This study focuses on how adults diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illnesses experience their lives and relationships and their own engagement in these relations in two different environmental conditions. Participants include 14 patients in psychiatric treatment in Norway and 15 students at schools for adults with mental illnesses in Denmark. All participants were diagnosed with severe mental disorders persisting for a minimum of two years and with pronounced impact on daily living. Data were collected through qualitative interviews on two occasions 6–8 months apart for most participants. The findings and interpretations showed that the two groups of informants described their lives quite differently. Patients described a focus on receiving treatment for their disease, few stable and mutual relations, and a generally low quality of life, whereas students described a focus on social relations, interests and personal growth. Students also described a higher quality of life, little loneliness and greater satisfaction with life. This suggests that the main problem for many patients struggling with persistent and severe mental illness might not be the illness itself, but a lack of environmental conditions supporting personal development.


Soil salinization and underground structure erosion usually occur in land reclamation regions, especially under semi‐humid climate that annual evaporation is larger than annual rainfall in Northern China. Based on investigations into the status and trends of land reclamation soil along the Bohai Rim, China, this chapter summarizes the evolution of groundwater system and soil environment and analyzes the main reasons contribu‐ ting to these problems. Physical and mathematical models are established to simulate the mechanism of water‐salt migration in land reclamation regions. Results show that evapotranspiration and groundwater discharge during wet seasons are the main driving forces of status of soil salinization. It was pointed out that the key to soil salinity control in the reclamation region was by utilizing rainwater and flood resources to build a long‐ term leaching mechanism. Meanwhile, in order to rebuild and maintain a healthy and stable ecosystem in the reclaimed areas, it is necessary to design the structure of soil layers in advance, enhance the salt leaching process and plant vegetation according to the local conditions.


From the time of their earliest encounters with European explorers and missionaries, Native peoples of eastern North America acquired metal trinkets and utilitarian items and traded them to other aboriginal communities. As Native consumption of European products increased, their material culture repertoires shifted from ones made up exclusively of items produced from their own craft industries to ones substantially reconstituted by active appropriation, manipulation, and use of foreign goods. These material transformations took place during the same time that escalating historical, political, economic, and demographic influences (such as epidemics, new types of living arrangements, intergroup hostilities, new political alliances, missionization and conversion, changes in subsistence modes, etc.) disrupted Native systems. Ehrhardt's research addresses the early technological responses of one particular group, the Late Protohistoric Illinois Indians, to the availability of European-introduced metal objects. To do so, she applied a complementary suite of archaeometric methods to a sample of 806 copper-based metal artifacts excavated from securely dated domestic contexts at the Illiniwek Village Historic Site in Clark County, Missouri. Ehrhardt's scientific findings are integrated with observations from historical, archaeological, and archival research to place metal use by this group in a broad social context and to critique the acculturation perspective at other Contact Period sites. In revealing actual Native practice, from material selection and procurement to ultimate discard, the author challenges technocentric explanations for Native material and cultural change.


Recent studies indicate that a taxonomically diverse range of marine eukaryotes produce metabolites which inhibit phenotypic traits in bacteria, with no or minimal effects on growth In this review, we present evidence for the existence of such eukaryotic interference with a conserved prokaryotic s igna lhg system. We demonstrate that halogenated furanones, a class of secondary metabolites produced by the Australian subtidal red alga Delisea pulchra, interfere with the acylated homoserine lactone (AHL) regulatory system in several Gram-negative bacteria. Furanones were found to interfere with the AHL mediated expression of bioluminescence, swarming (surface) motility, and exoenzyme synthesis in different bacterial species. Furthermore, adhesion and swarming in a range of marine bacteria, for which the identity of the signalling molecules is not yet determined, were inhibited by furanones at concentrations that did not affect growth. Evidence for these effects were obtained in both field and laboratory experiments. Competition experiments in the presence of different concentrations of AHLs and furanones showed that the expression of slvarming and bioluininescence in laboratory strains is competitively inhibited in a fashion that suggests that both classes of compounds have affinity for the same receptor site in the AHL regulatory system. Finally, by performing structurefunction experiments on the inhibition of AHL systems by a range of different furanones, we identified the structural prerequisites responsible for interference


We address the problem of optimizing the delivery of multimedia services with different quality-of-service (QoS) requirements to mobile users. We assume that the network provides two distinct classes of service to which users may subscribe: Premium, or Economy. Subscribers to the Premium service pay more for their connections but receive a higher level of quality measured by a set of parameters such as call blocking probability, coding rate, and format of the multimedia services. By optimizing the delivery of the multimedia services, we mean that the network guarantees that all users receive their agreed-upon contractual level of quality, while maximizing the links' throughput, avoiding congestion, and maintaining the QoS requirements for each type of media (e.g., video, voice and data). Our proposed solution is based upon utilizing genetic algorithms to solve a multiobjective optimization function that adaptively selects the downloading bit-rate for each type of traffic flow subject to the constraints of the optimization function. A traffic flow is an abstract of aggregate traffic of the same type of media (e.g., voice, video, or data) that is downloaded to a group of users who share some common attribute such as the same class of service. The optimization function is adaptive in the sense that the selected downloading bit-rates are time-dependant according to the dynamics of the links' traffic-loads and users' requests. It is implemented on every output port of each node in the network. The function is used to control a filter that changes the coding rate of each media-type and, if necessary, performs transcoding of one, or more, media-types (i.e., video, voice, or data). Simulation results show significant improvement in terms of increasing the number of admitted users, while maintaining the QoS requirements, as well as target call blocking rates. An interesting result to report is that the performance improvement of the system (measured by the gain in the number of admitted users at a certain utilization factor) is not simply bounded by the maximum available link throughput. It is, rather, limited by the additional revenue gained by admitting more users. The increase in the revenue saturates at a certain offered traffic-load. Hence, it is not worth it, from a service provider perspective, to admit additional users above this traffic load despite the fact that the filtering algorithm results indicate otherwise.


Visual autonomous systems capable of monitoring crowded areas and alerting the authorities in occurrence of a suspicious action can play a vital role in controlling crime rate. Previous atte mpts have been made to monitor crime using posture recognition but nothing exclusive to investigating actions of people in large populated area has been cited. In order resolve this shortcoming, we propose an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) visual surveillance system that locates humans in image frames followed by pose estimation using weak constraints on position, appearance of body parts and image parsing. The estimated pose, represented as a pictorial structure, is flagged using the proposed Hough Orientation Calculator (HOC) on close resemblance with any pose in the suspicious action dataset. The robustness of the system is demonstrated on videos recorded using a UAV with no prior knowledge of background, lighting or location and scale of the human in the image. The system produces an accuracy of 71% and can also be applied on various other video sources such as CCTV camera.


This material is based upon work supported by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0952013. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation or the National Science Foundation. This project has also been made possible with support of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The STAR program is administered by the Cal Poly Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education (CESaME) on behalf of the California State University (CSU). Award #0952013 New Features


This document is not a formal publication of the World Health Organization (WHO), and all rights are reserved by the Organization.The document may, however, be freely reviewed, abstracted, reproduced or translated, in part or in whole, but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes. The views expressed in documents by named authors are solely the responsibility of those authors.


A developing Friend's viral leukemia is accompanied by a 2,0--2,5-fold increase in the activity of lysosomal DNAse (DNAse II) in mouse liver as compared to normal. The increase in activity is observed on the 10--12th day after inoculation of virus-containing material and reaches its maximum on the 20th post-inoculation day. The increase in DNAse II activity is due to activation of the lysosomal system of Kupffer's and endothelial cells of the liver. The activity of mitochondrial DNAse (DNAse I) in the livers of leukemic mice showed no deviations from the normal level. A possible role of DNAse II in the protective response of the organism is discussed.


The services available in the home for the elderly patients suffering from the injured or diseases are defined as Home Health Care (HHC). This service is more convenient and less expensive to the elder population. Most of the subjects who were>65 years are not supportive towards the hospital based services. However, in the hospital care, the complete information of the care taken towards the patients will be documented. Therefore, the main concept of this literature was to compare between HHC services with the hospital care services for the coziness in the elderly population. The elder population in Saudi Arabia has been increasing rapidly and there are no special, private or personal services. Only the hospital based services are provided for care taking in elder population. This review recommends the HHC services in the Saudi Arabia region in both the private and non-private sector (government/ public).


This paper describes the effects of the colonial and post-colonial land policies and legislation on the management and utilisation of natural woodlands in Malawi and Zimbabwe. The two countries share similar patterns of land ownership; customary or tribal trust land designated by colonial governments for settlement and cultivation by the indigenous populations; private land mostly alienated from local communities for commercial farming and ranching, initially by white settlers and later officially sanctioned by post-colonial governments; and public land appropriated by government for purposes of establishing national parks and forest reserves. The private and public land tenure, did not only reduce the size of land available to indigenous communities for agricultural and non-agricultural activities, but also compromised the roles and power of traditional authorities in controlling and managing natural resources including miombo woodlands. The major factors, which appear to have contributed to rapid deforestation and land degradation, include increases in population pressure, poverty and failure by governments to urgently provide effective policy guidelines on land management and administration regarding the utilisation of forests and natural resources.

