This study is a qualitative inquiry into the theory of action of school development
planning (SDP) constituted within the professional culture of the School
Development Planning Initiative (SDPI).
SDP is delineated as an historically contingent term of art most influential in scholarly
and policy discourse under the auspices of the Education Reform Act (1988) in the
United Kingdom and the Education Act (1998) in Ireland. SDP in Ireland reflects
national policy aspiration and traditional Irish cultural and educational values. SDPI,
though only established for eleven years, had a crucial role as an agency of the then
Department of Education and Science in promoting and supporting SDP in Irish
secondary schools in fulfilment of statutory obligations and a national agenda of
school improvement.
This study presents a qualitative thematic analysis of documentary material and
interview data. Using qualified grounded theoretical analytic techniques, the analysis
produces findings showing that the primary goal for SDPI was the development of
collaborative, deliberative professional cultures among teachers as self-conscious
learners, facilitated by supportive leadership, focused upon enhanced pupil learning.
The findings also chart an historical pattern of shifting priorities for SDPI in building
capacity for SDP until school self evaluation discursively displaced SDP, culminating
in a more instrumentalist model of planning.
The study also identifies competing loci of control and power between central
instrumentalist and accountability expectations on the one hand, and, on the other,
the promotion of school autonomy and teacher empowerment. These competing loci
of control form the pivotal historical axis of the problematisation of SDP in the study.
The findings give weight to the argument that this antinomy is a core determinant of
SDPI's theory of action. The relationship of SDPI to the inspectorate reflects this
tension.
Conceptualising the inner culture of SDPI the thesis identifies both strong cultural
cohesion and creative licence. Key features of valorised SDP derive from the internal
culture of SDPI experienced as a community of practitioners. However, strategic
naivity and conflicted loyalties to school communities and the Department of
Education and Skills contributed to the decline both of SDP as a leading term of art
in school improvement discourse in Ireland and to SDPI as a pivotal programme of
support for schools. In relation to categories derived from Argyris and Schon, SDPI
displays model 2 behaviours operationally, but model 1 behaviours strategically.
The thesis contributes to an understanding of an important phase of recent school
improvement practice in Ireland, including the relationship of professional culture to
praxis, and the need for alignment of purpose among key agencies in school
improvement policy design and implementation.


This paper explores the ethics of reimbursing research participants, looking at how health research stakeholders in the East Midlands perceive reimbursements for participation in research. This is particularly relevant in the context of Governments targets to increase participation in health research and the UK welfare reform - the universal credit scheme triggering reform of payment systems for involvement in research. Internationally health research has relied on volunteers, influenced by the 1947 Nuremberg code of ethics. In keeping with the UK collaborative research agenda, a survey was distributed to Patient and Public Involvement in research (PPI) volunteers active in NHS Trusts to complete and disseminate to relevant health stakeholders. 251 responses were statistically analysed using descriptive, frequency based statistics and factor analysis (FA). Principal Component Analysis and Varimax Rotation with Kaiser Normalization used, supplemented by thematic analysis of open questions. Four factors emerged from the exploratory FA, indicative of the values underpinning participants' motivation to participate in research a) 'as an opportunity for self-development'; b) 'volunteering'; c) 'work and market forces'; and d) 'extra resources'. Results brought to light that stakeholders' values do not entirely accord with the priority given to volunteering in most NHS organisations i.e. respondents valued participation most as opportunities for self-development, skill acquisition and to be reimbursed as work. Findings suggest a social shift in the meaning of the ethical values and principles underpinning research (i.e. from volunteering as moral obligation to market values) indicative of the present socio-economic climate. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the use of reimbursements in health research with practical implications for policy makers, ethics reviews, ethics committees and researchers in the design of health research that both promotes ethical integrity and also maximises recruitment, critical for validity purposes.


