenged to move at high density, their mobility dynamics may resemble the flow of densely packed non-living soft materials such as colloids, grains, or polymers. However, unlike inert soft-materials, self-propelled collective living systems often display social interactions whose influence on collective mobility are only now being explored. In this paper, we study the mobility of bi-directional traffic flow in a social insect (the fire ant Solenopsis invicta) as we vary the diameter of confining foraging tunnels. In all tunnel diameters, we observe the emergence of spatially heterogeneous regions of fast and slow traffic that are induced through two phenomena: physical obstruction, arising from the inability of individual ants to interpenetrate, and time-delay resulting from social interaction in which ants stop to briefly antennate. Density correlation functions reveal that the relaxation dynamics of high density traffic fluctuations scale linearly with fluctuation size and are sensitive to tunnel diameter. We separate the roles of physical obstruction and social interactions in traffic flow using cellular automata based simulation. Social interaction between ants is modeled as a dwell time (Tint) over which interacting ants remain stationary in the tunnel. Investigation over a range of densities and Tint reveals that the slowing dynamics of collective motion in social living systems are consistent with dynamics near a fragile glass transition in inert soft-matter systems. In particular, flow is relatively insensitive to density until a critical density is reached. As social interaction affinity is increased (increasing Tint) traffic dynamics change and resemble a strong glass transition. Thus, social interactions play an important role in the mobility of collective living systems at high density. Our experiments and model demonstrate that the concepts of soft-matter physics aid understanding of the mobility of collective living systems, and motivate further inquiry into the dynamics of densely confined social living systems.


Purpose of review The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma is on the rise despite widespread appreciation that the precursor lesion is Barrett's esophagus. Studies have shown that some patients known to have Barrett's esophagus develop cancer despite their enrollment in conventional endoscopic surveillance programs. This highlights the need for advanced endoscopic imaging to help identify early neoplasia and prevent its progression to esophageal cancer. Recently, a wide-field, second-generation optical coherence tomography endoscopic platform called volumetric laser endomicroscopy (VLE) was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration and made commercially available for advanced imaging in Barrett's esophagus. Recent findings The current review discusses current literature on VLE imaging in Barrett's esophagus. Based on ex-vivo studies, criteria have been established for identifying Barrett's esophagus-associated neoplasia. In addition, recent studies, case series, and case reports have demonstrated that VLE is well tolerated, efficacious, and can target neoplasia. Summary VLE is a new advanced imaging platform for Barrett's esophagus with considerable promise to target Barrett's esophagus-associated neoplasia. The following are needed to establish VLE's clinical role: studies showing incremental yield of dysplasia detection using VLE, studies to determine VLE's in-vivo diagnostic accuracy for identifying and classifying Barrett's esophagus-associated neoplasia, and studies on the cost-efficacy of VLE.


Do the macroeconomics of the German political establishment really differ from standard western macroeconomics? That question was the starting point for the seminar on 'German macro: How it's Different and Why that Matters', which was held at Heriot-Watt University in December 2015, with financial support from the Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE) and the Money, Macro & Finance Research Group (MMF). This ebook, edited by George Bratsiotis and David Cobham, is the result of that exercise; six of the papers were presented at the seminar in earlier versions, and the editors sought some additional papers to complete the range of perspectives offered. The authors all sought out to discover whether or not there is something unique about German macroeconomics, and in what ways it differs from standard western macroeconomics; is it true that the former neglects demand management (although it may be quite interventionist in other ways), rejects debt relief and emphasises structural reform designed to improve competitiveness as the (only) key to economic growth? How much of whatever difference exists is due to a well worked out set of ideas in the form of Ordoliberalism? In what way does it relate to Germany's own experiences in different periods? And how far is this the result of political preferences and how much do the idiosyncrasies of these German views matter, for the development of the Eurozone and indeed the health of the German economy?


An approximation method based on Lucas polynomials is presented for the solution of the system of high-order linear differential equations with variable coefficients under the mixed conditions. This method transforms the system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to the linear algebraic equations system by expanding the approximate solutions in terms of the Lucas polynomials with unknown coefficients and by using the matrix operations and collocation points. In addition, the error analysis based on residual function is developed for present method. To demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the method, numerical examples are given with the help of computer programmes written in Maple and Matlab.


While the meaning of "data" and its role in the research process has shifted numerous times over the past few decades, the role of the academic data librarian has remained focused on helping faculty and students access, use, and preserve all aspects of this distinctive class of information in support of the creation of new knowledge. At the same time, rapid advances in information technology, the explosive growth of digital data, and new methods of scholarly communication have collectively transformed data services in libraries, by impacting their operations, functions, and even their mission. Today, data librarianship is a field of knowledge that can require specific expertise in network technologies, information architecture, metadata, data structuring, text and data mining, data cleaning, manipulation, analysis and visualization, coding, data metrics, data management and data curation, data literacy and data ethics. As a consequence, library services related to research data continue to be a developing area where the responsibilities and practices of data librarianship within academic libraries are generally not yet firmly established.
This paper offers an overview of the strategic planning and establishment of research data services within a Canadian university campus library. The University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) Library is located on the eastern edge of the City of Toronto, one of three campuses that make up the larger University of Toronto system. Primarily an undergraduate community, students, faculty, and staff have access to library resources and services across all three campuses, including a centrally located Map and Data Library. The main challenges facing the UTSC Library are: 1. to develop high-quality research data services that would meet the current needs of faculty and students in alignment with the pre-existing services of the main campus Library; 2. to build awareness and use of these services; 3. to generate support, excitement, and engagement of librarians and staff within the UTSC Library; 4. to work with librarians and staff to build the knowledge and skills needed to ensure the scalability and sustainability of UTSC's data services; 5. to be flexible enough to respond to future development opportunities in an area that is continuously shifting and expanding.
The authors of this paper will describe the process of developing research data services at the UTSC Library, beginning from the creation (proposal stage) of a data librarian position, hiring and staffing, development of a mandate in alignment with the Library's mission, to the first stages of implementation and assessment. We will discuss how these activities integrate into the wider context of the UTSC Library's user services and functional departments, specifically the Digital Scholarship Unit (DSU) and the Liaison Librarian Program. Additionally, as one of three campuses which span the Greater Toronto Area, we will discuss the role of data services at a smaller, undergraduate campus in relation to University of Toronto Libraries main campus data services and, in particular, what distinct value and services a smaller-sized library data service can contribute to the research community, as well as future developments in the field of data librarianship.