 The Zimbabwe Science News Volume 36 (1+ 2) 2002, pp. 18-27


This article reports on an exploratory research effort in which the extent of MBA student learning on twelve specific competencies relevant to effective business performance was assessed. The article focuses on the extent to which differences in student learning outcomes may be influenced by one of three different types of instructional delivery: on-campus, distance, and executive MBA. It affirms the high quality of learning that can occur via distance education and proposes a strategy to conduct summative, program-level assessment. Specific findings include participants in all three groups self-reporting significantly higher scores on seven of twelve outcomes (e.g., goal setting, help, information gathering, leadership, quantitative, theory, and technology skills). It also notes that distance MBA students self reported significantly higher scores than on-campus students on the learning outcomes related to technology, quantitative, and theory skills, and higher scores on technology skills than the executive MBA group. Implications for further research are discussed. Key Words: distance learning, outcomes assessment, management education, MBA program evaluation


Index options have been one of the most successful of the many innovative financial instruments introduced over the last few decades, as their high trading volume indicates. Given their prominence, the pricing efficiency of these markets is of great importance. ; Detecting inefficient pricing, or mispricing, requires comparing a theoretically efficient price with prices of options traded in financial markets. One popular approach to deriving pricing relationships is based on a principle called no-arbitrage, which simply assumes that arbitrageurs enter the market and quickly eliminate mispricing if a profit opportunity without risk exists. However, in a well-functioning economy there is no such opportunity; arbitrage is critical for ensuring market efficiency. ; The authors analyze earlier evidence that has been taken to indicate that options markets are inefficient and that casts doubt on whether options markets contribute to price discovery, hedging, and efficient capital allocation. The article presents new evidence on index option pricing, examining arbitrage strategies that do not involve trading a stock index and relationships that hold for any given value of the underlying asset. This approach avoids some of the difficulties that can arise from impediments to arbitrage. The article also examines the efficiency of the market for the popular Standard and Poor's 500 index options. While the results indicate that these options are frequently mispriced, the mispricing may not indicate market inefficiency because there are limits to arbitrage.


Globalisation has gone a long way towards freeing individual economies from their resource and technology constraints. But, paradoxically, as large economies grow, their need for resources may strain availability on a worldwide basis, causing commodity prices to rise, with adverse consequences for inflation, trade balance and growth. This paper is concerned with recent developments, focusing particularly on the petroleum market. The recent upsurge and collapse of world petroleum prices reflects underlying demand and supply conditions, augmented by speculative behaviour. Even though petroleum prices have declined as the world economy has gone into recession, the conflict between growth of demand for petroleum and resource availability may reappear during the recovery phase of the cycle.


[1] A study of the upper slope circulation in the Gulf of Cadiz is presented. Observations, both original and revisited, and realistic numerical modeling are used together to describe the structure and variability of the slope current system above the Mediterranean outflow. It is shown that the Mediterranean inflow-outflow coupling plays a stronger role than that of the atmospheric forcing in driving the upper slope currents. The Mediteranean outflow forces a surface open ocean current toward the Strait of Gibraltar. Part of it is entrained into the outflow and the remaining flows into the Mediterranean. This latter component does not suffice for the observed transport of the Atlantic inflow into the Mediterranean. A secondary contribution to the inflow is therefore needed to complement the transport. This contribution comes from a persistent equatorward current along the upper slope between Cape St. Vincent and the Strait of Gibraltar. The jet is 20–30 km wide and significant in the upper 200 m attaining subinertial maxima as much as 0.3–0.4 m/s and monthly means in the order of 0.1–0.15 m/s. This current shows a strong variability at time scales in the order of 2–8 days, and displays a significant vertical shear. The response of the upper slope current to synoptic and seasonal atmospheric variability is analyzed. Very low correlation was detected at synoptic scales and the response of the system to seasonal forcing is unclear. A cycle of intensification in June–July and a decrease in winter is apparent in the measurements, but is weak in the model results. It is speculated that the cycle in the observed currents is associated with variability in the inflow/outflow coupling system, rather than driven by seasonally changing wind forcing.


This essay proposes that the use of found text is particularly prevalent in the work of experimental British and American poets with an interest in environment and ecology. It considers whether this recycling of texts might be considered a form of ecopoetics. Drawing on and drawing together the work of British and American contemporary poets, it examines found text poetry in the light of this thesis by considering three central areas: the methodology employed by poets in their use of found text; the spirit of citation (ranging from homage to satire); and the eco-ethical significance of this practice. The range of poetry referenced illustrates the diversity of found poetry methodologies and introduces the reader to some little known texts by new writers such as Dorothy Alexander, as well as to poems by well-established writers such as Rachel Blau DuPlessis. The essay argues that, in all this work, we see writing in which an eco-ethical stance is embedded in a form that endeavours to stimulate the reader into understanding and action. Further, these found text methodologies work against the capitalist commodification of poetry within a culture that prizes originality and ownership above collaboration and globality. The essay attempts to practise what it preaches by using the poets' own words on these issues via writers' notes, interviews and e-mail conversation.


Although narrative self-consciousness is by no means specific to the contemporary period, the particularly rampant metafictional self-reflexivity demonstrated in Lost in the Funhouse has often been touted as one of the principal traits of postmodern fiction. As Linda Hutcheon says, "What we tend to call postmodernism in literature today is usually characterized by intense self-reflexivity and overtly parodic intertextuality" ("Historiographic" 3). Postmodern fiction, then, often exhibits a metafictional quality. Metafiction is typically defined as "fiction about fiction--that is, fiction that includes within itself a commentary on its own narrative and/or linguistic identity" (Hutcheon, Narcissistic 11). In other words, metafiction focuses as much if not more on its own processes of creation as on a "story" in the usual sense. John Barth, widely considered to be the preeminent American metafictionist, directly confronts issues of selfhood and authorship in his Lost in the Funhouse series. [1] However, instead of challenging the primacy of authorship, Barth's metafictional experiments serve to cement the author into a position of authority over the text. Linda A. Westervelt writes: "John Barth ... takes the inner division that results from self-consciousness and, by metaphoric extension, makes it a resource--namely, the subject of his fiction" (42). Many of Barth's works not only employ but also thematize the complications arising from an increasingly intrusive narrative self-consciousness that arises, according to Jerome Klinkowitz, from Barth's sense that his era ad rejected the Cartesian definition of ego so central to traditional novelistic design. A hero could no longer speak with confidence and coherence and so define himself, since under contemporary philosophical pressure the old cogito, ergo sum had become a farcically painful lie. (408) Although Barth's heroes are unable to define themselves through their narratives, they experience an almost desperate need to continue the attempt. The result is that most of the stories in the series depict narrators as authors so aware of themselves and so concerned with the effect of this awareness on their waning creative powers that they cannot avoid continually inserting their presence into the stories they narrate. Their overt authorial presence threatens to derail the narratives, making them unable to come to a fruitful end. Instead, they twist and turn on themselves, leaving the reader with the difficult and perhaps impossible task of sorting out product from process, story from narration. Because of the intricacy of these stories, much of the critical discussion surrounding Lost in the Funhouse has focused on the increased burden of interpretation that metafiction forces on the reader. The argument has often been made that the intricacy of the text, coupled with the apparent failure of the narrator to control and shape the story, forces the reader to construct a meaning for the text and thereby to participate in the construction of the work itself. In the face of postmodern indeterminacy, interpretive authority no longer resides with authors, and singularity of meaning no longer exists. As Deborah A. Woolley puts it, criticism about metafiction substitutes a heroics of text and language for the older heroics of creative genius and imagination. The text ... accepts the existentialist challenge to confront the lack of a center at the heart of language and to dwell in that void. (460) Many critics have pointed out that Lost in the Funhouse invites such an interpretation by repeatedly suggesting that traditional narrative forms and the authors who construct them have lost their power to find or depict a coherent meaning. However, what is often overlooked is metafiction's inherent and inevitable preoccupation with the creative power of the author. At the same time that they lament the diminished capacity of the narrator to construct a proper story, the self-conscious moments in Lost in the Funhouse point necessarily to the existence of a creator, of an author. …


In this piece I argue that Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis presume certain notions (e.g. that of incompatible, or rival, empirically equivalent translation manuals) which can not be accommodated within a Quinean framework. Quine needs to distinguish between merely orthographically different yet empirically equivalent translation manuals (e.g. the German manual that translates 'book' as 'Buch' and the Italian manual that translates 'book' as 'libro') and genuinely conflicting empirically equivalent manuals. The problem for Quine is that his own account of the identity of theories is incompatible with the claim that there can be conflicting empirically equivalent manuals fitting an individual's speech. For instance, a manual that translates 'Gavagai' unto 'rabbit' can be reconciled with a manual that translates 'gavagai' unto undetached rabbit part' by simply treating the two manuals as belonging to different languages and then mapping the term 'rabbit' as it occurs in the first manual unto the term 'undetached-rabbit-part' as it occurs in the other manual. Furthermore by Quine's physicalist credo "No difference without a physical difference" any two putative conflicting empirically equivalent manuals are not genuine rivals because they are, by Quine's own admission, consistent with the same distributions of ultimate particles. Both Quine's account of the identity of theories and his physicalism are inconsistent with his formulation of the indeterminacy thesis. In fact, by Quinean lights there is no fact of the matter as to whether such purported rival manuals are genuine rival manuals or merely different versions of the same manual. In the final section an alternative indeterminacy thesis is presented. Ironically, this version of the indeterminacy thesis states that empirically equivalent manuals cannot be genuine rivals. It is claimed that this alternative does justice to the considerations that motivated Quine's original indeterminacy thesis.Article


