Services science aims towards suggesting methodological and tool support for managing services for various application scenarios. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the services science vision can be realized by using formal modeling and analysis techniques for the design of functionality of any kind, irrespective of the context whether such functionality is delivered on computing platforms or by humans. The service management problem is discussed in rather an unusual context of rural service management in developing nations. This choice of domain is motivated by two factors. The fact that such a domain is rarely referred in existing literature, it presents greater modeling and analysis challenges. The success of the proposed methodology in such context would pave the way towards applying the same to any other services setting. Besides, success in this domain can have significant social impact. Three specific results are documented in this paper. First, it is demonstrated how rural service architectures can be effectively modeled. Second, it is proposed how a QoS monitoring infrastructure might be devised for this domain (addressing special challenges, such as the need to reliably estimate component measures from more aggregated measures). Lastly, it is discussed how sophisticated QoS monitoring (leveraging techniques from complex event processing) can be used to trigger, and constrain, service redesign, leading to an integrated service design life-cycle. In addition this paper introduces UNNOTI, a simple and effective online form based toolkit for Service modeling, QoS monitoring, and service redesign which manages a repository of service designs, and the custom-designed functionality for QoS monitoring and estimation, as well as service proximity analysis, the tool uses the Prover9 first-order logic theorem prover for performing the goal realization test that is required for service redesign. The toolkit developed for modeling agricultural procurement services and can be applicable to model other rural services. The toolkit is developed using JSP and MYSQL in Windows environment.


Today, human region detection in complex scenes has received a great attention due to the wide use of websites and the considerable progress of the still and video images processing tasks. Skin detection or segmentation is a very popular and useful technique for detecting and tracking of human body parts, especially faces and hands. It is employed in tasks like face or hand detection and tracking, filtering of objectionable web images, people retrieval in databases and the Internet.
This thesis aims to build a skin detection system that will discriminate between the skin and non-skin pixels in still coloured images. This is done by introducing a metric, which measures the distances of the pixel colour to skin tone. The need for a compact skin model representation stimulates the development of parametric skin distribution models which is used in this research.An adaptive skin colour detection model has been proposed in this thesis. The model is based on the bivariate normal distribution of the skin chromatic subspace. The model uses the 2D Single Gaussian model (SGM), and the 2D Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to represent the skin colour distribution. The model also based on the image segmentation using an automatic and adaptive multi-thresholding technique.
This thesis shows that the Gaussian mixture model alone or the Gaussian single model does not improve the performance of the skin detection model due to the number of false detections for high correct classification. For this reason, a combination of SGM and GMM in the same model is proposed in this research. The results show that when processing images of different people taken in different imaging conditions, the use of only one single threshold value is not adapted, and since the proposed method is capable of adaptively adjusting its threshold values and effectively separating skin colour regions from non skin ones, it is applicable to images with various conditions. The experiment shows that the suggested algorithm achieves a noticeable performance improvement and offers a robust solution for skin detection under varying illumination. The results show that the average of the correct rate "True Positive" rate for the test images is equal to 94.064% while the False Positive average is equal to 13.166%.


The aim of the article is to study the border between Norway and Sweden during the nineteeth century on the basis of Karl Deutsch's theory of "pluralistic security community" from the 1950s and modern international bor- der theory and research literature on nation building processes. The establishment of a non-violent border relationship including the devel- opment of a shared Norwegian-Swedish belief that political problems must and can be resolved by processes of peaceful change, was an issue that Deutsch dated to the years after the peaceful dissolution of the political union between them —in 1905. Confronted with an overview of the history of the border during the union period from 1814 to 1905, the article claims that the demilitarized union zone was established already in the 1820s. The border was gradually solidified as a consequence of the development of modern cartography, but its significance was weakened as a result of the industrialisation during the nineteeth century. On the emotional level it seems possible to find expressions of bad feelings based on bad historical experiences having political consequences, up till today.


: Both the percent of producers reporting and the value of wildlife-caused losses increased from 1989 to 1994. In 1994, 58% of respondents reported wildlife-caused losses of their agricultural commodities, an increase from the 55% of respondents who reported losses in 1989. Based on the median value of producer-estimated loss, wildlife caused losses cost producers approximately $591 million in 1994, $130 million more than in 1989. Losses based on producer estimates have been consistent with field-measured estimates of damage. While these losses represent 1 % of the value of agricultural production, losses were not evenly distributed and 23 % of producers estimated losses of > $500, an amount that is psychologically significant if not also economically significant. While catfish losses to wildlife were 4 % of the total sale value of catfish in 1996, the losses were equivalent to one-sixth to one-third of the average catfish producers' profit. Producers' ability to predict the location of their crop losses as well as consistent patterns of losses based on field assessments suggests that wildlife managers may be able to develop models of wildlife damage that would allow them to better assist producers in planning agricultural production so that wildlife-caused losses are reduced. Given the increasing populations of many wildlife species and the declining habitat base for supporting those populations, wildlife managers will need to increasingly rely on cooperative relationships with agricultural producers. Management of wildlife damage relative to agricultural needs will increasingly challenge the wildlife years. Wildlife managers must recogniu the magnitude and distribution of wildlife-caused damage to agriculture and consider both perceptions and damage in their decisions about wildlife management.


The translation of Sputnik from a scientific into a political event changed the dynamics of federal science and technology policy, and elevated to new heights the American research university as a pivotal tool for winning the Cold War. This paper discusses this significant shift in federal policy, its impact on America's research universities and scientific community, and its influence on the contemporary economy. Sputnik prompted a significant expansion in the training of scientists and engineers, and acted as a catalyst for large-scale federal funding for higher education. It also resulted in the federal government becoming the nation's primary source of R&D investment. The result was a greatly accelerated shift in scientific research increasingly toward a multi-disciplinary model and the creation of new knowledge that form the foundation for today's technological innovations that may well exceed in importance the trials and tribulations of the Cold War itself.


Cyclothialidine, a natural product isolated from Streptomyces .filipinensis NR0484, has been proven to be a potent and selective inhibitor of the bacterial enzyme DNA gyrase. Gyrase inhibition results in cell death, the enzyme being the target of several currently used antibiotics. Cyclothialidine showed poor activity against whole bacterial cells, highlighting scope for improvement regarding cell membrane pemeability in order for the full potential of this new class of antibiotics to be realised, Structurally, cyclothialidine contains a 12-membered lactone ring which is partly integrated into a pentapeptide chain, with a substituted aromatic moiety bordering the lactone, Retrosynthetically it can be traced back to cis-3-hydroxyproline, 3,5-dihydroxy-2,6-dimethylbenzoic acid and four commercially available amino acids; two serine, one cysteine and one alanine. In this work, a model of cyclothialidine was synthesised in order to establish the methodology for more complex compounds. Analogues with hydroxy, dihydroxy and dihydroxymethyl substituted aromatic moieties were then prepared to ensure successful protection methods could be performed and the pharmacophore synthesised. The key aromatic moiety, 2,6-dimethyl-3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid was produced via two successive Mannich reaction/reduction steps. Acid protection using 4-nitrobenzyl bromide and TBDMS hydroxyl protection followed by bromination of one methyl afforded the desired intermediate. Reaction with a serine/cysteine dipeptide, followed by deprotection and cyclisation under Mitsunobu conditions lead to the 12-membered lactone. An amine substituted aromatic analogue and also replacement of the cysteine sulphur by oxygen were attempted but without success. In an effort to improve cell permeability, a conjugate was synthesised between the pharmacophore and a cholesterol moiety. It was hoped the steroid fragment would serve to increase potency by escorting the molecule through the lipid environment of the cell membrane. The pharmacophore and conjugate were tested against a variety of bacterial strains but the conjugate failed to improve activity.


New Digital Technologies for Psychiatry We often hear how "big data," "artificial intelligence," and "digital revolutions" will transform medicine in general and psychiatry in particular. While we may be on the brink of some big changes, more data is needed. Dr John Torous discusses the need to balance the potential of technology with current clinical realities and scientific evidence. Understanding what technology can, and cannot, do today can inform us about what it will do tomorrow. Dr Torous is a fellow in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Digital Psychiatry Editor for Psychiatric Times. Twitter: @JohnTorous. Mentioned in this podcast: Bloss CS, Wineinger NE, Peters M, et al. A prospective randomized trial examining health care utilization in individuals using multiple smartphone-enabled biosensors. PeerJ. 2016;4:e1554. MIT Media Lab. Marvin Minsky, "father of artificial intelligence," dies at 88. MIT. January 25, 2016.


