This paper describes the results from a comparative wavelet analysis of a 0.1 , 40-level Parallel Ocean Program model simulation of the North Atlantic with coincident in situ measurements of sea surface height (SSH) and temperature. The wavelet analysis is used to examine the realism of the surface's variability and its high frequency signals (less than a year). Along the coast, it shows that the model's simulated fields of SSH are realistic with the correlations to tide gauge measurements on the order of 0.8. The wavelet spectra show that the model replicates the observations' frequency space. Comparisons of the model's temperatures to temperatures from NOAA buoys north and south of the Gulf Stream show that, while not replicating the location of mesoscale features all the time, the model's energy in the strong mesoscale regions compares favorably to data. Due to the TOPEX/POSEIDON's (T/P) sampling, which requires large areal averages and because of the model's spontaneous eddy field, the evaluation of the simulation in the open ocean is less conclusive. The model does show similarities to the T/P data at high latitudes where the sampling by the sensor is denser and also on the eastern side of the basin with its lower mesoscale activity. Spatially, there are similarities in the amplitude of the signals between the model and the observations in areas with a significant signal in a given spectral band.


Due to the unknown etiology of RA, specific treatment is not available. Recently, in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial, in vivo blockade of TNF-alpha by a single infusion of a chimeric TNF-alpha-blocking mAb, cA2, has proven to be highly effective in the treatment of RA. In parallel to this trial, we tested the consequences of cA2 infusion in ex vivo and in vitro experiments. In this paper, we describe an increase in CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte counts on day 1 and a marked decrease in monocyte counts preferentially on day 7 after cA2 treatment, without major changes in B lymphocyte or NK cell counts. In addition, we found an increased responsiveness of PBMC to CD28 mAb/PMA, but not to CD3 mAb, superantigen staphylococcus enterotoxin B, or PHA on day 1 after infusion. The increase in DNA synthesis of PBMC was paralleled by increased IL-2 mRNA and IL-4 mRNA expression and IL-2 protein secretion in culture supernatants after in vitro stimulation of PBMC with CD28 mAb/PMA. In PBMC, we did not find any significant changes in mRNA or protein expression of CD28 Ag or CD28 ligands, B7-1 and B7-2. Serum concentrations of IL-1 beta, IL-6, and soluble CD14 were significantly diminished after in vivo TNF-alpha blockade. We did not see relevant changes in granulocyte function in vitro after cA2 infusion. Finally, we observed a statistically significant decrease in slCAM-1 molecules in the serum of patients treated with verum compared with that in the serum of subjects given placebo. This change in slCAM-1 concentration was evident on days 1 and 7 after the infusion of 10 mg/kg cA2, whereas it occurred only on day 7 in the serum of patients treated with the low dose (1 mg/kg) of cA2.


A sanitary napkin comprising a topsheet having a body-facing side and comprising a plurality of discrete tufts of fibrous material. The topsheet has a lotion composition applied to at least a portion of the body-facing side thereof. An absorbent core is in fluid communication with the topsheet, the absorbent core having an average thickness of less than about 10 mm, and a free absorbent capacity of from about 4 to about 125 grams per gram.


A public notice was printed in the Illawarra Mercury in 1995 announcing the formation of an Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH). It was both the name of the guest speaker, Tom Uren, and the person proposing this formation, Ray Markey, that interested me enough to make me attend. Many others must have felt the same way as a well-attended inaugural meeting was held at the Ironworkers Club. Ray was duly elected Foundation President and remained President until 2003. Early in his tenure, a decision was made to record local labour history in a journal to be called Unity. By 1996, the first copy of this journal was posted out to all members with contributions from George Petersen, Ted Roach and Rowan Cahill. With support from the University of Wollongong, the technical expertise of Rob Hood and the editorship of Ray Markey, this was a quality publication. This journal article is available in Illawarra Unity Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History: http://ro.uow.edu.au/unity/vol5/iss1/7


The effect of the two parameters is reviewed. Variability with time is discussed in relation to stability and other atmospheric conditions. The magnitude of ground level concentrations from elevated release is discussed as an interaction between rate of emission release, physical height of stack, and thermal conditions. The point is made that plant effluent rates have increased in proportion to stack height.


A Saccharomyces cerevisiae homolog to Drosophila melanogaster and mouse Tcp-1 encoding tailless complex polypeptide 1 (TCP1) has been identified, sequenced, and mapped. The mouse t complex has been under scrutiny for six decades because of its effects on embryogenesis and sperm differentiation and function. TCP1 is an essential gene in yeast cells and is located on chromosome 4R, linked to pet14. The TCP1-encoded proteins in yeast, Drosophila, and mouse cells share between 61 and 72% amino acid sequence identities, suggesting a primordial function for the TCP1 gene product. To assess function, we constructed a cold-impaired recessive mutation (tcp1-1) in the yeast gene. Cells carrying the tcp1-1 mutation grew linearly rather than exponentially at the restrictive temperature of 15 degrees C with a generation time of approximately 32 h in minimal medium. Both multinucleate and anucleate cells accumulated with time, suggesting that the linear growth kinetics may be explained by the generation of anucleate buds incapable of further cell division. In addition, the multinucleate and anucleate cells contained morphologically abnormal structures detected by anti-alpha-tubulin antibodies. The kinetics of appearance of these abnormalities suggest that they are a direct consequence of loss of function of the TCP1 protein and not a delayed, indirect consequence of cell death. We also observed that strains carrying tcp1-1 were hypersensitive to antimitotic compounds. Taken together, these observations imply that the TCP1 protein affects microtubule-mediated processes.


ABSTRACT Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to replace commercial learning materials in education. An empirical examination of this potential was conducted, comparing the end-of-year mathematics test results of 12,110 elementary school students clustered within 95 schools from five school districts in the state of Washington in the United States of America. Of this group, 6796 students used open learning materials, and 5314 used commercial educational resources. When three years of test scores were considered, there were no statistically significant differences in the exam scores of students who used open versus commercial curriculum materials. The lack of statistical significance may have practical significance, demonstrating that OER can replace conventional materials without impacting student performance, while potentially reducing costs and allowing for local modification.


Understanding Design Requirements for Building Reliable, Space-Based FPGA MGT Systems Based on Radiation Test Results Kevin Michael Ellsworth Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Master of Science Space-based computing applications often demand reliable, high-bandwidth communication systems. FPGAs with Mulit-Gigabit Transceivers (MGTs) provide an effective platform for such systems, but it is important that system designers understand the possible susceptibilities MGTs present to the system. Previous work has provided a foundation for understanding the susceptibility of raw FPGA MGTs but has fallen short of testing MGTs as part of a larger system. This work focuses on answering the questions MGT system designers need to know in order to build a reliable space-based MGT system. Two radiation tests were performed with a test architecture built on the Aurora protocol. These tests were specifically designed to discover system susceptibilities, and effective mechanisms for upset detection, recovery, and recovery detection. Test results reveal that the Aurora protocol serves as an effective basis for simple point-to-point communication for space-based systems but that some additional logic is necessary for high reliability. Particularly, additional upset detection and recovery mechanisms are necessary as well as additional status indicators. These additions are minimal, however, and not all are necessary depending on system requirements. The most susceptible part of the MGT system is the MGT tile components on the RX data path. Upsets to these components most often results in data corruption only and do not affect system operation or disrupt the communication link. Most other upsets which do disrupt normal system operation can be recovered automatically by the Aurora protocol with built-in mechanisms. Only 1% of oberserved events in testing required additional recovery mechanisms not supplied by Aurora. In addition to test data results, this work also provides suggestions for system designers based on various system requirements and a proposed MGT system design based on the Aurora protocol. The proposed system serves as an example to illustrate how test data can be used to guide the system design and determine system availability. With this knowledge designers are able to build reliable MGT systems for a variety of space-based systems.


This paper attempts to provide a playbook for the sovereign debt restructuring process, drawing on the experience with sovereign debt restructuring since the 1980s. It begins with a discussion of the participating actors and their interests. It then describes the considerations that must be weighed in designing, negotiating, and concluding a debt restructuring, in light of two problems: asymmetric information between the debtor and the creditors, and creditor coordination problems, which can lead to free riding (the "holdout" problem). The paper focuses on how these problems, which can lead to inefficiently negotiated outcomes, can be managed and minimized in practice.


Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) is produced by photochemical oxidation reactions with abundant NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs); therefore, it is considered as a photochemical pollution indicator. In this study, PAN, O3, and their precursors were measured at three heights (5.4, 23, and 40.5 m) on a 41-m tower in Taehwa Research Forest (TRF) near the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) from August 25 to September 9, 2011. The PAN was determined every 2 minutes using gas chromatography with luminol chemiluminescence detection (GC-LCD). All reactive gases were measured for 15 minutes at each height. The mean and maximum PAN concentrations were 0.3 and 3.1 ppbv, respectively. The mean and maximum O3 concentrations were 13.1 and 79.8 ppbv, respectively. The average NOx concentration was 6.57 ppbv. At the TRF, PAN and O3 concentrations were well correlated (r = 0.8) and greatly elevated when the air mass was affected by urban outflows from the SMA, which was clearly demonstrated by an increase in NO2. These high NO2 concentrations were observed along with a shift in wind direction at 17:00 (KST) and resulted in the maximum observed values of PAN and O3 in the present study. In addition, the concentration enhancement was more pronounced for PAN and at heights above the canopy. These results highlight PAN as a robust tracer indicating urban impacts at peri-urban forest sites.