Background: Genome-wide association (GWA) studies regarding the quantitative trait of alcohol consumption are limited. Objective: The objective of the study was to explore genetic loci associated with the amount of alcohol consumed. Design: We conducted a GWA study with discovery data on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for 1721 Korean male drinkers aged 40–69 y who were included in an urban population–based cohort. Another sample that comprised 1113 male drinkers who were from an independent cohort enrolled in a rural area served as a resource for replication. At baseline (18 June 2001 through 29 January 2003), members of both cohorts provided information on average daily alcohol consumptions, and their DNA samples were collected for genotyping. Results: We tested 315,914 SNPs of discovery data by using multivariate linear regression analysis adjusted for age and smoking, and 12 SNPs on chromosome 12q24 had genome-wide significant associations with alcohol consumption; adjusted P values by using Bonferroni correction were 1.6 · 10 through 5.8 · 10. We observed most SNPs in intronic regions and showed that the genes that harbor SNPs were C12orf51, CCDC63, MYL2, OAS3, CUX2, and RPH3A. In particular, signals in or near C12orf51, CCDC63, and MYL2 were successfully replicated in the test for 317,951 SNPs; rs2074356 in C12orf51 was in high linkage disequilibrium with SNPs in ALDH2, but other SNPs were not. Conclusions: In a GWA study, we identified loci and alleles highly associated with alcohol consumption. The findings suggest the need for further investigations on the genetic propensity for drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Am J Clin Nutr doi: 10. 3945/ajcn.110.001776.


The paper explores the changing forms of governance currently being applied to the English further education sector – changes that emphasise the importance of locality. The paper sets the sector within its socio‐economic and policy context, examining current policy changes that intend to alter the way in which the sector is managed. It relates these changes to their contextual location and to a set of conceptual notions that derive from a particular understanding of systems theory and what has been described as the new localism. It concludes that whilst these changing forms of governance are in continuity with earlier policies that had a regional dimension, they remain set on the terrain of performativity and new public sector management. Nevertheless, there remains a residual potential to develop more democratic forms of engagement in these changes.


Manufacturing Systems Control Design details a matrix-based approach to the real-time application of control in discrete-event systems and flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) in particular. The "and/or" algebra in which matrix operations are carried out enables fast and efficient calculations with a minimum of computing power. In addition, the method uses standard task-sequencing and resource-requirements matrices which, if not in use already, can be easily derived with the help of this text. Matrix-based techniques are compared with Petri net and max-plus algebra ideas. Virtual modeling of complex physical systems has brought a new perspective to the investigation of phenomena in FMS. The software discussed in this book(and downloadable from the authors' website at http://flrcg.rasip.fer.hr/) supplies the reader with a graphical user interface that can do many things to make the design and control of FMS easier. The examples presented herein tackle the real-world problems faced by engineers trying to put into practice methods developed in academia, bringing together catholic experience of sensors, control systems, robotics, industrial automation, simulation, agile assembly and supply chains. Common concerns confronted include: • predictability: issues of control system modeling and analysis are addressed ; • producibility: by looking at the design and synthesis of cellular workcells ; • productivity: in terms of dynamic sensing and control. Covering all the steps from identification of operations and resources through modeling of the system and simulation of its dynamics in a virtual environment to the transformation of those models into real-world algorithms, this monograph is a sound practical basis for the design of controllers for manufacturing systems. It will interest both the academic and practising control or manufacturing engineer wishing to enhance the control of flexible systems and operations researchers looking at manufacturing performance. The end-of-chapter exercises provided and the easy-to-read introduction to the subject will also suit the final-year undergraduate and the beginning graduate in these disciplines.


Brill's Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus explores the various ways Aeschylus' tragedies have been revisioned and adapted over the last 2500 years, focusing both on his theatrical reception and his reception in other media and genres.