"A perfect little figure," he says. "Our mannequin girl." She knows who mannequin girls are. They are in her grandmother's Working Woman magazines, modeling flouncy dresses and berets. "Bend," he tells her, and she does, so pliant, so obedient." Growing up in Soviet Russia, Kat Knopman worships her parents, temperamental Anechka and soft-hearted, absent-minded Misha. Young Jewish intellectuals, they teach literature at a Moscow school, run a drama club, and dabble in political radicalism. Kat sees herself as their heir and ally. But when she's diagnosed with rapidly-progressing scoliosis, the trajectory of her life changes and she finds herself at a different institution-a school-sanatorium for children with spinal ailments. Confined to a brace, surrounded by unsympathetic peers, Kat embarks on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents: a beauty, an intellect, and free spirit despite her physical limitations, her Jewishness, and her suspicion that her beloved parents are in fact flawed. Can a girl with a crooked spine really be a mannequin girl, her parents' pride and her doctors' and teachers' glory? Or will she prove to be something far more ordinary-and, thereby, more her own? An unforgettable heroine, Kat will have to find the courage to face the world and break free not only of her metal brace but of all the constraints that bind her.


The world has changed as we entered the new situation full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. To be able to cope with this situation, an organization has to translate the challenges into a clear vision and action. A leadership style that is agile to adapt with the magnitude and the characteristic of the occurring problem is needed. Transformational leadership is a participative leadership style that is not only able to motivate and drive the organization vertically and horizontally but also always be agile in every circumstance. Thus, the organizational capacity to achieve the shared vision and mission will be encouraged. Applied neuroscience gives an understanding about the activities and mechanism of the brain which improves the required competences of a leader. Therefore, applied neuroscience will help a leader transform the organization. This study shows that applied neuroscience can help a transformational leadership achieve a "physically, emotionally, and mentally safe" state and encourage an organization to transform itself effectively. This study does not only explore a new perspective of transformational leadership issues, but it also provides an important contribution related to applied neuroscience, in particular, mapping transmission mechanism of the brain activities affecting body's reaction, internally (emotions and hormone) and externally (body reaction), which further affect the transformational leadership behaviors.


Nothing mobilises news media faster than a traumatic incident. Reporting teams and camera crews are
dispatched from every imaginable news outlet while other personnel hit the telephones to get background information. Every journalist on the assignment is primed to get the best angle, the best story, the best images and to get them as quickly as possible into the production stream to be prepared and presented to an audience that craves to be informed. Seconds can be precious. Deadlines even more
important. You might feel somewhat embarrassed to admit it, but it is almost a thrill to be a part of the action. That is, unless you happen to be a victim, survivor, witness or their family or community. Then the throng of media demanding your attention and co-operation can be confronting, disrespectful, overwhelming and, at times, harmful. That is what Australian victims and survivors have disclosed in research done for this thesis and it
reflects findings in other countries where the impact of trauma is being documented to help journalists understand the potential harm they may do to themselves and to others as they battle to cover the latest major crime, disaster scene or high-profile traumatic incident. Through nine Australian case studies this thesis draws out the core areas for concern and explores ways journalists can still do their work without causing victims and survivors to suffer more than they already have. It examines the toll of unthinking journalists, both in the field and the newsroom, and it exposes the price of thoughtless publication of
stories, images and sounds. In holding up a mirror to current media practice in Australia and comparing victim experiences to expectations painted by the industry's ethical and practice codes, this thesis aims to give journalists and newsroom managers some difficult things to think about - and plan for - before they next cover a
traumatic incident.


We ran the terrestrial ecosystem model (TEM) for the globe at 0.5° resolution for atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 340 and 680 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to evaluate global and regional responses of net primary production (NPP) and carbon storage to elevated CO2 for their sensitivity to changes in vegetation nitrogen concentration. At 340 ppmv, TEM estimated global NPP of 49.0 1015 g (Pg) C yr−1 and global total carbon storage of 1701.8 Pg C; the estimate of total carbon storage does not include the carbon content of inert soil organic matter. For the reference simulation in which doubled atmospheric CO2 was accompanied with no change in vegetation nitrogen concentration, global NPP increased 4.1 Pg C yr−1 (8.3%), and global total carbon storage increased 114.2 Pg C. To examine sensitivity in the global responses of NPP and carbon storage to decreases in the nitrogen concentration of vegetation, we compared doubled CO2 responses of the reference TEM to simulations in which the vegetation nitrogen concentration was reduced without influencing decomposition dynamics ("lower N" simulations) and to simulations in which reductions in vegetation nitrogen concentration influence decomposition dynamics ("lower N+D" simulations). We conducted three lower N simulations and three lower N+D simulations in which we reduced the nitrogen concentration of vegetation by 7.5, 15.0, and 22.5%. In the lower N simulations, the response of global NPP to doubled atmospheric CO2 increased approximately 2 Pg C yr−1 for each incremental 7.5% reduction in vegetation nitrogen concentration, and vegetation carbon increased approximately an additional 40 Pg C, and soil carbon increased an additional 30 Pg C, for a total carbon storage increase of approximately 70 Pg C. In the lower N+D simulations, the responses of NPP and vegetation carbon storage were relatively insensitive to differences in the reduction of nitrogen concentration, but soil carbon storage showed a large change. The insensitivity of NPP in the N+D simulations occurred because potential enhancements in NPP associated with reduced vegetation nitrogen concentration were approximately offset by lower nitrogen availability associated with the decomposition dynamics of reduced litter nitrogen concentration. For each 7.5% reduction in vegetation nitrogen concentration, soil carbon increased approximately an additional 60 Pg C, while vegetation carbon storage increased by only approximately 5 Pg C. As the reduction in vegetation nitrogen concentration gets greater in the lower N+D simulations, more of the additional carbon storage tends to become concentrated in the north temperate‐boreal region in comparison to the tropics. Other studies with TEM show that elevated CO2 more than offsets the effects of climate change to cause increased carbon storage. The results of this study indicate that carbon storage would be enhanced by the influence of changes in plant nitrogen concentration on carbon assimilation and decomposition rates. Thus changes in vegetation nitrogen concentration may have important implications for the ability of the terrestrial biosphere to mitigate increases in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and climate changes associated with the increases.


Climate change challenges governments to reduce emissions, and to gain support for such actions from their citizens. This can be in the form of taxation or legislation, or other forms of government interventions. In previous research, several instruments have been developed to capture attitudes towards the roles of markets and governments in the economy. Some of these instruments have assumed that respondents will have the same attitude towards the role of markets and governments, regardless of the context (e.g., welfare, environment, health) or the form of government intervention (law, taxation, subsidy, spending etc.). However, these studies have not examined attitudes towards, or belief in, the efficacy of government intervention in markets, through microeconomic policies on taxation (e.g., duties levied on particular products) or subsidies. This paper reports on the results of taking such a specific focus, that is, investigating economics students' knowledge of, and attitudes towards, government interventions in markets, specifically addressing the problem of climate change. We make use of unique, two-wave longitudinal data from Swedish university students. The data were collected during their initial semester at the university. The first data collection was performed at the beginning of the semester, August/September 2014, and the second wave of data collection was performed in December/January 2014/2015, at the end of the semester. We were able to match 414 students between the first and second survey. The results show that students of economics change their policy attitudes and become more knowledgeable in economics. After one semester, they are more likely to think of economic instruments/incentives (taxes and subsidies) as good and efficient policy instruments, and less likely to think that other instruments (regulation and information) are good and efficient policy instruments. However, further analyses show that knowledgeable students do not have different attitudes toward environmental policy instruments, compared to students who do not answer the questions correctly. Hence, there seems to be some other factor affecting students in economics during their first semester, that changes their attitudes towards environmental policy instruments.


OBJECT
The authors quantitatively assessed the effects of balloon inflation as a model of tumor compression on the brainstem, cranial nerves, and clivus by measuring the working area, angle of attack, and brain shift associated with the retrosigmoid approach.

METHODS
Six silicone-injected cadaveric heads were dissected bilaterally via the retrosigmoid approach. Quantitative data were generated, including key anatomical points on the skull base and brainstem. All parameters were measured before and after inflation of a balloon catheter (inflation volume 4.8 ml, diameter 20 mm) intended to mimic tumor compression.

RESULTS
Balloon inflation significantly shifted (p < 0.001) the brainstem and cranial nerve foramina (mean [+/- standard deviation] displacement of upper brainstem, 10.2 +/- 3.7 mm; trigeminal nerve exit, 6.99 +/- 2.38 mm; facial nerve exit, 9.52 +/- 4.13 mm; and lower brainstem, 13.63 +/- 8.45 mm). The area of exposure at the petroclivus was significantly greater with balloon inflation than without (change, 316.26 +/- 166.75 mm2; p < 0.0001). Before and after balloon inflation, there was no significant difference in the angles of attack at the origin of the trigeminal nerve (p > 0.5).

