In some online labor markets, workers are paid by the task, choose what tasks to work on, and have little or no interaction with their (usually anonymous) buyer/employer. These markets look like true spot markets for tasks rather than markets for employment. Despite appearances, we find via a field experiment that workers act more like parties to an employment contract: workers quickly form wage reference points and react negatively to proposed wage cuts by quitting. However, they can be mollified with "reasonable" justifications for why wages are being cut, highlighting the importance of fairness considerations in their decision making. We find some evidence that "unreasonable" justifications for wage cuts reduce subsequent work quality. We also find that not explicitly presenting the worker with a decision about continuing to work eliminates "quits," with no apparent reduction in work quality. One interpretation for this finding is that workers have a strong expectation that they are party to a quasi-employment relationship where terms are not changed, and the default behavior is to continue working.


Students with mild mental retardation (MMR) often demonstrate reluctance, confusion, or performance deterioration when required to perform tasks that require looking, reaching, or stepping across the body's midline. Sensory integration theorists contend that midline crossing is a predictor of bilateral integration. However, in factor analysis studies, very little variance is accounted for by midline crossing data. The present study viewed midline crossing as a function of information processing and utilized a temporal assessment process rather than the usual spatial assessment process. Results indicated that subjects classified as MMR experienced slower choice reaction time (CRT) and movement time (MT) for stimuli placed across the body's midline. However, higher functioning subjects with MMR performed equally well on CRT for ipsilateral and crosslateral tasks. The data provide evidence for a developmental hypothesis as an explanation for midline crossing problems.


Information and communication technology (ICT) is widely accepted as a potentially favourable set of instruments, which may improve the welfare and competitiveness of nations and cities. Nowadays, both public and private actors aim to exploit the expected benefits of ICT developments. The authors seek to investigate the potential of ICT use at an urban level and, in particular, to shed more light on various factors that influence urban ICT policies in the public domain. First, a conceptual framework, designed to improve understanding of the driving forces of urban ICT policies, is outlined. It focuses on the way decisionmakers perceive their city, and shape their opinions about ICT; it addresses in particular the way these decisionmakers evaluate the importance of ICT for their city. Next, interviews with urban decisionmakers in different European cities in three countries (Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands) are used to analyse the complex relationship between perceived urban characteristics (for example, nature of problems and urban image), personal attitudes towards ICT, administrative features of the cities concerned, and perceptions of the relevance of ICT to the cities. The authors' main focus is on the identification of a possible systematic relationship between the aforementioned explanatory factors and urban decisionmakers' attitudes towards ICT policies. Understanding the decisionmakers' perceptions is an important step towards grasping the nature and substance of the policy itself, and may explain some of the variance among different cities. Because the 'urban ICT' discourse is still relatively new, an open-interview method is used to capture a variety of different views and perceptions on ICT and on the information age in the city. With the aid of qualitative content analysis, the interview results are transformed into a more systematic and comparable form. The results suggest that even interviewees from the same city may have a different understanding of their urban reality whereas, on the other hand, cities with different characteristics may appear to suffer from similar problems. Moreover, the authors found a wide range of attitudes toward ICT and its expected social impacts, although most of the interviewees appeared to be more sceptical than had been expected. The authors identified a clear need for a more thorough investigation of background factors and, therefore an approach originating from the field of artificial intelligence—rough-set analysis—was deployed to offer a more rigorous analysis. This approach helped in the characterisation and understanding of perceptions and attitudes regarding urban policies, problems, and images.


Although wastewater reuse presents numerous benefits, wastewater-borne pathogens,
especially human enteric viruses, may pose risks to human health. Wastewater
treatment processes have been shown to remove bacterial pathogens more effectively
than they do viral pathogens, and in aquatic environments, levels of traditional faecal
indicator bacteria (FIB) do not appear to correlate consistently with levels of human
viral pathogens. There is, therefore, a need for novel viral indicators of faecal pollution
and novel surrogates of viral pathogens. Potential candidates for this role include
enteric bacteriophages (phages), viruses capable of infecting enteric bacteria.


Increasing numbers of development agencies and individual projects espouse objectives of women's empowerment, yet there has been little systematic work on mechanisms by which interventions can enhance women's empowerment. This gap exists because of the lack of consensus on indicators as well as the lack of attention paid to measuring the effects of different types of interventions on empowerment. This paper identifies the types of strategies employed by 13 agricultural development projects within the International Food Policy Research Institute's Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project Phase 2 (GAAP2) that have explicit objectives of empowering women. We distinguish between reach, benefit, and empowerment as objectives of agricultural development projects. Simply including women does not necessarily benefit them, and even activities that benefit do not necessarily empower. To identify strategies to empower women, we build on the domains included in the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and are working with the GAAP2 portfolio of projects to develop an empowerment metric that is applicable in the project setting (a project-level WEAI, or pro-WEAI). We have identified the following potential domains to be included in pro-WEAI: input into production decision making, control over resources, control over income, leadership, time, physical mobility, intrahousehold relationships, individual empowerment, reduction in gender-based violence, and decision making on nutrition. The GAAP2 projects address these domains through a wide variety of activities that can be grouped into four main types: (1) direct and indirect provision of goods and services; (2) forming or strengthening groups, organizations, or platforms and networks that involve women; (3) strengthening knowledge and capacity through agricultural extension, business and finance training, nutrition behavior change communication, and other training; and (4) changing gender norms through one-way awareness raising or two-way community conversations about gender issues and their implications. In general, projects with activities in more activity areas target more domains of empowerment, and most projects target a core set of six empowerment domains. With the exception of intrahousehold relationships, which is always targeted by activities designed to influence gender norms, projects target domains with different types of activities or combinations of activities. This setup suggests that there may be no one-to-one link between a specific activity and empowerment benefits, and that implementation modalities will determine whether and how an activity contributes to women's empowerment. The effectiveness of these project strategies will be assessed using both quantitative and qualitative methods throughout the GAAP2 research project.


Between TV talk shows, radio call-in programs, email and the Internet, spontaneous-talk media has skyrocketed in the '90s. People are interacting more frequently and more fervently than ever before, turning the English language into an indecipherable mess. Now, this unique and concise compendium presents the most confused and misused words in the language today -- words misused by careless speakers and writers everywhere. It defines, discerns and distinguishes the finer points of sense and meaning. Was it fortuitous or only fortunate? Are you trying to remember, or more fully recollect? Is he uninterested or disinterested? Is it healthful or healthy, regretful or regrettable, notorious or infamous? The answers to these and many more fascinating etymological questions can be found within the pages of this invaluable (or is it valuable?) reference.


The number of male Pochard per 100 females varied from 300 at 57°North to 75°at 3r North throughout its European and North African range. Sex ratio bias related to long term mean January temperatures was also found, but as temperature is correlated with latitude, these results cannot be used to reject any of three hypotheses (cold tolerance, breeding advantage and intersexual competition) put forward to explain differential migration. However, studies of breeding biology and habitat use of duck species offer greater support for the intersexual competition hypothesis. This survey indicated that the sex ratio in this species is male biased, and suggested that the overall sex ratio lies between 140 and 230 males per 100 females. As sex ratios are near unity at hatching, females must suffer significantly higher mortality at some stage during development or adulthood. It has been suggested that adult female mortality may be particularly high during autumn migration and the winter season (Owen & Dix 1986) and that this is likely to be responsible for the disparity. There may also be an effect of higher hunting pressure at the southern end of the range where females winter predominantly.


Research institutions have or are planning to build, expand and renovate animal research facilities to keep up with the demands of biomedical research caused in part by growth in the use of genetically altered rodents and the upsurge of research in infectious diseases. Properly designed facilities greatly facilitate effective management and high-quality day-to-day animal care that is required to optimally support animal research and testing. There are multiple solutions to address the myriad of factors that influence the design and construction of animal research facilities. There is no "best design applicable for all facilities and arguably not even a single "best design for a given facility. For this reason, this is not intended to be a "how to book. The goal is to cover the basic programmatic requirements of animal research facilities, provide ideas for meeting those requirements while, hopefully, stimulating the creative process in which designers in consultation with those who work in animal research facilities generate even better ideas. That is how progress has been made and will continue to be made. * Facilitates communication between the parties involved in planning and designing animal facilities by providing contemporary information, and stimulating creativity that will help lead to wise decisions and advance the knowledge base for planning, design and constructing animal research facilities


The purpose of this case study was to examine an urban middle school demonstrating increased student academic achievement gains and success in helping adolescent students prepare for high school. The research also set out to identify key programs, practices, and instructional strategies that teachers in the study site identified as having a positive impact on student academic, social development, and high school preparedness. Furthermore, this study sought to uncover themes emerging from the examination the programs, practices and instructional strategies identified at the case study school associated with raising student achievement. The focus of the study was narrowed to three key factors associated with student academic success including school-wide programs school-wide practices, and instructional practices. The school selected for this case study was an excellent exemplar of a successful urban middle school dedicated to increasing student achievement for several reasons. Being a part of the relatively large urban district, the school is located in a primarily low socioeconomic neighborhood. The school demonstrates high success in increasing student achievement as can be seen in a three-year trend in academics as measured by the North Carolina Standardized Testing and Reporting Program. has met or exceeded the criteria set for this study defining it as a high performing school for the last three academic years, having made steady academic performance improvement over the past several years as measured by the California Standardized Testing and Reporting Program. The inquiry method employed for this study was the case study approach. Documents were reviewed, observational field notes of site visits were taken, and structured, open-ended interview questions were utilized to uncover factors positively affecting student achievement. A total of nine teachers, one administrator and one curriculum facilitator participated in the interview process. To ensure effective triangulation of the research data, a quantitative survey was used to support the principals' and teachers' interview responses. A total of 12 teachers at the case study school completed the questionnaire surveys. Data analysis uncovered three major themes associated with increasing student achievement, including a culture of support for students, the setting of high academic expectations for students, and the establishment of school-wide systems and structures. Use of Bolman and Deal's four frames paradigm provided the theoretical support for the analysis, interpretation of the data gathered at the case study school, and identification of implications for further study.