This paper aimed to identify success factors of export performance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the resource-based view, the dynamic capability view, and international entrepreneurship theory, we extracted relevant assets, capabilities, and postures at the firm level. An extended benchmarking method was applied to empirically test the proposed success factors with a cross-sectional sample of 99 Slovenian SMEs. The results highlight the crucial role of management competence, financial and human resources, market orientation, negotiation flexibility, and a proactive and risk-taking posture to achieve superior export performance.


Extracted from text ... Number 51 - Part 2
E Fraser and M Page*
Value and momentum strategies: Evidence from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
* Eleanor Fraser is a lecturer in the School of Management Studies, University of Cape Town and Mike Page is the Len Abrahamse
Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, Republic of South
Africa. Email:email@example.com
1. Introduction
Value strategies are defined as those in which shares perceived to be relatively under-valued by the market are purchased in order to
realise superior returns. Measures of value have included equity book-to-market ratios, ..


Community networks often operate at the fringe of legality with respect to spectrum, network infrastructure and providing services. We have been involved with such a network in a rural community, and together with them, have devised a way to become legal within the South African regulatory framework. A not-for-profit co-operative was formed and successfully applied for license exemption to operate the network infrastructure and offer services. Revenue is used to sustain the network and can also be used for other community needs. The network has equipment that is not 100% type-approved, and operates at a higher output power than is allowed. However, we have a simple plan to comply with such regulations. This paper offers our experience as a precedent for how to go about making a community network completely legal in South Africa and other countries that have a similar regulatory environment.


Studies both of entire galaxies and of local Galactic star formation indicate a dependency of a molecular cloud's star formation rate (SFR) on its dense gas mass. In external galaxies, such measurements are derived from HCN(1-0) observations, usually encompassing many Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) at once. The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is a unique laboratory to study the relation of the SFR and HCN emission down to GMC scales at solar-like metallicities. In this work, we correlate our composite SFR determinations with archival HCN, HCO+, and CO observations, resulting in a sample of nine reasonably representative GMCs. We find that, at the scale of individual clouds, it is important to take into account both obscured and unobscured star formation to determine the SFR. When correlated against the dense-gas mass from HCN, we find that the SFR is low, in spite of these refinements. We nevertheless retrieve an SFR-dense-gas mass correlation, confirming that these SFR tracers are still meaningful on GMC scales. The correlation improves markedly when we consider the HCN/CO ratio instead of HCN by itself. This nominally indicates a dependency of the SFR on the dense-gas fraction, in contradiction to local studies. However, we hypothesize that this partly reflects the limited dynamic range in dense-gas mass, and partly that the ratio of single-pointing HCN and CO measurements may be less prone to systematics like sidelobes. In this case, the HCN/CO ratio would importantly be a better empirical measure of the dense-gas content itself.


Abstract Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify differences in ophthalmology resident candidates and practicing ophthalmologists' career perceptions. A secondary aim was to evaluate specific demographic factors (e.g., gender, ethnicity, career interests, etc.) among residency candidates regarding their career perceptions. Methods: A survey instrument (Critical factors in Career Perceptions) was sent by e-mail to prospective residents (n= 122). Group differences were calculated using a one sample t-test analysis. Results: Compared to practicing ophthalmologists (n = 56), residency candidates were more likely (p < 0.05) to expect greater professional job satisfaction from a number of career factors (e.g., time with patients, physician teamwork, etc.); family-personal factors (e.g., diversity of job skills, sole professional responsibility, etc.); and financial factors (i.e., income and security) than those in practice. Gender differences between candidates revealed that women were more interested in spending time with patients and in computer technology applications. Conclusions: These results suggest that medical school and residency program leaders to consider specific factors ophthalmologists encounter in their profession so that residency candidates have a more realistic view of their chosen profession. Several recommendations for resident recruitment and curriculum development are provided.


The interaction between infectious pathogens and the immune system has been a focus of research for many years. However, the failure of re-recognition or immune memory of infectious pathogen remains a clear mystery A memory B cell defect coupled with low levels of C1-INH and/or C1-INH function-failure of both the innate and adaptive immune components-may lead to persistent unresolved infection. Here we present 3 case studies that explore the abnormal immune response that may lead to persistent infection. These cases offer possible clarification of a longstanding clinical observation that some patients may develop a post infectious syndrome that includes various neurological symptoms and unusual fatigue. These patients may have positive serology seen only during acute infectious phase and have a documented positive PCR, suggesting active presence of the pathogen. The unusual presentation is prolonged and irreversible. We use the term "Alzheimer's disease of the immune system" to identify this subtype due to the memory defect of the immune system. As we identified 3 common immune defects in all cases, we suggest a new immune deficiency leading to the post infectious syndrome.


Sustainability entails a development that meets the present generation's needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission, 1987). Hence, new public management practices need to be restored sustainably to fulfill the social contract theory by protecting citizens' happiness, security, and development. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) in this direction mobilize many specialized fields, including public administration in its new form. New public management (NPM) practices are the art of maximizing value from natural resources and human capital. In designing organizations for such a citizen-enabled strategy within NPM in a sustainable perspective, policymakers must identify stakeholders, commitment of the initiators, and the innovation pattern in introducing this policy to the environment (Kairouz, 2016). This research paper introduces an attempt to set a sustainable development policy to maintain solid waste management (SWM) from administrative and a citizen-oriented reform policy orientation. In Egypt, SWM is a persistent issue reflecting on the environment; hence, social and health problems must be properly managed through developmental policies to contribute to the country's welfare. The policy instrument of NPM in SDGs entails both municipal waste management and the rationalization of fossil fuel subsidies. The research conducted a pilot study of three months using sustainable supply chain management practices as a tool for managing solid wastes in universities where wastes are considered a product, which requires management throughout this chain to maximize efficiency and sustain the environment. The business model includes suppliers of the waste, including any firm that supplies the university with material for the ongoing study period. It also includes any individual bringing goods of usage in the campus that turn into waste. The referential analysis technique is used to draw a generalization of conclusions depending on the logic found in areas of secondary sources in early studies.


Despite the fusion of law and equity and the apparent demise of equity as a distinct system, this Article argues that equity is a distinct decision making mode within a legal system. Private law relies on formal structures of rights and rules that can be exploited and abused by opportunists. The possibility of strategic manipulation of the information available to other parties and to courts furnishes a rationale for a second-order safety valve on the formal law. In the Anglo-American tradition this anti-opportunism safety valve corresponds roughly to a major strand of equity jurisprudence. The Article shows that an equitable safety valve is to be found in both traditional equity theory and as a theme in equity, from the maxims to defenses to remedies to procedure. The Article explains and partially justifies the equitable safety valve as an ex post higher-order intervention aimed at a problem of measurement and uncertainty: law needs protection against opportunistic distortion and misuse of probabilistic information used by parties and courts. The importance of equity suggests a rethinking of "actuarialist" assumptions in conventional law and economics about stable and unbiased probabilistic information being available to parties and courts. Opportunists can be regarded as entrepreneurs in doing bad who exploit uncertainty. Once the function of equity as an anti-opportunism device is understood, many jurisprudential debates, especially those revolving around formalism and contextualism, can be seen to be lacking an appreciation of hybrid decision making that equity makes possible. Equity as an anti-opportunism safety valve provides an attractive way out of some thorny dilemmas.


During the latest Pleistocene-earliest Holocene, South American terrestrial vertebrate faunas suffered one of the largest (and probably the youngest) extinction in the world for this lapse. Megamammals, most of the large mammals and a giant terrestrial tortoise became extinct in the continent, and several complete ecological guilds and their predators disappeared. This mammal extinction had been attributed mainly to overkill, climatic change or a combination of both. We agree with the idea that human overhunting was the main cause of the extinction in South America. However, according to our interpretation, the slaughtering of mammals was accomplished in a particular climatic, ecological and biogeographical frame. During most of the middle and late Pleistocene, dry and cold climate and open areas predominated in South America. Nearly all of those megamammals and large mammals that became extinct were adapted to this kind of environments. The periodic, though relatively short, interglacial increases in temperature and humidity may have provoked the dramatic shrinking of open areas and extreme reduction of the biomass (albeit not in diversity) of mammals adapted to open habitats. Many populations were surely close to a minimum level of population viability. During the longer glacial periods, mammals populations recovered. This alternation of low and high biomass of mammals from open and closed areas is what we refer to as the Zig-Zag. During the present interglacial, humans entered South America and broke the Zig-Zag when killed all the megamammals and almost all the large mammals during their less favourable periodic lapse.


Print books and ebook devices now co-exist in a reading eco-system. The ways in which readers understand and describe their experience of reading on ebook devices is shaped by long-established cultural expectations about the abstract as well as the physical affordances of the print book. Ebook devices cannot help but challenge those expectations. A review of readers' reactions to the emergence of ebook devices offers a glimpse into the complex cultural position of both the idea and the experience of reading.