CONCLUSIONS
This study adds an experimental component to the emerging field of quantitative neurosurgical anatomy. Balloon inflation can be used to model the effects of a mass lesion. The tumor simulation created "natural" retraction and an opening toward the upper clivus. The findings may be helpful in selecting a surgical approach to increase the working space for resection of certain extraaxial tumors.


In this work, a copper sulfide nanoflakes–reduced graphene oxide (rGO/CuSNFs) nanocomposite has been successfully synthesized via one-pot hydrothermal treatment, where the reduction of GO and in situ generation of CuS nanoflakes occurred simultaneously. Subsequently, a nonenzymatic electrochemical sensor was fabricated based on the disposable rGO/CuSNFs nanocomposite for the highly sensitive and selective detection of glucose. The prepared rGO/CuSNFs nanocomposite was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. Under optimized conditions, the prepared enzymeless sensor exhibited remarkable catalytic activity toward the glucose oxidation with a fast response time of <6 s, a wide linear range from 1 to 2000 μM, a high sensitivity of 53.5 μM (cm2 mM)−1 and a low detection limit of 0.19 μM. Furthermore, the rGO/CuSNFs/GCE also showed the great reproducibility, the long-term storage stability and the excellent anti-interference ability for glucose sensing. In addition, the as-prepared sensor was applied to detect glucose in human urine and blood serum samples with satisfactory results, indicating that the rGO/CuSNFs nanocomposite is an extremely promising material for non-enzymatic glucose sensing in practical samples.


Intelligent agents solving problems in the real-world require domain models containing widespread knowledge of the world. Synthesising operator descriptions and domain specific constraints by hand for AI planning domain models is time-intense, error-prone and challenging. To alleviate this, automatic domain model acquisition techniques have been introduced. For example, the LOCM system requires as input some plan traces only, and is effectively able to automatically encode the dynamic part of the domain model. However, the static part of the domain, i.e., the underlying structure of the domain that can not be dynamically changed, but that affects the way in which actions can be performed is usually missed, since it can hardly be derived by observing transitions only. In this paper we introduce ASCoL, a tool that exploits graph analysis for automatically identifying static relations, in order to enhance planning domain models. ASCoL has been evaluated on domain models generated by LOCM for the international planning competition, and has been shown to be effective.


The current slowdown in the USA Economy has led many to question whether this will have a knock on effect in destroying global growth. This paper looks at the channels of global growth in 2008 to see whether the above view may be justified. In addition the paper draws on theories of globalisation and growth to explain recent trade patterns and makes suggestions on where growth is heading in the future. Data is used from world Economic Indicators to support the main arguments. Comparative profiles are then made of the important country players in global business. The evidence would suggest that countries both East and West are being to converge in their policy making though in the short term the current favourable growth of Eastern countries such as India and China will play a large part in maintaining positive global growth. On the negative side in January 2008 there was stock market turbulence in all world markets indicating the high degree of interconnectivity existing around the world in todays business environment. Furthermore much of the slowdown in the USA has been attributed to defaults on loans financed from the global capital markets. This financial crisis has a knock on effect in world markets and was caused by the banking system rather originating from problems in emerging markets as had often occurred in the past. In some ways even if the USA reduces interest rates rapidly to stimulate growth as has been done in January 2008 it does not mean that credit will automatically become easier. The LIBOR Rate will remain high as long as global banks fear lending to those with high risk of default. House prices in the USA and shares in banks have fallen almost 20% over the last year according to Bloomburg March 2008.


Abstract Objective: To study the development of the bilateral benefit in children using bilateral cochlear implants by measurements of speech recognition and sound localization. Design: Bilateral and unilateral speech recognition in quiet, in multi-source noise, and horizontal sound localization was measured at three occasions during a two-year period, without controlling for age or implant experience. Longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses were performed. Results were compared to cross-sectional data from children with normal hearing. Study sample: Seventy-eight children aged 5.1–11.9 years, with a mean bilateral cochlear implant experience of 3.3 years and a mean age of 7.8 years, at inclusion in the study. Thirty children with normal hearing aged 4.8–9.0 years provided normative data. Results: For children with cochlear implants, bilateral and unilateral speech recognition in quiet was comparable whereas a bilateral benefit for speech recognition in noise and sound localization was found at all three test occasions. Absolute performance was lower than in children with normal hearing. Early bilateral implantation facilitated sound localization. Conclusions: A bilateral benefit for speech recognition in noise and sound localization continues to exist over time for children with bilateral cochlear implants, but no relative improvement is found after three years of bilateral cochlear implant experience.


Abstract. The atmospheric oxidation of aromatic compounds is an important source of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in urban areas. The oxidation of aromatics depends strongly on the levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx). However, details of the mechanisms by which oxidation occurs have only recently been elucidated. Xu et al. (2015) developed an updated version of the gas-phase Caltech Atmospheric Chemistry Mechanism (CACM) designed to simulate toluene and m-xylene oxidation in chamber experiments over a range of NOx conditions. The output from such a mechanism can be used in thermodynamic predictions of gas–particle partitioning leading to SOA. The current work reports the development of a model for SOA formation that combines the gas-phase mechanism of Xu et al. (2015) with an updated lumped SOA-partitioning scheme (Model to Predict the Multi-phase Partitioning of Organics, MPMPO) that allows partitioning to multiple aerosol phases and that is designed for use in larger-scale three-dimensional models. The resulting model is termed aroCACM/MPMPO 1.0. The model is integrated into the University of California, Irvine – California Institute of Technology (UCI-CIT) Airshed Model, which simulates the South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) of California. Simulations using 2012 emissions indicate that "low-NOx" pathways to SOA formation from aromatic oxidation play an important role, even in regions that typically exhibit high-NOx concentrations.


P/2013 P5 PANSTARRS was discovered in Aug. 2013, displaying a cometary tail, but with orbital elements typical for a member of the inner asteroid Main Belt.
We monitored the object from 2013 Aug. 30 until Oct. 05 using the CFHT, NTT, CA 1.23m, Perkins 1.8m (Lowell), and the 0.6m TRAPPIST telescopes. We measured its nuclear radius to be r < 0.25-0.29km, and its colours g-r = 0.58+/-0.05 and r-i = 0.23+/-0.06, typical for an S-class asteroid. We failed to detect any rotational light curve, with an amplitude < 0.05mag and a double-peaked rotation period < 20h. A detailed Finson-Probstein analysis of deep NTT and CFHT images indicated that the object was active since at least late January 2013 until the time of the latest observations in 2013 September, with at least two peaks of activity around 2013 June 14+/-10d and 2013 July 22+/-3d. The changes of activity level and the activity peaks were extremely sharp and short, shorter than the temporal resolution of our observations (about 1d). The dust distribution was similar during these two events, with dust grains covering at least the 1-1000{\mu}m range. The total mass ejected in grains <1mm was estimated to be 3.0 10$^6$kg and 2.6 10$^7$kg around the two activity peaks.
Rotational disruption cannot be ruled out as the cause of the dust ejection. We also propose that the components of a contact binary might gently rub and produce the observed emission. Volatile sublimation might also explain what appears as cometary activity over a period of 8 months. However, while Main Belt comets best explained by ice sublimation are found in the outskirts of the Main Belt, where water ice is believed to be able to survive buried in moderately large objects for the age of the solar system deeply, the presence of volatiles in an object smaller than 300m in radius would be very surprising in the inner asteroid belt.


Identifying genetic variants associated with circulating protein concentrations (pQTLs) and integrating them with variants from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may illuminate the proteome's causal role in disease and bridge a GWAS knowledge gap for hitherto unexplained SNP-disease associations. We conducted GWAS of 71 high-value proteins for cardiovascular disease in 6,861 Framingham Heart Study participants followed by external replication. We comprehensively mapped thousands of pQTLs, including functional annotations and clinical-trait associations, and created an integrated plasma-protein-QTL searchable database. We next identified 15 proteins with pQTLs coinciding with coronary heart disease (CHD)-related variants from GWAS or tested causal for CHD by Mendelian randomization; most of these proteins were associated with new-onset cardiovascular disease events in Framingham participants with long-term follow-up. Identifying pQTLs and integrating them with GWAS results yields insights into genes, proteins, and pathways that may be causally associated with disease and can serve as therapeutic targets for treatment and prevention.


Despite efforts made by management and caseworkers to promote active parental participation in the protective context, fathers or other male figures are often brushed aside from intervention. This paper presents the results of qualitative research on methods used by youth protection caseworkers (n = 22) working with stepfather families. The main objective is to identify items that encourage or discourage stepfather involvement in psychosocial interventions. Results showed that certain items do not apply solely to stepfathers, but influence youth protection caseworker decision-making from a broader perspective. Particular characteristics associated with being a stepfather significantly influence involvement practices espoused by caseworkers, notably the absence of legal status and biological connection with the mother's children.