The outbreak of Covid-19 has put serious pressure on the management of international tourism problems and Indonesia, being a tourist attraction, is not an exception. In this wake, the main purpose of this study was to analyze the dilemma of Indonesia's health policy in maintaining the stream of tourism visitors as well as containing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative research methods were used in this research. Data collection was conducted through constitutional legislations, press releases from the Indonesian Covid-19 special task force and observations gathered from numerous public facilities which are mostly used by travellers such as airport, train and bus station. This research reveals that that the policy prioritizing to the safety of economic growth and tourism in the global pandemic context is inclined to be more contra-productive to the management of containing contagion. It was also found that the implementation of health protocols and restrictions on social activities is also claimed to be the most and efficient way to contain the contagion.


Recent interest in cooling towers as a mechanism for producing chilled water, together with the evolution of radiant cooling, have prompted a review of evaporative cooling in temperate maritime climates. The thermal efficiency of such systems is a key parameter, as a measure of the degree to which the system has succeeded in exploiting the cooling potential of the ambient air. The feasibility of this concept depends largely however, on achieving low approach water temperatures within an appropriate cooling tower, at acceptable levels of energy performance. Previous experimental work for a full scale evaporative cooling system has shown that it is possible to produce cooling water at low process approach conditions (1-3 K), at the higher temperatures required in radiant and displacement systems (14-18 °C), with varying levels of annual availability in different temperate climate locations. For such conditions, evaporative cooling has the potential to offer an alternative approach for producing chilled water, particularly in temperate climates, where conventional mechanical air-conditioning systems can, for certain buildings, be considered to be an over engineered solution but where passive cooling is insufficient to offset cooling loads. The current paper describes the development of a mathematical model which analyses the behavior of a low approach open evaporative cooling tower. The model is used to carry out a series of sensitivity studies assessing the performance of the cooling tower subject to various weather and climatic boundary conditions.


Four different bean varieties with different coat colours (red, brown, black and white) were dehulled and the antioxidant compounds in the hulls and whole seeds extracted separately with 80 % acetone. The total phenolic content of the red, brown and black were higher than that of white beans both in the hull and in the whole seed extracts. Total phenolic contents of red and brown hulls were 2.3 times higher than those of whole seeds while that of the hulls of black beans were 7 times higher than black bean whole extract. Total antioxidant capacity of the extracts was evaluated using Trolox equivalent antioxidative capacity (TEAC) assay, β-carotene-linoleate and bulk stripped corn oil model systems. Extracts were used at 50 and 100 ppm phenolics as catechin equivalents. Scavenging efficacies of the whole bean extracts for reactive oxygen species (ROS) were evaluated using hydrogen peroxide, superoxide and 2,2-diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals. Furthermore, inhibition of DNA-supercoiled strand scission and prevention of human low density lipoprotein (hLDL) oxidation by the extracts were evaluated. TEAC values of red whole bean extract (RWE), brown whole bean extract (BWE) and black whole bean extract (LWE) were 8.84, 7.46 and 4.64 while those of red bean hull extract (RHE), brown bean hull extract (BHE) and black bean hull extract (LHE) were 46.68 42.90, and 40.74, respectively. TEAC assay revealed that the antioxidant capacity of red, brown, and black bean hulls were in the same order of magnitude with little variation. Retention of β-carotene in a β-carotene-linoleate model system in the presence of RWE, BWE and LWE after 2 h of the assay was 46, 45, and 28% at 50 ppm and 52, 51, and 33% at 100 ppm, respectively, as compared to 2% in the control devoid of any extract. In a bulk corn oil model system, the order of efficacies of the extracts and reference antioxidants as measured by the formation of conjugated dienes (CD) was catechin > BHA > RWE = BWE = LWE > α-tocopherol. Inhibition of formation of hexanal in corn oil after 7 days was catechin > RWE = BWE = BHA > LWE > α-tocopherol. The efficacy of RWE, BWE and LWE at 100 ppm in scavenging hydrogen peroxide was 76, 73 and 65%, respectively. The corresponding values for superoxide radical scavenging were 54, 53 and 60%. Red, brown and black whole and hull seed extracts showed total scavenging of DPPH radical when used at 100 ppm. The Fe²+ chelation capacities of RWE, BWE and LWE were 58, 56 and 39% at 50 ppm and 72, 69, and 60% at 100 ppm, respectively. Red, brown and black whole seed extracts exhibited total inhibition of hLDL oxidation when used at 25 and 50 ppm. Red, brown and black whole seed extracts exerted total protection against peroxyl-induced DNA scission at 50 and 100 ppm levels while they did not show any protection towards hydroxyl radical induced-DNA scission. HPLC analyses revealed the presence of cyanidin in LHE while RHE and BHE contained both cyanidin and delphinidin. White bean hull extracts did not contain any of the two anthocyanidins. Ferulic, caffeic, sinapic, ρ-coumaric and vanillic acids were identified as major phenolic acids in bean hull extracts.


The national revolution of 1917-1921 is an important phenomenon in Ukrainian history. These fateful events launched Ukrainian national revival and the restoration of national statehood, previously destroyed by Russian autocracy in the second half of the 18th century. For that matter, investigations of Ukrainian Revolution 1917-1921 are popular now.

An overview of contemporary historical narratives shows that ethnopolitical processes in Ukraine are the least investigated topics. This fact has been caused by a number of circumstances. Schorarly estimations of the Ukrainian authorities' policy towards national minorities and the attitude of the ethnic Ukrainian population to the aspirations of the nascent Ukrainian state for a long time were subjected to myths, schemes and personal prejudices.

Many contemporary Ukrainian historians continue to exploit the subject of historical burdens in international relations and consider ethnic groups in Ukraine as "foreigners" not belonging to the "titular nation", as if they were exclusively outside of the Ukrainian historical narrative.

The tasks of our historical research is to highlight important historical and ethnopolitical aspects and processes in interethnic relations that took place during the Ukrainian national revolution in 1917-1921. The authors' visions are based on the three main principles of historical science: scientific approach, historicism and objectivity. The investigated problem is at the intersection of various social sciences: history of Ukraine, political history of Ukraine, political science, the history of state and law in Ukraine, ethnology, sociology, etc. This determined the plurality of research methods, drawn from all these branches of science.

The statistical and sociological methods of research provide very important scientific results. The content analysis allowed to track most common interpretations of international problems that existed during the revolutionary era. At the same time, it made possible to determine the degree of scientific validity for those interpretations. According to the results, a behavioristic analysis played an important role. It was largely ignored or pushed back by the researchers of the ethnic processes of the Ukrainian Revolution. The historical comparative or comparative method of research was used to determine not only the relations between Ukrainian authorities and national minorities, but also to see a wide panorama of events that formed ethnopolitics of the day, as well as the approach to national problem in various state institutions and ethnic communities.

The outcome of the Ukrainian revolution has always been followed by a powerful scientific discourse. According to many scholars, the revolution of 1917-1920 is the starting point in Ukrainian modernity. In the difficult conditions of the civil war and Russian aggression, the Ukrainian communists defended the idea of Ukrainian statehood and made efforts for Ukrainization. The Ukrainian revolution laid foundation for the modern Ukrainian nation and all further developments in Ukrainian life.


The salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis is a common ectoparasite of both farmed and wild salmonids in the marine environment, and can have a significant negative effect on the sur- vival and growth of its host. To facilitate development of models of salmon lice population dynamics, we review the available experimental information on its demographic rates and highlight areas where further research is needed. For all stages, the reduced minimum development time of a stage with increasing water temperature (T) was well described by Belehradek's function. However, detailed experimental studies of the development of the parasitic stages at low (T 15°C) water temperatures are needed to cover the whole range of water temperatures experi- enced in the wild. Little information was available on mortality rates and distributions of develop- mental times after the initial minimum developmental times. These parameters could only be esti- mated for a narrow temperature range, but the available estimates suggested that distributions of development times may be assumed to be constant with respect to temperature. Factors affecting female fecundity are presently poorly understood, with a level of unexplained variability in both average egg numbers per string and egg viability, which demands further investigations. In addition, experiments on possible density-dependent effects on salmon lice fecundity and survival are required.


Developments in technology and constant innovation in services market, impose companies to monitor trends and implementation of best practices in order
to improve competitiveness and profitability. Hence this paper focuses on new
technologies aimed at improving competitiveness of service companies, with an
emphasis on CRM (customer relationship management in services companies), where communications systems plays an important role, especially if communication with a customer is integrated and easily accessible. The unified communications (UC), supported by up to date databases, represent a step forward
in communications development, because they are concentrated on matching the specific needs of particular user. Integration of communications enhances the
comfort of communication with customer to his satisfaction, since the customer does not have to be contacted by the company exclusively via the desk phone,
whereas it can be done via mobile phone, e-mail, SMS, online chat or through social networks. All of these methods make communication more efficient – increasing availability and affecting the time when the customer, according to their preferences, can be contacted. The final score of customer relationship management through the optimal integration of communication is the simplification of business processes and the increase in customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction leads to greater loyalty to the company caused by the high level of service provided, which contributes to the improvement of competitivenes and, consequently, the achievement of the main goal of every company - greater profits.