The response of continental-scale drainage systems to short-term (i.e., millennial-scale) climate change is unknown but has wide implications for understanding climate feedbacks and terrestrial-marine fluxes. The late Wisconsin Mississippi River to deep-sea fan of North America was one of Earth's largest sediment-routing networks during the most recent glacio-eustatic cycle. To understand late Pleistocene sediment production and dispersal related to the partly glaciated, ancestral Mississippi system, we sampled late Wisconsin deep-sea fan channel-fill and lobe deposits for detrital zircon U-Pb and (U-Th)/He double-dating analyses, from Deep Sea Drilling Project (Leg 96) cores and U.S. Geological Survey piston cores. Our results suggest a late Pleistocene glacial Mississippi system that forced a larger transfer of sediment from Cordilleran magmatic provinces and the Canadian Shield when compared to the modern drainage. This indicates a potentially more expansive and/or erosive ancestral Mississippi catchment, and the efficient dispersal of terrigenous sediment, nutrients, and solutes into the deep-sea via high-discharge meltwater and glacial-lake outbursts during ice retreat.


Simple formulas are derived for the degradation in the beam-quality factor, M(2), of an arbitrary laser beam caused by quartic phase distortions such as those that might occur in a spherically aberrated optical component, a thermally aberrated laser output window, or a divergent beam emerging from a high-index dielectric medium as in a wide-stripe, unstable-resonator diode laser. A new formula for the defocus correction that is needed to collimate optimally a beam with quartic phase aberration is also derived. Analytical results and numerical examples are given for both radially aberrated and one-dimensionaltransversely aberrated cases, and a simple experimental measurement of the beam-quality degradation produced by a thin plano-convex lens is shown to be in good agreement with the theory.


BACKGROUND
The prevalence and characteristics of persons with newly diagnosed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections with or without evidence of mutations associated with drug resistance have not been well described.

METHODS
Drug-naive persons in whom HIV had been diagnosed during the previous 12 months and who did not have acquired immune deficiency syndrome were sequentially enrolled from 39 clinics and testing sites in 10 US cities during 1997-2001. Genotyping was conducted from HIV-amplification products, by automated sequencing. For specimens identified as having mutations previously associated with reduced antiretroviral-drug susceptibility, phenotypic testing was performed.

RESULTS
Of 1311 eligible participants, 1082 (83%) were enrolled and successfully tested; 8.3% had reverse transcriptase or major protease mutations associated with reduced antiretroviral-drug susceptibility. The prevalence of these mutations was 11.6% among men who had sex with men but was only 6.1% and 4.7% among women and heterosexual men, respectively. The prevalence was 5.4% and 7.9% among African American and Hispanic participants, respectively, and was 13.0% among whites. Among persons whose sexual partners reportedly took antiretroviral medications, the prevalence was 15.2%.

CONCLUSIONS
Depending on the characteristics of the patients tested, HIV-genotype testing prior to the initiation of therapy would identify a substantial number of infected persons with mutations associated with reduced antiretroviral-drug susceptibility.


Analysis of 16 marine Permian-Triassic boundary sections with a near-global distribution demonstrates systematic changes in sediment fluxes and lithologies in the aftermath of the end-Permian crisis. Sections from continent-margin and platform settings exhibit higher bulk accumulation rates (BARs) and more clay-rich compositions in the Griesbachian (earliest Triassic) relative to the Changhsingian (latest Permian). These patterns, which largely transcend regional variations in tectonic setting, sequence stratigraphic factors, and facies, are hypothesized to have resulted from a substantial (average ∼7×) increase in the flux of eroded material from adjacent land areas owing to accelerated rates of chemical and physical weathering as a function of higher surface temperatures, increased acidity of precipitation, and changes in landscape stability tied to destruction of terrestrial ecosystems. This sediment surge may have been a contributory factor to the latest Permian marine biotic crisis as well as to the delayed recovery of Early Triassic marine ecosystems owing to the harmful effects of siltation and eutrophication. Contemporaneous deep-sea sections show no increases in sediment flux across the Permian-Triassic boundary owing to their remoteness from continental siliciclastic sources and location below the paleo–carbonate compensation depth.


Ursus spelaeus from the Buco dell'Orso Cave (Lombardy, North Italy) has some peculiar metrical characteristics that make it more close to Ursus deningeri rather than to the typical spelaeus. In particular, it is the smaller size that makes the difference. In this study, the 'regressive evolution' is proposed; a hypothesis linked to possible climatic cooling and presented here on the basis either of new data or in comparison with observed analogies on fossils from Italian and foreign caves.


The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, by Joseph A. Fitzmyer. AB 31. New York/London: Doubleday, 1998. Pp. xxxiv + 830. $45.00. This volume completes Joseph Fitzmyer's commentary on the Lukan writings in the Anchor Bible series. It follows his commentary on the Gospel of Luke by thirteen years (The Gospel according to Luke [AB 28, 28A;1981, 1985]). In between these works Fitzmyer employed his broad knowledge and impressive skill in other tasks, including the Romans commentary in the same series. In the preface Fitzmyer explains that, unlike in the Luke commentary, the editors would not permit expansion of the Acts commentary to two volumes. This decision required some curtailment of Fitzmyer's discussion. There is, nevertheless, much fine scholarship in this thick volume. The volume first presents Fitzmyer's translation of Acts, followed by an introduction of more than a hundred pages and an extensive general bibliography. The rest of the book moves through Acts by presenting a segment of translation, followed by a general "Comment," then "Notes" on the verses of the text and a bibliography on the text segment. The amount of bibliography is one value of the volume. There is one unusual feature to the translation in the commentary. It is followed by translations of the variants in the Western text, even though these variants will not play a large role in Fitzmyer's comments. There are no excursuses. The extensive introduction and the special attention that Fitzmyer gives certain topics in the notes make up for this lack. The introduction includes discussion of the "Sources of Acts." Fitzmyer believes that there were Palestinian, Antiochene, and Pauline sources. He gives little defense of this hypothesis except to refer to "Benoit's analysis" (p. 83). The introduction also discusses form-critical analysis of Acts. Fitzmyer attempts to continue into Acts the form criticism previously applied to Luke. This aspect of the commentary is not very productive. Too many of the passages are simply classified as "narratives," which in itself is not very illuminating. "The Lukan Story of Paul" receives extensive discussion in the introduction. Here Fitzmyer is concerned with the differences between Acts and the Pauline letters. For his views on Lukan theology, Fitzmyer refers to the introduction of his Luke commentary. There are many short but valuable comments on historical matters and items of vocabulary. For instance, Fitzmyer gives special attention to the use of ekklesia in Acts (p. 325) and to Hellenistai (pp. 347-48), synagoge (pp. 356-57), Antioch (pp. 475-76), Epicureans and Stoics (pp. 604-5), and Artemis (pp. 657-58). The commentary is useful in many particulars. Fitzmyer, however, is not interested only in particulars but also in broad theological issues and in the major purpose or purposes behind a writing. Here, however, he perpetuates some positions that have been called in question and that, in my opinion, should be rejected. For instance, Fitzmyer accepts the identification of "the end of the earth" in Acts 1:8 with Rome (pp. 56, 206-7), an identification which suggests that the missionary command has been substantially realized with Paul's arrival in Rome. …


Children's ability to name an object by multiple semantically similar labels (i.e. synonyms) has been documented by the age of three; however, the ability to reason using semantically similar labels remains sparsely investigated. The present study expands our understanding of children's ability to utilize semantically similar labels in two relational reasoning tasks – a semantic completion task (Experiment 1) and a semantic substitution task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants were presented a base pair of related words (e.g., castle:rock), then given a partially completed target word-pair (castle: ?) to complete with a label that made the target word-pair relationally identical to the base word-pair (e.g., stone). Additional response options included a label that was thematically related (king) and an unrelated label (milk). In Experiment 2, the same semantic relationships were explored by presenting the labels in stories with prompt questions. Results indicated that four-year-olds exhibited difficulty with semantically similar labels in the semantic completion but not in the semantic substitution task. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed.


This study examined the freight movement and logistics patterns of six businesses located in urban and suburban centers of metropolitan Seattle. Its two principle objectives were (1) to identify key factors that influence location and transportation choices, patterns, and times and (2) to build a sound foundation for future research regarding urban freight movement's relationship to compact urban form. The study found that firm location decisions are driven more by land costs than by transportation costs; proximity to denser urban areas means more business for four of six firms investigated; transportation managers adjust to increased congestion; innovations such as smaller trucks and urban-edge transfer stations facilitate freight movement in dense areas; and site and roadway design can have a big impact on urban goods movement. A variety of new approaches, including freight consolidation, congestion pricing, freight friendly urban design, and insights of truckers, were suggested for further analysis.


New firm formation has continued to play a key role in regional development policies across the globe for more than twenty years. Successful policy requires a clear understanding of the underlying determinants of the business birth rate and there is good reason to believe that the fundamentals may be subject to change. Armington and Acs (2002) argue for a fresh examination of the subject in the United States, in part because of developments in spatial theory including the new economic geography (Krugman 1991a, 1991b, 1994) and endogenous growth theory (Romer, 1990; Nijkamp and Poot, 1989) and because of the evolution of the regional economy. They contend that the motivation for much of the literature on new firm formation in the 1980s was high levels of unemployment in traditional US industrial regions. But the focus of the literature today is different, emphasising high technology start-ups as a critical driver of the new economy. In this paper, we pose a similar question for the UK regions. Specifically, we seek to apply and develop the model tested by one of the present authors and colleagues on 1980s data, to data for the 1990s (Ashcroft, Love and Malloy, 1991). The paper is in five parts. First, we discuss the measurement of new firm formation in the UK regional context. Secondly, we identify some stylised facts on the variation of new firm formation in British counties in the 1980s and 1990s. The third part of the paper specifies the model used in our work on the 1980s and discusses the earlier findings. Part 4 tests the model on data for the 1990s, retests for key variables rejected on 1980s data and introduces new variables to reflect developments in theory and the evolution of UK regional economies. The final part of the paper compares the explanation of new firm formation in the 1980s with the estimates for the later period. In this section implications for policy and future directions for research are considered.