The biostimulatory effect in sheep is known to cause a relatively rapid increase in LH pulse frequency in ewes that accelerates resumption of ovulatory activity during the transition into the breeding season. In addition there is the possibility that the biostimulatory effect involves changes in the metabolic status of ewes. Experiment 1, the hypotheses were that exposing seasonally anovular ewes to rams would not alter patterns of cortisol concentrations and that these changes are not associated with changes in temporal characteristics of LH concentrations. Cortisol pulse duration was longer in ewes exposed to rams (RE) than in ewes exposed to wethers (NE). The number of LH pulses, and LH pulse frequency was greater in RE ewes than in NE ewes. In RE ewes, as the pulse frequency and number of cortisol pulses increased there was a linear decrease in LH pulse frequency and number of LH pulses. The hypotheses in experiment 2 were that were that resumption of luteal activity and temporal patterns of cortisol, leptin, prolactin, IGF-1, T3 and T4 do not differ among virgin ewes exposed to rams during the transition into the breeding season. Resumption of luteal activity began earlier (P < 0.05) in RE than in NE ewes. Concentrations of T4 in RE ewes decreased less rapidly and over a longer interval before increasing by the end of the sampling period than those in NE ewes. Concentrations of PRL were greater in RE than in NE ewes 4 d after exposure but decreased over the next 12 d; whereas, PRL decreased in NE ewes during the first 6 d then increased over the next 14 d. In conclusion, ram exposure during the transition into the breeding season alters hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, which is related to an increase in LH pulse frequency, that hastens luteal activity. In addition, the onset of luteal activity is associated with alterations in metabolic status in ewes exposed to rams during the transition in to the breeding season.


Background Neuropilins (NRPs) are transmembrane glycoproteins that act as receptors for vascular endothelial growth factors and are involved in the process of tumor angiogenesis. Patients and methods We analyzed the significance of NRP-1 RNA expression level in 63 newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients and 40 healthy controls using real-time PCR. Results NRP-1 was significantly highly expressed in CML patients than in controls and in patients in the accelerated phase than in those in the chronic phase. Its levels were significantly positively correlated with total leucocytic count (TLC), platelets count, and percentage of blast, whereas it was negatively correlated with progression-free survival. NRP-1 expression level revealed a statistically significant difference as regards response to imatinib therapy: it was significantly higher in those who did not achieve complete molecular response. During the follow-up period, the NRP-1 levels in patients still in remission were significantly lower than those who showed progression to accelerated or blastic phase; the median time of progression-free survival in patients with high NRP-1 was significantly shorter than those who had normal level. Conclusion We conclude that NRP-1 expression is significantly associated with CML and that its level might serve as an indicator for disease severity and progression.


Objective To identify whether renal transplant activity varies in a reproducible manner across the year. Design Retrospective cohort study using NHS Blood and Transplant data. Setting All renal transplant centres in the UK. Participants A total of 24 270 patients who underwent renal transplantation between 2005 and 2014. Primary outcome Monthly transplant activity was analysed to see if transplant activity showed variation during the year. Secondary outcome The number of organs rejected due to healthcare capacity was analysed to see if this affected transplantation rates. Results Analysis of national transplant data revealed a reproducible yearly variance in transplant activity. This activity increased in late autumn and early winter (p=0.05) and could be attributed to increased rates of living (October and November) and deceased organ donation (November and December). An increase in deceased donation was attributed to a rise in donors following cerebrovascular accidents and hypoxic brain injury. Other causes of death (infections and road traffic accidents) were more seasonal in nature peaking in the winter or summer, respectively. Only 1.4% of transplants to intended recipients were redirected due to a lack of healthcare capacity, suggesting that capacity pressures in the National Health Service did not significantly affect transplant activity. Conclusion UK renal transplant activity peaks in late autumn/winter in contrast to other countries. Currently, healthcare capacity, though under strain, does not affect transplant activity; however, this may change if transplantation activity increases in line with national strategies as the spike in transplant activity coincides with peak activity in the national healthcare system.


Essay of Dramatic Poesie [1668], John Dryden 84pp A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage [1698], Jeremy Collier 308pp A Short Vindication of the Relapse and the Provok'd Wife [1698], John Vanbrugh 84pp Amendments of Mr Collier's False and Imperfect Citations [1698], William Congreve 114pp Animadversions on Mr Congreve's late Answer to Mr Collier. In a dialogue between Mr Smith and Mr Johnson [1698], Anon 88pp The Stage Condemn'd [1698], George Ridpath 218pp The Ancient and Modern Stages Surveyed [1699], James Drake 404pp The Stage Acquitted. Being a full answer to Mr Collier, and the other Enemies of the Drama, Anon 198pp


Abstract The Middle Jurassic was a critical time in the evolution of theropod dinosaurs, highlighted by the origination and radiation of the large-bodied and morphologically diverse Tetanurae. Middle Jurassic tetanurans are rare but have been described from Europe, South America and China. In particular, China has yielded a number of potential basal tetanurans, but these have received little detailed treatment in the literature. Here we redescribe the postcranial skeleton of one of the most complete Chinese Middle Jurassic theropods, Monolophosaurus. Several features confirm the tetanuran affinities of Monolophosaurus, but the possession of 'primitive' traits such as a double-faceted pubic peduncle of the ilium and a hood-like supracetabular crest suggest a basal position within Tetanurae. This conflicts with most published cladistic analyses that place Monolophosaurus in a more derived position within Allosauroidea. We review the Middle Jurassic record of Chinese theropods and compare Monolophosaurus to other Middle Jurassic theropods globally. These comparisons suggest that Monolophosaurus and Chuandongocoelurus formed an endemic theropod clade limited to the Middle Jurassic of Asia. Other Middle Jurassic Chinese theropods deserve further study.


Aims. We aim to constrain the mixing processes in low-mass stars by investigating the behaviour of the Li surface abundance after the main sequence. We take advantage of the data from the sixth internal data release of Gaia -ESO, idr 6, and from the Gaia Early Data Release 3, edr 3s. Methods. We selected a sample of main-sequence, sub-giant, and giant stars in which the Li abundance is measured by the Gaia -ESO survey. These stars belong to 57 open clusters with ages from 130Myr to about 7Gyr and to Milky Way fields, covering a range in [Fe / H] between ∼− 1 . 0 and ∼ + 0 . 5dex, with few stars between ∼− 1 . 0 and ∼− 2 . 5dex. We studied the behaviour of the Li abundances as a function of stellar parameters. We inferred the masses of giant stars in clusters from the main-sequence turn-o ff masses, and for field stars through comparison with stellar evolution models using a maximum likelihood technique. We compared the observed Li behaviour in field giant stars and in giant stars belonging to individual clusters with the predictions of a set of classical models and of models with mixing induced by rotation and thermohaline instability. Results. The comparison with stellar evolution models confirms that classical models cannot reproduce the observed lithium abundances in the metallicity and mass regimes covered by the data. The models that include the e ff ects of both rotation-induced mixing and thermohaline instability account for the Li abundance trends observed in our sample in all metallicity and mass ranges. The di ff erences between the results of the classical models and of the rotation models largely di ff er (up to 2dex), making lithium the best element with which to constrain stellar mixing processes in low-mass stars. We discuss the nature of a sample of Li-rich stars. Conclusions. We demonstrate that the evolution of the surface abundance of Li in giant stars is a powerful tool for constraining theoretical stellar evolution models, allowing us to distinguish the e ff ect of di ff erent mixing processes. For stars with well-determined masses, we find a better agreement of observed surface abundances and models with rotation-induced and thermohaline mixing. Rotation e ff ects dominate during the main sequence and the first phases of the post-main-sequence evolution, and the thermohaline induced mixing after the bump in the luminosity function.


Background Very limited information is available about the prevalence of blood groups among Qatari population and residents. The information about frequencies of different blood group antigens is important to manage, patients who has tendency to develop alloantibodies such as thalassemics. Thalassemia is most common genetically inherited blood disorder due to a quantitative defect in hemoglobin formation, results ineffective erythropoiesis, leads to severe anemia requires regular blood transfusions. To maintain a safe blood supply for alloimmunized patients are difficult, without the knowledge of donor pool's antigen frequency evidence. We have determined the frequencies of the Rh, and Kell, clinically significant antigens among blood donors in Qatar. Method As per approved IRB and consent waiver signed, blood samples were collected from voluntary blood donors at Hammad Medical Cooperation (HMC), Blood Centre in EDTA vacutainer tubes. The samples were, then processed on day of collection to remove plasma and the packed RBC (pRBC) was 3 times washed with saline. After washing the pRBC were used to make 5% cell suspension with saline. Blood samples were collected from regular healthy 512 donors. Blood group antigens were analyzed by tube and Gel card method as manufacturer's instruction. The Rh antigens including, D, C, E, c, e and Kell (K) were typed and incidence frequencies were expressed as percentage. Anti-sera used in tube testing were bought from Lorne Laboratories, United Kingdom (UK) and the Gel cards from Grifols® The results were analyzed by using statistical software SPSS. The data were analyzed using descriptive exploratory features to see various blood group antigens we have studied and characterized Results We analyzed blood group antigens; with age range from 19–65 years, mean donors age 38.4 ± 8 years. Nationalities among donors varied considerably, the highest frequency donations were Qataris 89 (17.4%), Syrians 89 (17.4%) and Egyptians 77 (15%). When compared among Arabs 365 (72.1%) and non-Arabs 132 (25.8%), majority of blood donors are from Arab countries. Rh antigens frequency shown from our analysis is, D 88.08%, C 70.11%, E 33.59%, c 75.39%, e88.47% and K 10.4%. The Rh antigens among Qataris were D 92.13% E 39.32%, e 88.76%, C 65.16%, c 86.5%, K 13.8%. Conclusions Our data shows the blood donors in state of Qatar are multinational and demonstrates variations in frequency of Rh and Kell RBC antigens. These variations may be a challenge to find antigen negative blood, needs for multiple transfused alloimmunized patients such as thalassemics and sickle cell patients. It is important to establish the incidences of various RBC antigens amid blood donors, when dealing with patients who have developed multiple antibodies. The current clinical practice in blood banks is randomly cross match the available blood units in the stock. This study will help to provide data regarding the frequency of Rh and Kell blood group clinically significant antigens. As we have mentioned very limited information are available, about blood group prevalence among Qatari population accept some data about the association of blood groups among diabetes mellitus patients in Qatar. Our study shows though there is large number of expatriates in Qatar, among them Arabs are the highest frequent blood donors including Qataris. While Indians resident community is the largest, among expatriates here in state of Qatar number of blood donation is less compare to other residents. Our data shows Qataris and Syrians 17.4% are the most regular blood donors in Qatar. The age groups highest frequent blood donors were 25–34 years in Qatar, but according to WHO facts blood donation, among high income countries most regular blood donation is in the age group 45–64 years, while low and middle income countries the age group donates most regularly are 18–25 years.