Experimental data on the vacancy concentration in metals, when shown in an Arrhenius plot, give an approximate straight line as a function of 1/T but often with a slight upward curvature close to the melting point T-m. This feature has usually been attributed to a divacancy contribution. We have performed molecular dynamics simulations on copper, using a slightly modified model potential due to Cleri and Rosato (Ref. 7). Our results show that divacancy effects are negligible, but that there is an important contribution from anharmonicity in the lattice vibrations, giving rise to the curvature in the Arrhenius plot. As a consequence, one must apply significant corrections to the vacancy formation enthalpy and entropy before they are compared with theoretical values that usually refer to zero kelvin and harmonic vibrations, respectively.


This thesis addresses the environmental and socio-economic impact of modern ways of living, focusing on home-related concepts and practices for transitions to a less environmentally harmful and more socially just society. Exploring diverse conceptualizations of a sustainable home, the aim is to broaden discourses on less resource-intensive ways of living and residing.
 Employing a primarily qualitative and explorative research approach, the thesis presents three empirical studies on how sustainability in housing and concepts of home are perceived among different actors: 1) developers and architects involved in a new "green" urban development; 2) "ordinary" residents in a tenant-owned multi-family housing association; and 3) "home-front transitioners" engaging in low-impact practices. The findings highlight the complexity of approaching a sustainable housing development. On one hand, the empirical insights reveal structural lock-ins in mainstream market-led development, with a techno-centered view of sustainability, conventional understandings of residents' preferences and household configurations, and lack of competence regarding social dimensions. On the other hand, there appears to be a gap between a reported interest among residents in living in less resource-intensive ways (including living smaller, simpler, or more collaboratively), and relevant alternatives within the current housing market.
 Attempting to find ways of going beyond these unilateral interpretations and lock-ins, the thesis suggests conceptualizing home as a node, framing understandings of home and everyday practices as a starting point for transitions to a low-impact society, rather than seeing the dwelling as an object upon or in which sustainable technologies and solutions can be placed. This is further linked to exploring agency in and of the home, acknowledging residents as active agents rather than "end-users" or consumers.
 In conclusion, the thesis emphasizes the need to problematize contemporary discourses on sustainability in housing. It makes a case for the need to rethink how we view home in relation to a radically reduced resource intensity, proposing a reconceptualization of home in transitions to a low-impact society.


This text investigates specific needs that churches in urban cities in Central-Europe have to pay attention to. Firstly it shows the historical implications of the traditional Paroichia coming up from rural societies of medieval times. Second it shows how churches in urban, postmodern societies should recognize the lifestyles and the needs of city-dwellers. Thirdly it describes the concept of 'Ecclesiolopolis', which describes the church for urban European people in the 21st Century.


The coronary slow flow phenomenon (CSFP) is characterized by a delayed coronary blood flow in the absence of an obstructive coronary artery disease. Although the relation between the CSFP and myocardial ischemia has been reported previously, there is no knowledge about the relationship between the CSFP and the conduction system disorder. In this case report, we describe a patient with the CSFP presenting with complete heart block (CHB). The patient was a middle-aged woman with a history of diabetes, hypertension, and prior Coronary Care Unit admission presenting with dizziness, lightheadedness, and presyncope. Electrocardiography revealed CHB with no significant ST-T change. Cardiac enzymes and other routine lab tests were normal. The patient underwent temporary pacemaker implantation. Due to persistent atrioventricular block and suspicion of ischemic heart disease, she underwent coronary angiography, which showed the CSFP and no significant stenosis. The patient was discharged after permanent pacemaker implantation and remained asymptomatic at 3 months' follow-up.


Voice and v investigates the syntactic structure of voice, using Acehnese as the empirical starting point. A central claim is that voice is encoded in a functional projection, VoiceP, which is distinct from, and higher than, vP. The book further claims that VoiceP may be associated with phifeatures that semantically restrict the external argument position but do not saturate it. Through minor variations in the properties of VoiceP, a wide range of non-canonical voice constructions are explained, including: agent-agreeing passives, grammatical object passives, impersonals, object voice constructions, and applicative voice in causatives. The analysis draws on data from a typologically diverse set of languages, not only Malayo-Polynesian, but also Celtic, Scandinavian, and Slavic. Voice and v provides a detailed investigation into the syntactic structure of an understudied Malayo-Polynesian language, and thereby reveals important insights for the theoretical analysis of voice and the verb phrase. Moreover, the work applies and broadens these insights to a range of related passive-like constructions crosslinguistically. Voice and v thus joins a handful of model volumes that enlist typological depth and breadth to further our development of modern linguistic theory.


A synthetic organic receptor, dansyl-tethered β-cyclodextrin, is doped into an inorganic sol-gel matrix and spin cast as a film on fused-silica plates. The entrapped receptor exhibits changes in its fluorescence in the presence of borneol. Thus, this new material can be used as a reversible sensor. Various aspects of a sol-gel matrix as a host for recognition molecules were explored. This system demonstrates the possibility of using artificial receptors and sol-gel porous glass films for chemical sensing purposes.


Crenulate shaped bays are ubiquitous and constitute the largest proportion of coastline length. The characteristics of stable bays (i.e., no littoral drift) are known, so that realistic encroachment limits can be defined. Allowances for long term changes in direction of persistent swell and annual attack from multidirectional storm waves may have to be made. The exposure of a rock outcrop during an erosive sequence will create a new fixed point on the coast and hence a new bayed system. An existing non-stable bay can be prevented from indenting to its equilibrium shape by the construction of one or more fixed points around its periphery. Research should be conducted to minimise the cost of headlands which might start off as offshore breakwaters, even mobile units.


Objectives To examine the effectiveness of the quality management programme—European Practice Assessment—in primary care in Switzerland. Design Longitudinal study with three points of measurement. Setting Primary care practices in Switzerland. Participants In total, 45 of 91 primary care practices completed European Practice Assessment three times. Outcomes The interval between each assessment was around 36 months. A variance analyses for repeated measurements were performed for all 129 quality indicators from the domains: 'infrastructure', 'information', 'finance', and 'quality and safety' to examine changes over time. Results Significant improvements were found in three of four domains: 'quality and safety' (F=22.81, p<0.01), 'information' (F=27.901, p<0.01) and 'finance' (F=4.073, p<0.02). The 129 quality indicators showed a significant improvement within the three points of measurement (F=33.864, p<0.01). Conclusions The European Practice Assessment for primary care practices thus provides a functioning quality management programme, focusing on the sustainable improvement of structural and organisational aspects to promote high quality of primary care. The implementation of a quality management system which also includes a continuous improvement process would give added value to provide good care.


We propose a new technique to improve the performance of the joint transform correlator (JTC). In this technique we have applied the phase-iterative algorithm to a phase-shifting JTC (PSJTC). By doing so, we restrain the noise that is contained in the recovered phase of the joint transform power spectra for the input images with background and additive noise. In the case in which the input image is embedded in the input noise, we find that, by using the phase-iterative techniques with the PSJTC, one can get a higher cross-correlation peak and signal-to-noise ratio than with a PSJTC alone. From the computer-simulation results, one can conclude that the proposed algorithm successfully enhances PSJTC performance, especially for an input image with large noise.


The depth and vertical movements of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) and shortnose sturgeon (Acispenser brevirostrum) at Bucks Ledge (river kilometer 21) in the Penobscot River were examined to investigate sturgeon depth preferences and jumping habits. The purpose of this project was to expand knowledge on the endangered and threatened sturgeon populations in Maine waters. Behavior of 20 individual sturgeon (6 Atlantic sturgeon and 14 shortnose sturgeon) was used to characterize fish depth as it varied with water depth, e.g., in relation to tidal periodicity or not (random). The study used depth data collected using acoustic telemetry between 2007 and 2014. A receiver on the bottom of the river recorded depth from fish tagged with acoustic transmitters and pressure sensors. Many of the recorded depths of all six Atlantic sturgeon and 11 of the 14 shortnose sturgeon fluctuated with the tide (tidal behavior), meaning they remained at the bottom of the water column, throughout multiple tides; on average, the proportion of the time the fish spent at Bucks Ledge doing tidal behavior ranged from 0.16 to 0.52 per season. There was a great deal of variability, with standard deviations ranging from 0.08 to 0.2, but depth observations of Atlantic sturgeon had more tidal periodicity while shortnose sturgeon depths were more random. Atlantic sturgeon also spent more time at Bucks Ledge than shortnose sturgeon did during the days they were present in this area. There were minimal seasonal differences in depth use for both species. Recorded depths of less than 0.5 meters were assumed to be jumping points. There were 14 sturgeons with depths of less than 0.5 meters, for a total of 33 data points. The majority, 73%, of the jumping points occurred during the flood tide, and 67% of jumping points occurred within three hours of low tide. These results indicate sturgeon may jump more commonly at certain stages of the tidal cycle, suggesting a link between gas bladder function and sturgeon jumping.