Most studies on tilt based interaction can be classified as point-designs that demonstrate the utility of wrist-tilt as an input medium; tilt parameters are tailored to suit the specific interaction at hand. In this paper, we systematically analyze the design space of wrist-based interactions and focus on the level of control possible with the wrist. In a first study, we investigate the various factors that can influence tilt control, separately along the three axes of wrist movement: flexion/extension, pronation/supination, and ulnar/radial deviation. Results show that users can control comfortably at least 16 levels on the pronation/supination axis and that using a quadratic mapping function for discretization of tilt space significantly improves user performance across all tilt axes. We discuss the findings of our results in the context of several interaction techniques and identify several general design recommendations.


Conservation Agriculture (CA) is promoted by research and development (R&D) agencies to sustainably intensify agricultural systems with the goals of improving food security and livelihoods and adapting food systems to global climate change. Despite the many benefits of CA, there are few farmers around the world that have simultaneously implemented all facets of the strategy. In part, this reflects the challenges in applying, adapting, and understanding this complex and multi-dimensional agricultural innovation in the context of diverse farming systems. In this paper, we applied an integrated framework that combines bioeconomic simulation, risk analysis, adoption theory, and impact assessment to investigate how various combinations of CA components (no-tillage, soil cover, crop diversification, plus growing a new crop or variety) performed over a 10-year period in representative farms in a central Mexican case study. We found significant differences in profit, net value, downside risk, and risk-aversion cost between double-component scenarios (and improved CA to a lesser extent) and all other scenarios, which suggested that disaggregating CA into smaller component packages could increase farmer adoption in risky contexts. Our findings provided valuable insights on CA feasibility and could help establish policy and reporting metrics. The study highlighted the need for employing a range of research tools to understand the relative value of agricultural innovations and to identify and reduce trade-offs and uncertainty in farming systems.


Sexual assault is a
 violent crime and a significant problem faced by any developing
 society. Identification of spermatozoa is the biological evidence
 most often sought in specimens from sexual assault victims. Absence
 of spermatozoa usually terminates biological investigations, and the
 victim testimony is contested. DNA with high discrimination
 potential and sensitivity obtained in an unbiased manner would be
 highly advantageous in sexual assault cases with negative results.
 Cervico-vaginal, oral and anal swabs were collected from 930 sexual
 assault cases, within a period from July 2006 to December 2007. In a
 total of 930 cases, 300 cases (32.25%) were found cytologically
 negative. Y-Chromosomes were detected in 108/300 (36%) cases, a
 fairly high percentage indeed for victims whose testimony would have
 been contested otherwise. Y-chromosome was also evidenced in the
 population of victims examined after 72 hours of sexual assault.
 Spermatozoa are rarely detected at such intervals, so medical men
 are reluctant to take samples, but our studies show that swabs ought
 to be taken from victims for Y-Chromosome DNA typing even after long
 lapses of time between sexual assaults and medical examination. Y-
 STRs are also very useful in detecting the male DNA fraction in
 male/ female DNA mixture where amount of female DNA is present in a
 far excess amount. It can also provide evidence in old and
 wasted samples.
 Eleven Y-STR(short tandem repeats), namely DYS 19, DYS385 a,b,
 DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS438, DYS439,
 residing on the Ychromosome and amelogenin recognized by an
 international body "The Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis
 Methods" (SWGDAM) were chosen and amplified simultaneously using
 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by the Y-PLEXTM 12 system,
 asensitive, valid, reliable, and robust multiplex system. Amelogenin
 provided results for gender identification and served as internal
 control for PCR. It did not adversely affect the amplification of Y-STRs
 in mixture samples containing male and female DNA.
 amplification of Y-STRs in mixture samples containing male and
 female DNA. After assurance of quality standards in accordance with
 the instructions laid down by DNA advisory Board (DAB), population
 data from Punjab was collected and comparison made with studies from
 other global population groups in addition to 12 ethnic groups from
 Pakistan. It showed greater genetic similarity with Africa, West
 Asia, and Europe but not with China & Japan. Arlequin version 3.0, a
 standard software for haplotyping analysis was used, the value of
 haplotype diversity is 0.9766 +/- 0.0074, gene diversity 0.67619
 with standard deviation 0.10293. The value of average diversity over
 loci is 0.672759 +/- .354019. The mean number of pair wise
 differences are 6.727587 +/- 3.196717.
 Therefore, after adopting a proper strategy of designing and
 optimising multiplex system for Y-STRs, we can successfully resolve
 the matters of individual identification,determination of
 perpetrators of violent sexual crime, of unestablished paternity and
 paternal lineage.


Respiratory epithelial cells play a crucial role in the inflammatory response during Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis. In this study, we determined whether the binding of specific Pseudomonas gene products (pilin, flagellin) to their receptors on respiratory epithelial cells would result in production of the neutrophil chemoattractant IL-8. Piliated wild-type organisms, purified pili, or antibody to the pilin receptor (asialoGM1) evoked significant production of IL-8 by immortalized airway epithelial cells, whereas nonpiliated organisms were less able to bind to respiratory epithelial cells and stimulated much less IL-8 secretion (P < 0.01). A piliated, nonflagellated strain was also associated with decreased binding and a diminished level of IL-8 production when compared to wild-type organisms. Isogenic, nonadherent rpoN mutants, lacking pilin and flagellin, did not bind or elicit an IL-8 response. In addition, the IL-8 response was four-fold higher in a cystic fibrosis cell line compared with its corrected cell line. The Pseudomonas autoinducer, an exoproduct secreted during chronic infection, was found to stimulate IL-8 in a dose-dependent manner. P. aeruginosa adhesins, which are necessary for initial infection, directly stimulate IL-8 production by respiratory epithelial cells and therefore play a major role in the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas infection in patients with cystic fibrosis. The inflammatory response is subsequently perpetuated by Pseudomonas autoinducer which is secreted during chronic infection.


The dielectric constants of solutions of 4-amino-4′-dicyanovinylazobenzene chromophore (DCV) at a wide range of concentrations in dioxane were measured. The chromophore dipole moment was determined to be 9.4 D in dioxane and in methyl trimethylacetate. Somewhat smaller values for the dipole moment were obtained when the chromophore was dissolved in chloroform or when it was covalently attached to a polymethacrylate backbone. No significant nonlinearity was observed in plots of dielectric constant versus concentration, even at concentrations approaching the solubility limit. Theoretical modeling indicates that such nonlinearity would have been observed if appreciable aggregation had occurred. It is predicted that dipole-dipole aggregation should not diminish the electric-field-induced alignment achievable in macroscopically homogeneous DCV-containing materials.


This book offers convenient access to information about the benefits, drawbacks and challenges of importing high-technology medical care into the home care programs. It is both a descriptive report of research-based observations, and an interpretive analysis of major issues and policies in the delivery of technology-enhanced care. The authors bring to the forefront evidence-based current home care practices, such as ventilator therapy and artificial nutrition infusion pumps, and develop them through complete discussions of legal, ethical and administrative issues they entail. Agency administrators as well as in-home direct service providers like nurses and social workers, will find essential information on a critical home care delivery issue presented with clarity and accessibility. This volume offers the reader convenient access to much needed information about the unique benefits, drawbacks and challenges of importing high-technology into the homes of the elderly and disabled. It is a unique combination of both a descriptive report of research-based observations from the frontlines of home health agency operations and interpretive analyses of major issues, policies, and practices informing the delivery of high tech-home health services. Content will be relevant to those agency planners and administrators, managers, and supervisors who are considering engaging in or have recently implemented a high-tech service program in their organization, as well as in-home direct service providers like nurses and social workers.


Through climate change, the global average air and surface water temperature has risen 0.85°C during the last 100 years. The Baltic Sea experienced one of the most rapid increase in temperature recorded of marine ecosystems. During the last two decades of the 20th century, the surface water temperature of the Baltic Sea has increased seven times faster than the global average.This thesis is an investigation of how community traits, trophic interactions and ecophysiological processes in the filamentous algal belt in the northern Baltic Sea are affected by warming. The majority of the studies were conducted in or in the vicinity of the Forsmark Biotest basin, an artificial heated enclosure of the southern Bothnian Sea (northern Baltic Sea). One study also included sampling along a natural salinity gradient - the Swedish east coast.In the benthic diatom community, we found that cell size decreases with decreasing seasonal temperature, and increased with warming during the cold season. Warming also selected for motile and colonial traits. Along the salinity gradient, cell size decreased with decreasing salinity, apparently mediated by changes in the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio.In the filamentous algal community, warming increased algal cover and photosynthetic capacity, and affected the ratio of carotene to chlorophyll a ratio. Warming also desensitized the photosynthetic response and growth of algal communities exposed to anthropogenic stressors: increased nitrogen and phosphor concentrations as well as copper additions. In connection to one of the field studies, the first finding of the non-native bivalve Mytilopsis leucophaeata in Sweden was also done.Using a fish exclusion experiment in heated and non-heated areas, we found that warming decreases the number of trophic levels in the lower parts of the food web, which in turn lead to increased top-down control and higher algal biomass at heated than unheated sites.In summary, warming has here been shown to have major impacts on the phytobenthic community due to a combination of direct effects on physiological processes, as well as indirect effects mediated by interactions among species and trophic levels.