Shipboard bathymetric and magnetic profiles across the Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR) were analyzed in order to examine the nature of along-axis variations in axial morphology at this intermediate spreading rate ridge. Three types of axial morphology are observed along the SEIR: an axial high, a shallow (200–700 m deep) axial valley and a deep (>1000 m deep) axial valley. An axial high is found to the east of the Australian-Antarctic Discordance (AAD) (east of 128°E) and between 82°E and 104°E. A shallow rift valley is found from 104°E to 114°E and from 82°E westward past the Amerstdam/St. Paul hotspot (ASP) to about 30°S, 75°E. Deep rift valleys are found from 114°E to 128°E in the vicinity of the AAD and from the Indian Ocean Triple Junction (IOTJ) at 25°S, 70°E to about 30°S, 75°E. The transition near 30°S occurs in an area of constant zero-age depth and does not appear to result from an increase in mantle temperature. It could be the result of the rapid increase in spreading rate along that portion of the SEIR. The most likely cause of the other transitions in axial morphology is variations in mantle temperature. The transitions between the different types of axial morphology are well defined and occur over a limited distance. Transitions in axial morphology are accompanied by significant changes in ridge flank topographic roughness. The transitions from axial valleys to axial highs are also accompanied by changes in the amplitude of the seafloor magnetic anomalies. Our observations suggest that there are distinct modes rather than a continuum of axial morphology on the SEIR and that there appears to be a "threshold" mechanism for a rapid change between different states of axial morphology. The ASP has only a limited influence on the SEIR. The ridge axis is marked by an axial valley for the entire distance from the IOTJ up to and past the ASP. The ridge axis becomes shallower as the ASP is approached from the northwest but only by about 300 m over a distance of 800 km. In addition, the ridge continues to become shallower away from Amsterdam Island toward the transition to an axial high at 82°E, 350 km to the east of the ASP. The Kerguelen hotspot appears to exert a major influence on the morphology of the SEIR by feeding asthenospheric material to the ridge axis. A long, narrow finger-like gravity high extends ENE away from the Kerguelen Plateau for a distance of 500 km. Shipboard data show that the gravity high results from a large volcanic ridge. The ridge appears analogous to the Rodriguez Ridge extending from the Reunion hotspot toward the Central Indian Ridge. A series of lower and broader lineated gravity highs extend from the volcanic ridge toward the SEIR in the ridge segment between the 81°E and 85°E transforms, which is the westernmost segment with an axial high. The only region of significant off-ridge seismicity on the Antarctic flank of the SEIR is a diffuse band of epicenters extending from Kerguelen to the SEIR within the segment between the 81°E and 85°E fracture zones. The along-axis gradient in depth from 86°E to the AAD and the transitions in axial morphology at 104°E and 114°E most likely reflect along-axis variations in mantle temperature and melt production rate due to distance from the Kerguelen hotspot and the influence of the AAD.


We demonstrate for the first time the presence of bacterial endosymbionts in the midgut glands (hepatopancreas) of the freshwater detritivore Asellus aquaticus (Isopoda), whereas the hepatopancreas of another crustacean detritivore, Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda), which coexists with the former species, was devoid of such bacteria. We detected both phenol oxidase and cellulase activity in hepatopancreatic extracts from both detritivores, which suggests that both of these enzymes are produced in the midgut glands of both species. After treatment with antibiotics, both the number of hepatopancreatic bacteria and enzymatic activity were reduced in the isopod hepatopancreas, but antibiotics had no effect on enzyme activity in the amphipod hepatopancreas. Feeding on microbially inactivated leaf litter did not affect enzyme activity in hepatopancreatic extracts from A. asellus, but increased cellulase activity was seen in the hepatopancreas of G. pulex. These results (1) confirm the hypothesized enzymatic adaptation of crustacean freshwater detritivores to their food sources of terrestrial origin, (2) demonstrate that the isopod A. aquaticus, like its terrestrial relatives, contains endosymbiotic bacteria that contribute to digestive processes, and (3) show interspecific differences between these coexisting crustacean detritivores in terms of enzyme origin and their dependence on microbiota.


The recent introduction of indefinite SVM by Luss and d'Aspremont [15] has effectively demonstrated SVM classification with a non-positive semi-definite kernel (indefinite kernel). This paper studies the properties of the objective function introduced there. In particular, we show that the objective function is continuously differentiable and its gradient can be explicitly computed. Indeed, we further show that its gradient is Lipschitz continuous. The main idea behind our analysis is that the objective function is smoothed by the penalty term, in its saddle (min-max) representation, measuring the distance between the indefinite kernel matrix and the proxy positive semi-definite one. Our elementary result greatly facilitates the application of gradient-based algorithms. Based on our analysis, we further develop Nesterov's smooth optimization approach [17,18] for indefinite SVM which has an optimal convergence rate for smooth problems. Experiments on various benchmark datasets validate our analysis and demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed algorithms.


Methontology provides guidelines for specifying ontologies at the knowledge level, as a specification of a conceptualization. ODE enables ontology construction, covering the entire life cycle and automatically implementing ontologies. To meet the challenge of building ontologies, we have developed Methontology, a framework for specifying ontologies at the knowledge level, and the Ontology Development Environment. We present our experience in using Methontology and ODE to build the chemical ontology.


With an explosion of wireless mobile devices and services, system designers are facing a challenge of spectrum scarcity and high energy consumption. Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising solution for fulfilling the growing demand of radio spectrum using dynamic spectrum access. It has the ability of sensing, allocating, sharing and adapting to the radio environment. In this thesis, an analytical performance evaluation of the machine learning and energy efficient cognitive radio systems has been investigated while taking some realistic conditions into account.

Firstly, bio-inspired techniques, including re y algorithm (FFA), fish school search (FSS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), have been utilized in this thesis to evaluate the optimal weighting vectors for cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) and spectrum allocation in the cognitive radio systems. This evaluation is performed for more realistic signals that suffer from the non-linear distortions, caused by the power amplifiers. The thesis then takes the investigation further by analysing the spectrum occupancy in the cognitive radio systems using different machine learning techniques. Four machine learning algorithms, including naive bayesian classifier (NBC), decision trees (DT), support vector machine (SVM) and hidden markov model (HMM) have been studied to find the best technique with the highest classification accuracy (CA). A detailed comparison of the supervised and unsupervised algorithms in terms of the computational time and classification accuracy has been presented. In addition to this, the thesis investigates the energy efficient cognitive radio systems because energy harvesting enables the perpetual operation of the wireless networks without the need of battery change. In particular, energy can be harvested from the radio waves in the radio frequency spectrum. For ensuring reliable performance, energy prediction has been proposed as a key component for optimizing the energy harvesting because it equips the harvesting nodes with adaptation to the energy availability. Two machine learning techniques, linear regression (LR) and decision trees (DT) have been utilized to predict the harvested energy using real-time power measurements in the radio spectrum. Furthermore, the conventional energy harvesting cognitive radios do not assume any energy harvesting capability at the primary users (PUs). However, this is not the case when primary users are wirelessly powered. In this thesis, a novel framework has been proposed where PUs possess the energy harvesting capabilities and can get benefit from the presence of the secondary user (SU) without any predetermined agreement. The performances of the wireless powered PUs and the SU has also been analysed.

Numerical results have been presented to show the accuracy of the analysis. First, it has been observed that bio-inspired techniques outperform the conventional algorithms used for collaborative spectrum sensing and allocation. Second, it has been noticed that SVM is the best algorithm among all the supervised and unsupervised classifiers. Based on this, a new SVM algorithm has been proposed by combining SVM with FFA. It has also been observed that SVM+FFA outperform all other machine leaning classifiers Third, it has been noticed in the energy predictive modelling framework that LR outperforms DT by achieving smaller prediction error. It has also been shown that optimal time and frequency attained using energy predictive model can be used for defining the scheduling policies of the harvesting nodes. Last, it has been shown that wirelessly powered PUs having energy harvesting capabilities can attain energy gain from the transmission of SU and SU can attain the throughput gain from the extra transmission time allocated for energy harvesting PUs.


The relationship between deep tropical convection and large-scale atmospheric circulation in the 6‐30-day period range is examined. Regression relationships between filtered outgoing longwave radiation at various locations in the Tropics and 200- and 850-mb circulation are mapped for the standard seasons, and the spatial structure and seasonal dependence of the results are interpreted in view of the basic-state circulation. In regions where the convection is embedded in upper-level easterlies, anomalous equatorial easterly flow is typically present at 200 mb within and to the west of the convective signal, along with patterns of meridional outflow into subtropical anticyclonic perturbations. Lagged relationships suggest that the convection is forcing the circulation in many of these cases. The outflow and subtropical circulations are strongest into the winter hemisphere during the solstitial seasons, with more symmetric signals about the equator seen in the equinoctial seasons. The longitudinal positioning of the subtropical features with respect to the convection varies but is generally located due poleward or just to the east of the convection. There tends to be a first baroclinic mode vertical structure to these circulations, such that equatorial westerlies are present at 850 mb within the convection, with closed circulations on either side of the equator resembling equatorial Rossby modes especially common over the Atlantic and Pacific sectors. As a contrast, in regions located within upper-level westerlies or along the margin of influence of upper westerly disturbances, convection appears to be forced by upper-level wave energy propagating into the deep Tropics, with the heating located in the upward motion region ahead of upper-level troughs. This occurs over the Atlantic and eastern Pacific sectors during northern winter and spring, and over Australia, the South Pacific, and South America during southern summer, when upper westerlies are at relatively low latitudes where they can interact with deep tropical convection. The results confirm theoretical and modeling ideas that suggest that Rossby wave energy is able to propagate into the deep Tropics in regions where upper-level westerlies exist in the Tropics.


This paper presents a user-friendly rapid prediction tool of damage to struck and striking vessels in a ship collision event. To do this, the so-called upper bound theorem is applied to calculate internal forces and energies of any substructure involved in the ships crushing process. At each increment of indentation, the total crushing force is transmitted to the external dynamics MCOL program, which calculates the global ship motion correction by solving the hydrodynamic force equilibrium equations. As a first step, the paper gives a brief description of the upper bound method originally developed for perpendicular collisions and recently enhanced for oblique ones. Then, the theory developed in MCOL program for large rotational ship movements is detailed. By comparing results obtained with and without MCOL, the importance of hydrodynamic effects is highlighted. Some simulation results are compared with results provided by classical nonlinear finite element calculations. Finally, by using the developed analytical tool, which mixes internal and external dynamics, different crushing scenarios including oblique collisions are investigated and the influence of some collision parameters like longitudinal and vertical impact location, impact angle, and struck ship velocity is studied.