A learned generative model often produces biased statistics relative to the underlying data distribution. A standard technique to correct this bias is importance sampling, where samples from the model are weighted by the likelihood ratio under model and true distributions. When the likelihood ratio is unknown, it can be estimated by training a probabilistic classifier to distinguish samples from the two distributions. We employ this likelihood-free importance weighting method to correct for the bias in generative models. We find that this technique consistently improves standard goodness-of-fit metrics for evaluating the sample quality of state-of-the-art deep generative models, suggesting reduced bias. Finally, we demonstrate its utility on representative applications in a) data augmentation for classification using generative adversarial networks, and b) model-based policy evaluation using off-policy data.


The bestselling guide to AutoCAD, updated and expanded with new video instruction Mastering AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD LT 2017 is the premier guide to the world's leading CAD program. With clear explanation, focused examples, and step-by-step instruction, this guide walks you through everything you need to know to use AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD LT 2017 effectively. From basic drafting tools to 3D modeling, this book leaves no stone unturned in exploring the full repertoire of AutoCAD capabilities. Hands-on instruction allows for more productive learning, and over an hour's worth of video provides clarification of crucial techniques. Effective as both a complete tutorial and a dip-in reference, the broadly-applicable concepts and instructions will appeal to AutoCAD users across industries and abilities. This new edition has been thoroughly updated to align with the software's latest features and capabilities, giving you a one-stop resource for getting up to speed. AutoCAD is the leading software for 2D and 3D technical drawings, and AutoCAD LT makes the software's tremendous functionality more accessible for smaller businesses and individuals. This guide shows you how to take full advantage of this powerful design platform, with expert guidance every step of the way. Get acquainted with the interface and master basic tools Utilize hatches, fields, cures, solid fills, dynamic blocks, and more Explore 3D modeling and imaging for more holistic design Customize the AutoCAD workflow to suit your needs Whether you're learning AutoCAD for the first time, upgrading from a previous version, or preparing for a certification exam, you need a thorough reference designed for the way professionals work. Mastering AutoCAD 2017 and AutoCAD LT 2017 is your ideal guide, with complete tutorials, video instruction, and expert advice.


In this paper, we propose and provide evidence that the existence of prior social connections between managers or board members of supplier (upstream) and customer (downstream) firms can encourage relation-specific investment and foster innovation by the upstream firms. We show that innovative activities by suppliers increase with the existence and strength of their social connections with customers. To establish causality, we exploit connection breaches due to manager/director retirements or deaths in the (much larger) customer firms and find that innovative activities drop for those suppliers connected to these customer members. Our work sheds light on how social connections can shape the boundary of the firm by mitigating contractual incompleteness and transactions costs, thereby allowing the upstream firms to remain as standalone entities instead of being vertically integrated with the downstream firms.


La Porta et al. (1998) assign Pakistan, a common-law country, the maximum score of 5 for their anti-director rights index. Pakistan should therefore be a country with good investor protection attracting large amounts of investments. However, the reality could not be more different. Pakistan has been lagging behind other, comparable Asian economies in terms of incoming foreign direct investment as well as GDP-per-capita growth. This paper focuses on the Pakistani banking sector. The paper analyses the banks ownership and control structure. It finds that Pakistan has its own idiosyncrasies, which are difficult to associate with La Porta et al.s characterisation of corporate governance and investor protection in common-law countries. The paper also reviews the recent reforms of corporate governance.


Feature matters for salient object detection. Existing methods mainly focus on designing a sophisticated structure to incorporate multi-level features and filter out cluttered features. We present Progressive Feature Polishing Network (PFPN), a simple yet effective framework to progressively polish the multi-level features to be more accurate and representative. By employing multiple Feature Polishing Modules (FPMs) in a recurrent manner, our approach is able to detect salient objects with fine details without any post-processing. A FPM parallelly updates the features of each level by directly incorporating all higher level context information. Moreover, it can keep the dimensions and hierarchical structures of the feature maps, which makes it flexible to be integrated with any CNN-based models. Empirical experiments show that our results are monotonically getting better with increasing number of FPMs. Without bells and whistles, PFPN outperforms the state-of-the-art methods significantly on five benchmark datasets under various evaluation metrics. Our code is available at: https://github.com/chenquan-cq/PFPN.


The goal of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of the environmental taxes and emissions trading in achieving cleaner production, that is, higher production per unit of emissions in the European Union (EU). The hypothesis of the paper is that the combined use of taxes and emission permits yields synergistic benefits in addition to their individual contributions. The paper uses panel analysis on the EU27 data from 2005 to 2012. The analysis does not robustly find positive effects from the interaction of these policy instruments, but it confirms that there are no negative ones. Additional interesting results are that, on average, (i) the effects of both instruments on production cleanliness are more beneficial at the regulated industries than at the national level, (ii) emissions trading is more effective than taxes, (iii) both instruments are more effective in the EU15 than in the EU12, and (iv) crisis did not significantly affect production cleanliness in the EU.Key words: Effectiveness, Production cleanliness, Policy mix, Environmental taxes, EU ETS, Panel.JEL: E60, H20, Q50.


The fungi Aspergillus niger and A. welwitschiae are morphologically indistinguishable species used for industrial fermentation and for food and beverage production. The fungi also occur widely on food crops. Concerns about their safety have arisen with the discovery that some isolates of both species produce fumonisin (FB) and ochratoxin A (OTA) mycotoxins. Here, we examined FB and OTA production as well as the presence of genes responsible for synthesis of the mycotoxins in a collection of 92 A. niger/A. welwitschiae isolates from multiple crop and geographic origins. The results indicate that (i) isolates of both species differed in ability to produce the mycotoxins; (ii) FB-nonproducing isolates of A. niger had an intact fumonisin biosynthetic gene (fum) cluster; (iii) FB-nonproducing isolates of A. welwitschiae exhibited multiple patterns of fum gene deletion; and (iv) OTA-nonproducing isolates of both species lacked the ochratoxin A biosynthetic gene (ota) cluster. Analysis of genome sequence data revealed a single pattern of ota gene deletion in the two species. Phylogenetic analysis suggest that the simplest explanation for this is that ota cluster deletion occurred in a common ancestor of A. niger and A. welwitschiae, and subsequently both the intact and deleted cluster were retained as alternate alleles during divergence of the ancestor into descendent species. Finally, comparison of results from this and previous studies indicate that a majority of A. niger isolates and a minority of A. welwitschiae isolates can produce FBs, whereas, a minority of isolates of both species produce OTA. The comparison also suggested that the relative abundance of each species and frequency of FB/OTA-producing isolates can vary with crop and/or geographic origin.


Excerpt] Diversity has been an issue for the labor movement from the earliest days of unions. Unions reflect the combined consciousness of their leaders and members. As a consequence, organized labor's record on diversity is complex and mixed. Different unions at various times have either welcomed diversity as a matter of principle and moved to build inclusive organizations, or have adopted strategies of exclusion in efforts to control the supply of labor. Examples of the latter come easily to mind. From the beginning of wage labor, unionized workers have struck to resist working with those they considered different from themselves-workers of African descent, Chinese workers recruited to build the railroads, immigrants of different nationality or religion, and women. Labor history is marked by riots and mob violence aimed at driving targeted workers from jobs and from communities. Motivated by prejudice, job scarcity, and fear that opening work to lower-paid workers would erode wages, this hostility was reinforced by common employer tactics of recruiting excluded workers as strikebreakers. Even twentieth-century industrial unions, whose memberships tended to be more diverse, tolerated internal workplace job segregation by race, ethnicity and gender. While unionization has been used to enforce bias, the labor movement has also broken barriers and brought diverse people together. Unionization has provided a powerful institutional framework through which diverse communities articulate and negotiate progressive social change. Collective bargaining promotes equality by establishing that wages, seniority, due process and other negotiated provisions of employment apply equally across all represented members, not just to a dominant majority. These traditions, as well, go back to the earliest days of unions. In this article I highlight some current efforts unions are making to address issues of diversity, both in their roles as workplace representatives as well as within the structure and culture of their own organizations. They reflect the best traditions of the past and illustrate an exciting organizational willingness among many unions today to value and respect the diversity of their memberships.


Recent studies have both shown and predicted that global climate change will have a substantial influence on biodiversity. This is true especially of a global biodiversity hotspot, the Cape Floristic Region. Although the effects of predicted changes have been widely assessed for plants, little is known about how insect diversity in the region might be affected. In particular, patterns in and the correlates of diversity in the region are poorly understood, and therefore the likely affects of a changing abiotic environment on this significant group of organisms are not clear. Therefore, we investigate patterns in, and correlates of, epigaeic beetle (Tenebrionidae and Carabidae) diversity in one of the most climate change-sensitive areas in the Cape Floristic Region, the Cederberg. In particular, we determine whether epigaeic beetle assemblage structure differs between the main vegetation types in the Cederberg (Strandveld, Mountain Fynbos and Succulent Karoo), how restricted these beetles are to specific vegetation types, and which environmental variables might be associated with site-related differences in beetle richness and abundance. Sampling was undertaken during October 2002 and 2003 across an altitudinal gradient ranging from sea level (Lambert's Bay) to approximately 2000 m above sea level (Sneeukop, Cederberg) and down again to 500 m above sea level (Wupperthal) using pitfall traps. The environmental correlates of abundance and species density in the epigaeic beetles were similar to those identified previously for ants across the transect, with both taxa being positively related to several temperature variables. Several species showed habitat specificity and fidelity, and clear distinctions existed between the vegetation types across the transect. A larger proportion of the variance in tenebrionid species density was explained by environmental variables and spatial factors than for carabids. The most likely explanation for this difference is that the correlates might well reflect collinear historical processes, rather than a causal relationship between contemporary environmental variables and species density. If this is the case, it suggests that caution should be exercised when interpreting environmental correlates of species density, and making climate change predictions based on these correlates.