The availability of vertebrate hosts is a major determinant of the occurrence of ticks and tick-borne zoonoses in natural and anthropogenic ecosystems and thus drives disease risk for wildlife, livestock, and humans. However, it remains challenging to quantify the availability of vertebrate hosts in field settings, particularly for medium-sized to large-bodied mammals. Here, we present a method that uses camera traps to quantify the availability of warm-bodied vertebrates to ticks. The approach is to deploy camera traps at questing height at a representative sample of random points across the study area, measure the average photographic capture rate for vertebrate species, and then correct these rates for the effective detection distance. The resulting "passage rate" is a standardized measure of the frequency at which vertebrates approach questing ticks, which we show is proportional to contact rate. A field test across twenty 1-ha forest plots in the Netherlands indicated that this method effectively captures differences in wildlife assemblage composition between sites. Also, the relative abundances of three life stages of the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus from drag sampling were correlated with passage rates of deer, which agrees with the known association with this group of host species, suggesting that passage rate effectively reflects the availability of medium- to large-sized hosts to ticks. This method will facilitate quantitative studies of the relationship between densities of questing ticks and the availability of different vertebrate species—wild as well as domesticated species—in natural and anthropogenic settings.


This essay argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in McConnell v. FEC illustrates three important lessons about judicial review in the distinct context of campaign finance: (1) precedent counts; (2) pragmatism beats platitudes; and (3) legislative judgments deserve respect. According to early critics of McConnell, the Court abdicated its responsibilities in upholding the major provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Critics claimed that the Court did not sufficiently explain its decisions, abandoned free speech principles, and ignored the self-entrenching motives of incumbents who passed the law. This Essay responds to these claims and asserts that they must be balanced against the gains that stem from tight language that emphasizes precedent, pragmatic consideration of competing interests and context, and congressional expertise in the political landscape of campaign finance. In light of the limited competence and authority of judges to address political questions unique to campaign finance, adherence to precedent in deciding campaign finance cases enhances judicial credibility and provides legislatures a more stable framework for lawmaking. At the same time, however, campaign finance features evolving political practices, coalitions, organizations, and technologies that courts often cannot anticipate. When Congress identifies emerging practices that threaten democracy, a court should apply past cases pragmatically to the facts before it and avoid sweeping dogma that may grow dated and contribute to bad results in future cases. Campaign finance is a complex area that involves competing considerations rather than absolutes. As a result, textured and multifaceted judicial review of campaign finance reforms is preferable to review that is either one-dimensionally deferential or one-dimensionally skeptical.


Over the past twenty years, numerous infrastructure management systems have been developed to address gradual failure modes. Unfortunately the management of sudden failure modes within large infrastructure systems (principally: natural hazard induced failures) have not been systematically addressed. This is particularly an issue within liberalized public-private partnerships where the management of and liability for natural hazard vulnerabilities evolves in time. This paper details a methodology for determining an infrastructure system's vulnerability to sudden events which 1) assesses a component's failure potential by superimposing natural hazard and infrastructure network data and applying simple standardized structural failure models and 2) quantifies the cost of a system's post-failure consequences by calculating the infrastructure system demand redistribution costs. The set of potential failure links are then prioritized as a function of their respective vulnerabilities – their failure potential multiplied by the associated consequences. Through applying this methodology within a public-private partnership, the public entity can assess and prioritize the infrastructure objects with respect to their vulnerabilities and can thus require the private entity to reduce infrastructure vulnerability, where warranted, by implementing specific mitigation activities or to operate the system within maximum acceptable vulnerability levels. The private entity can likewise quantify and appropriately price their liability to natural hazards. The example herein presented is the application of this methodology to assess a transportation infrastructure network's vulnerability to avalanche hazards.


A series of halogenated conjugated molecules, containing F, Cl, Br and I, were easily prepared via Knoevenagel condensation and applied in field-effect transistors and organic solar cells. Halogenated conjugated materials were found to possess deep frontier energy levels and high crystallinity compared to their non-halogenated analogues, which is due to the strong electronegativity and heavy atom effect of halogens. As a result, halogenated semiconductors provide high electron mobilities up to 1.3 cm2 V−1 s−1 in transistors and high efficiencies over 9% in non-fullerene solar cells.


The quasi-static coupling of high-altitude potential structures and electric fields to the ionosphere is discussed with particular focus on the downward field-aligned current (FAC) region. Results are presented from a preliminary analysis of a selection of electric field events observed by Cluster above the acceleration region. The degree of coupling is here estimated as the ratio between the magnetic field-aligned potential drop, 18II , as inferred from the characteristic energy of upward ion (electron) beams for the upward (downward) current region and the high-altitude perpendicular (toB) potential,18⊥, as calculated by integrating the perpendicular electric field across the structure. For upward currents, the coupling can be expressed analytically, using the linear current-voltage relation, as outlined by Weimer et al. (1985). This gives a scale size dependent coupling where structures are coupled (decoupled) above (below) a critical scale size. For downward currents, the currentvoltage relation is highly non-linear which complicates the understanding of how the coupling works. Results from this experimental study indicate that small-scale structures are decoupled, similar to small-scale structures in the upward current region. There are, however, exceptions to this rule as illustrated by Cluster results of small-scale intense electric fields, correlated with downward currents, indicating a perfect coupling between the ionosphere and Cluster altitude.


It is rare that an issue of fundamental importance to copyright litigation goes wholly unaddressed Yet that rare situation applies to the question of how courts should treat affirmative defenses raised by "related" defendants, i.e., those who are claimed not to have committed the infringement itself (the "primary" defendants) but who are nonetheless sought to be held responsible on the theories of vicarious liability or contributory infringement. Should those defenses inure to the benefit solely of the defendant who pleads them? Or should they be evaluated in the context of the primary claim of infringement, and thus radiate outward for the benefit of all defendants in the action? Although legions of cases confront such vicarious defenses, they do so in a wholly uncritical fashion-some adopt the former approach, others the latter; their unifying point is that they fail to articulate any basis for drawing the distinction. Neither do the scholarly commentaries treat this issue, notwithstanding that it would seem to be essential to sound progress in the field. The case law's failure to address this disparity would give rise to no problems if only everyone's intuition invariably agreed as to which cases fit into which categories. Recently, however, I found myself for the first time ever disagreeing with how a particular court evaluated the affirmative defense of a related defendant. The case in question is Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communications Services, Inc., 907 F. Supp. 1361 (N.D. Cal. 1995), which rejected the primary defendant's fair use defense, and then when confronting the related defendant's summary judgment motion recalibrated the entire fair use equilibrium with respect to the circumstances of that new defendant. To evaluate the wisdom of that court's treatment of the vicarious fair use defense, it is necessary to take several gigantic strides backwards and to articulate a framework for how related defendants may assert their affirmative defenses, whether personally or globally. Happily, on a recent archaeological romp, I encountered some ancient judicial opinions in which resolution to these issues emerges full-blown from the judicial brow. I hereby present them unedited.


Sub-Resolution Assist Features (SRAF) are widely used for Process Window (PW) enhancement in computational lithography. Rule-Based SRAF (RB-SRAF) methods work well with simple designs and regular repeated patterns, but require a long development cycle involving Litho, OPC, and design-technology co-optimization (DTCO) engineers. Furthermore, RB-SRAF is heuristics-based and there is no guarantee that SRAF placement is optimal for complex patterns. In contrast, the Model-Based SRAF (MB-SRAF) technique to construct SRAFs using the guidance map is sufficient to provide the required process window for the 32nm node and below. It provides an improved lithography margin for full chip and removes the challenge of developing manually complex rules to assist 2D structures. The machine learning assisted SRAF placement technique developed on the ASML Brion Tachyon platform allows us to push the limits of MB-SRAF even further. A Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) is trained using a Continuous Transmission Mask (CTM) that is fully optimized by the Tachyon inverse lithography engine. The neural network generated SRAF guidance map is then used to assist full-chip SRAF placement. This is different from the current full-chip MB-SRAF approach which utilizes a guidance map of mask sensitivity to improve the contrast of optical image at the edge of lithography target patterns. We expect that machine learning assisted SRAF placement can achieve a superior process window compared to the MB-SRAF method, with a full-chip affordable runtime significantly faster than inverse lithography. We will describe the current status of machine learning assisted SRAF technique and demonstrate its application on the full chip mask synthesis and how it can extend the computational lithography roadmap.


Abstract This paper reviews recent applications of Monte Carlo methods for the study of cation ordering in minerals. We describe the program Ossia99, designed for the simulation of complex ordering processes and for use on parallel computers. A number of applications for the study of long-range and short-range order are described, including the use of the Monte Carlo methods to compute quantities measured in an NMR experiment. The method of thermodynamic integration for the determination of the free energy is described in some detail, and several applications of the method to determine the thermodynamics of disordered systems are outlined.