Background & Aims : Stroke and aphasia can have a profound impact on people's social activities, and family and social relationships. This study looked at patterns of social support in people with chronic aphasia following stroke. It examined the relationship between social support and quality of life, exploring which aspects of social support (social network versus perceived social support) were most associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL). Methods & Procedures : A cross-sectional interview-based survey study was conducted. A cluster-sampling framework was used to recruit participants with chronic aphasia following stroke (> 1 year) from three different sites in the south-east of England. Measures included the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 item version (SAQOL-39), the MOS Social Support Survey (SSS), and a social network questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlation, t -tests, and ANOVAs were used as appropriate. Outcomes & Results : The results of those able to self-report (83 out of 95 participants, 87%) are reported here. In terms of social networks, the mode of the size of network was 4. Size of network was associated with HRQL for women only. Most participants (71%) reported they had the same amount of contact with their children following the stroke, while 64% reported they saw their friends less. Those who had the same level of contact with their family as before the stroke had the highest HRQL scores; those who saw them either less or more than before the stroke had lower HRQL. In terms of perceived social support, the SSS scores were negatively skewed with a mean (SD) of 3.69 (.95), suggesting that participants felt overall well supported. Two types of support were significantly correlated with HRQL: social companionship and informational support. Clinical implications : Therapy services for people with aphasia could consider ways to enhance social companionship and informational support as this may positively impact on HRQL. Implications could include complementing and supporting existing social networks, and facilitating access to information and social participation.


The law's willingness to take account of factors that interfere with volition tends to vary in accordance with its underlying goals. The law of wills is dominated by the principle of freedom of testation; it has thus developed doctrines aimed at detecting coercive influences that interfere with the testator's free agency. The law of medical decision making, dominated by the analogous principle of patient autonomy, has not developed doctrines aimed at detecting coercive influences despite a large and growing body of evidence showing that disordered insight and major depression, two common medical conditions, often have a coercive, negative effect on treatment choice and compliance. When a patient is afflicted with disordered insight or major depression, a decision against treatment often stems from illness instead of the patient's own goals and values. Current law fails to protect vulnerable patients whose free agency has been lost to their illnesses. These patients need, and deserve, protection from the coercive effects of distorted perception and motivation. The undue influence and insane delusion doctrines developed within the law of wills to detect and disarm coercive influences are readily adaptable to the medical decision-making context. There is a wealth of assessment protocols that offer reliable methods of detecting the influence of depression and insight deficiencies.


Background and Aims: Working length determination and remaining this length is of great importance in root canal therapy. Recently, electronic apex locators are being used to determine working length and decrease the number of radiographs. The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity of Root ZX and Novapex electronic apex locators with radiography in an in vivo condition. Materials and Methods: In this study, 73 single-canalled teeth of the patients referred to the endodontic department of the Yazd Dental School were evaluated. The access cavity was prepared and working length of the root canals were measured by using the apex locators: Root ZX and Novapex. The file was placed in the root canal and a periapical radiograph was taken using parallel technique. The working lengths obtained by apex locators were recorded and compared with those of radiographs. The data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient, Wilcoxon test and paired t-test. Results: The exact measurement without any fault was 46.6% for Root ZX and 20.5% for Novapex compared to radiography. In the range of 0.5 mm fault, the results were 91.8% for Root ZX and 64.4% for Novapex compared to radiographic measurements. The difference between the average of the measured lengths by Root ZX and radiography was not significant (P=0.17). On the other hand, the results showed significant difference between the average of the measured lengths by Novapex and radiography (P=0.017). The difference between two apex locators was not significant (P=0.061). Conclusion: Root ZX and Novapex with high accuracy are useful for determining working length of the root canals in pregnant patients with special anatomic conditions and patients with muscle disharmony. Therefore, the use of these apex locators combined with radiography is recommended in root canal treatments.


The sector business services contributes directly and indirectly to aggregate economic
growth in Europe. The direct contribution comes from the sector's own dynamism.
Though the business-services industry appears to be characterised by strong cyclical
volatility, there was also a strong structural growth. Business services actually generated
more than half of total net employment growth in the European Union since the second
half of the 1990s.
Apart from this direct growth contribution, the sector also contributed in an indirect way
to economic growth by generating knowledge and productivity spill-overs for other
industries. The knowledge role of business services is reflected in its employment
characteristics. The business-services industry created spill-overs in three ways: original
innovations, knowledge diffusion, and the reduction of human capital indivisibilities at
firm level. The share of knowledge-intensive business services in the intermediate
inputs of the total economy has risen sharply in the last decade. Firm-level scale
diseconomies with regard to knowledge and skill inputs are reduced by external
deliveries of such inputs, thereby exploiting positive external scale economies. The
process goes along with an increasingly complex social division of labour between
economic sectors.
The European business-services industry itself is characterised by a relatively weak
productivity growth. Does this contribute to growth stagnation tendencies a la the socalled
"Baumol disease"? The paper argues that there is no reason to expect this as long
as the productivity and growth spill-overs from business services to other sectors are
large enough.
Finally, the paper concludes by suggesting several policy elements that could boost the
role of business services in European economic growth. This might to achieve some of
the ambitious Lisbon goals with respect to employment, productivity and innovation.


An Archaeology of Art and Writing offers an in-depth treatment of the image as material culture. Centring on early Egyptian bone, ivory, and wooden labels—one of the earliest inscribed and decorated object groups from burials in the lower Nile Valley—the research is anchored in the image as the site of material action. A key aim of this book is to outline a contextual and reflexive approach to early art and writing as a complement to the traditional focus on iconographic and linguistic meanings. Archaeological and anthropological approaches are integrated with social theories of practice and agency to develop a more holistic perspective that situates early Egyptian imagery in relation to its manufacture, use and final deposition in the funerary context. The dialectical relationships between past embodied practitioners and materials, production techniques, and compositional principles are examined for the insight they provide into changes and continuities in early Egyptian graphical expression across time and space. The electronic version of this book is accompanied by an online database of the inscribed labels , enabling the reader to explore via hyperlinks the fascinating body of evidence that underpins this innovative study. Kathryn Piquette lectures on the archaeology of ancient Egypt and the Near East at the University of Reading. She also lectures in digital humanities at University College London, where she serves as a senior research consultant in advanced digital imaging techniques for cultural heritage. Recent publications include the co-edited Writing as Material Practice: Substance, surface and medium . Please note that this text contains the Egyptian hieroglyphic font Inscribe 2004 ( https://archive.org/details/inscribe , usage Public Domain Mark 1.0) and the transliteration font Trlit_CG Times ( https://dmd.wepwawet.nl/fonts.htm ). We are unable to guarantee the correct rendering of these fonts on all devices. For the intended display of the hieroglyphic and transliteration fonts, see the PDF version of this book: https://doi.org/10.16994/bak


The growth of the IT industry has been dramatic and information and communication technologies (ICTs) now play a fundamental part in many, if not all, of the critical infrastructures upon which modern society depends. The use of ICTs within organisations of all types is approaching ubiquity with many such systems being viewed as mission critical. This spread and the increasing criticality of such systems itself relies upon the ability to develop complex software systems in a reliable and predictable fashion. However, there is widespread evidence that the development of software in such a fashion continues to present a formidable challenge to many organisations with software typically being delivered late, over budget and with reduced functionality.

Whilst large software projects have always posed huge challenges for suppliers of bespoke software, the nature and scale of that challenge has evolved over the years. At the level of the individual firm, modern information systems development takes place in the context of a series of interconnected complexities concerning alignment with organisational goals, primary and secondary sourcing, integration of new systems and backward integration with existing systems. At the level of the industry, these complexities are in turn managed in the context in which specialist capability has largely migrated to the IT services industry, necessitating the involvement of a range of intermediaries. Such work takes place within the wider context of a range of highly flexible technologies with high rates of technical and skill obsolescence. Within this turbulent situation data across a range of performance metrics may be difficult or impossible to obtain with the result that organisations will often operate in the absence of reliable information.