The deformation of monazite in the polymetamorphic Sandmata granulite complex in India has been investigated by electron backscattered diffraction and sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP). Quantitative microstructural analyses document the development of deformation twins in {100}, {001}, and ![Graphic][1] orientations; low-angle (<10°) boundary development associated with dislocation creep; and the development of new grains due to dynamic recrystallization. These data represent the first quantitative evidence of crystal-plastic deformation of natural monazite. SHRIMP U-Th-Pb analysis shows that the host monazite preserves discordant ages as old as 1666 ± 28 Ma, along a trend from ca. 1720 Ma to ca. 1000 Ma, with increasingly discordant ages recorded in zones of higher lattice distortion. Domains of recrystallized new grains within the monazite record a tightly clustered concordia age of 970 ± 14 Ma. This age is interpreted to represent the timing of monazite dynamic recrystallization associated with deformation of the host protolith, and is consistent with partial resetting and Pb loss from domains deforming by dislocation creep. The complex, but systematic, relationship between microstructure and age data in monazite provide the first direct evidence of Pb isotope resetting during deformation. The approach illustrates a new methodology for the dating of deformation events in high-grade metamorphic rocks, which are typically difficult to constrain.

 [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif


Quantifying differences in resource use and waste generation between individual households and exploring the reasons for the variations observed implies the need for disaggregated data on household activities and related physical flows. The collection of disaggregated data for water use, gas use, electricity use, and mobility has been reported in the literature and is normally achieved through sensors and computational algorithms. This study focuses on collecting disaggregated data for goods consumption and related waste generation at the level of individual households. To this end, two data collection approaches were devised and evaluated: (1) triangulating shopping receipt analysis and waste component analysis and (2) tracking goods consumption and waste generation using a smartphone. A case study on two households demonstrated that it is possible to collect quantitative data on goods consumption and related waste generation on a per unit basis for individual households. The study suggested that the type of data collected can be relevant in a number of different research contexts: eco‐feedback; user‐centered research; living‐lab research; and life cycle impacts of household consumption. The approaches presented in this study are most applicable in the context of user‐centered or living‐lab research. For the other contexts, alternative data sources (e.g., retailers and producers) may be better suited to data collection on larger samples, though at a lesser level of detail, compared with the two data collection approaches devised and evaluated in this study.


The American Counterculture Christopher Gain Edinburgh University Press, 2007. The book is divided into two parts. Part One concentrates on elaborations of the American counterculture between the years of 1945 and 1960. Part Two focuses on the years 1961-72. The emphasis of the book was on how the aesthetics of the counterculture were played out in music, fiction, film, and paintings. The author points out that history is not neatly divided into decade-like segments. There is necessarily selectivity in what is included and what is excluded in a book of this type. Following the turbulence of the Great Depression and World War II, the nation was ready for a return to normality and stability. By the 1950s Americans were buying television sets and watching programs involving situation comedies, westerns, drama, and depiction of families in everyday life. Developments in print and recording technology contributed to the emergence of mass markets for art and music. Advances in radio technology allowed a growing number of teenagers to have ready access to their own kind of music. The economic prosperity of post war America permitted the elaboration of many aspects of popular culture as well as the social experimentation that accompanied an emerging counterculture. The author defines the counterculture so broadly that it encompasses a great deal of the field of popular culture. The basis for including discussions of Elvis Presley, Jackson Pollock, and the movie High Noon as examples of counterculture is puzzling to this reviewer. The author fails to develop an explicit conception of the counterculture, but instead provides a general review of popular culture in the United States during the 1950s and the 1960s. While his central concept lacks clarification, discussions of the conflicts surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, the "Summer of Love" in Haight-Ashbury, and Woodstock in upstate New York are clear examples of how the dominant cultural values of American society were turned upside down and rejected. The tension between individualistic and collective goals could not be resolved in the American counterculture. It was difficult to find an appropriate discourse for social protest and to express reservations about the generally positive views Americans held of their increasing economic prosperity. A great deal of the cultural productions of the 1950s was focused on the many aspects of alienation in modern social life. …


A system failure model to prolong system lifespan is proposed, for the purpose of preventing further occurrence of these failures. The authors claim such a methodology should have three features. First it should clarify the structure of failure factors, second it should surface hidden failure factors using statistic method especially corresponding analysis and finding the way to change. The proposed methodology is fundamentally different from the one to identify the root cause of the system failures in the sense of that it encompasses system failures as a group not as a single event. An understanding system failure correctly is crucial to preventing further occurrence of system failures. Quick fixes can even damage organizational performance to a level worse than the original state. In this sense the proposed methodology is applicable over the long time spans and therefore could be useful to confirm the effectiveness of the counter measures without introducing any side effects. Then an application example in IT engineering demonstrates that the proposed methodology proactively prolong system life learning from previous system failures.


Initial surface reaction mechanism for atomic layer deposition of HfO2 on the hydroxylated GaAs(001)-4x2 surface using HfCl4 and H2O as precursors is investigated using hybrid density functional theory. The reaction between HfCl4 and H2O with the hydroxylated GaAs(001)-4x2 surface consists of two half-reactions: (1) HfCl4 with GaAs-OH sites and (2) H2O with Hf-Cl sites. The two half-reactions proceed through the formation of stable chemisorbed states, resulting in high activation barriers of 17.1 and 17.6 kcal/mol for HCl formation, respectively. Additional energies are also needed to desorb the respective physisorbed states HCl from the substrate surfaces.


This article takes as its point of departure the loss of various 18th and 19th century burial grounds to development in South Yorkshire. Case studies are given based upon recent work at Sheffield Cathedral the Peace Gardens, and Carver Street Methodist Chapel, Sheffield, as well at the New Street Methodist chapel, Barnsley. Current archaeological approaches to the study of 18th and 19th century burials are far from satisfactory. There is an urgent need for curatorial archaeologies to stress the importance of such late post-medieval urban burial grounds to potential developers and for contracting archaeologists to ensure that proper provision, both in terms of access and funding, is made by the clients for appropriate scientific study.
The information gained form the study of later post-medieval urban burials would benefit from synthesis and analysis at a regional level. This may serve to establish variation in osteological data, as well a funerary practice and associated material culture within and between different congregational groups and different localities. In support of this suggestion we examine the significance of Nonconformist burial grounds and identify some potential research questions for future work.


A study on the ecology and behaviour of proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) was carried out at Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary (LBPMS) in Sandakan, Sabah. The study was aimed at determining the social organization, social behaviour, feeding ecology and ranging behaviour of proboscis monkeys under semi-wild conditions in a small (263 ha) isolated patch of mangrove forest within a large
matrix habitat of mature oil palm plantations. Intensive field data collection was carried out over a period of 12 months commencing from August 2008 to July 2009. Data collection involved following monkey groups and observing their behaviour by using instantaneous scan sampling method with a scanning period of 5 minutes at every 10 minutes scan intervals. Observations were conducted from dawn (06:00 hrs) to dusk (18:00 hrs). Eight proboscis monkey groups, i.e., five one-male-unit and three all-male-unit, and consisting of a combined total of 148 individuals within the LBPMS area, were followed for a total of 1,440 hours. The number of Individuals observed In a scan ranged from 5 to 35, comprising 34 adult males (ADM), 60 adult females (FAD), 33 juveniles (JV) and 21 infants (INF). The total individual behavioural activity recorded was 35,878. The most frequent activity was resting (32.62%) followed by moving (18.71%), feeding (16.41%) and grooming (13.11%). These results indicated that the activity patterns for semi-Wild proboscis monkeys are similar with those In the wild. The number of food plant species eaten by proboscis monkeys In LBPMS was generally low with only 8 to 10 species taken with a monthly average of 7.75 ±0.45 species. Rhizophora apiculata
and Bruguiera paflliflora made up about 60% of the plant species eaten by the proboscis monkeys, and these two species were the most dominant tree species in the study area. Young leaves were the major plant parts eaten (62.5%) followed by flowers (5.11%) and young fruits (4.38%). The proboscis monkeys also spent 27.14% of their time feeding on supplemented pancakes, making this food item as among the major food sources. The average amount of pancakes consumed by an individual proboscis monkey per day ranged from 130 grams to 300 grams. The significant positive correlations between monthly feeding frequencies to monthly pancakes and young leaves feeding frequencies suggest that pancakes and
mangroves plants are equally important food sources for proboscis monkeys in LBPMS. The significantly higher percentage of pancake feeding observations as compared to other food items when pancakes were given indicated that pancake is an important food source for proboscis monkeys in LBPMS. The mean daily ranging distance for the proboscis monkey population in LBPMS was 850 m. The shortest daily path length recorded was 335 m. The core ranging areas of the proboscis monkey groups in this study concentrated only within the immediate areas around the feeding platforms in the mangrove forest. The estimated home range of proboscis monkeys at these isolated patches of mangrove forest was approximately 1.5 - 5.75 hectares. This indicated that while the small patches of mangrove forest may be able to sustain the proboscis monkey population in LBPMS, the continued
existence of the monkey may also depend on the availability of supplemented food.