Pteroma pendula (Joannis) was the dominant bagworm species infesting oil palm
Plantation, Hutan Melintang, Lower Perak. This species had six instar stages when
reared in the laboratory condition. The ratio of molting for late instar did not follow
Dyar's rule. Dimorphism was observed in pupa and imago stages. Female emerged
as apterous and vermiform-like, and male emerged as moth. Pteroma pendula had a
lifespan of 50.4 ± 1.8 days in laboratory condition. Length of the cases were
significantly correlated with head capsules for both male (R2= 0.97) and female (R2=
0.92) and might be useful in estimation of the instar stage in field.
Rainfall frequencies were found not significantly correlated with the outbreak of the
bagworms in the study site, thus the outbreak did not influenced by rainfall. Field
observation recorded the natural populations of bagworms were being controlled by
predators, parasitoids and pathogenic fungi. Through systematic sampling of
bagworms from the study site, the natural enemies had caused mortality to 4.85% of the bagworm population, and this was ineffective in keeping the bagworm
populations below the economic threshold level (five to ten bagworms per frond).


ABSTRACT Cities worldwide are implementing modern transit systems to improve mobility in the increasingly congested metropolitan areas. Despite much research on the effects of such systems, a comparison of effects across transit modes and countries has not been studied comprehensively. This paper fills this gap in the literature by reviewing and comparing the effects obtained by 86 transit systems around the world, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT), metro and heavy rail transit systems. The analysis is twofold by analysing (i) the direct operational effects related to travel time, ridership and modal shifts, and (ii) the indirect strategic effects in terms of effects on property values and urban development. The review confirms the existing literature suggesting that BRT can attract many passengers if travel time reductions are significantly high. This leads to attractive areas surrounding the transit line with increasing property values. Such effects are traditionally associated with attractive rail-based public transport systems. However, a statistical comparison of 41 systems did not show significant deviations between effects on property values resulting from BRT, LRT and metro systems, respectively. Hence, this paper indicates that large strategic effects can be obtained by implementing BRT systems at a much lower cost.


In the UK sites of conflict, in particular battlefields, are becoming more frequently associated with the label 'heritage at risk'. As the concept of battlefield and conflict archaeology has evolved, so too has the recognition that battlefields are dynamic, yet fragile, archaeological landscapes in need of protection. The tangible evidence of battle is primarily identified by distributions of artefacts held within the topsoil, such as lead projectiles, weapon fragments or buttons torn from clothing; debris strewn in the heat of battle. Much of the battlefield therefore remains as a faint footprint, and where it survives, may provide valuable information, if recorded accurately.

Drawing evidence from numerous sources, including a two year monitoring programme of the auction site eBay, from October 2008 until November 2010 and data produced by the heritage sector, this research intends to highlight the activities of hobbyist metal detectorists as a key issue in the conservation and management of sites of conflict. Whist the research recognises the positive contribution of hobbyist metal detecting through engagement with archaeologists, responsible practice and the discovery of previously unknown sites of conflict, it also identifies the negative impact of this activity through the unrecorded removal of battle-related material resulting in the erosion of artefact scatters and ultimately the loss of important national heritage. Another important element of this research has been to further understand the nature of this activity and the motivation to metal detect on sites of conflict, achieved through the presentation of detailed case studies and the application of sociological frameworks such as 'serious leisure' (Stebbins 1992). Overall, the fundamental aim of the research has been to inform heritage management strategies to ensure the future protection of landscapes of conflict in the UK.


This study presents the findings of the composing processes of four skilled ESL writers. The study first examines the theoretical perspectives about writing process. It then describes the writing strategies that skilled ESL' writers in the TESL Matriculation programme of Universiti Putra Malaysia employ in the course of their writing. Data collected was in the form of writers' think aloud protocols and their completed compositions. The writing strategies were identified and the results were examined with a writing taxonomy procured from the 3 models of writing put forward by Flower and Hayes' (1981), Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) and Biggs (1988). This study confirms that composing is a non-linear process in which writers
have the opportunity to be recursive writers. It was found that while some writing strategies were uniform among the four skilled ESL writers of this study I some writing strategies were used by one or two writers only. It was also found that writers' cognitive abilities and cognitive approaches are much more critical than linguistic competence in writing. This paves way for the assumption that good writing strategies can be taught to less skilled
writers. The present study also indicates that some of the writing strategies of skilled Malaysian pre-tertiary level ESL writers identified in this study were similar to findings of previous related research involving unskilled writers.


Stability of flow around a rotating, semi-infinite cylinder placed in an axial stream is investigated. Assuming large Reynolds number, the basic flow is computed numerically as described by Derebail Muralidhar et al. (Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 472, 20150850, 2016), while numerical solution of the local stability equations allows calculation of the modal growth rates and hence determination of flow stability or instability. The problem has three nondimensional parameters: the Reynolds number, Re, the rotation rate, S, and the axial location, Z. Small amounts of rotation are found to strongly affect flow stability. This is the result of a nearly neutral mode of the non-rotating cylinder which controls stability at small S. Even small rotation can produce a sufficient perturbation that the mode goes from decaying to growing, with obvious consequences for stability. Without rotation, the flow is stable below a Reynolds number of about 1060 and also beyond a threshold Z. With rotation, no matter how small, instability is no longer constrained by a minimum Re, nor a maximum Z. In particular, the critical Reynolds number goes to zero as Z → ∞, so the flow is always unstable at large enough axial distances from the nose. As Z is increased, the flow goes from stability at small Z to instability at large Z. If the critical Reynolds number is a monotonic decreasing function of Z, as it is for S between about 0.0045 and 5, there is a single boundary in Z, which separates the stable from the unstable part of the flow. On the other hand, when the critical Reynolds number is non-monotonic, there can, depending on the choice of Re, be several such boundaries and flow stability switches more than once as Z is increased. Detailed results showing the critical Reynolds number as a function of Z for different rotation rates are given. We also obtain an asymptotic expansion of the critical Reynolds number at large Z and use perturbation theory to further quantify the behaviour at small S.


The investigations carried out during this Ph.D. programme relate to the marine
engineering field, more specifically to wave energy conversion. Two different wave energy
converters have been modelled numerically with the aim to assess the feasibility of wave
energy conversion in the Mediterranean Sea.
The first studied wave energy converter, named HPA-LG, is a heaving point absorber
with a linear generator placed at the seabed. Two variants of the WEC have
been examined, paying particular attention to the floater dimensions and to the geometrical
design of the PTO. Initially, only the heave mode has been modelled and the
performance of both devices has been analysed. Subsequently, the surge mode has been
added to the model and its effect in prevalent heaving point absorbers
has been studied.
For the two-body device, although the dynamic behaviour changes when the surge
is included, no relevant differences are observed regarding the power production. When
studying the three-body device, results show two clear trends, for
steep waves the surge leads to a decrease in the production, for flatter waves it affects positively the power absorption. However, the overall the negative contribution is more relevant.
The MoonWEC is the second studied wave energy converter, it merges several working
principles with the aim to benefit from the assets of each single principle. It consists
in a hollow floating structure, where water fills a central whole creating a moonpool. Device optimization has also been carried out, six different CALM mooring configurations and three Wells turbines have been tested.
Both device show similarities in their performance, their production is maximised
for a specific range of wave conditions. The HPA-LG has a broader optimal range.
However, the MoonWEC is more efficient for mild wave conditions, its
annual energy production is [50-100] % higher, depending on the location and HPA-LG
variant.


Compared to gravity, a magnetic anomaly has an added complexity: It depends on the direction (m) of magnetization and on the direction in which the field is measured. Modern magnetometers routinely measure the total field—i.e., the component parallel to the Earth's main magnetic field f (Figure 1). Unless m and f are both vertical, there is a phase contribution to the total magnetic intensity (TMI) anomaly, which can shift the anomaly laterally, distort the shape, and even change its sign. Reduction to the pole (RTP) transforms an observed TMI anomaly into an anomaly that would be measured at the north magnetic pole. This relocates extreme magnetic anomalies to be over their sources, thus making magnetic interpretation easier.


Roboclimber is a service robot designed to replace human workers in the highly dangerous task of rocky wall consolidation. It can walk on steep terrains by means of four legs and two ropes. The robot must perform missions requiring displacements on steep rocky walls and operations involving a strong interaction with the environment, semiautonomous control strategies driven by teleoperation are suitably employed. The system proposed is very complex; the motion of the robot is obtained by coordinating step-by-step the leg displacements and the rope tensions. Intrinsic stability is an essential requirement for the operational security of the robot, and the work presented proposes quasi-static motion control strategies that improve the system reliability based on actual stability knowledge.


Students on Early Years placements face many challenges, from understanding the Early Years Foundation Stage, to coping with the immediate needs of individual children. This accessible guide begins by examining the diverse range of Early Years settings and how to prepare for placements. It goes on to look at the four areas of the EYFS and covers working with individual children, building positive relationships with children, colleagues and parents, creating and working in an enabling environment and supporting children's learning needs. A complete guide to the placement experience, this book supports students on their journey from student to qualified practitioner.