We assess Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) estimates assuming different models for the standardized returns: distributions based on polynomial expansions such as Cornish-Fisher and Gram-Charlier, and well-known parametric densities such as normal, skewed-t and Johnson. This paper aims to analyze whether models based on polynomial expansions outperform the parametric ones. We carry out the model performance comparison in two stages: first, with a backtesting analysis of VaR and ES; and second, using loss functions. Our backtesting results show that all distributions, except for normal ones, perform quite well in VaR and ES estimations. Regarding the loss function analysis, we conclude that polynomial expansions (specifically, the Cornish-Fisher one) usually outperform parametric densities in VaR estimation, but the latter (specifically, the Johnson density) slightly outperform the former in ES estimation; however, the gains of using one approach or the other are modest.


Since the ecumenical movement is a child of the missionary movement and Africa is one of the traditional mission fields of the previous century, ecumene is not something new in Africa. In spite of denominational diversity many forms of cooperation in missions developed throughout the 19th century. Missionary councils were established, at a rapidly increasing pace after the World Missionary Conference of 1910. These missionary councils generally developed into national Christian councils. Although institutional ecumenism is not new in Africa, it is also true that it was only in the second half of the 20th century that African Christianity started to move from the missionary stage of its history into the ecumenical age.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate long-term outcomes in patients maintaining a nevirapine (NVP)-based regimen.

METHODS
Retrospective, multicenter, cohort study including patients currently receiving an NVP regimen that had been started at least 5 years previously. Demographic, clinical, and analytical variables were recorded.

RESULTS
Median follow-up was 8.9 (5.7-11.3) years. Baseline characteristics: 74% men, 47 years old, 36% drug users, 40% AIDS, 40% HCV+, 51.4% detectable HIV-1 viral load, CD4 count 395 (4-1,421)/μL, 19% CD4 < 200/μL, 27% ALT grade 1-2, 36% AST grade 1-2. Thirty percent ART-naive, 83%received NVP associated with 2 nucleoside analogues during the study period, and 17% a protease inhibitor. A significant improvement was observed in general health status markers, including hemoglobin, platelets, and albumin, regardless of HCV coinfection. CD4 cell gain was +218 and +322/μL after 6 and 9 years, respectively (+321 and +391 in naive patients). Triglycerides significantly decreased in pretreated patients, whereas the percentage of patients with HDLc < 1.03 mmol/L and LDL-c > 3.37 mmol/L significantly decreased in a subsample with available values. A significant decrease in transaminases, alkaline phosphatase, and Fib4 score was observed, mainly in HCV+ and ARV-naive patients.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients who tolerate NVP therapy, (even those with HCV coinfection), long term benefits may be significant in terms of a progressive improvement in general health status markers and CD4 response, a favorable lipid profile, and good liver tolerability.


OBJECTIVE--To study the effects of variability in the duration of the QT interval corrected for heart rate (QTc) on the occurrence of sudden death. DESIGN--Nested case-referent study. SUBJECTS--Cohort of 6693 consecutive patients who underwent 24 hour electrocardiography and were followed up for two years. Risk implications of QTc interval variables were studied in patients without evidence of cardiac dysfunction or of an intraventricular conduction defect (104 died suddenly and 201 patients were randomly drawn from the study cohort). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Mean QTc interval duration and variation in QTc duration over time correlated with occurrence of sudden death. RESULTS--Patients with a prolonged mean QTc over 24 hours (> or = 440 ms) had a 2.3 times (95% confidence interval 1.3 to 4.5) higher risk of dying suddenly than patients with a normal mean QTc (400-440 ms); patients with a shortened mean QTc (< 400 ms) also had a higher risk (relative risk 2.4 (1.4 to 4.3)). Patients with low (< 20 ms) and high (> or = 25 ms) long term variation in QTc duration had an increased risk of dying suddenly compared with those with intermediate variation (20-25 ms) (relative risks 2.2 (1.2 to 4.2) and 2.3 (1.4 to 4.2) respectively). The relative risks for low and high short term variation were not significantly raised. CONCLUSIONS--A prolonged and a shortened mean QTc interval over 24 hours was associated with a more than twofold risk of sudden death compared with intermediate mean QTc values (400-440 ms). Neither short nor long term variability in QTc had a distinct relation with the risk of sudden death.


We investigate a nanoscale dielectric capacitor model consisting of two-dimensional, hexagonal h-BN layers placed between two commensurate and metallic graphene layers using self-consistent field density functional theory. The separation of equal amounts of electric charge of different sign in different graphene layers is achieved by applying electric field perpendicular to the layers. The stored charge, energy, and the electric potential difference generated between the metallic layers are calculated from the first-principles for the relaxed structures. Predicted high-capacitance values exhibit the characteristics of supercapacitors. The capacitive behavior of the present nanoscale model is compared with that of the classical Helmholtz model, which reveals crucial quantum size effects at small separations, which in turn recede as the separation between metallic planes increases.


This lively and original guidebook is the first to show students new to the subject exactly what Roman social history involves, and how they can study it for themselves. After presenting a short history of the development and current position of the discipline, the author discusses the kinds of evidence that can be used, and the full range of resources available. Two case-studies provide practical examples of how to approach sources, and what we can learn from them. Clear, concise and accessible, with all text extracts translated into English, this is the ideal introduction to an increasingly popular subject.


Drought stress is a major factor contributing disease susceptibility and yield loss in agricultural crops. The experiment reported here was aimed at studying the germination and early growth of ten sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) genotypes in 0 or 20% (w/v) polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) solution as a model to mimic drought stress. The experiment was carried out at the Laboratory of Seed Technology and a glass house of Faculty of Agriculture, Andalas University Padang from March to April 2015. A two-way factorial experiment in a completely randomised design with three replicates was assigned. Data were analysed with analysis of variance and mean comparisons of Duncan's New Multiple Range Test at 5% level. When only PEG was found to be significant then mean comparisons was calculated according to t-Dunnet test. Sorghum seeds were germinated on two layers of Whatmann paper in Petri dishs either in 0% or 20% PEG for seven days prior to transfer into Hoagland solution containing 0 or 20% PEG with layer of paraffin wax for 21 days in a glass house. Results indicated that 20% PEG solution reduced seedling dry weight and the length or roots protruding from the paraffin wax layer in some genotypes. Sorghum genotype No. 5 was more tolerant to drought stress in their early growth followed by genotypes Samurai 2, Samurai Batan, and Pahat Batan. In contrast, genotypes Advanta and No. 44 were found to be the most susceptible.


What is implied when we refer to the study of performing arts as 'drama', 'theatre' or 'performance'? Each term identifies a different tradition of thought and offers different possibilities to the student or practitioner. This book examines the history and use of the terms and investigates the different philosophies, politics, languages and institutions with which they are associated. Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis: * analyze attitudes to drama, theatre and performance at different historical junctures * trace a range of political interventions into the field(s) * explore and contextualise the institutionalisation of drama and theatre as university subjects, then the emergence of 'performance' as practice, theory and academic disciplines * guide readers through major approaches to drama, theatre and performance, from theatre history, through theories of ritual or play, to the idea of performance as paradigm for a postmodern age * discuss crucial terms such as action, alienation, catharsis, character, empathy, interculturalism, mimesis, presence or representation in a substantial 'keywords' section. Continually linking their analysis to wider cultural concerns, the authors here offer the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide available to a vibrant, fast-moving field and vigorous debates about its nature, purpose and place in the academy.


This work present the exoplanet transit program developed at OAUNI on the 2016 and 2017 campaigns. Seventeen exoplanet transits were observed and in six of them more than one event was registered. In a couple of cases the same transit were gathered four times. Preliminary reductions are shown in three transits (WASP-80 b, WASP-52 b, and WASP-77 A b). The associated light curves show well-defined events and their modeling let to infer physical parameters of each system. These measurements are the first ones of their kind collected by a peruvian astronomical facility.


Considering the technical requirements of the space physical environment simulation system,a square Helmholtz coil was built by a pair of axis symmetric rectangular coils which had the same turns,side length,height and thickness,based on the principle of Helmholtz coils. Combining with the constant current source and MCU control technology,the electromagnetic field simulation system was designed. Adopting finite element analysis software ANSYS Workbench,the magnetic field distribution of the square Helmholtz coil was simulated,and the emphasis of the study was on the electromagnetic field distribution of the coil X-axis,Y-axis and near the surface of the coil. Based on the analysis results,the structure parameters of the square Helmholtz coil were designed. The magnetic flux density of 12 key points was measured inside the designed coil. The results show that the magnetic flux density and uniformity of the magnetic field inside the coil could satisfy the requirements of the space environmental simulation systems.