The 2008 financial crisis is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. It has been characterised by a housing bubble in a context of rapid credit expansion, high risk-taking and exacerbated financial leverage, ending into deleveraging and credit crunch when the bubble burst. This paper discusses the interactions between housing tax provisions and the financial crisis. In particular, it reviews the existing evidence on the links between capital gains taxation of houses, interest mortgage deductibility and characteristics of the crisis.


Correlation structure of river runoff is a complicated set of different persistence phenomena in the watershed itself and in the meteorological input to the watershed. Correlation functions and time scale of isolated processes in a watershed (groundwater level and river runoff) are derived analytically from the linearized equations of motion for these processes. Nonlinear effects on the correlation functions are shown for river runoff and for the watershed as a whole.


Modern N-body cosmological simulations contain billions (109) of dark matter particles. These simulations require hundreds to thousands of gigabytes of memory and employ hundreds to tens of thousands of processing cores on many compute nodes. In order to study the distribution of dark matter in a cosmological simulation, the dark matter halos must be identified using a halo finder, which establishes the halo membership of every particle in the simulation. The resources required for halo finding are similar to the requirements for the simulation itself. In particular, simulations have become too extensive to use commonly employed halo finders, such that the computational requirements to identify halos must now be spread across multiple nodes and cores. Here, we present a scalable-parallel halo finding method called Parallel HOP for large-scale cosmological simulation data. Based on the halo finder HOP, it utilizes message passing interface and domain decomposition to distribute the halo finding workload across multiple compute nodes, enabling analysis of much larger data sets than is possible with the strictly serial or previous parallel implementations of HOP. We provide a reference implementation of this method as a part of the toolkit "yt", an analysis toolkit for adaptive mesh refinement data that include complementary analysis modules. Additionally, we discuss a suite of benchmarks that demonstrate that this method scales well up to several hundred tasks and data sets in excess of 20003 particles. The Parallel HOP method and our implementation can be readily applied to any kind of N-body simulation data and is therefore widely applicable.


The Brazilian Sertao is the most populous semiarid region in the world, and faces the highest rates of poverty and food insecurity in Brazil. Irregular rainfall and climate variability make these social constraints even more difficult to be solved in the short term, since basic economic activities in the region, as dairy farming and subsistence agriculture, tend to be mainly affected by recurrent and prolonged droughts. This study analyzes the impacts of climate conditions on the agricultural production and how adaptative strategies may alleviate such effects. First, it analyzes the dynamics of climate variables between 1974 and 2013 in the semi-arid region of the State of Bahia, the largest and most populous State of Sertao. Secondly, based on a panel with climatic and production data, it assesses the ex-poste impacts of these climate variables on the agricultural production of the municipalities in the region. Thirdly, it estimates the relation between several adaptive strategies and the agricultural family farmers' production, based on microdata of the Brazilian Agricultural Census for small farmers in the region. The study evaluates four main agricultural productions: milk, cattle, goat, sheep and corn. The final and general aim of this study is to discuss the effectiveness of strategies for small farmers which would create climate resilience and attenuate the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural production of this vulnerable region.


Phospholipase C (PLC) cleaves phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate to form the second messengers inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and diacylglycerol. Recently, PLC-L2, a PLC-like protein that lacks lipase activity, has been identified in skeletal muscle, as well as in B and T lymphocytes. Takenaka et al. generated PLC-2-deficient mice to investigate the possible role of PLC-2 signaling in B lymphocytes. PLC-L2-deficient mature B cells showed an enhanced proliferative response and increased expression of the activation marker CD69 after B cell receptor (BCR) stimulation in vitro, and mice displayed increased production of immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgG1, and IgG3 in response to antigen treatment in vivo. The authors used fura-2 imaging to show that Ca2+ influx after BCR stimulation was enhanced in PLC-2-deficient cells; moreover, translocation of nuclear factor of activated T cells (which is regulated by calcineurin, which is itself calcium-dependent) was enhanced. Finally, PLC-2-deficient cells showed increased phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase and activation of the transcription factor AP-1 after BCR stimulation, which indicated that signaling through the mitogen-associated protein kinase pathway was enhanced. Thus, B cells from PLC-2-deficient mice showed a hyperreactive response to BCR stimulation; the authors suggest that PLC-2 acts as an inhibitory regulator of BCR signaling and of the B cell immune response. K. Takenaka, K. Fukami, M. Otsuki, Y. Nakamura, Y. Kataoka, M. Wada, K. Tsuji, S.-I. Nishikawa, N. Yoshida, T. Takenawa, Role of phospholipase C-L2, a novel phospholipase-C-like protein that lacks lipase activity in B-cell receptor signaling. Mol. Cell. Biol. 23, 7329-7338 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


As the complexity of localisation projects increases, the need for flawless interoperability between different localisation tools becomes ever more important. The XML-based Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF) has been developed to address issues related to the exchange, the storing and the transport of localisation data and metadata between different tools across the localisation process. XLIFF is gaining increased acceptance within the localisation community. However, some leading software industry publishers use proprietary file formats rather than the XLIFF standard. This paper discusses XLIFF and compares it to the Localisation Content Exchange (LCX) file format, the internal software localisation file format used by Microsoft. The paper also reviews the main reasons for the lack of acceptance and implementation of the XLIFF standard. It reports on research that investigated the possibility of converting between the LCX and XLIFF file formats and implementing a demonstrator. The paper also describes the schema mapping between the above file formats and the implementation of a prototype converter.


We examine the effects of the choice of neural network objective (criterion) functions on the ability of the neural network to perform detection. The experiments are performed using a multilayer perceptron with mean square error, classification figure of merit (CFM), maximally flat CFM and modified perceptron error objective functions. We develop a thresholding scheme for the outputs of the neural network in order to obtain receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the various objective functions. We perform preliminary tests on a breast cancer cell detection problem.


Abstract: The assessment of forest productivity at early stages of stand development may help to define the most appropriate silviculture treatment to be applied for each stand. Site index (dominant height at a reference age) is a useful tool for forest productivity estimation. The aim of this study was to develop a model to predict site index for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) plantations in northern Spain acidic plateau by using soil (physical, chemical and biochemical), climatic and physiographic parameters. To meet this objective, data from 35 stands classified into three different site quality classes and 63 soil, climatic and physiographic parameters were examined in order to develop a discriminant model. After selecting 12 discriminant models which were biologically consistent and presented the higher cross-validated rate of correct classification, a model including four parameters (latitude, inorganic Al, porosity and microbial biomass carbon) as predictors was chosen. The discriminant model classified 71% of cases correctly and no inferior-quality stands were misassigned to the highest quality class. Soil and physiographic parameters included in the above model are easily obtainable in the field or by simple laboratory analysis, thus our results can be easily integrated in operational forestry to determine site quality.


In a time of national introspection regarding the country's involvement in the persecution of Jews, Poland has begun to reimagine spaces of and for Jewishness in the Polish landscape, not as a form of nostalgia but as a way to encourage the pluralization of contemporary society. The essays in this book explore issues of the restoration, restitution, memorializing, and tourism that have brought present inhabitants into contact with initiatives to revive Jewish sites. They reveal that an emergent Jewish presence in both urban and rural landscapes exists in conflict and collaboration with other remembered minorities, engaging in complex negotiations with local, regional, national, and international groups and interests. With its emphasis on spaces and built environments, this volume illuminates the role of the material world in the complex encounter with the Jewish past in contemporary Poland.

Contents:

Introduction / Erica Lehrer and Michael Meng
1. "Oświecim"/ "Auschwitz": Archeology of a Mnemonic Battleground / Genevieve Zubrzycki
2. Restitution of Communal Property and the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland / Stanislaw Tyszka
3. Muranow as a Ruin: Layered Memories in Postwar Warsaw / Michael Meng
4. Stettin, Szczecin, and the "Third Space." Urban nostalgia in the German/Polish/Jewish borderlands / Magdalena Waligorska
5. Rediscovering the Jewish Past in the Polish Provinces: The Socio-Economics of Nostalgia / Monika Murzyn-Kupisz
6. Amnesia, Nostalgia, and Reconstruction: Shifting Modes of Memory in Poland's Jewish Spaces / Slawomir Kapralski
7. Jewish Heritage, Pluralism, and Milieux de Memoire: the case of Krakow's Kazimierz / Erica Lehrer
8. The Ethnic Cleansing of the German-Polish-Jewish 'Lodzermensch' / Winson Chu
9. Stony Survivors: Images of Jewish Space on the Polish Landscape / Robert L. Cohn
10. Reading the Palimpsest / Konstanty Gebert
11. A Jew, a Cemetery, and a Polish Village: A Tale of the Restoration of Memory
Jonathan Webber
12. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews: A Post-War, Post-Holocaust, Post-Communist Story / Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Epilogue: Jewish Spaces and their Future / Diana Pinto


Structural performance of 75 mm and 100 mm diameter plastic conduits embedded in Lloyd clay were examined experimentally in a laboratory soil bin, and numerically by the finite element method for various loading conditions. The results of the finite element analyses for deflections of the plastic conduits were compared to the results of the laboratory tests. After determining the magnitude and direction of variation of the finite element solutions from the experimental results, a parametric study on the soil-conduit system was performed, to simulate the actual field situation as closely as possible. The variables studied were the size of the conduits, depth of burial of conduit, bedding angle and soils tangent moduli. Both elastic and elasto-plastic material models were used in the analyses.