Background and purpose: Air pollution has been known as one of the most effective factors on cardiovascular, pulmonary and infectious diseases. This study aims to determine the relation between mortality rate and air pollution in Mashhad during 2007-2009. Materials and Methods: Data of air pollution, mortality rate and geographic factors were collected during 2007-2009 and analyzed. Mortality rate, the average PSI of individual pollutants , temperature and moisture were weekly measured and the diagrams were then drawn according to the methods of statistical correlation and regression analysis of air pollution and mortality rate. Results: According to the findings, there was no significant relation between CO and mortality rate, but the other pollutants played a significant role in this regard. The maximum correlation was obtained for SO2 and O3 in the concentrations of 0.936 and 0.154 ppm, respectively, but in the final model for all pollutants and weather variables, only PSI for O3, season and humidity showed significant change. Conclusion: O3 has increased during three years of research and has been the leading cause of death among the pollutants. Most deaths occurred in cold seasons. Among all pollutants, the maximum concentration of SO2 was in winter and the maximum concentration of O3 was in spring and summer 2009. [*Alidadi H. Shakeri M.T. Hossein zadeh H. Noorani A. The Relation between Mortality Rate and Air Pollutant concentrations in Mashhad, 2007-2009. IJHS 2013; 1(2):68-74] http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir


Background: Light can be absorbed by bacterial pigment and affects its growth. Prodigiosin is a red pigment found in various bacterial species. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of light on prodigiosin production, biomass formation, and membrane integrity of Serratia marcescens y2. Results: S. marcescens y2 grew better and produced more intracellular prodigiosin in darkness than in illumination. The pigment leakage ratio from cells was detected more in light than in darkness conditions. Ethidium bromide uptake assay could visually prove the prodigiosin-related loss of membrane integrity under illumination. A higher concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) was detected in light-treated culture than in darkness. Tests of different light treatments (red, yellow, blue and green) showed that the maximum extracellular pigment and the minimum biomass formation and intracellular pigment were obtained in green light. Conclusions: Prodigiosin could absorb light, and then initiate phototoxicity damage of the cytomembrane.


Organic solar cells (OSCs) have achieved much attention and meanwhile reach efficiencies above 10%. One problem yet to be solved is the lack of long term stability. Crosslinking is presented as a tool to increase the stability of OSCs. A number of materials used for the crosslinking of bulk heterojunction cells are presented. These include the crosslinking of low bandgap polymers used as donors in bulk heterojunction cells, as well as the crosslinking of fullerene acceptors and crosslinking between donor and acceptor. External crosslinkers often based on multifunctional azides are also discussed. In the second part, some work either leading to OSCs with high efficiencies or giving insight into the chemistry and physics of crosslinking are highlighted. The diffusion of low molar mass fullerenes in a crosslinked matrix of a conjugated polymer and the influence of crosslinking on the carrier mobility is discussed. Finally, the use of crosslinking to make stable interlayers and the solution processing of multilayer OSCs are discussed in addition to presentation of a novel approach to stabilize nanoimprinted patterns for OSCs by crosslinking.


In Pakistan there is a ubiquity of firms in which there exists a controlling shareholder, usually in the form of the family. By and large this control is maintained via crossshareholding and inter-locked directorships which in turn is facilitated by the pyramidal organization of these firms. Moreover, these controlling families have often been alleged of tunneling resources from firms in which they have few cash flow rights to ones in which they have more cash flow rights. This paper attempts to quantify the extent of tunneling prevalent in Pakistani family business groups. The framework that is adopted is one that has been presented by Mullainathan et al. (2000) : we use the responses of different firms to performance shocks and map out the flow of resources within a group of firms to quantify the extent to which the marginal rupee is tunneled. We apply this technique to data on Pakistan business groups.


ABSTRACT Over the last decade the integration of web-based technologies into the film supply chain has accelerated a huge shift in the way documentary films are distributed and exhibited. This shift has seen a move away from the previous analogue systems- built on the exclusivity of time and space- into new convergent and transnational methods based on digital systems. This has (had) huge ramifications for all areas of documentary making, none more so than on the issue of documentary ethics. Above all other forms of film (and filmmaking), ethics is one of the key factors that define and distinguish the documentary film. However, much of the ethical frameworks and discourse currently used are from the previous analogue period of distribution and exhibition. Using the making of a feature documentary as a case study, this article explores how the changes in exhibition and distribution have affected the ethical frameworks that have traditionally informed the making of a documentary. The study concludes by demonstrating how current ethical frameworks and safeguarding procedures, undertaken by both documentary makers but also regulatory bodies, need to be rethought in order to respond to the challenges inherent in this transnational landscape.


Tennessee Statute 54-5-134, Cutting Hay Along Controlled Access Highway Right-of-Way, provided agriculturalists the right to harvest hay along interstate highways' and other controlled access roads' medians and shoulders. Maintenance of these medians and shoulders are routinely contracted to private mowing companies and funded by Tennessee taxpayers. As a result of the Tennessee statute and lack of empirical information, a questionnaire was used to assess livestock producers' awareness, attitudes, and barriers concerning right-of-way hay harvesting. We found 7.2% of surveyed livestock producers were aware of their right to this resource, but none of the producers had applied for a permit. While livestock producers were highly innovative in terms of general agricultural practices, they were moderate in attitude towards right-of-way hay harvesting. Attributes leading to a more positive attitude toward right-of-way hay harvest were: (a) the ability to sell hay harvested from right-of-ways, (b) willing to pay someone else to cut hay from right-ofways, and (c) currently purchasing hay. Alternatively, an attribute leading to a more negative attitude was currently feeding alfalfa mix hay. There is moderate interest among livestock producers to utilize hay from right-of-ways, but further research and education is needed to explore the practicality of this innovation.


The freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (L.) has attracted a large human interest, since the mussel is fascinating from biological, cultural andenvironmental perspectives. The mussel has a complicated life cycle dependingon host fish, and has great demands on its habitat. Furthermore, the mussel is anenvironmental indicator, and is used as an umbrella and flagship species. Pearl fishing has been described in Sweden as early as in the 16th century and by Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century.Many freshwater pearl mussel populations have insufficient recruitment and therefore decrease in numbers, and many populations are even extinct. Therefore, conservation work on the freshwater pearl mussel is going on all over Europe. Actions to preserve the freshwater pearl mussel will also favour other aquatic species – freshwater pearl mussel conservation is aquatic biodiversity conservation! WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) Sweden implemented the project "The Freshwater Pearl Mussel and its habitats in Sweden" during 2004-2009 (LIFE04NAT/SE/000231). The overall objective was to improve the habitats of juvenile freshwater pearl mussels and the host fish brown trout Salmo trutta in21 streams. The actions were improvements of the biotopes, re-introduction of mussels, information to the stakeholders, and development of planning methods. An international conference "Aquatic Conservation with Focus on the Freshwater Pearl Mussel Margaritifera margaritifera" was held in Sundsvall 12–14 August, 2009. In these proceedings, presentations from the conference are published.


Climate change has become the major concern for the world today. Focusing on agriculture, climate change is already beginning to have a negative impact on world's crop production levels. Global warming/climate change is causing a significant harm to the cultivation of crops including chillies around the world. Chilli is one of the important spice crops. Many studies have been done/conducted to look for the possible damage to chilli crop growth and development due to change in climate and global warming and also to find out the solution to these problems. This review article highlights about some of the consequences of global warming such as extreme temperature, drought, floods, soil acidity, soil salinity, etc. on chilli and the mitigation and adaptation techniques that are being used or can be used to make the plants more tolerant and productive under this changing climate.


This paper addresses the changing governance of the social through the conjunction of international, national and local strategies where attempts to both regulate migration and asylum seeking and promote community safety meet. Migration has been increasingly subjected to processes of 'securitisation' and 'criminalisation' that encounter and align with new pressures in 'domestic' and local crime and safety policies. The paper offers a critical evaluation of the sociological grand narratives that attempt to frame these events. The paper concludes by arguing for a more nuanced social scientific analysis of the instabilities and volatilities of governance strategies and practices – and the normative and political issues that they bring into view


Many metabolic disorders originate from thyroid disorders, particularly from hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism commonly occurs in elderly subjects, particularly in women. Subclinical form of hypothyroidism can be diagnosed via laboratory testing. It is crucial to check thyroid hormone profile in elderly subjects. Subclinical hypothyroidism can eventually lead to overt hypothyroidism if left untreated. Treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism could be helpful in preventing the complications of hypothyroidism, particularly among the elderly population. The main aim of this review was to investigate subclinical hypothyroidism among elderly subjects.


Introduction: Prevalence of blindness has been very much increased in developed countries like India nowadays. Amongst the causes of blindness, many causes are preventable by routine eye check-up even at primary health centre. Therefore regular eye check-up is the need of time in India. Rapid assessment methods for blindness (RAAB) are recently implied for fast evaluation and epidemiological analysis of blindness in particular region and according to that, a strategic plan can be made to cope with these conditions. Method: We applied same RAAB method to analyse the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment in 5000 people of more than 50years of age residing in Delhi region as a cross sectional study. Results: Most number of cases were from age group between 50 years to 59 years (47.21%). The mean age was 57.2 yrs. Cases were slightly more in male sex. 751 cases were having vision acuity of 3/60 and below. Amongst the causes of blindness, cataract was most common affecting 60.95% cases having vision acuity of <3/60 and 72.98% cases having vision acuity of <6/60. An alarming high prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was found compared to studies done in other regions previously. Conclusion: Most of the causes of blindness seen in our study are preventable if proper awareness and medical facilities for regular eye check-up and treatment.


Background & Objective: Lung is a radiosensitive organ. Patients who are undergoing radiation therapy in their chest are subjected to radiation pneumonitis in the early phase and pulmonary fibrosis in the late one. Melatonin scavenges free radicals directly and acts as an indirect antioxidant through the activation of major antioxidant enzymes as well. The aim of the study thus is to investigate the effect of melatonin against the early damages in irradiated lungs. Materials & methods: Male wistar rats were divided into five groups: the first group was considered as the control group. Both the second and the third group received 100 mg/kg melatonin intraorally however, the latter one underwent through 18Gy radiotherapy as well. The fourth group underwent through 18Gy radiotherapy in their chests. After 48 hours, all of the rats were killed for histhopathological evaluation. Results: the results indicated that radiation increases the collapse and fibrosis and cause the abundance of macrophage compared to control group (p<0.05). Oral administration of melatonin before radiation therapy significantly increased the lymphocyte and macrophage frequency (p<0.001) and decreased the RBC (p<0.05) frequency compared to the radiation group. Conclusion: According to the results, melatonin can prevent early damages in irradiated lungs. Free radicals cause cytotoxicity and melatonin can directly decrease the radiation induced cell damages by converting the free radicals to non- toxic compounds and also through the activation of the major antioxidant enzymes.