Research in the field of 3D printed ceramics has been undertaken for at least 20 years; the initial patents filed by Moo and Cima of MIT in 1992, detail the use of ceramic powders. In the last ten years the research has split between what could be defined as technical ceramics and Domestic Tableware, which invariably includes art and craft ceramics. CFPR is a leader in 3D printed ceramics for Artists and Craftspeople, one of primary objectives of the research undertaken at the CFPR is the creation of actual physical artefacts in 'real materials'. The term 3D printing is becoming accepted as a replacement for rapid prototyping, as the technology moves from producing prototypes to creating artefacts in actual materials. Since 2006 research in this field at the CFPR has been supported by government funding and progressed from an assessment of the potential of RP for the visual Arts, including the development of novel processes for craftspeople, culminating in the development of a patented 3D ceramic material that has wider applications for the 3D printing industry. This material has been well received, with collaborative industrial partnerships with a number of companies, such as Viridis in the USA and Johnson Matthey and Denby Potteries in the UK. Research has been undertaken with Denby Potteries on an AHRC funded project 'Solid Free-form fabrication in fired ceramic as a design aid for concept modelling in the ceramic industry.'


Eye-tracking had been shown to be predictive of expertise, task-based success, task-difficulty, and the strategies involved in problem solving, both in the individual and collaborative settings. In learning analytics, eye-tracking could be used as a powerful tool, not only to differentiate between the levels of expertise and task-outcome, but also to give constructive feedback to the users. In this dissertation, we show how eye-tracking could prove to be useful to understand the cognitive processes underlying dyadic interaction; in two contexts: pair program comprehension and learning with a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The first context is a typical collaborative work scenario, while the second is a special case of dyadic interaction namely the teacher-student pair. We also demonstrate, using one example experiment, how the findings about the relation between the learning outcome in MOOCs and the students' gaze patterns can be leveraged to design a feedback tool to improve the students'€™ learning outcome and their attention levels while learning through a MOOC video. We also show that the gaze can also be used as a cue to resolve the teachers' verbal references in a MOOC video; and this way we can improve the learning experiences of the MOOC students. This thesis is comprised of five studies. The first study, contextualised within a collaborative setting, where the collaborating partners tried to understand the given program. In this study, we examine the relationship among the gaze patterns of the partners, their dialogues and the levels of understanding that the pair attained at the end of the task. The next four studies are contextualised within the MOOC environment. The first MOOC study explores the relationship between the students'€™ performance and their attention level. The second MOOC study, which is a dual eye-tracking study, examines the relation between the individual and collaborative gaze patterns and their relation with the learning outcome. This study also explores the idea of activating students'€™ knowledge, prior to receiving any learning material, and the effect of different ways to activate the students' knowledge on their gaze patterns and their learning outcomes. The third MOOC study, during which we designed a feedback tool based on the results of the first two MOOC studies, demonstrates that the variables we proposed to measure the students'€™ attention, could be leveraged upon to provide feedback about their gaze patterns. We also show that using this feedback tool improves the students'€™ learning outcome and their attention levels. The fourth and final MOOC study shows that augmenting a MOOC video with the teacher's gaze information helps improving the learning experiences of the students. When the teacher's gaze is displayed the perceived difficulty of the content decreases significantly as compared to the moments when there is no gaze augmentation. In a nutshell, through this dissertation, we show that the gaze can be used to understand, support and improve the dyadic interaction, in order to increase the chances of achieving a higher level of task-based success.


Tongarlak, S., Zengin, M. & Mamedov, A. I. (2020). Investigating cadmium accumulation in wheat and barley cultivars from acidic soil of Central Turkey. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 26 (1), 157–166 Cadmium (Cd) excess in soil represents an important problem for cereal productivity and food-chain contamination. Limited information is available on the Cd concentration in the grain of cereals, grown in acidic soils of Turkey. The objective of the study was to investigate the response of the cereal cultivars (bread wheat, durum wheat and barley) to increasing rates of cadmium (Cd) application in acidic soil using the pot experiment. In the first stage (in 2006-2007), 10 cultivars of each crop were examined for grain Cd accumulation at two application rate of Cd salt (0 and 5 mg kg-1), and nine varieties were selected for their lowest, medium and highest level of grain Cd. In the second stage (in 2007-2008), Cd accumulation in the grain and stem of the selected nine crop varieties were studied at four-application rate of Cd salt (i.e., 0, 1, 3, 9 mg kg-1). Results showed that (i) crop, cultivar and Cd application rate and their interaction had significant (p < 0.05) effect on grain or stem Cd concentration, (ii) increasing rate of Cd applications linearly (proportionally) increased Cd concentration in the stem and grain of the crops, and (iii) durum wheat genotype accumulated 2-3 fold more Cd in the grain or stem than bread wheat or barley (i.e. durum wheat > bread wheat >barley). The differences between Cd concentrations of the crops, and their cultivars were mostly considerably at higher Cd application rates (3 and 9 mg kg-1). Grains of Ekiz (bread wheat), Meram-2002 (durum wheat) and Bulbul (barley) cultivars accumulated lowest amount of Cd. In all Cd treatments grains Cd concentration of the cultivars were higher (0.3-8.7 mg kg-1) than acceptable level. Cadmium proportional bioavailability to crops can be associated with the soil characteristics (e.g. moderate acid reaction, low clay and organic matter content) and Cd application rate.


Chemistry-Climate Model (CCM) simulations are commonly used to project the past and future development of the dynamics and chemistry of the stratosphere, and in par- ticular the ozone layer. So far, CCMs are usually not interac- tively coupled to an ocean model, so that sea surface temper- atures (SSTs) and sea ice coverage are prescribed in the sim- ulations. While for future integrations SSTs have to be taken from precalculated climate model projections, for CCM ex- periments resembling the past either modelled or observed SSTs can be used. This study addresses the question to which extent atmospheric climatologies and long-term trends for the recent past simulated in the CCM E39C-A differ when choosing either observed or modelled SSTs. Furthermore, the processes of how the SST signal is communicated to the atmosphere, and in particular to the stratosphere are exam- ined. Two simulations that differ only with respect to the prescribed SSTs and that span years 1960 to 1999 are used. Significant differences in temperature and ozone clima- tologies between the model simulations are found. The dif- ferences in ozone are attributed to differences in the merid- ional circulation, which are in turn driven by weaker wave forcing in the simulation with generally lower SSTs. The long-term trends over 40 years in annual mean temperature and ozone differ only in the troposphere, where temperatures are directly influenced by the local SST trends. Differences in temperature and ozone trends are only found on shorter time scales. The trends in tropical upwelling, as a measure of the strength of the Brewer-Dobson circulation (BDC), differ strongly between the simulations. A reverse from negative to positive trends is found in the late 1970s in the simulation using observed SSTs while trends are positive throughout the simulation when using modelled SSTs. The increase in the BDC is a robust feature of the simulations only after about 1980 and is evident mainly in the tropics in the lower strato- sphere.


TERZIYSKI, D., L. NIKOLOVA, L. HADJINIKOLOVA, A. STOEVA and R. KALCHEV, 2008. Investigation of ducks influence upon nutrients in carp ponds by means of RDA (redundancy analysis). Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 221-226 Integrated breeding of fish and ducks in fish ponds during the course of three years has been investigated (2000-2002). The polyculture applied has included carp (Cyprinus carpio, Linn), bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis Rich.) and grass carp (Ctenopharingodon idella Val.). The grass carp has been absent from the composition of the polyculture used in 2001. Some of the ponds has been used as control, while in the remaining, a definite number of ducks have been grown (140-350 numbers per ha), by one, two or three runs (series) per year, for a period of 15-52 days each, within the interval May-September. The final result of ducks' and of the other variable influence upon the nutrient concentrations of the aquatic environment by using the RDA (redundancy analysis) at different degrees has been determined in this paper. The overgrowing of ponds with macrophytes and the redundancy with ducks have been the most significant factors, which have influenced upon the nutrients. The differences among nutrient concentrations in the control ponds (Duck0) and those with 1, 2 and 3 levels of loading (P=0.01 for the 1 level and 0.005 for the second and third), as well as those with the 1 and 3 (P=0.005) levels, have been significant. The differences between the ponds with the 1 and 2 levels, as well as those with 2 and 3 levels have been not significant (P=0.06 and P=0.08).


Providing exactly what the fastest growing segment of the triathlon world yearns for, Melanie and Don Fink have created a complete training guide for women triathletes with highly efficient, easy-to-follow, multi-distance training programs. Women encounter all the same challenges as men in their triathlon training and racing, but there are a host of issues unique to them, issues about which most men don't have a clue. From the stay-at-home mom to the professional woman, female triathletes face societal expectations, and unique physical and emotional concerns. Until now, there has been never been a go-to source of information and guidance. IronFit Triathlon Training for Women arms the woman triathlete with everything she needs to know to persevere and lays out exact step-by-step training programs to help her to achieve her goals. This book includes three training programs designed for women at the Sprint/Standard (a/k/a "Olympic") Distance, Half Iron-Distance, and Full Iron-Distance. Each program is presented at three levels: Competitive, Intermediate, and "Just-Finish." The reader can select the program for the race distance she wants to train for and the exact level, based on her individual competitiveness, experience, and available training time.