This article considers the reach of arguments for saving the greater number without interpersonal aggregation, and argues that interpersonal aggregation is useful to encompass the proper respect due to each separate person. I first give a precise definition of interpersonal aggregation, which many non-utilitarians try to avoid. Then, I show that consequentialism and Scanlon can justify the case for the greater number without interpersonal aggregation. However, I propose the Aggregation Approach, which justifies the case for the greater number in some cases and the case for tossing a fair coin in other cases. I conclude that interpersonal aggregation does not disrespect the separate person.


This study is conducted to extract demographic, psychological and medical characteristics of children with autism referred to CTAD. This study is a systematic review based on archival records of 368 children with autism who received rehabilitation services from 2009-2015. The mean age of children was three years and nine months at diagnosis; the samples were 85.3% male and 60.6% were single children. The mean age of fathers was 38 years ranging from 28 to 57 years and the mean age of mothers was 33 years ranging from 21 to 50 years. The highest number of fathers (39.1%) and mothers (45.4%) had bachelor's degree. Moderate autism and mild sensory problems were most prevalent (41% and 53.3%, respectively). Of the children, 84% had no developmental delay, while more than half of them (50.8%) showed signs of hyperactivity. Among all children, only 24.8% underwent EEG which showed no problem in 16.6%. The results of this study can be used to identify the target group (children with autism) and help to formulate plans and policies regarding these children.


The unified hybrid censoring is a mixture of generalized Type-I and Type-II hybrid censoring schemes. This article presents the statistical in- ferences on Generalized Exponential Distribution parameters when the data are obtained from the unified hybrid censoring scheme. It is observed that the maximum likelihood estimators can not be derived in closed form. The EM algorithm for computing the maximum likelihood estimators is proposed. We calculated the observed Fisher information matrix using the missing infor- mation principle which is useful for constructing the asymptotic confidence intervals. Simulations studies are performed to compare the performances of the estimators obtained under different schemes. Finally, a real data set has been analyzed for illustrative purposes.


Despite the omnipresence of artificial and natural light exposure, there exists little guidance in the United States and elsewhere on light exposure in terms of timing, intensity, spectrum, and other light characteristics known to affect human health, performance, and well-being; in parallel, there is little information regarding the quantity and characteristics of light exposure that people receive. To address this, the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, in the Division of Lung Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, held a workshop in August 2016 on circadian health and light. Workshop participants discussed scientific research advances on the effects of light on human physiology, identified remaining knowledge gaps in these research areas, and articulated opportunities to use appropriate lighting to protect and improve circadian-dependent health. Based on this workshop, participants put forth the following strategic intent, objectives, and strategies to guide discovery, measurement, education, and implementation of the appropriate use of light to achieve, promote, and maintain circadian health in modern society.


For efficiency reasons, neighbourhoods in local search algorithms are often shrunk by only considering moves modifying variables that actually contribute to the overall penalty. These are known as conflicting variables. This is a well-known technique for speeding up search. State-of-the-art solutions to, e.g., the progressive party problem exploit this with great success. We propose a way of automatically and incrementally measuring the conflict of a variable in a local search model and apply this to the set variables of models expressed in existential second-order logic extended with counting (∃SOL). Furthermore, we show that this measure is lower-bounded by an intuitive conflict measure, and upper-bounded by the penalty of the model. We also demonstrate the usefulness of the approach by replacing a builtin global constraint by a modelled ∃SOL version thereof, while still obtaining competitive results. This is especially attractive when a particular (global) constraint is not built in.


We describe mechanisms for automated evolution of ontologies to adapt to new circumstances and to make them better suited to the given task. If a conflict is detected between the original theory and new experimental evidence, a repair is required to resolve the inconsistency and to recover from failure. The rules for conflict diagnosis and transformation of the ontologies are composed together into ontology repair plans. The repair plans have been implemented in the GALILEO system and successfully evaluated on a diverse range of examples from the history of physics. By applying the described repair plans, the initially incorrect physical theories in our examples are repaired to become consistent with experimental results.


Research shows that progressive discipline creates a positive school culture and supports students who are in violation of school drug and alcohol policies to reach their full potential by pairing inappropriate behaviour with appropriate consequences. There is little research available to show that zero tolerance policies meet either of these goals by applying the same punitive consequence to any student who violates the policy regardless of gravity of behavior, mitigating circumstances or situational context. When making school drug and alcohol policy dislocation theory and the transtheoretical model (TTM) should be considered. This paper includes a review of literature relating to best practices in relation to discipline and behavioral interventions for students who have substance use issues. It looks at different theoretical models such as TTM, dislocation theory, zero tolerance and progressive discipline. This capstone also documents the importance of considering TTM and dislocation theory when providing behavior interventions to students who use substances. It investigates what school districts are currently doing on local, national and international levels when dealing with students who are in violation of the school drug and alcohol policy and examines what the research says about the drug and alcohol policies school districts are currently using. Lastly, this paper uses the research to consider what are best practices in relation to discipline and behavioural interventions for students who have substance use issues.


This work is an investigation into collimator designs for a deuterium-deuterium (DD) neutron generator for an inexpensive and compact neutron imaging system that can be implemented in a hospital. The envisioned application is for a spectroscopic imaging technique called neutron stimulated emission computed tomography (NSECT). Previous NSECT studies have been performed using a Van-de-Graaff accelerator at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) in Duke University. This facility has provided invaluable research into the development of NSECT. To transition the current imaging method into a clinically feasible system, there is a need for a high-intensity fast neutron source that can produce collimated beams. The DD neutron generator from Adelphi Technologies Inc. is being explored as a possible candidate to provide the uncollimated neutrons. This DD generator is a compact source that produces 2.5 MeV fast neutrons with intensities of 10 12 n/s (4π). The neutron energy is sufficient to excite most isotopes of interest in the body with the exception of carbon and oxygen. However, a special collimator is needed to collimate the 4π neutron emission into a narrow beam. This work describes the development and evaluation of a series of collimator designs to collimate the DD generator for narrow beams suitable for NSECT imaging. v A neutron collimator made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and lead was modeled and simulated using the GEANT4 toolkit. The collimator was designed as a 52 x 52 x 52 cm 3 HDPE block coupled with 1 cm lead shielding. Non-tapering (cylindrical) and tapering (conical) opening designs were modeled into the collimator to permit passage of neutrons. The shape, size, and geometry of the aperture were varied to assess the effects on the collimated neutron beam. Parameters varied were: inlet diameter (1-5 cm), outlet diameter (1-5 cm), aperture diameter (0.5-1.5 cm), and aperture placement (13-39 cm). For each combination of collimator parameters, the spatial and energy distributions of neutrons and gammas were tracked and analyzed to determine three performance parameters: neutron beam-width, primary neutron flux, and the output quality. To evaluate these parameters, the simulated neutron beams are then regenerated for a NSECT breast scan. Scan involved a realistic breast lesion implanted into an anthropomorphic female phantom. This work indicates potential for collimating and shielding a DD neutron generator for use in a clinical NSECT system. The proposed collimator designs produced a well-collimated neutron beam that can be used for NSECT breast imaging. The aperture diameter …


BRCA testing services are now offered by various healthcare providers, thus it is important to evaluate whether the implementation of cancer risk management (CRM) strategies varies by service provider. Using a registry‐based sample of 795 female BRCA mutation carriers, we explored the association between uptake of CRM strategies with duration of genetic counseling (GC) sessions, provider type, and other demographic and clinical variables. All participants completed a baseline questionnaire. Information about uptake of CRM strategies was collected for a subset of 438 participants who completed additional questions. Summary statistics and Pearson chi‐squared analysis were used to examine the associations between demographic and clinical variables with service delivery factors and with the uptake of various CRM strategies. Overall uptake of CRM strategies was high across all provider types. However, GC sessions were longer when provided by a genetics professional than by another provider (p < 0.001). Furthermore, higher frequencies of uptake of most CRM strategies were associated with longer GC sessions and when testing was performed by a genetics professional. Identification of factors to optimize delivery of these specialized GC services is important to maximize implementation of CRM strategies in BRCA carriers.


The theory of prosodic hierarchy, proposed and developed by a series of work by Elisabeth O. Selkirk at the University of Massachusett at Amherst, has been one of the most important areas of research within phonological theory in the past few decades. This collection of original articles, dedicated to Selkirk, address a number of aspects of the theory using evidence from languages as diverse as Arabic, Berber, Chadic, Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.


Open innovation is a viable strategy to solve wicked problems. However, the complexity of these types of problems renders the management of open innovation initiatives (even) more difficult. How can managers make open innovation for complex or even wicked problems work? This article examines case studies of open innovation initiatives adopting a health care service innovation. It uses the proximity framework to identify several ways in which open innovation barriers can be overcome despite their complexity. The case study findings show how partners leverage their differences to the benefit of service innovation in the face of wicked problems.