This exploratory paper will provide a high-level examination of the major challenges associated with the development of large-scale complex software systems and trace the emergence of the current situation facing many organisations. In order to provide a context for the discussion, the paper will examine the recent growth and development of the software and computer services industry and draw on earlier work that assesses its maturity (Flowers and Brady, 2001). The development of complex sourcing for IT (Venkatraman, 1997) and the rapid growth and expanding role of intermediaries within the software industry will also be examined.

The nature and implications of the migration of specialist capability within the IT and software industry will be explored and the paper will build on earlier work in the area (Feeny and Willcocks, 1998) to argue that there has been the emergence of a series of capability gaps, traps and overlaps that provide a further layer of sourcing complexity to what is already a hugely complex procurement and development context. The issues and implications of this situation will be examined and it will be argued that the emergence of significant capability imbalances against the background of poor data provide the context for the continued uneven performance of complex software projects. The paper will conclude with an examination of the implications of this situation to the development of complex software projects.


[1] Bidaily, tidally modulated stick‐slip speed‐ups of the Whillans Ice Plain (WIP) provide insight into glacier dynamics and failure at a naturally repeating fault asperity. We installed a network of continuously operating GPS receivers in 2007 and deployed on‐ice broadband seismometers during the austral summer of 2008 on Whillans Ice Stream (WIS), West Antarctica, and recorded 26 glacier speed‐up events. Previous work during the 2004 field season suggested that these speed‐ups initiate as failure of an asperity on or near "ice raft A" that triggers rupture across the entire WIP. Our results for 2008 locate the slip initiation farther to the south of this feature, closer to the grounding line and the southernmost extent of the Ross Ice Shelf. The initiation may be controlled by a discontinuity in basal boundary conditions at the suture between two ice streams. A strong correlation between the amplitude of seismic waves generated at the rupture front and the total slip achieved over the duration of the slip event (∼30 min) suggests slip‐predictable behavior, i.e., the ability to forecast the eventual slip based on the first minute of seismic radiation. Successive slip events propagate with different rupture speeds (100–300 m/s) that strongly correlate (R = 0.73) with the interevent duration. In addition, the amount of slip achieved during each event appears to be correlated with the rupture speed. We use these observations to constrain basal shear stress to be 4 kPa by calculating conditions for basal freezing. Our observations yield information regarding mechanics and dynamics of ice streambeds at the scale of tens to hundreds of kilometers. Subglacial processes are notoriously difficult to constrain on these large scales, which are relevant to the understanding of regional and continental ice motion.


We propose a new class of probabilistic neural-symbolic models for visual question answering (VQA) that provide interpretable explanations of their decision making in the form of programs, given a small annotated set of human programs. The key idea of our approach is to learn a rich latent space which effectively propagates program annotations from known questions to novel questions. We do this by formalizing prior work on VQA, called module networks (Andreas, 2016) as discrete, structured, latent variable models on the joint distribution over questions and answers given images, and devise a procedure to train the model effectively. Our results on a dataset of compositional questions about SHAPES (Andreas, 2016) show that our model generates more interpretable programs and obtains better accuracy on VQA in the low-data regime than prior work.


Many important social interactions can be modeled as chicken or hawk dove games. These games can give rise to two stable "pure strategy" equilibrium conventions (hawk/dove and dove/hawk). These conventions are desirable insofar as they permit players to avoid costly conflictual encounters (hawk/hawk). What role does law play in establishing these equilibria? McAdams contends that the law can draw attention to a focal point around which play can coordinate, thus speeding progress towards one of the beneficial conventions. The law can also go one step further: it can select one or the other equilibrium by enacting a positive rule for play. Taking off from McAdams's analysis, this comment addresses how expressive law might influence the rise of "oppressive" norms or conventions. Those are defined as conventions that take hold in games in which players receive different payoffs from hawk/dove combinations depending on whether they occupy the row or column position and in which occupancy of those positions is fairly fixed. Law is less important in fostering the emergence of conventions in those special cases for two reasons: most such games coordinate around focal identity features that are already "naturally" salient (displacing the law's role in drawing attention to focal points for play), and the lopsided payoff structure of the games spontaneously determines which convention emerges (displacing the law's role in selecting a convention for play). The comment then addresses how law in its expressive capacity might help bring about changes in entrenched "oppressive" conventions. It begins with the observation that any shift to an alternative stable pure strategy convention in this context must involve "table-turning" or a reversal of roles within the existing game. The group that gains more by playing hawk under the dominant convention will gain less by playing dove under the alternative convention, and vice versa. But absent manipulation of payoffs through the imposition of external penalties or a change in player preferences, it is difficult to see how a shift to a new convention would occur spontaneously. That is because no "rational" self-interested player has any incentive to deviate unilaterally from the dominant strategy of play. (Doves who switch to hawk will suffer losses from a hawk/hawk conflict; hawks who switch to dove will also reduce their payoffs). Recent social history nonetheless demonstrates that "oppressive" conventions do change. The comment suggests that this occurs when doves move unilaterally into the hawk role despite reduced payoffs in the game. Why might doves do that? Drawing on the work of Edna Ullman Margalit and Robert Frank, the comment suggests that doves defy the existing conventions, even at some cost to themselves, out of moralistic indignation and resentment against the unfairness of their disadvantaged position within the status quo. Doves may come to value improving their position relative to other players or they may seek equality for its own sake. The comment argues that conventions will only change if doves commit to playing hawk regardless of personal consequences, and hawks are convinced of that commitment. If former doves can persuade hawks of their determination to switch strategies, hawks will have reason to abandon their former positions in order to avert their own losses. Based on these observations, the comment concludes that norm changes in hawk/dove games will often be marked by moralistic rhetoric and an appeal to impartial standards. Those appeals signal the determination of former losers (doves) to disgard the status quo regardless of adverse consequences, which in turn helps to convince winners to abandon the status quo as well. These moralistic justifications also provide an impartial rationale for what appears to be a partial result: turning the tables on former winners and elevating former losers. The law can buttress such appeals by reinforcing the normative claims that are made by those who spearhead change. Law can also serve to advertise and coordinate former losers' decisions to force a change despite personal sacrifice, thus recruiting additional individuals to the cause.


Wallace, LK, Slattery, KM, and Coutts, AJ. The ecological validity and application of the session-RPE method for quantifying training loads in swimming. J Strength Cond Res 23(1): 33-38, 2009-There are few practical methods available for evaluating training loads (TL) during swimming. The purpose of this study was to examine the ecological validity of the session-rating of perceived exertion (RPE) method for quantifying internal TL in competitive swimmers using heart rate (HR)-based methods and distance as criterion measures. This study also examined the correspondence between athlete and coach perceptions of internal TL using the session-RPE method. Twelve (six male, six female) well-trained swimmers (mean ± SD: age 22.3 ± 3.1 years, weight 71.8 ± 11.6 kg, height 175.0 ± 9.0 cm) participated in this study. All subjects completed a swimming step test to evaluate individual HR zones and blood lactate profile before undertaking 20 swim training sessions where RPE, HR, and distance covered were recorded. Training load was then calculated for each session using the session-RPE, HR-based methods, and session distance. The session-RPE scores were correlated to HR-based methods for measuring internal TL as well as training distance for each swimmer. All individual correlations between session-RPE, HR-based methods (r = 0.55-0.94; p < 0.05), and distance measures (r = 0.37-0.81; p < 0.05) were significant. Two-way ANOVA showed that there was a significant interaction for training intensity × coach-athlete perception, indicating that coach RPE was lower than athlete RPE for low-intensity sessions and higher than athlete RPE at high-intensity sessions. The results of this study suggest that session-RPE may provide a practical, noninvasive method for quantifying internal TL in competitive swimmers.


Rapid and effective revascularization of transplanted pancreatic islets is vital for the survival and function of the islet graft. Insufficient vascularization after islet transplantation may be one causative factor to the failure of islet grafts in clinical transplantation. The aim of this study was to investigate if N-{N-(2-(3,5-Difluorophenyl)acetyl)-(S)-alanyl}- (S)-phenylglycine- tert-butyl ester (DAPT) administration can improve engraftment of transplanted islets. DAPT is a dipeptidic gamma-secretase inhibitor which inhibits Notch signaling. Notch signaling is involved in angiogenesis and inhibition may result in excessive formation of new blood vessels. Excessive vasculature may be beneficial in the immediate posttransplantation period since the transplanted islets are dependent on diffusion of oxygen and nutrients before revascularization. Islets isolated from C57BL/6 mice were transplanted beneath the renal capsule of C57BL/6 mice. After islet transplantation DAPT or vehicle was administered subcutaneously for three days. Mice treated with DAPT had an increased vascular density when compared to control mice two days and one month posttransplantation. Moreover, mice treated with DAPT showed 54±8.2 % functional blood vessels compared to 40±6.7 % in control mice two days posttransplantation. After one month, the fraction of functional blood vessels increased to 86±2.8 % in DAPT treated mice compared to 61±9.4 % in control mice. Our findings demonstrated that administration of DAPT may be a feasible strategy to improve engraftment of transplanted islets.