This paper investigates Bureaucrats and Politicians in Power-Dependence of Domestic Politics and Interdependence, Linkage of Diplomacy: From Bureaucratic Leadership to Official Residence Leadership. This paper consists of two parts. First, this paper investigates the common factors between Power-Dependence of domestic politics and Interdependence in international relations. The power-dependence means political dependence in the political networks between central government, bureaucracy, local government and interest groups in common regime state. The interdependence means comprehensive relationship, from which zero-sum game is not necessarily derived, between various states with different regimes. Second, this paper investigates Bureaucrats and Politicians focusing on the history from bureaucratic leadership to official residence leadership in Japan. The bureaucracy in Japan, especially the Ministry of International Trade and Industry has been main actor of Japan after the 55 system, the Conservative Merger in 1955. From the late 50s to the 70s, each Liberal Democratic Administrations, led by strong leadership of prime ministers, Kishi, and Ikeda, succeeded in Japan-US Security Treaty and doubling of income, respectively. Since the 70s, the foreign economic policy is forwarded between the United States and Japan in place of the security and political issues between them. Prime minister Nakasone, Hashimoto and Koizumi tried to reorganize the bureaucracy. In Japan, the bureau of personnel at Cabinet Office changed the bureaucrat-led politics to politician-led politics. This paper investigates how government and bureaucracy cooperate for the success of policy making.


Lightweighting has been regarded as a key strategy in the automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency and reduce anthropogenic environment-damaging, climate-changing, and costly emissions. Magnesium (Mg) alloys and Aluminum (Al) alloys are progressively more used in the transportation industries to reduce the weight of vehicles due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Similarly, high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel is widely used to reduce gauge thickness and still maintain the same strength, and thereby reduce vehicle weight as well. A multi-material design of automotive structures and parts inevitably involve similar Mg-to-Mg and dissimilar Mg-to-Al, Al-to-steel, and Mg-to-Cu joints. Ultrasonic spot welding (USW) – a solid-state joining technique has recently received significant attention due to its higher efficiency in comparison with conventional fusion welding techniques. In this study, USW was used to generate similar joints of low rare-earth containing ZEK100 Mg alloy sheets and dissimilar ZEK100-to-Al5754, Al6111-to-HSLA steel, and Mg-to-Cu joints at different levels of welding energy or welding time. To optimize welding process and identify key factors affecting the weld strength, microstructural evolution, microhardness test, tensile lap shear test,
fatigue test, and fracture analysis were performed on similar and dissimilar ultrasonic spot welded (USWed) joints.

Dynamic recrystallization and grain coarsening were observed during Mg-to-Mg similar welding while rapid formation and growth of interface diffusion layer were observed in all dissimilar joints in the present study. It was due to significantly high strain rate (~103 s-1) and high temperature generated via frictional heating during USW. The interface diffusion layer was analyzed by SEM, EDS and XRD phase identification techniques which showed the presence of eutectic structure containing intermetallic compounds (IMCs). As a result, brittleness at the interface increased. The Zn coating in dissimilar USWed Al-to-steel joints eliminated the formation of brittle IMCs of Al-F, which were replaced by relatively ductile AlZn eutectic. The optimum welding energy or welding time during similar and dissimilar USW of lightweight alloys with a sheet thickness of 1-2 mm was in the range of ~500 J to 2000 J (~0.25 s to 1 s).


The fairness of the selection process is inevitably largely under the control of individual medical schools; but could there not be a "code of good practice," which might, for example, outlaw "secret" quotas, recommend the provision of visits to the medical school for prospective customers, and even suggest minimum entry qualifications for schoolleaver applicants ? Improving the effectiveness of the system depends on more explicit definition of the objectives of basic medical education, and the implications of these. As Jacobson suggests, more research and development (and frankness) are needed if we are to create a fairer and more effective system.


The preparations for the introduction of the euro in 1999 involved the need for a new set of statistics for the euro area. Since then, significant progress has been made with regard to the coverage, timeliness and accuracy of these statistics. The reliability of the first releases – i.e. their stability in the process of later revisions – is an important quality-related feature. New data releases for the euro area have generally shown a very small or no bias, i.e. data revisions have been very modest and comparable with those of, for example, the United States or Japan. Despite the relatively small size of revisions, however, their combination with the low growth of the euro area economy may have drawn attention to such revisions of economic data for the euro area. This paper quantifies the revisions to selected key indicators in the period from the start of Monetary Union in 1999 to July 2007 and compares them with the corresponding medium term averages (1999-2006). The analysis covers the euro area, its six largest member countries, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. For this purpose, available time series for the various periods involved are used, series that record all revisions to published statistical data releases. The analysis is carried out separately for GDP growth and its expenditure components, for employment, unemployment rates, compensation per employee, labour cost indicators, industrial production, retail trade turnover and consumer prices. Overall, the evidence presented in this paper suggests that euro area data releases have generally shown a very small or no bias and have been more stable than those for individual euro area countries. Furthermore, recent euro area data show levels of revisions similar to those of the past, or levels of revisions that stabilised after the implementation of harmonised statistical concepts had largely been completed. JEL classification: E01, E21, E24, E31, E5


Geolocation of Internet hosts enables a new class of location-aware applications. Previous measurement-based approaches use reference hosts, called landmarks, with a well-known geographic location to provide the location estimation of a target host. This leads to a discrete space of answers, limiting the number of possible location estimates to the number of adopted landmarks. In contrast, we propose Constraint-Based Geolocation (CBG), which infers the geographic location of Internet hosts using multilateration with distance constraints to establish a continuous space of answers instead of a discrete one. However, to use multilateration in the Internet, the geographic distances from the landmarks to the target host have to be estimated based on delay measurements between these hosts. This is a challenging problem because the relationship between network delay and geographic distance in the Internet is perturbed by many factors, including queueing delays and the absence of great-circle paths between hosts. CBG accurately transforms delay measurements to geographic distance constraints, and then uses multilateration to infer the geolocation of the target host. Our experimental results show that CBG outperforms previous geolocation techniques. Moreover, in contrast to previous approaches, our method is able to assign a confidence region to each given location estimate. This allows a location-aware application to assess whether the location estimate is sufficiently accurate for its needs


Providing heat pumps for the retrofit of fuel based boilers in residential heating, is a short or medium term challenge and a major opportunity for a substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. While effective solutions for improved high temperature lift, vapor compression heat pumps have been analyzed elsewhere, this paper specifically deals with the refrigerant selection aspects for alternative blends, using a multi-objective optimization algorithm. The objectives COP and specific heat output are calculated for arbitrarily mixed refrigerant blends, using 17 selected pure fluids. Seasonal mean operating conditions (ambient air 0°C, heating water 50°C) have been used to simulate the heat pump cycle. Blends with a saturation curve extending over the range of –20°C (normal boiling point) and 70°C (critical point) are considered. Alternative blends are compared with the commercial mixture R-407C. The refrigerant mixture with the highest COP shows an improvement of 8% on the low capacity end of the Pareto-optimum curve. By maximizing the specific heat rate, a gain of 83% can be achieved. All the dominating solutions are composed of flammable refrigerants.


Access to art and cultural works is a fundamental human right, irrespective of abilities and human differences. However, traditional museum experiences heavily rely on visual perception, which creates barriers for visitors—especially for those who are unable to access art through sight. How can visual art be "translated" into other modalities, and what might be their affordances, limitations, and impact? This qualitative investigation focused on a graduate course on multisensory museum experiences embedded within a unique partnership between the Art Gallery of Ontario and OCAD University. Observations and interviews with students, instructors, museum visitors, and stakeholders (including community members with vision impairments and museum professionals) revealed: a range of translation/interpretation strategies, from "literal" (mapping visually perceived spatial properties of artworks to non-visual perceptual modalities) to "constructivist" (non-literal mappings that aim to engender audience memories that are akin to what might have inspired the original artwork); transformative student journeys, such as building meaningful connections with art; and significant impact on diverse audiences and students. This study revealed promising directions for inclusive museums, a preliminary technical language to support the design of translations/ interpretations, and a need for theoretically informed and tested standards to guide these designs and practices.


We study two containment problems related to the quantified constraint satisfaction problem (QCSP). Firstly, we give a combinatorial condition on finite structures A and B that is necessary and sufficient to render QCSP(A) a subset of QCSP(B). The required condition is the existence of a positive integer r such that there is a surjective homomorphism from the power structure A^r to B. We note that this condition is already necessary to guarantee containment of the Pi_2 restriction of QCSP, that is Pi_2-CSP(A) a subset of Pi_2-CSP(B). Since we are able to give an effective bound on such an r, we provide a decision procedure for the model containment problem with non-deterministic double-exponential time complexity. Secondly, we prove that the entailment problem for quantified conjunctive-positive first-order logic is decidable. That is, given two sentences phi and psi of first-order logic with no instances of negation or disjunction, we give an algorithm that determines whether "phi implies psi" is true in all structures (models). Our result is in some sense tight, since we show that the entailment problem for positive first-order logic (i.e. quantified conjunctive-positive logic plus disjunction) is undecidable.


While many researchers have examined earnings management and the firm's motivation to manage earnings, few researchers have examined the role of auditors in potentially approving earnings management. Several factors influence the auditors' subjective judgment in evaluating the interpretation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) by client management who may have incentives that bias the interpretation of GAAP to achieve target earnings. This study provides evidence that existing standards may actually facilitate earnings management. In addition, the conflicting influence of the client and the Securities Exchange Commission affect the auditors' decision making and interpretation of GAAP.