Much progress has been made in creating informal learning spaces that incorporate technology and flexibly support a variety of activities. This progress has been principally in designing the right combination of furniture, technology, and space. However, colleges and universities do not design services within learning spaces with nearly the same level of sophistication or integration. This paper calls for a focus on designing services to facilitate better learning experiences. It describes the fundamentals of service design practice, exemplary spaces, and implications for design, budgeting, and staffing.


The survival of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium rpoS+ and rpoS− exposed to sunlight or incubated in the dark was studied in a seawater microcosm and a diffusion chamber. The total number of bacteria and physiologically active ones were estimated by direct counting using epifluorescence microscopy, while cultivable bacteria were enumerated by plating onto an agar culture medium. The results obtained showed that the bacteria exposed to sunlight, either in the microcosm or in the diffusion chamber, exhibited a fast decline of cultivable cells, whereas the epifluorescence enumeration revealed a conservation of physiological activity after a total loss of cultivability. In a transparent diffusion chamber, the evolution of cultivable and physiological active bacteria was characterized by a diurnal decrease and a nocturnal stabilization in the count levels, reflecting the effect of phototoxicity on the survival of Salmonella . The transformation and persistence of a physiological active state and cellular integrity in the diffusion chamber or the microcosm showed a clear dependence on the presence of the rpoS gene. Survival in the dark was also characterized by a decrease of cultivability; however, this was significantly inferior to that observed in bacteria exposed to sunlight. This loss of cultivability was accompanied by the preservation of a physiologically active state. The study of seasonal survival carried out in the transparent diffusion chamber was characterized by an enhanced survival of the rpoS+ strain in comparison with the rpoS– mutant. The highest survival rates were obtained in the autumn, thus highlighting the relevant effect of temperature and exposure to sunlight on the persistence of bacteria in seawater.


We study how extreme temperature exposure impacts infant survival in the developing world. Our analysis overcomes the absence of vital registration systems in many poor countries, which has been a limiting factor in the temperature-mortality literature, by extracting birth histories from household surveys. Studying 53 developing countries that span the globe, we find impacts of hot days on infant mortality that are an order of magnitude larger than estimates from rich country studies, with humidity playing an important role. The size and implied geographic distribution of harms documented here have the potential to significantly alter assessments of optimal climate policy.


This research aims to investigate the effects that dredging may have on benthic fauna. The dredging took place in the stream Irean on northern Gotland during the early summer 2010. My area of research was taking place in a scenic area downstream in Irean close to the Baltic Sea. I chose this area due to the dredging that started just upstream of this area and continued further upstream. Thus it is not the direct impact of the dredging that is the focus for this paper but the side-effect the dredging may have on the area downstream. In this research I used the M42-method and BQI- index in order to evaluate the results. The effects on the dredging were weaker than expected, with only minor changes occurring within the benthic fauna (BQI-value before dredging: 3.35, BQI-value after dredging: 3.51).


We use regional variation in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009–12) to analyse the effect of government spending on consumer spending. Our consumption data come from household-level retail purchases in the Nielsen scanner data and auto purchases from Equifax credit balances. We estimate that a $1 increase in county-level government spending increases local non-durable consumer spending by $0.29 and local auto spending by $0.09. We translate the regional consumption responses to an aggregate fiscal multiplier using a multi-region, new Keynesian model with heterogeneous agents, incomplete markets, and trade linkages. Our model is consistent with the estimated positive local multiplier, a result that distinguishes our incomplete markets model from models with complete markets. At the zero lower bound, the aggregate consumption multiplier is twice as large as the local multiplier because trade linkages propagate the effect of government spending across regions.


The education programme of surgery has unique problems. In this study, first, a literature review is conducted to cover the studies found in the literature reporting on the problems of surgical education. Additionally, a survey study is conducted with 31 participants, who are either currently enrolled in endoscopic surgery education programmes in Turkey or are experts in the field. Supportively semistructured individual interviews are also conducted with five participants. These data are collected to better understand the instructional methods being used, their problems and the participants' preferred methods to be used. Additionally, the participants' attitudes are also investigated regarding the use of new technologies to enhance the current education programmes. The results indicate that, in Turkey, surgical education programmes are still mostly offered in traditional ways while other educational methods are used in an extremely limited manner. In general, the authors emphasise that more research needs to be conducted to better understand the characteristics of the medical students and develop standards for surgical education programmes, educational tools specific for related surgical domains and guidelines for the curriculum integration. The results of this study aimed to guide the instructional system designers for the endoscopic surgery education programmes.


Objective To evaluate the benefit of niacin in addition to statin therapy on plaque regression among older individuals with established atherosclerosis. Design Randomised, controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Setting University outpatient center. Patients 145 patients older than 65 years, half of them older than 75 years of age, with established atherosclerosis were enrolled. Interventions Participants received either extended release niacin (1500 mg daily) or placebo in addition to statin therapy to reach their National Cholesterol Education Program-defined low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol target. Main Outcome Measures The primary endpoint was reduction in the wall volume of the internal carotid artery (ICA) measured by MRI. Results After 18 months, high density lipoprotein cholesterol was higher with statins plus niacin compared with statins alone (1.6±0.4 vs 1.4±0.4 mmol/L p<0.001). Both groups had significant decreases in the main outcome measure of ICA wall volume, which regressed at 0.5%/month (SEM 0.2, p=0.004) in the statins plus placebo group and at 0.7%/month in the statins plus niacin group (SEM 0.2, p<0.001). There was no difference in the rate of regression between groups (p=0.49). Conclusions Treatment with statin therapy to presently recommended LDL levels, with or without niacin, resulted in significant atherosclerosis reduction.


Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a violation of human rights with profound physical, emotional and socioeconomic costs to the individual, families, communities and society as a whole. In the UK, 28.3% of women and 14.7% of men had experienced any domestic abuse since the age of 16.1 DVA costs the National Health Service £1.7 billion annually, excluding mental health costs; the estimated overall annual cost of DVA in the UK is £15.7 billion.2 The prevalence of all DVA is higher among women than men. Women also experience much more sexual abuse, as well as more severe and repeated physical abuse and more coercive control.1 The majority of epidemiological and intervention research on DVA has been in women in heterosexual relationships not men or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, though they are also affected by DVA.

The UK cross-government definition of DVA is any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to, psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional.3 Intimate partner violence (IPV) forms the majority of DVA and is defined as any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship.4 It is not necessary to be cohabiting for IPV to occur.

DVA damages physical and psychological health. In the UK, two women are killed by their current or former male partner each week5 and is tallied by the 'Counting Dead Women' twitter campaign in the UK.6 In the USA, 5.3 million episodes of IPV occur each year, causing 2 million injuries, with 550 000 victims requiring medical treatment. …


Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) is a variant of conventional In-Situ Combustion (ISC) that uses a horizontal production well to recover mobilised partially upgraded heavy oil. It has a number of advantages over other heavy oil recovery techniques such as high recovery potential. However, existing models are unable to predict the effect of the most important operational parameters, such as fuel availability and produced oxygen concentration, which will give rise to unsafe designs. Therefore, we have developed a new model that accurately predicts dynamic conditions in the reservoir and also is easily scalable to investigate different field scenarios. The model used a three component direct conversion cracking kinetics scheme, which does not depend on the stoichiometry of the products and, thus, reduces the extent of uncertainty in the simulation results as the number of unknowns is reduced. The oil production rate and cumulative oil produced were well predicted, with the latter deviating from the experimental value by only 4%. The improved ability of the model to emulate real process dynamics meant it also accurately predicted when the oxygen was first produced, thereby enabling a more accurate assessment to be made of when it would be safe to shut-in the process, prior to oxygen breakthrough occurring. The increasing trend in produced oxygen concentration following a step change in the injected oxygen rate by 33 % was closely replicated by the model. The new simulations have now elucidated the mechanism of oxygen production during the later stages of the experiment. The model has allowed limits to be placed on the air injection rates that ensure stability of operation. Unlike previous models, the new simulations have provided better quantitative prediction of fuel laydown, which is a key phenomenon that determines whether, or not, successful operation of the THAI process can be achieved. The new model has also shown that, for completely stable operation,


[1] Constant-α force-free magnetic flux rope models have proven to be a valuable first step toward understanding the global context of in situ observations of magnetic clouds. However, cylindrical symmetry is necessarily assumed when using such models, and it is apparent from both observations and modeling that magnetic clouds have highly noncircular cross sections. A number of approaches have been adopted to relax the circular cross section approximation: frequently, the cross-sectional shape is allowed to take an arbitrarily chosen shape (usually elliptical), increasing the number of free parameters that are fit between data and model. While a better "fit" may be achieved in terms of reducing the mean square error between the model and observed magnetic field time series, it is not always clear that this translates to a more accurate reconstruction of the global structure of the magnetic cloud. We develop a new, noncircular cross section flux rope model that is constrained by observations of CMEs/ICMEs and knowledge of the physical processes acting on the magnetic cloud: The magnetic cloud is assumed to initially take the form of a force-free flux rope in the low corona but to be subsequently deformed by a combination of axis-centered self-expansion and heliocentric radial expansion. The resulting analytical solution is validated by fitting to artificial time series produced by numerical MHD simulations of magnetic clouds and shown to accurately reproduce the global structure.