It is known that allergen immunotherapy is the only treatment that can modify the evolution of allergic disease and induce immunological tolerance. The molecular characterization of allergens has made important progress, thereby making possible to develop specific immunotherapy vaccines that target certain immune mechanisms.
Recent changes in immunotherapy preparations that use recombinant allergens obtained through molecular engineering techniques have increased vaccine efficacy and safety profile. Thus, an attempt is made to establish a treatment scheme that can be performed in a shorter period of time, with the intention of increasing the patients' adherence to therapy.
The favorable evolution following the therapy shows the need to carry out complementary studies in order to improve the quality of the vaccine preparations, also leading to the development of an immunoprophylaxis.


Aid is unlikely to encourage the development and growth of the countries affected from natural disasters. This study scrutinizes that it is not necessary that every commitment has to be fulfilled. As in this research, it is found that the level of commitment of aid for the flood affected country of Pakistan was quite higher than the level of aid actually provided by allied-countries of Pakistan. Ironically so many countries have only made commitments for aid, just to prove on media that they are responsive and deeply concerned but in real they were observed not responsive and responsible while fulfilling their promises for catering the human welfare.


Nowadays, drifters are used for a wide range of applications for researching and exploring the sea. However, the power constraint makes it difficult for their sampling intervals to be smaller, meaning that drifters cannot transmit more accurate measurement data to satellites. Furthermore, due to the power constraint, a modern Surface Velocity Program (SVP) drifter lives an average of 400 days before ceasing transmission. To overcome the power constraint of SVP drifters, this article proposes an adaptively counter-rotating wave energy converter (ACWEC) to supply power for drifters. The ACWEC has the advantages of convenient modular integration, simple conversion process, and minimal affection by the crucial sea environment. This article details the design concept and working principle, and the interaction between the wave energy converter (WEC) and wave is presented based on plane wave theory. To verify the feasibility of the WEC, the research team carried out a series of experiments in a wave tank with regular and irregular waves. Through experiments, it was found that the power and efficiency of the ACWEC are greatly influenced by parameters such as wave height and wave frequency. The maximum output power of the small scale WEC in a wave tank is 6.36 W, which allows drifters to detect ocean data more frequently and continuously.


This chapter focuses on the depiction of mantic arts and fate in the popular late imperial popular myth The Wedding of the Duke of Zhou and the Peach Blossom Girl. After discussing the role of divination in vernacular (tongsu 通俗) narratives in general, it turns toward the particular plot that pits the magician Peach Blossom Girl (Taohua nu 桃花女) against a diviner named Zhougong周公 , 'Duke of Zhou', a reference to one of the most eminent and respected figure of Chinese culture. Peach Blossom Girl allows several people doomed to die by Zhougong to escape with their life. Angered and humiliated, Zhougong decides to get rid of his young opponent by asking her to marry into his household: he has secretly used beforehand all his divining science to choose the most inauspicious day and directions of space for the bridal cortege, hoping for Peach Blossom to fatefully perish. The girl, however, not only succeeds in avoiding the deadly trap, but eventually further humiliates and defeats Zhougong. In the end, both opponents resume their rightful place in the pantheon of divination deities as complementary figures impersonating yin-yang 陰陽. By showing a lowly girl able to ward off and defeat an eminent diviner at every point of their struggle, reversing in the process what seemed to be fated deaths, the story turns cultural hierarchies on their head, and calls into question the immutable nature of fate. The editorial history of the tale also shows us that it was sometimes assimilated to therapeutical or exorcistic treatises, proving how vernacular narratives where used in late imperial China to expand and strengthen "serious" religious or therapeutic knowledge.


Field based spectroscopy for ecological and environmental monitoring has become an indispensable part of complete observational systems as defined in GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems). Spectral scaling approaches are currently ranging from molecular to ecosystem or even biome scales. We discuss the use of field spectroscopy in relation to supporting large-scale ecosystem and ecotone inventorying, in particular the retrieval of biochemical and structural attributes of vegetation. First, attention will be put on using an object-relational database for the structured compilation of field spectral measurements and corresponding metadata. Spectral libraries have been collected over a wide variety of natural and man-made targets and their sampling scheme is discussed. Second, recent advances in reflectance and radiance terminology for field spectrometers are discussed, propagating the use of spectral albedo. Advanced measurement instrumentation and facilities are presented that complement solar reflective measurements with the angular, thermal and plant fluorescence domains. Further, experiments measuring leaf albedo, transmittance and absorbtance are discussed using examples from a wide range of ecosystems and their ecotones. Finally, we discuss scaling approaches from field measurements to airborne and spaceborne mapping methods, demonstrating the wide use of field spectrometers for environmental applications. We conclude on the importance of using field spectrometers over the past one and a half decades at our institutions.


In the here presented work we discuss a series of results that are all in one way or another connected to the phenomenon of trapping in black hole spacetimes.
First we present a comprehensive review of the Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT-de-Sitter family of black hole spacetimes and their most important properties. From there we go into a detailed analysis of the bahaviour of null geodesics in the exterior region of a sub-extremal Kerr spacetime. We show that most well known fundamental properties of null geodesics can be represented in one plot. In particular, one can see immediately that the ergoregion and trapping are separated in phase space.
We then consider the sets of future/past trapped null geodesics in the exterior region of a sub-extremal Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT spacetime. We show that from the point of view of any timelike observer outside of such a black hole, trapping can be understood as two smooth sets of spacelike directions on the celestial sphere of the observer. Therefore the topological structure of the trapped set on the celestial sphere of any observer is identical to that in Schwarzschild.
We discuss how this is relevant to the black hole stability problem.

In a further development of these observations we introduce the notion of what it means for the shadow of two observers to be degenerate. We show that, away from the axis of symmetry, no continuous degeneration exists between the shadows of observers at any point in the exterior region of any Kerr-Newman black hole spacetime of unit mass. Therefore, except possibly for discrete changes, an observer can, by measuring the black holes shadow, determine the angular momentum and the charge of the black hole under observation, as well as the observer's radial position and angle of elevation above the equatorial plane. Furthermore, his/her relative velocity compared to a standard observer can also be measured. On the other hand, the black hole shadow does not allow for a full parameter resolution in the case of a Kerr-Newman-Taub-NUT black hole, as a continuous degeneration relating specific angular momentum, electric charge, NUT charge and elevation angle exists in this case.
We then use the celestial sphere to show that trapping is a generic feature of any black hole spacetime.

In the last chapter we then prove a generalization of the mode stability result of Whiting (1989) for the Teukolsky equation for the case of real frequencies. The main result of the last chapter states that a separated solution of the Teukolsky equation governing massless test fields on the Kerr spacetime, which is purely outgoing at infinity, and purely ingoing at the horizon, must vanish. This has the consequence, that for real frequencies, there are linearly independent fundamental solutions of the radial Teukolsky equation which are purely ingoing at the horizon, and purely outgoing at infinity, respectively. This fact yields a representation formula for solutions of the inhomogenous Teukolsky equation, and was recently used by Shlapentokh-Rothman (2015) for the scalar wave equation.


Occurrence of intraslope basins and distinct seismic faices assemblages of the basin fills in the Kaoping Slope, offshore SW Taiwan, reflect interactions between regional convergent tectonics, local mud diapirism and sedimentary processes of fill-and-spill during slope development. Located west of the Kaoping Submarine Canyon, three major intraslope basins separated by diapiric mud ridges mainly trending NNE-SSW are determined. They are elongated depressions with a length ranging from 10 to 40 km and a width of about 12 km, similar to intraslope basins east of the Kaoping Canyon. Basin fills are characterized by a distinct upward change in seismic facies beginning with a basal convergent-baselapping facies, succeeded by chaotic facies and overlain by parallel and draping facies. The basal convergent-baselapping facies is the most common and the parallel and draping facies is restricted to slope areas shallower than 1000 m in water depth. Sediments from the prograding shelf and upper slope are transported and deposited mainly in the confined basal accommodation space of intraslope basins, forming convergent-baselapping seismic facies in the early stage of the basin fill history. Rates of deposition being slower than rates of basin subsidence due to local mud diapirism kept the early intraslope basins partially filled by sediment, representing a confined style of deposition. In the late stage of basin development sediments have been transported to a lower slope distal to the sediment sources, progressively filling and spilling intraslope basins in a generally southwestward direction.


Along with Pound, Eliot, and Joyce, Edward Estlin Cummings is one of the leading American poets who revolutionized literary expression in the twentieth century. He was also a Cubist painter, a champion of the little man, a brilliant conversationalist, a romantic idealist, a famous irrational curmudgeon, and husband to three of the most beautiful women of his time. This critical biography merges these various selves into one fascinating life story, many chapters of which could be mistaken for a great romantic novel. In following Cummings's development as a poet, it also includes a large number of previously unpublished poems and drawings.


Cost-benefit analysis of financial regulation (CBA/FR) has become a flashpoint in contemporary legal and political debates, partly due to the Dodd-Frank Act. Yet debates over CBA/FR exhibit terminological confusion, and CBA/FR advocacy has outrun the possible, given data limitations and current research techniques, and has neglected institutional and legal design, relying unreflectively on the dubious idea of judicially enforced quantification in a conventional administrative law framework. The aim of this paper is to take up the institutional design question: how to move towards feasible and net beneficial CBA/FR practices? It argues that just as eliciting shareholder-oriented business decisions in for-profit corporations is a managerial challenge, not susceptible to command and control, so too generating good CBA/FR is a managerial challenge. Courts should have a reduced, not increased, role in reviewing CBA/Fr, and the tools of management – funding, governance, disclosure, regulatory design, and agency culture – are more likely to promote good CBA/FR than simple legal mandates.