E-Government can transform and improve the entire scope of administrative actions and political processes. Hence, EGovernment is both, vision of a future government and the reality we can experience today. E-Government is not an objective per se; it has rather to be seen as measures of organizing public governance for better serving citizens and enterprises. Conversely, E-Government services are often developed and implemented by a top-down approach without reflecting the use of the services by involving the potential users. Hence, this paper advocates implementing services on regional level – assumed to be the social context of E-Government. The presented survey conducted in the European metropolitan area Rhine-Neckar (MRN) among self-employed citizens identified the most requested E-Government services in the region as a first step. The case of the MRN allowed classifying the services into several groups distinguishing by the level of regional influence. The case suggests that the more influence a region – or public administration at local level has – the more a bottom-up approach of identifying and implementing E-Government services should be followed. In decentralized structures such as the MRN the question is also raised whether E-Government programs should move outside the organizational boundaries of known hierarchical administrative structures.


Background: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT)-requiring acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill adult patients frequently occurs in the intensive care unit and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. There is a paucity of epidemiological data regarding CRRT-requiring AKI in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all critically ill adult patients with CRRT-requiring AKI at Universitas Academic Hospital, Bloemfontein, during the period 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2014. The primary purpose was to determine the incidence of CRRT-requiring AKI. Secondary objectives were to record mortality, renal recovery and duration of CRRT. Results: The number of patients with CRRT-requiring AKI was 87 (1.1%) of the 7 709 patients admitted to the ICU over this 4-year period. Of these, 37 (43%) were HIV infected. The median age was 56 years (43 years in the HIV-infected versus 64 years in the HIV-uninfected group (P < 0.01). The majority of the HIV-infected patients were Black (89%). Metabolic acidosis together with pulmonary oedema and oliguria were the main indications for dialysis. The overall mortality was 31% with most of the deaths (82%) occurring in the HIV-positive patients. These patients had a mortality rate of 60% versus 10% among the uninfected (P < 0.01. Multivariate logistic regression identified female sex and HIV infection as independent predictors of mortality. The median duration of CRRT was 3 days and renal recovery occurred in 26% of patients. Conclusions: The incidence of CRRT-requiring AKI in critically ill adult patients at Universitas Academic Hospital was low. The overall mortality was relatively low when compared to that reported by others; however, it was relatively very high in the HIV-infected group.


This thesis presents vibrational overtone studies on N$\sb2$O, $\rm\sp{12}CO\sb2,$ OCS, and $\rm\ sp{13}CO\sb2$ in the energy range from 10000 cm$\sp{-1}$ to 14000 cm$\sp{-1}$ by means of photoacoustic spectroscopy. Many new overtone and combination transitions have been discovered and some of the band intensities have been measured for the carbon dioxide molecule. The observed values of the transition positions and relative intensities are in good agreement with the theoretical calculations that were also performed. In addition, improvements on the experimental apparatus have been made during the investigations on these heavy-atom systems. The text of this thesis is composed of seven chapters. The first one is an introduction which briefly describes the importance, the challenge of heavy-atom overtone spectroscopy and its relation to other research areas. The second chapter includes the general procedures of the experiments and descriptions of the main components of the apparatus. Chapter III depicts the improvements of the overall performance of the apparatus by introducing a new photoacoustic cell design. The next three chapters contain the major portion of the thesis. Chapter IV presents the early studies on CO$\sb2$ and N$\sb2$O in the spectral range from 12500 to 14000 cm$\sp{-1}.$ One Fermi diad for CO$\sb2$ near 12700 cm$\sp{-1}$ and three bands for N$\sb2$O were observed. The absorption cross sections for these transitions were estimated. Chapter V contains the study of OCS in the spectral range from 10000 to 14000 cm$\sp{-1}.$ Fourteen overtone transitions have been discovered and assignments have been carried out for this molecule. Chapter VI describes the investigation of $\rm\sp{12}CO\sb2$ and $\rm\sp{13}CO\sb2$ in the same spectral as that for OCS. A total of twenty one overtone and combination transitions have been recorded and sixteen were observed for the first time. Analysis was performed by energy level calculations based on molecular parameters from literature. In addition, transition cross sections for the Venus bands are estimated. Finally, the last chapter is the conclusion of this thesis. It presents the concluding remarks on what has been learned during the course of this thesis work and possible future research projects.


Through mainstream discourses that infuse all components of society, settler superiority is naturalized in Canada. This process occurs at the expense of Indigenous peoples who continue to be displaced from the land, which is conceptualized as a 'resource'. Despite the seemingly static nature of settler colonialism, its hegemony is both contested and reinforced through the participatory social space of Instagram. Though it is primarily known for its aesthetic and visual communication properties, Instagram's visuality contributes substantially to public discourse, enabling resistant and political expressions around specific issues. Using data collected from Instagram, this article maps the social life of Canada's controversial Trans Mountain pipeline issue, as it develops under medium-specific affordances. Around the Trans Mountain pipeline issue, hashtags and imagery mutually inform one another on Instagram, connecting highly located and temporal experiences with national policies, as users performatively challenge and reinforce social relations as they exist under settler colonialism.


Boethius, the Roman philosopher, was executed for treason and pilloried by modern scholars for misinterpreting Aristotle to the West. This book examines his semantics and logic, attempting to clear his name and lend him new credence.