Abstract Krásnoite is a new mineral (IMA2011-040) from the Huber open pit, Krásno ore district, Czech Republic and the Silver Coin mine, Nevada, USA. Krásnoite is the fluorophosphate analogue of perhamite. Krásnoite occurs as compact to finely crystalline aggregates, balls and rosette-like clusters up to 1 mm across. Individual crystals are platy, show a hexagonal outline and can reach 0.1 mm on edge at Krásno and 0.4 mm at Silver Coin. At both localities, krásnoite occurs very late in phosphaterich paragenetic sequences. Krásnoite crystals are partly transparent with a typically pearly lustre, but can also appear greasy (Krásno) or dull (Silver Coin). The streak is white and the hardness is 5 on the Mohs scale. Crystals are brittle, have an irregular fracture, one imperfect cleavage on {001} and are not fluorescent under SW and LW ultraviolet light. Penetration twinning ⊥ {001} is common. The density for both Krásno and Silver Coin material is 2.48(4) g cm-3, measured by the sink-float method in an aqueous solution of sodium polytungstate. The calculated density is 2.476 g cm-3 (Krásno). Krásnoite crystals are uniaxial (+), with ω = 1.548(2) and ε = 1.549(2) (Krásno) and ω = 1.541(1) and ε = 1.543(1) (Silver Coin). The simplified formula of krásnoite is: Ca3Al7.7Si3P4O23.5(OH)12.1F2·8H2O. Krásnoite is trigonal, space group P3̅m1, with a = 6.9956(4), c = 20.200(2) Å, V = 856.09(9) Å3 and Z = 3. Raman and infrared spectroscopy, coupled with magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS-NMR) spectrometry, confirmed the presence of PO3F, PO4, SiO4, H2O and OH in the crystal structure of krásnoite.


Background: The comprehension of the relationships between physiological parameters and swimming performance in Breaststroke events seems not to be fully understood. Research question: The aim of this study was to correlate aerobic and anaerobic physiological measurements with the performance in 100m and 200m breaststroke. This performance was determined either with the subjects' performance in 100m and 200m simulated breaststroke events with the Aquatrainer valve and with the subjects' season best performance in true competitions. Methods: Twenty two male swimmers involved in systematic training and competition programmes participated in this study. The swimmers were divided in two groups (10 for 100m group and 12 for 200m group). The swimmers' personal best performance for the 100m and the 200m breaststroke was converted according to the FINA table. The subjects performed a graded swimming test and an all-out test on different days. Throughout all testing expired gases were collected breath by breath and analysed with a K4b2 Gas Analyser connected to an AquaTrainer Valve to determine different physiological parameters. Capillary blood samples were also collected from the finger to determine the blood lactate concentration after each boot. The subjects' performance during the all-out tests was taken as dependent variable and the physiological measures were defined as independent variables. Results: The performance during the all-out bout correlated with the season best FINA score (r = 0.52; p<0.05). The best season performance was more accurately predicted by the combination of aerobic fraction of energy release, peak blood lactate post-exercise and VO2 elicited at the swimming velocity corresponding to the 2mmol.L-1 threshold for the 200m event (imprecision ≈5%), while in the 100m event it was best predicted by the combination of estimated body fat, VO2 elicited at the swimming velocity corresponding to the 4mmol.L-1 threshold and peak VO2 (imprecision ≈3%). Conclusions: Physiological testing with direct VO2 measurement and blood lactate assessment may provide some insights into the performance ability of breaststroke swimmers, namely by the assessment of peak VO2 and both sub-maximal and supra-maximal blood lactate.


To estimate energy benefits, peak loads, efficiencies, and different potential risks such as overheating, thermal damage, or glare in buildings, knowledee of the behaviour of the envelope materials is required. An experimental tool, the Megasphere, for characterising the optical properties in the solar and visible range of semitransparent materials with macroscopic heterogeneity is presented. The whole experimental setup, and an application to solar transmittance of one type of material (multiribbed material), are presented. A theoretical model has been developed to predict the spectral transmittance of these types of materials. This model evaluates the global transmittance as a function of the angle of incidence with structural and dense material properties. The comparison between the experimental and the modelling approaches is presented and discussed, with representative results.


If writing erotica or pornography is an intimate process for any author, equally, if not more so, is the act of translating it: the translator of erotica enters into the very personal space of a stranger, walking alongside, reliving the other's fantasies, experiencing corporal and spiritual sensations of love, desire and lust, then reinterpreting these for the foreign reader. Thus, translating erotica is undoubtedly a most intimate gesture.

Through the process of reading and translating erotic literature, I have pondered numerous questions: How and why does the translator approach the erotic text? How does the interaction of objectivity and subjectivity come into play for the translator of this genre? Essentially, what is the rapport between author, translator, reader, and narrator in the context of the pornoerotic? Furthermore, in what ways is the translator's procedure similar or different from that of literary translation in general? Undoubtedly, the challenges of translating pornography or erotica include and yet surpass those encountered in other types of literary translation.

Beginning with an examination of the elusive definitions of erotica and pornography, intertwined with delimitations of literature and mass-produced fiction, I explore in this MA thesis the issues and problems that arose during my experience of translating Marie Nimier's auto-fictional novel La nouvelle pornographie. On the practical side, there were specific lexical difficulties as well as challenges in recreating in English sexual desire and physical interactions written in French. On the professional side, struggles with censorship, taboos, and the questionable academic suitability of this marginal genre; all of which make the study of pornography and erotica, along with the practice of translating, it a transgressive and an uncomfortably intimate act.


'Practice skills in social work and welfare' has established itself as the essential text to prepare students for the wide-ranging challenges they will face in today's human service sector. This new third edition continues the text's core strength of combining grounded theory with practical examples to build the reader's confidence and expertise in key areas of practice. Part I outlines the anti-oppressive and strengths-based practices that underpin the book's approach and provides the context for learning practice skills in a group setting, during community development projects and with individuals. Part II, Engagement, focuses on developing effective relationships with clients, illustrating through realistic scenarios, how social work and human service workers can apply their practice skills in a range of settings. In Part III the essential elements of client assessment are explored, including risk assessment and cross-cultural perspectives. Issues surrounding intervention are examined in Part IV from working with families and groups to challenging constructively and safely, while research, evaluation and facilitating closure are covered in the final part. This third edition is fully revised and updated, and features new material on using information technology, working with Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Maori, and engaging with families in the statutory system.


This article documents more than ten years' experience of community radio (CR) broadcasting in Ghana and the problems and the challenges community radio has encountered in attempts to apply the key principles and concepts underlying participatory radio broadcasting. Through a description of some main socio-cultural and political change episodes, the article clearly demonstrates how community radio can positively impact the quality of life of people. The study notes that attempts at creating truly democratic community radio stations can be fully realized by ensuring that the fundamental principles, which underpin the operation and democratic management of community radio stations, are actually implemented to benefit community members.


The introduction of Child Support Grant (CSG) in South Africa in 1998, gave rise to lots of unfounded rumours that it brings perverse incentives especially for teenagers to fall pregnant in order to access the grant. This research wants to determine whether there is a link between CSG and teenage fertility. The researcher in this research followed a triangulation of methods by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Retrospective tables on CSG reports were analysed and correlation analysis was used to determine the link between the two variables. For qualitative data, in-depth interviews were conducted with teenage mothers and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results obtained in this research suggests that there is no evidence that explicitly link CSG and teenage fertility rate except that there are other exogenous factors leading to the registration of the child for CSG.


We examined the possibility of creating a Street Fighter style Hadouken reball by throwing a fuel-soaked dodgeball fast enough that the viscous drag forces ignite the fuel. We found the necessary velocity to ignite gasoline must be greater than 41m/s (93mph). We found this to be much greater than the record dodgeball throw.


Three-dimensional interactive audio has a variety of potential uses in human-machine interfaces. After lagging seriously behind the visual components, the importance of sound is now becoming increas-ingly accepted. This paper mainly discusses background and techniques to implement three-dimensional audio in computer interfaces. A case study of a system for three-dimensional audio, implemented by the author, is described in great detail. The audio system was moreover integrated with a virtual reality system and conclusions on user tests and use of the audio system is presented along with proposals for future work at the end of the paper. The thesis begins with a definition of three-dimensional audio and a survey on the human auditory system to give the reader the needed knowledge of what three-dimensional audio is and how human auditory perception works. ---------------


The kaolinitic clays have been exploited for more than a hundred years, in the western part of the Charentes Basin, France, and belong to a paleo-deltaic network. The recent deposits are relatively richer in alumina in comparison with the older ones. The genesis of the kaolin deposits of the Charentes Basin follows simple geological rules, but their detailed geometry has a great complexity, reinforced by the fact that one must distinguish very different clay qualities. The exploitation of the complex deposits which are buried in the deeper level needs the more powerful tools. The paper aims at analyzing the adequacy of the traditional method used in the exploitations of the kaolin deposits of the Charentes Basin in comparison with another method based on geostatistics to define criteria of selection and classification of reserves.