These issues were examined by providing auditors with a research instrument that required them to assess an accounting transaction that is used to manage earnings and determine the appropriate amount of expense. Three variables of interest were manipulated in this study: (1) the type of GAAP, (2) management explanation, and (3) the SEC notification of potential investigation due to earnings management. The client desired additional expenses in the current year to offset higher than expected revenues from a new product. The type of GAAP was operationalized as (I) a write-down of impaired assets which reflects a broad financial accounting standard and (2) the expensing of additional supplies that were acquired but unused which reflects a strict accounting principle, matching. Management explanation was operationalized as (1) a high persuasive explanation to record a large amount of loss or expense to achieve analysts' projections of earnings and (2) a low persuasive explanation to achieve steady long-term growth in earnings and fair presentation within the financial statements. The potential conflicting influence of the SEC was operationalized by the absence or presence of the January 22, 1999 notification of the SEC's intent to audit the financial statements due to asset write-downs, restructuring activities, or acquired in-process research and development.


To paraphrase my grandfather, a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to. This is one of the oldest saws in economics, so often used that we accept it as truth. The time value of money is central to modern financial theory, and is the foundation of indexing that applies to entitlement programs, tax brackets, rents, and (in some cases) pay. Yet many are now arguing that a dollar goes a lot further than we think. Having come full circle in our 25-year battle against the price level, we are now engaged in a reexamination of what inflation is and what role indexing should have in our economy. At the center of the growing debate is our old friend the consumer price index (CPI). Once a relatively esoteric economic variable, inflation became everyone's business after the oil shocks of the 1970s. Remember Nixon's wage/price freeze? Gerald Ford's WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons? To guard against the erosion of purchasing power, many public and private expenditures were structured to escalate in tandem with the price level. There is no shortage of indicators that attempt to gauge inflation. It is reviewed at the consumer and producer levels, at different stages of production, and across varying collections of goods and services. Which one is best? Well, that's not so much a question of precision as it is of perspective; the different "baskets" covered by each has relevance for different audiences. As to accuracy, none is completely reliable; each series is often revised, and volatile components are sometimes stripped away to allow review of a "core" trend. (Unfortunately, the categories most often eliminated are food and energy, two important ones for most consumers.) While dissimilar in many ways, the various price indices are all based on a relatively fixed basket of items which can be tracked through time. This basket is updated only periodically (every ten years in the case of the CPI, which currently covers parakeets but not cellular phones), and its consistency is a source of both strength and weakness. Strength because stability tightens comparison with history; weakness in that the basket is slow to keep up with economic evolution. The CPI is particularly slow to recognize consumer substitution away from expensive products, and does not keep perfect pace with quality improvements that mitigate higher prices. To address these perceived shortcomings, a blue-ribbon commission suggested last fall that the CPI overstates changes in the cost of living by about 1%. …


This article argues that part of redressing unequal access to higher education for disabled students is the challenge of transforming formal rights into real rights. Four sections build up to the argument. The first section outlines some of the challenges facing support provision for disabled students in South Africa. The second section describes and analyses the principles of disability rights in South Africa. The third section explains the limits to rights and how they may affects support provision for disabled students. The final section points at some considerations of the nature of rights in thinking about widening access to higher education for disabled students. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (4) 2007: pp. 706-716


Roman democracy is in fashion. In particular, the publication of Fergus Millar's The Crowd in the Late Republic (1998) has stimulated debate on the democratic elements in Roman government during this period. In this thesis I examine the nature of popular participation in the late Roman Republic. I focus on the decision-making power of the populus Romanus and popular pressure to effect reform in the favour of citizens outside the senatorial and equestrian orders. My findings are based on analysis of ancient literary and epigraphic sources, along with a critique of modern research on the topic. The first chapter introduces the subject with a survey of current scholarly opinion and discussion of key concepts and terms. Chapter Two investigates how power was shared between senatus populusque Romanus and the distribution of power in the assemblies, concluding that participation was widespread as a result of the changing circumstances in the late Republic. As farmers and veterans moved to Rome, and slaves were freed and granted citizenship and the right to vote, the balance was tipped in the favour of the non-elite voter. Each class of the populus Romanus could participate in Roman politics, and certainly members of each did. Having concluded my analysis of the formal avenues of participation, I move onto the informal. Chapter Three is the first of three chapters of case studies focusing on demonstrations and collective action which form the heart of this work. The first set of studies cover secession, mutiny and refusal of the draft. Chapter Four continues with studies of popular pressure to gain reforms to improve the food supply, restore tribunician power, obtain relief from crippling debt and land shortage. The final chapter of analysis, Chapter Five, investigates collective action at contiones, legislative assemblies, trials, ludi et gladiatores, triumphs, funerals, and elections. The findings of these three chapters bring me to the conclusion that Rome was a democracy, if of a particular type. The nature of popular political participation in the late Republic resembled that of an emerging democracy with the non-elite gaining an increasing role in the decision-making process, albeit without constitutional definition. The citizens' right to participate in the formal assemblies was augmented by their ability to take part in less formal ways also. These informal methods ranged from popular involvement in contiones through to the application of pressure on senators through the threat of secession and mutiny. Only the rise of the principate, with formalised roles for the various sectors in society under one leader, brought these developments to an end.


The vanishing ideal of a set of points, S ⊂ Rn, is the set of all polynomials that attain the value of zero on all the points in S. Such ideals can be compactly represented using a small set of polynomials known as generators of the ideal. Here we describe and analyze an efficient procedure that constructs a set of generators of a vanishing ideal. Our procedure is numerically stable, and can be used to find approximately vanishing polynomials. The resulting polynomials capture nonlinear structure in data, and can for example be used within supervised learning. Empirical comparison with kernel methods show that our method constructs more compact classifiers with comparable accuracy.


After a string of blockbuster deals, 2005 closed out as one of the hottest years for the private equity market in recent memory, with investors snapping up a bevy of high-profile companies and posting nearly $200 billion in private equity-backed acquisitions. While many private equity firms remain awash with money, mounting competition, rising valuations, and increasing pressure from limited partners could make it more difficult to sustain the types of impressive returns that have made private equity a darling of institutional investors. This article looks at how some firms are embracing new strategies, underscores the importance of operational as well as financial due diligence to maximize value, and examines other important trends defining the current marketplace.


Dear Editors and Readers,

I thank the editors for this opportunity to respond to Vincent Felitti, MD's comments on our article: Effects of 12- and 24-Week Multimodal Interventions on Physical Activity, Nutritional Behaviors, and Body Mass Index and its Psychological Predictors in Severely Obese Adolescents at Risk for Diabetes,1 for which I was the primary author. Although I wholeheartedly agree with Dr Felitti that providing basic education, alone, has not made even a dent in the obesity problem, I also have concerns with several of his statements made in his Letter to the Editor, which appeared in the Fall 2010 issue. Some issues may have their basis in my being a behavioral scientist (focused on health behavior change) within the emerging field of health psychology. For example, his concern that we, "and with many others," lack focus on "Why these children became obese …" seems to be indicative of a common criticism of behaviorists who, admittedly, are more concerned with obtaining sustained behavioral changes than dwelling on possible underlying psychological factors. Many within our discipline believe that, in our quest for large-scale changes in health behaviors (within an epidemic of obesity and sedentarism), it is an inefficient use of our resources to seek out nuanced personal psychosocial factors that may or may not lead us to effecting changes. Rather, we seek to uncover meaningful patterns in psychological variables that may be used to reliably advance desired behavioral changes, with an eye on disseminating evidence-based treatments based on those findings to the many, rather than a few. In the real world, such interventions may best be delivered through referrals to trusted community organizations (eg, YMCAs), considering the reality of time restrictions that physicians are under.

Dr Felitti also stated that we "avoid exploration" of constructs such as "self-concept, general self, and overall mood," but just the opposite is true. This article is just one of dozens of peer-reviewed reports that I have authored in which we used established behavioral models (here, social cognitive theory as developed by Albert Bandura) to derive treatments that focus on predictors of sustained improvements.2–6 Other researchers skillfully continue this quest through similar scientific means. For example, behavioral theory (specifically, self-efficacy theory) suggests that individuals feel an improved sense of accomplishment, self-concept, and self-efficacy when they perceive that they can make meaningful progress while applying themselves to a task they see as worthwhile. This leads to sustained health behavior changes. Thus, treatments following self-efficacy theory may incorporate systems where long-term goals are broken down to short-term goals. As a reasonable plan of action is facilitated and adhered to, and incremental progress is documented, feelings of self-efficacy emerge. Unfortunately, left on their own, people typically set lofty goals, get disappointed by slow progress, and relapse to their original behaviors. Although it is true that we have little knowledge of "Why" one person complies while most do not, we have been able to systematically empower the skills needed for sustained change—and that's quite worthwhile. Another example of this is when we teach self-regulatory skills such as positive self-talk, cognitive restructuring, and thought stopping. Although we do not know why negative self-statements emerge and undermine progress, we feel that a primary focus should be to teach how to realign self-talk when it becomes unproductive. In the treatment referred to in our article, a computer program was used to help in the large-scale dissemination of these and other behavioral methods.

I hope that this letter serves to clarify our perspective in designing the research and interpreting its findings. It is true that although the behavioral methods used succeeded in increasing the severely obese adolescents' physical activity levels (just as theory predicted), the nutrition education portion failed to obtain much change. As mentioned in the Discussion section, we are preparing to better apply behavioral theory to the nutritional portion of the treatment in the future. In fact, through studies such as the one focused on here, we recently found that, when administered properly: A) exercise-induced mood change is associated with reduced emotional eating, B) self-regulation skills learned in an exercise context "generalize" to self-management for controlled eating, and C) self-efficacy derived from persistence with an exercise program carries over to confidence in sustaining improved eating. It stands to reason that our future weight management efforts build upon these findings. Such is the nature of applied research.