"I was twenty when I followed away from my town a trapeze family, aerialists, a group of beautiful winged people, mother, father, son and daughter. They were the Ishbels." Chris, whose leg is injured, and his lover Stella, with whom he lives in a ruined, abandoned house; Chris's male nurse; Marvello the circus aerialist; a lighthouse keeper; a flagpole sitter in small-town America - these are the creatures of William Goyen's visionary fable of love, lust, and loneliness. Half a Look of Cain: A Fantastical Narrative was written in the 1950s and early 1960s, and is now being published for the first time. Part fable and part rhapsodic exploration of desire and loss, Half a Look of Cain bears Goyen's unmistakable artistic signature on every page. Too far ahead of its time in its swirling visionary structure, this novel was rejected by Goyen's first publisher as not sufficiently commercial and remained unpublished despite extensive revisions. The novel is shaped as a group of "medallions" - a series of related episodes. It dreams of defying mortality - as if living in the air, like the aerialists or the flagpole sitter - and of finding perfect companionship in lover and friend. The novel is both a rediscovered cry against the conformity and suppressed emotions of the 1950s and a celebration of passion. Reginald Gibbons has edited the novel from the author's multiple manuscripts and has contributed an illuminating afterword.


There is much interest in open access publishing. This has been caused, in part, by demands that research which was publicly funded should be made available to those who funded it, and partly by a feeling that the market for research information has become unnecessary expensive and fragmented.  In law, we have seen the success of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) and its ability to make a very large corpus of judgments and other materials available without charge, with very minimal expenditure – indeed law schools provide very little funding to support BAILII.  Apart from BAILII there has been little open access legal publishing in the UK. The Web Journal of Current Legal Issues has been one of the few locations where the open access model has been utilised, and has been so for almost two decades.  The history of the Web JCLI is therefore of interest to outline what has enabled its longevity, what barriers low cost legal publishing faces, and where such a journal might go now that commercial publishers are being encouraged (by a changing financial model) to utilise open access channels, too.


Natural law theories hold that human action is oriented towards certain intrinsic goods and governed by practical principles accessible to us by virtue of our nature. These goods and principles make up the content of natural law. This essay argues that both the content of natural law and our understanding of its requirements evolve throughout human history. This represents a diachronic, rather than synchronic, understanding of natural law. This perspective is contrasted with the 'new natural law theory' of Germain Grisez and John Finnis, which depicts natural law as timeless and unchanging. Finnis seems to think that natural law does not change because it exists in the mind of God; however, a belief in God as the source of natural law is equally consistent with a diachronic perspective. I defend this view through reference to the writings of Thomas Aquinas and the structure of the biblical narrative.


Background: This paper is an attempt to investigate occupational burnout among library
personnel in University Libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria. Burnout is a state of emotional, mental,
and physical exhaustion which is caused by prolonged stress.
Objectives: find out if library personnel in academic libraries in Ogun State, do experience
occupational burnout, Highlight the perceived causes of occupational burnout, identify the
consequences of occupational burnout on the library personnel surveyed and strategies to mitigate
burnout syndrome among library personnel.
Methods: A descriptive survey method was adopted for the study Two hundred and thirty six copies
of structured questionnaire were administered and Two hundred and twenty one (representing
93.6% response rate) were retrieved. One hypothesis was tested using Pearson correlation.
Results: The causes of occupational burnout among library personnel sampled ranged from
inadequate resources to work with, rigid working hours, unfavorable policies.
Discussions: Drawing from the analysis carried out, there are some factors that affect the level of
burnout experienced by the library personnel; these factors go a long way to affect the level of
occupational burn out experienced.
Conclusion: The paper concludes that the level of commitment of the library personnel could be
determined by the nature of prevailing policies in the institution


The centrepiece of Hanif Kureishi's brilliant new collection of fiction delves into the fascinating concept of personal identity, and the extent to which this is rooted in our physical being. Middle-aged playwright Adam is amazed to be approached by a shadowy organisation and offered the chance to trade in his decrepit body for a much younger model. He takes up the offer for a six-month period, and his consciousness is duly transplanted into the handsome body of his choice. But Adam soon finds that his new flesh brings with it grave and unforeseen dangers ...


OBJECTIVE
recently, Bergman et al. have introduced a new index of adiposity, namely, body adiposity index (BAI), as a marker of obesity excess body fat in clinical practice. We aimed to determine the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to assess the predicting ability of BAI in various atherogenic indices, MetS and its components among adult from Bogota, Colombia.

METHODS
cross-sectional study in 690 male. MetS components (waist circumference ≥ 90 cm; fasting plasma glucose ≥ 100 mg/dL, blood pressure ≥ 135/85 mm Hg; triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dL and HDL-c ≤ 40 mg/dL were measured. Atherogenic indices (cholesterol/HDL-c, LDL-c/HDL-c, triglycerides/HDL-c, lipid-metabolic index [LMI] and MetS score) were calculated.

RESULTS
the prevalence of obesity by BAI (cut-point > 26.1%) and MetS was 50.1% and 19.1%, respectively. Subjects with MetS and obesity by BAI, show lower HDL-c levels and more frequently components of MetS (waist circumference, cholesterol and serum triglycerides). Predicting ability of BAI with a greater odds for atherogenic indices were 1.78 (95%CI 1.25 to 2.55), 1.46 (95%CI 1.01 to 2.14), 1.97 (95% 1.29 to 3.02), 2.04 (95%CI 1.23 to 3.39) and 1.47 (95%CI 1.03 to 2.11), elevation in LDL-c, LMI, MetS score and cholesterol/ HDL-c, and triglyceride/HDL-c, respectively (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
subjects with higher levels of BAI show raised prevalence of obesity and positively associated with components of MetS.