This paper explores the role of culture in determining divorce decisions by examining country of origin differences in divorce rates of immigrants in the United States. Because childhood-arriving immigrants are all exposed to a common set of US laws and institutions, we interpret relationships between their divorce tendencies and home country divorce rates as evidence of the effect of culture. Our results are robust to controlling for several home country variables including average church attendance and GDP. Moreover, specifications with country of origin fixed effects suggest that divorce probabilities are especially low for immigrants from countries with low divorce rates that reside amidst a large number of co-ethnics. Supplemental analyses indicate that divorce culture has a stronger impact on the divorce decisions of females than of males pointing to a potentially gendered nature of divorce taboos.


Like the diagnosis-based impairment (DBI) method and the range-of-motion (ROM) method for rating permanent impairment, the approach for rating compression or entrapment neuropathy in the upper extremity (eg, carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS]) is a separate and distinct methodology in the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides), Sixth Edition. Rating entrapment neuropathies is similar to the DBI method because the evaluator uses three grade modifiers (ie, test findings, functional history, and physical evaluation findings), but the way these modifiers are applied is different from that in the DBI method. Notably, the evaluator must have valid nerve conduction test results and cannot diagnose or rate nerve entrapment or compression without them; postoperative nerve conduction studies are not necessary for impairment rating purposes. The AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, uses criteria that match those established by the Normative Data Task Force and endorsed by the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM); evaluators should be aware of updated definitions of normal from AANEM. It is possible that some patients may be diagnosed with carpal or cubital tunnel syndrome for treatment but will not qualify for that diagnosis for impairment rating; evaluating physicians must be familiar with electrodiagnostic test results to interpret them and determine if they confirm to the criteria for conduction delay, conduction block, or axon loss; if this is not the case, the evaluator may use the DBI method with the diagnosis of nonspecific pain.


In order to realize high efficiency visible-light absorption and electron–hole separation of bismuth vanadate (BVO), we synthesized carbon-doped BVO (C-BVO) with high visible-light absorption behavior. We used polyvinylpyrrolidone K-30 as a template and L-cysteine as the carbon source in a one-step hydrothermal synthesis method, and then obtained the carbon-doped BVO@multi-walled carbon nanotubes (C-BVO@MWCNT) by a two-step method. The carbon nanotubes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, specific surface area, electron spin resonance, and transient photocurrent responses. The XRD analysis confirmed that all photocatalysts were in the same crystal form with a single monoclinic scheelite structure. Combining this with the other characterization results, we showed that the carbon element was successfully doped in BVO and the resulting C-BVO was successfully coupled with multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The removal ratio of rhodamine B by C-BVO@MWCNT was much higher than those by BVO and C-BVO under visible-light irradiation. Recycling experiments verified the stability of C-BVO@MWCNT, which was proved to offer excellent adsorption, strong visible-light absorption behavior, and high electron–hole separation efficiency. Such properties are expected to be useful in practical applications.


The ability to influence electricity demand from domestic and small business consumers, so that it can be matched to intermittent renewable generation and distribution network constraints is a key capability of a smart grid. This involves signalling to consumers to indicate when electricity use is desirable or undesirable. However, simply signalling a time-dependent price does not always achieve the required demand response and can result in unstable system behaviour. The authors propose a demand response scheme, in which an aggregator mediates between the consumer and the market and provides a signal to a 'smart home' control unit that manages the consumer's appliances, using a novel method for reconciliation of the consumer's needs and preferences with the incentives supplied by the signal. This method involves random allocation of demand within timeslots acceptable to the consumer with a bias depending on the signal provided. By simulating a population of domestic consumers using heat pumps and electric vehicles with properties consistent with UK national statistics, the authors show the method allows total demand to be predicted and shaped in a way that can simultaneously match renewable generation and satisfy network constraints, leading to benefits from reduced use of peaking plant and avoided network reinforcement.


The occurrences of phenological events are important variables in the evaluation of the influence of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Changes in climate can cause significant changes in the timing and duration of phenological events. Information related to large-scale phenology is therefore useful for exploring the seasonal and inter-annual variability in vegetation-climate interactions. This study aimed to obtain the timing and temporal pattern of the onset of green-up and dormancy (OG and OD) and length of growing season (LGS) using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) for Forest, Grassland, and Desert steppe in Mongolia over the 10-year period from 2000 to 2009. Results demonstrated that phenological events can be differentiated by multi-temporal NDVI and EVI data and that the timing ascribed to OG and OD is slightly different between the two indices. In general, NDVI and EVI agreed that the OG of forest varied from late May to middle July. The OG of grassland and desert steppe suggested by NDVI were from late May to middle July and from middle May to middle July respectively, however EVI suggested an earlier timing of OG. NDVI and EVI also showed similar variation for the timing of OD from early September to early October. The derived LGS showed the least variation for forest, highest variation for desert steppe, and only moderate variation for grassland. Grassland and desert steppe experienced high positive and negative variations in the OG and LGS during the years from 2000 to 2009. These regions might be vulnerable to global change and are likely to be strongly affected by meteorological changes.


Urban land markets exhibit complex emergent behaviors that have yet to be fully explained by the microeconomic decision-making which constitutes the market. The Agent-based Land MArket (ALMA) framework has been introduced to simulate a bilateral agent-based land market that produces a rent gradient. In this paper, we extend the ALMA framework by introducing two new parameters, heterogeneity, and stochasticity which allow us to explore how the rent gradient is affected by buyers with diverse preferences and a range of market compositions.


Introduction of geo-visualisation tools over the internet such as Google Earth (GE) has cut down the cost of data acquisition. This study is undertaken to validate the geo-information provided by GE that could be used for geospatial work. Satellite images and latitude-longitude coordinates (X-Y) for the campus of the University of Malaya has been downloaded from the internet. Geo-referencing of the satellite image was carried out using the relative positioning (RP) and absolute positioning (AP) within the geographic information system environment. Sources of X-Y for AP were obtained from GE and a topography map provided by the Malaysian Survey and Mapping Department. For absolute positioning, the data was obtained using GPS equipment. Comparison of these sources was undetaken with the total residual mean square error (RMSE) of X-Y in the map and at the source. All sources of X-Y had produced the total RMSE within 0.00014 degree. Considering the total RMSE as standard deviation (SD), the resulting range of error for geo-referencing of the satellite image was within 15 m. Thus, it can be concluded that geo-information from GE can be used as the source of base map.


The design and evolution of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in microservices architectures is challenging. General design issues in integration and programming have been covered in great detail in many pattern languages since the beginnings of the patterns movement, and service-oriented infrastructure design patterns have also been published in the last decade. However, the interface representations (i.e., the content of message payloads) have received less attention. We presented five structural representation patterns in our previous work; in this paper we continue our coverage of the API design space and propose five interface quality patterns that deal with the observable aspects of quality-attribute-driven interface design for efficiency, security, and manageability: An API Key allows API providers to identify clients. Providers may offer rich data contracts in their responses, which not all consumers might need. A Wish List allows the client to request only the attributes in a response data set that it is interested in. If a client makes many API calls, the provider can employ a Rate Limit and bill clients according to a specified Rate Plan. A provider has to provide a high-quality service while at the same time having to use its available resources economically. The resulting compromise is expressed in a provider's Service Level Agreement.


Surface modifi cation of carbon materials plays an important role in tailoring carbon surface chemistry to specify their electrochemical performance. Here, a surface modifi cation strategy for graphene is proposed to produce LiFnanoparticle-modifi ed graphene as a high-rate, large-capacity pre-lithiated electrode for high-power and high-energy lithium ion batteries. The LiF nanoparticles covering the active sites of the graphene surface provide an extra Li source and act as an effective solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) inhibiter to suppress LiFP 6 electrolyte decomposition reactions, affect SEI components, and reduce their thickness. Consequently, the Li-ion diffusion is greatly sped up and the thermodynamic stability of the electrode is signifi cantly improved. This modifi ed graphene electrode shows excellent rate capability and improved fi rst-cycle coulombic effi ciency, cycling stability, and ultrahigh power and energy densities accessible during fast charge/discharge processes.


Objective: To synthesize the evidence from systematic reviews of clinical trials investigating the effectiveness of pharmacological therapies approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and the US Food and Drug Administration for the management of obesity in adults. Data Sources: A 3-step literature search of the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PubMed databases was conducted between March and May 2019. The key terms used were obesity, pharmacological therapy, antiobesity agent, antiobesity medication, weight loss, and systematic review. Study Selection and Data Extraction: Systematic reviews that evaluated the effectiveness of pharmacological therapies for the management of obesity in patients with a body mass index of or greater than 25 kg/m2. Data Synthesis: Nine systematic reviews involving three pharmacotherapies, liraglutide, orlistat, and naltrexone-bupropion were identified. The results indicate that the pharmacotherapies reduced weight when compared with placebo. Orlistat was effective in significantly reducing fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. All reviews discussed the presence or risk of gastrointestinal adverse effects including diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea related to orlistat and liraglutide. Relevance to Patient Care and Clinical Practice: This umbrella review compares the efficacy and safety of antiobesity medications for reducing weight and a discussion on their weight loss and metabolic control to guide clinicians when prescribing medications for obesity. Conclusions: All pharmacological therapies included in this review are superior to placebo in reducing weight. Clinicians should consider patient comorbidities and risk of adverse events when recommending medications for weight loss.