I hope that, ultimately, behavioral science will gain the trust of the medical community so that, as a team, we may contribute to the large-scale prevention and treatment of physical inactivity and overeating behaviors. To be of best service to society, we must efficiently use our resources, effectively incorporate the most current knowledge base of our fields, and accept the responsibility to facilitate meaningful health behavior changes.


W estem Australian tertiary graduates who enter the visual arts education profession are often well acquainted with the theoretical underpinnings of the Western Australian Curriculum Framework. This knowledge base, in combination with their own visual arts training, typically enables them to enter teaching theoretically well equipped to support students in the development of arts ideas and studio works. The important outcome areas of visual arts history and visual arts criticism often present major challenges for graduates. In the absence of significant post-university support and more importantly, within the context of limited preservice training where visual conceptual understandings and studio skills repertoires have priority, many beginning-teachers are often left to their own devices in sourcing visual arts history/criticism content and pedagogy. Uncertainty in either one or both of these key areas of visual literacy education tends to create unsustainable levels of stress for beginning-teachers and often results in attrition. The Graduate-Mentor Project research examined the experience of 20 beginning-teachers as they moved from the pre-service phase of their career through to the end of the first year post graduation. The findings underscore the value of mentoring during the first year. Mentoring significantly impacted the induction experience of the beginning-teachers and in many instances made it possible for them to survive when they would otherwise have left teaching. The research reinforces the need for new approaches to initial teacher education and the essentialness of first year of teaching induction. In addition, there is a need for a partnership approach involving: universities, professional associations and school-based teachers, in establishing a reciprocal mentoring framework. The most valuable aspect of the research, was the development of an innovative 'reciprocal mentoring' Artist-in-Residence model, which reframed the status of the pre-service teachers from that novice to ,expert artist. The program answered one of the most troubling questions to emerge from the study, that of how best to ensure ongoing procurement of mentors for new graduates.


An experiment was conducted to compare online computer manuals to paper manuals. For each type of manual there were two different database structures – a linear (sequential) structure and a tree structure. The results showed that people using the paper manuals were faster at performing a switch setting task based on information in the manual than were people using the online manuals. No significant differences were found in speed of performance between the linear and tree structures. Nor were there any differences in the number of correct switch settings for the different types of manuals. The subjective evaluation data revealed that the online manuals were rated as better and judged to be more organized than the paper manuals.


Stochastic simulation is a key tool in population genetics, since the models involved are often analytically intractable and simulation is usually the only way of obtaining ground-truth data to evaluate inferences. Because of this necessity, a large number of specialised simulation programs have been developed, each filling a particular niche, but with largely overlapping functionality and a substantial duplication of effort. Here, we introduce msprime version 1.0, which efficiently implements ancestry and mutation simulations based on the succinct tree sequence data structure and tskit library. We summarise msprime's many features, and show that its performance is excellent, often many times faster and more memory efficient than specialised alternatives. These high-performance features have been thoroughly tested and validated, and built using a collaborative, open source development model, which reduces duplication of effort and promotes software quality via community engagement.


ABSTRACT This study investigated young children's preferences for books to read aloud. Participants included 142 children enrolled in 4 public kindergartens in the Şanlıurfa province of Turkey, their parents (142 parents), and teachers. Forty-nine 4-year-olds and 93 5-year-olds and their 9 teachers participated in the study. Parents filled out surveys; children participated in eight consecutive book selection sessions before read-aloud and after read-aloud; and teachers were interviewed. Results from both before and after read-aloud revealed that young children preferred informational books to fictional books. Prior to reading the books, children preferred informational books due to their subjects and fictional books due to their characters. Further, interview findings indicated that teachers believe informational books are more educational, promoting curiosity, and triggering further activities, and transferrable to real life. Young children would benefit greater exposure to informational books. Policy-makers would promote informational children's books and professionals working on children literacy should allocate more attention to informational children's books. More informational children's books would be produced and teachers and parents would consider them as part of child literacy. Teachers and parents would introduce informational books as a choice to their children.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether opioids with varying interactions at receptors induce a reduction in minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of isoflurane in cats.

ANIMALS
12 healthy, female, spayed cats.

PROCEDURE
Cats were anesthetized with isoflurane and instrumented to allow collection of arterial blood and measurement of arterial blood pressure. Each drug was studied separately, and for each drug cats were randomly allocated to receive 2 doses. The drugs studied were morphine (0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg), butorphanol (0.08 or 0.8 mg/kg), buprenorphine (0.005 and 0.05 mg/kg), and U50488H (0.02 and 0.2 mg/kg). All drugs were diluted in 5 ml of saline (0.9% NaCl) solution and infused IV for 5 minutes. The MAC of isoflurane was determined in triplicate, the drug administered, and the MAC of isoflurane redetermined for a period of 3 hours.

RESULTS
All drugs had a significant effect on MAC over time. With morphine only, the effect on MAC over time was different between doses. The greatest mean (+/- SD) reductions in MAC of isoflurane in response to morphine, butorphanol, buprenorphine, and U50488H administration were 28 +/- 9, 19 +/- 3, 14 +/- 7, and 11 +/- 7%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Morphine (1.0 mg/kg) and butorphanol (0.08 and 0.8 mg/kg) induced significant reductions in MAC of isoflurane that were considered clinically important. Although significant, reductions in MAC of isoflurane induced by morphine (0.1 mg/kg), buprenorphine (0.005 and 0.05 mg/kg), and U50488H (0.02 and 0.2 mg/kg) were not considered clinically relevant because they fell within the error of the measurement technique. Administration of morphine or butorphanol decreases the need for potent inhalant anesthetics in cats and could potentially be beneficial in combination with inhalants.


In recent years a lot of psychological research efforts have been made in analyzing human spatial reasoning. Psychologists have used implicitly many spatial cognitive models, i.e. a model of how humans conceptualize spatial information and reason about it, based on the mental model theory to model their experimental findings. But only little effort has been put into identifying from an algorithmic point of view the control mechanism in cognitive models for reasoning with spatial relations. Without having such a specification the task of testing and improving cognitive models seems to be rather difficult, whereas the transfer of such cognitive models with attention to AI systems seems to be even more important. Only a precise computational model defining parameters and operations make testable predictions. In this paper we extend the SRM model, by embedding it into Baddeleys Working Memory Model. By this embedding we can define the role of the central executive and show that this subsystem plays an important role in precising the cognitive attention.


Cost estimating based on a building cost index plays an important role in project planning and cost management by providing accurate cost information. However, an effective method to predict the building cost index of New Zealand is lacking. This study proposes a transfer function method to improve the forecasting accuracy of the building cost index. In this study, the New Zealand house price index is included in the transfer function models as an explanatory variable to produce cost forecasts. The proposed method is used to estimate the building cost index of residential buildings including one-story houses, two-story houses, and town houses in New Zealand. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, this study compares the cost forecasts generated from the transfer function models and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. The results indicate that the proposed transfer function method can achieve better outcomes than ARIMA models by considering the time-lag causality between building costs and New Zealand house prices. The proposed method can be used by industry professionals as a practical tool to predict project costs and help the professionals to better capture the inherent relationships between cost and house prices.


An absence of measurement bias against distinct groups is a prerequisite for the use of a given psychological instrument in scientific research or high-stakes assessment. Factor analysis is the framework explicitly adopted for the identification of such bias when the instrument consists of a multi-test battery, whereas item response theory is employed when the focus narrows to a single test composed of discrete items. Item response theory can be treated as a mild nonlinearization of the standard factor model, and thus the essential unity of bias detection at the two levels merits greater recognition. Here we illustrate the benefits of a unified approach with a real-data example, which comes from a statewide test of mathematics achievement where examinees diagnosed with dyscalculia were accommodated with calculators. We found that items that can be solved by explicit arithmetical computation became easier for the accommodated examinees, but the quantitative magnitude of this differential item functioning (measurement bias) was small.


Objective: To demonstrate the presence of nerve fibers in pelvic adhesions potentially capable of conducting pain stimuli. Methods: Pelvic adhesions from 17 patients, ten of whom had a history of pelvic pain, were examined histologically. Routine hematoxylin and eosin stains and immunoperoxidase stains for S100 protein, B lymphocytes, and T lymphocytes were performed. Mesothelial proliferation, presence of calcification and/or psammoma bodies, edema, vascularization, inflammation, fibroblastic proliferation, and collagenization were graded from 0 (absent) to 3 (extensive); their prevalences were compared between patients with and without pelvic pain. Results: Nerve fibers were present in specimens from ten of the 17 patients (five of ten patients with and five of seven without pain). There was no statistically significant difference in the numbers with nerve fibers or in the presence of mesothelial proliferation, calcification and/or psammoma bodies, edema, vascularization, inflammation, fibroblastic proliferation, or collagenization between the groups. In all cases, the infiltrating lymphocytes were T lymphocytes. Conclusion: We were able to demonstrate the presence of nerve fibers in pelvic adhesions; however, their presence was not more prevalent among patients with pelvic pain. These findings support the concept that the formation of adhesions has different stages, with the final formation of mature connective tissue with its own vascularization and innervation. (Obstet Gynecol 1993;82:566‐8)


ABSTRACT This study, underpinned by the Resource-Based View, contributes to our understanding of the dark-side of marketing regarding unwanted and undesirable behaviour that may be detrimental to businesses. It involves regional coopetition (simultaneous collaboration and competition) within New Zealand's wine sector. Owner-managers of 25 vineyards were interviewed to understand their views towards the potential paradox of coopetition together with another 13 managers that worked at the cellar door (38 interviews in total); also, observations of employees at 13 cellar doors to establish whether what owner-managers claimed was implemented as a 'strategy as practice' to customers. In contributing to knowledge, the study finds that although owner-managers of under-resourced firms may advocate the benefits of coopetition to enhance performance, observations indicate that certain front-line employees' practices were inconsistent with the views of owner-managers. The findings have implications for the way owner-managers recruit, train and incentivise employees to facilitate performance-enhancing service marketing strategies.