We optimize over the set of corrected Laplacians (CL) associated with a weighted graph to improve the average case normalized cut (NCut) of a graph. Unlike edge-relaxation SDPs, optimizing over the set CL naturally exploits the matrix sparsity by operating solely on the diagonal. This structure is critical to image segmentation applications because the number of vertices is generally proportional to the number of pixels in the image. CL optimization provides a guiding principle for improving the combinatorial solution over the spectral relaxation, which is important because small improvements in the cut cost often result in significant improvements in the perceptual relevance of the segmentation. We develop an optimization procedure to accommodate prior information in the form of statistical shape models, resulting in a segmentation method that produces foreground regions which are consistent with a parameterized family of shapes. We validate our technique with ground truth on MRI medical images, providing a quantitative comparison against results produced by current spectral relaxation approaches to graph partitioning.


Despite normative predictions from economics and biology, unrelated strangers will often develop the trust necessary to reap gains from one-shot economic exchange opportunities. This appears to be especially true when declared intentions and emotions can be cheaply communicated. Perhaps even more puzzling to economists and biologists is the observation that anonymous and unrelated individuals, known to have breached trust, often make effective use of cheap signals, such as promises and apologies, to encourage trust re-extension. We used a pair of trust games with one-way communication and an emotion survey to investigate the role of emotions in regulating the propensity to message, apologize, re-extend trust, and demonstrate trustworthiness. This design allowed us to observe the endogenous emergence and natural distribution of trust-relevant behaviors, remedial strategies used by promise-breakers, their effects on behavior, and subsequent outcomes. We found that emotions triggered by interaction outcomes are predictable and also predict subsequent apology and trust re-extension. The role of emotions in behavioral regulation helps explain why messages are produced, when they can be trusted, and when trust will be re-extended.


This lecture introduces systematically into the problem of managing large data collections in peer-to-peer systems. Search over large datasets has always been a key problem in peer-to-peer systems and the peer-to-peer paradigm has incited novel directions in the field of data management. This resulted in many novel peer-to-peer data management concepts and algorithms, for supporting data management tasks in a wider sense, including data integration, document management and text retrieval. The lecture covers four different types of peer-to-peer data management systems that are characterized by the type of data they manage and the search capabilities they support. The first type are structured peer-to-peer data management systems which support structured query capabilities for standard data models. The second type are peer-to-peer data integration systems for querying of heterogeneous databases without requiring a common global schema. The third type are peer-to-peer document retrieval systems that enable document search based both on the textual content and the document structure. Finally, we introduce semantic overlay networks, which support similarity search on information represented in hierarchically organized and multi-dimensional semantic spaces. Topics that go beyond data representation and search are summarized at the end of the lecture. Table of Contents: Introduction / Structured Peer-to-Peer Databases / Peer-to-peer Data Integration / Peer-to-peer Retrieval / Semantic Overlay Networks / Conclusion


Ianthella basta marine sponges in Kimbe Bay, west New Britain, Papua New Guinea were affected by a disease, and exhibited high mortality, between 1996 and 2000. These fan-shaped sponges were mottled with brown lesions, rotted tissue and large holes. The decayed tissue was sur- rounded by brown biofilm that smothered the ostia openings. Since 1996, I. basta suffered its highest mortality at 3 sites within 16-20 km of the shore of west New Britain. No mortality was observed at 3 other locations further from shore (between 27-41 km), nor at 10 sites located more than 41 km from shore outside of Kimbe Bay in deeper waters, nor at the site nearest to shore. Comparison of the car- bon source utilization patterns of 99 bacterial isolates from all healthy and diseased sponges revealed 5 species of bacteria specifically present in diseased I. basta. These bacteria were not present in healthy sponge samples. Bacteria isolated from affected sponges and inoculated onto healthy sponges caused disease signs similar to those in field specimens. The 16S rRNA genes from these bacteria were sequenced and found to correspond with 2 species of Bacillus and 3 species of Pseudomonas. The closest relatives of these bacteria based on BLAST searches included many ter- restrial pathogens and species that are used as pathogens against insects and fungi in integrated pest control management. The bacteria causing disease in I. basta may thus originate from pesticides applied to agricultural land, predominantly oil palm plantations, in west New Britain. The possibility that these bacteria can pass virulence factors to marine bacteria through horizontal gene transfer needs to be investigated, as this may have unexpected impacts on marine ecosystems.


[Introduction]: The Balkan Burden. "The Balkans" have both geographic and geopolitical significance. Geographically, it refers roughly to the region bounded by the Adriatic Sea, the southern Carpathian mountains, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. Geopolitically and even geo-historically, "the Balkans" have accumulated numerous and often contradictory connotations, sometimes patronising, sometimes wistful, but often disparaging. For example, the Balkans have been described as the major crossroads between Europe and the Middle East and as a battleground between the major empires. The region has been depicted as a rich conglomerate of cultures and religions and as an ethnic and religious conflict zone. In recent years, the Balkans have been viewed as both a critical security zone and as an unstable non-European periphery. Since the Collapse of communist Europe, the "Balkans" have once again captured the headlines in the American and West European media and the attention of foreign policy makers. The concept of "Balkanisation", following the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc and the collapse of the communist Yugoslav federation, has again entered the security vocabulary. It has come to signify, much as it did at the beginning of this century, a simmering inferno of conflict and instability that no outside power can control and no local power can evidently escape. As a result, all the countries of this geographic region have been collectively framed into a geopolitical framework that no state can purportedly surmount. The pejorative "Balkan" image thus allegedly explains the often bloody "ethnic conflicts", the unreformable authoritarian regimes, the rampant criminality, the customary corruption, and the incurable economic backwardness. Ironically, it has suited two specific parties, one interested and one disinterested, to perpetuate these Balkan myths. On the one hand, the forces of nationalism, authoritarianism, and ethnic division active in parts of the region have thrived on this peculiar image of non-redemption to consolidate their positions and to try and forestall any outside interference. On the other hand, trans-Atlantic policy makers lacking sufficient strategic vision and commitment to pan-European integrity have manipulated the Balkan image to justify inaction and the assignment of South Eastern Europe to the permanent status of an outsider. It is against such powerful myth making and image generation that both the domestic reformers and foreign sympathisers have struggled to transform the Balkans and to propel the region toward the European mainstream. Their task during the past decade has been profoundly complicated by the wars within and between the Yugoslav successor states, by the repression perpetrated by Serbia's Milosevic regime, by the collapse of the Albanian economy and the subsequent armed uprising, and by the uphill battles of all Balkan states to complete their transition from totalitarian communism to democratic capitalism. At the start of the 21st century, the time is ripe for a major reassessment of the Balkan region: for a sober analysis of the present condition and for an informed projection of alternative scenarios of development during the next decade. In this analysis and projection of Balkan instabilities and opportunities, the following states and quasi-states have been included: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, and Montenegro. Part one of this paper examines the geopolitical context in which the Balkans are located at the end of the 20th century. It therefore assesses, in Facing The Future: The Balkans To The Year 2010 turn, the international environment, the regional parameters, and specific country developments. The bulk of the analysis projects and examines three alternative scenarios for the Balkans during the next decade: regional regression, secure development, and progressive integration. The first scenario envisages a major breakdown in the region's development, marked by accelerating domestic devolutions, spiralling regional rivalries, and growing international isolation. The second scenario depicts a minimal constructive evolution characterised by domestic stabilization, regional cooperation, and increasing international involvement. The third scenario posits a maximal constructive development for the Balkans, involving major domestic transformations, regional Synchronization, and international integration. It is in order to help promote the latter scenario that this paper is offered.


The clinically established antiepileptic drug phenytoin has long been thought to be ineffective in the kindling model, which is one of the most widely used animal models of epilepsy. More recent studies with acute administration of phenytoin in kindled rats have shown that the drug exerts potent anticonvulsant activity in this model, provided that certain pharmacokinetic and technical factors are dealt with in the experimental protocol used. In the present study, we examined the effects of phenytoin in amygdala-kindled rats during chronic treatment. Before the experiments in kindled rats, various experiments with acute and chronic administration of phenytoin at different doses were done in nonkindled rats in order to develop a treatment protocol by which active and tolerable plasma levels were attained. Based on the saturation kinetics of the drug, i.p. administration of 75 mg/kg, followed by once-daily injection of 50 mg/kg, resulted in plasma levels within the "therapeutic range" known from epileptic patients, whereas more frequent drug injections or once-daily administration of 75 mg/kg resulted in too marked drug accumulation and neurotoxicity. In kindled rats, the anticonvulsant activity of chronic treatment with phenytoin depended on the protocol used for amygdala stimulation. When seizures were induced by currents 20% above the individual seizure threshold, phenytoin was much more effective than in experiments with fixed, suprathreshold currents (500 microA). Depending on the stimulus protocol, phenytoin significantly reduced the severity of seizures or blocked the seizures completely throughout the 2-week period of treatment. In contrast to the anticonvulsant effect, tolerance developed to the adverse effects, i.e., motor impairment and hypothermia, recorded during treatment with phenytoin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Abstract Objectives: To assess the effects of taking an intercalated degree (BSc) on the study habits and learning styles of medical students and on their interest in a career in medical research Design: Longitudinal questionnaire study of medical students at application to medical school and in their final year. Setting: All UK medical schools Participants: 6901 medical school applicants for admission in 1991 were studied in the autumn of 1990. 3333 entered medical school in 1991 or 1992 and 2695 who were due to qualify in 1996 or 1997 were studied 3 months before the end of their clinical course. Response rates were 92% for applicants and 56% for final year students. Main outcome measures: Study habits (surface, deep, and strategic learning style) and interest in different medical careers, including medical research. Identical questions were used at time of application and in final year. Results: Students who had taken an intercalated degree had higher deep and strategic learning scores than at application to medical school Those with highest degree classes had higher strategic and deep learning scores and lower surface learning scores. Students taking intercalated degrees showed greater interest in careers in medical research and laboratory medicine and less interest in general practice than their peers. The effects of the course on interest in medical research and learning styles were independent. The effect of the intercalated degree was greatest in schools where relatively few students took intercalated degrees. Conclusions: Intercalated degrees result in a greater interest in research careers and higher deep and strategic learning scores. However, the effects are much reduced in schools where most students intercalate a degree Introduction of intercalated degrees for all medical students without sufficient resources may not therefore achieve its expected effects. Key messages Although intercalated degrees are well established, little is known about their effect on medical students In this longitudinal study final year students who had taken intercalated degree were more interested in medical research, and had higher deep and strategic learning style scores than other students The effects of the intercalated degree were dose dependent, being greatest in those gaining a first class degree The effects of the intercalated degree were greatest in medical schools where a relatively small proportion of medical students took the degree Differences between medical schools are most easily explained by resource dilution


In Mediation in Contemporary Chinese Civil Justice, Peter Chan offers by far one of the most comprehensive analyses of the system of mediation of civil and commercial disputes in contemporary China.