Clouds play a central role in the Earth's atmosphere, and satellite observations are crucial for monitoring clouds and understanding their impact on the energy budget and water cycle. Within the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF), a new cloud property data record was derived from geostationary Meteosat Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) measurements for the time frame 2004–2015. The resulting CLAAS-2 (CLoud property dAtAset using SEVIRI, Edition 2) data record is publicly available via the CM SAF website (https://doi.org/10.5676/EUM_SAF_CM/CLAAS/V002). In this paper we present an extensive evaluation of the CLAAS-2 cloud products, which include cloud fractional coverage, thermodynamic phase, cloud top properties, liquid/ice cloud water path and corresponding optical thickness and particle effective radius. Data validation and comparisons were performed on both level 2 (native SEVIRI grid and repeat cycle) and level 3 (daily and monthly averages and histograms) with reference datasets derived from lidar, microwave and passive imager measurements. The evaluation results show very good overall agreement with matching spatial distributions and temporal variability and small biases attributed mainly to differences in sensor characteristics, retrieval approaches, spatial and temporal samplings and viewing geometries. No major discrepancies were found. Underpinned by the good evaluation results, CLAAS-2 demonstrates that it is fit for the envisaged applications, such as process studies of the diurnal cycle of clouds and the evaluation of regional climate models. The data record is planned to be extended and updated in the future.


The present studies were carried out to explore the vascular plant diversity and investigate the ethnobotanical potential and their conservation status in Ushairy Valley. The study area is located in District Dir (Upper) of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. The area is gifted with diverse and unique flora because of the extension and representation of all the three mountain ranges i.e. Himalaya, Hindu Kash and Karakorum. The people are mostly poor and depend on plants for their domestic needs. Extensive exploration of Ushairy Valley shows that 562 angiosperm species are found here representing by 107 families (17 families of monocots and 90 families of dicots) and 343 genera. Among these families Asteraceae is the leading one with 50 species followed by Rosaceae with 35 species and Brassicaceae with 32 species.The gemnosperm are represented by 4 families with 9 genera and 11 species in which Pinaceae is the leading one with 6 species followed by Cupressaceae with 3 species. The Pteriodphyte represented by 37 species, 16 genera and 10 families in which the Dryopteridaceae is the leading one with 7 species and followed by Aspleniacaceae and Pteridaceae with 6 species each in Ushairy Valley. The collected species were identified, preserved and voucher specimens were deposited in the herbarium of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and Department of Botany, Islamia College Peshawar. The ethnobotanical information revealed that there are 26 different usage of 274 plant species in which 151 used as medicine, 57 fuelwood in which 16 species are preferred as a best quality fuel, 35 vegetable and pot herb, 16 fencing and hedges, 83 fodder in which 53 are herb, 11 are shrub and 19 are tree species, 15 furniture and 19 species are used as timber. Other ethnobotanical uses of plants in Ushairy Valley as, for making agricultural appliances used 12 spp., in thatching and roofing 14 spp., in making tooth brushes, 7 spp., as insect repellent, 5 spp., honeybee attractants, 19 spp., 8 spp. are used in spices and condiments, 9 spp., used in scorpion sting, dog and snake bite, 7 spp., used in snuff preparation and 19 spp., used in fish poisoning or considered as poison plants. 20 spp., are used as dye and for yielding oil, 36 spp., are edible fruits and seed producing plants, Ornamental plants are 9 and 10 spp., are used as veterinary medicines.
The species Abies pindrow, Aesculus indica, Cedrus deodara, Ficus palmata, Pinus Roxburghii, Pinus wallichiana, Quercus spp., and Salix babylonica exhibit multiple uses.The part used data shows that mostly the leaves, whole plant, fruit and stem are in common use.There are 66 species belonging to 45 families used in different monoherbal and polyherbal recipes.
It has been discovered that some species are no more available in their respective habitats due to over collection and has been threatened by unsustainable extraction, over grazing, cutting, deforestation and unawareness. One of the major causes of the degradation of forest is poverty that most of the people live below poverty line in hilly areas.Sustainable harvest of natural resources may help to partially alleviate poverty.Programmes for natural resources management must become integral parts of over all developments strategies.
The conservation status of Ushairy Valley was evaluated through IUCN (1994-2001) modified criteria. Among these species, 18 are critically endangered, 14 are endangered, 16 are vulnerable and 8 are near threatened.


Between 2007 and 2010 Virgo collected data in coincidence with the LIGO and GEO gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. These data have been searched for GWs emitted by cataclysmic phenomena in the universe, by non-axisymmetric rotating neutron stars or from a stochastic background in the frequency band of the detectors. The sensitivity of GW searches is limited by noise produced by the detector or its environment. It is therefore crucial to characterize the various noise sources in a GW detector. This paper reviews the Virgo detector noise sources, noise propagation, and conversion mechanisms which were identified in the three first Virgo observing runs. In many cases, these investigations allowed us to mitigate noise sources in the detector, or to selectively flag noise events and discard them from the data. We present examples from the joint LIGO-GEO-Virgo GW searches to show how well noise transients and narrow spectral lines have been identified and excluded from the Virgo data. We also discuss how detector characterization can improve the astrophysical reach of gravitationalwave searches. PACS numbers: 04.80.Nn,95.75.Wx,07.60.Ly,95.55.Ym The characterization of Virgo data and its impact on gravitational-wave searches. 9


The Levang granite forms an elliptical body occupying the core of a broad antiformal structure, and covering approximately 50 sq. km. Surrounding this mass of granitoid gneisses is a series of banded gneisses of very variable composition, including amphibolites, quartzltes, and nodular sillimanite gneisses. Against these rocks the granitic gneisses make a sharp, though in places 'interfingered' contact. Agmatitl relationships are never seen. Further south, on the PortOr sub-peninsula, migmatitic granitoid gneisses are exposed which have mineral assemblages identical to those of rock types from within the main Levang granite. The composition of the Levang granite gneisses is variable, ranging from quartz monzonltic to tonalitic types lacking potash feldspar, but on the whole corresponds fairly closely with the minimum melting composition of the granite system. Over much the greater area the Levang granite is strongly foliated, and everywhere shows some degree of preferred planar or linear orientation of minerals. The foliation always parallels the contacts, and it defines a complex fold system, within the granite which is in complete structural conformity with that of the surrounding banded gneisses and migmatites. The overall symmetry of the structure is triclinic, the plunge of the linear elements varying from horizontal to vertical. The β axis of the domal structure in the eastern part of the granite mass is completely overturned. Traced eastwards from the core of the dome, P trends initially due east north east, steepens to vertical, and then plunges due west at angles of 60 to 70 . The very complex tectonic evolution has probably involved disharmonic folding and two phases of deformation. Within the Levang granite amphibolitic sheets and lenses are invariably conformable to the fold pattern defined by the granite gneiss foliation. In the Helligesvann brachyanticline, a regular sequence of granitoid gneisses of variable composition, interlayered with a thick amphibolitic sheet which forms an unbroken horizon, indicates the presence of a 'ghost' stratigraphy. Investigation of the potash feldspar obliquities shows that all the potash feldspars, from granitic gneisses, migmatites, and pegmatites, are more or less fully ordered maximum microclines. The fact that some of the granitic gneisses approximate to the minimum melting composition is not conclusive evidence in favour of an origin through anatexis or fractional crystallization, in view of the spatial distribution of these rocks, their metamorphic textures, and the nature of the basic inclusions. The Levang granite is a metamorphic rock, the result of the transformation in an open system of a pre-existing series of supra- crustal rocks by processes of granitization and metasomatism.


Comparison of issues regarding the policy of Australian and Canadian governments of removing aboriginal children from their families and placing them in institutions - some Canadian claimantThis article provides a comparative overview of issues pertaining to the stolen generation in Canada and Australia. It includes a historical overview of the removal and detaining of aboriginal children in Canada and Australia. As a consequence of the revelations of this past practice, litigation has been undertaken by members of the stolen generations in both Canada and Australia. The article includes a summary of the key cases in Canada and Australia. Unlike in Australia, some Canadian aboriginal claimants have successfully brought actions for compensation against the federal Canadian government for the damages stemming from their experiences in the aboriginal residential schools. In the course of this discussion, the various causes of actions relied upon by the plaintiffs are examined While the plaintiffs in these leading Canadian cases were ultimately successful under at least one of their heads of claim, the approaches in these cases in regard to the Crown's liability for breaching fiduciary duties, the duty of care, and non-delegable duties is inconsistent. Thus even in regard to the Canadian jurisprudence key legal issues pertaining to the Crown's liability for the aboriginal residential school experience continues to be unresolved.