Acoustic pulses at 85 Hz (4 m) directed vertically into the lower atmosphere have been tracked by a 36.8-MHz (8-m) pulse doppler radar. Signal-to-noise power ratios in excess of 10 dB were obtained to a height of 1.5 km in the initial tests under conditions of calm winds. This technique has the potential of providing temperature soundings of the lower atmosphere for pollution studies and short-range terminal weather forecasts.


From the first reports of pregnancy in each of the organ groups to the present, concerns varied and were specific to the type of transplant. Organ-specific issues still require additional attention and analyses. Lung recipients appear at greatest risk for poorer pregnancy outcomes. Given these ongoing concerns and the constant advent of new developments, clinicians are responsible for providing pregnancy counseling in all pre- and posttransplant recipients of childbearing age. As individual physicians and centers accrue experience with these major therapeutic decisions, it is critical that both positive and negative outcomes be reported in appropriate settings-symposia, meetings, publications, and registries. Future analyses from the NTPR are directed at potential effects of newer immunosuppressive regimens, not only from immediate exposure, but also from continued exposures such as may occur from breastfeeding. As the registry study design allows for contact between registry staff and recipients and their health care providers, efforts are ongoing to analyze long-term outcomes of parent and child. Continued close collaboration among specialists will help to identify potential pregnancy risks in these populations, particularly as new immunosuppressive agents are developed. Therefore, centers are encouraged to report all pregnancy exposures in transplant recipients to the NTPR. The 50th anniversary of the first posttransplant pregnancy (reported by Joseph Murray, et al. (11)) was in March 2008. With this important landmark event and with ongoing pregnancy issues concerning posttransplant pregnancy safety, this is an ideal time to raise the awareness of the need for continued worldwide cooperation for data collection. Enhanced assessment of pregnancy safety is essential to the development of guidelines for counseling and management of pregnancy in the transplant population.


To examine whether an excess risk of maternal mortality exists among migrant women in Western Europe. We searched electronic databases for studies published 1970 through 2013 for all observational studies comparing maternal mortality between the host country and a defined migrant population. Results were derived from a random- effects meta-analysis, and statistical heterogeneity assessed by the I 2 statistic. In sub-analyses we also calculated summary estimates stratified by direct and indirect death causes. We included 13 studies with more than 42 million women and 4,995 maternal deaths. Compared with indig- enous born women, the pooled risk estimate (RR) was 2.00 with 95 % confidence interval (CI) of 1.72, 2.33. Migrant women had a non-significantly higher risk of dying from direct than indirect death causes; pooled RRs of 2.65 CI 1.88, 3.74 and 1.83 CI 1.37, 2.45. This meta-analysis provides evidence that migrant women in Western Euro- pean countries have an excess risk of maternal mortality.


The physical therapy profession continues to respond to the complex and changing landscape of health care to meet the needs of patients and the demands of patient care. Consistent with this evolution is the rapid development and expansion of residency and fellowship postprofessional programs. With the interested number of applicants exceeding the number of residency and fellowship slots available, a "critical period" in the educational process is emerging. The purposes of this perspective article are: (1) to analyze the state of residency and fellowship education within the profession, (2) to identify best practice elements from other health professions that are applicable to physical therapy residency and fellowship education, and (3) to propose a working framework grounded in common domains of competence to be used as a platform for dialogue, consistency, and quality across all residency and fellowship programs. Seven domains of competence are proposed to theoretically ground residency and fellowship programs and facilitate a more consistent approach to curricular development and assessment. Although the recent proliferation of residency and fellowship programs attempts to meet the demand of physical therapists seeking advanced educational opportunities, it is imperative that these programs are consistently delivering high-quality education with a common focus on delivering health care in the context of societal needs.


Conventional descriptive methods rarely convey the behavioural information needed to conserve and manage the world's vegetation. Such information may be derived from a generic set of plant functional attributes (PFAs). A grammar provides a syntactic rule base for generating and comparing coherent models of individual plant behaviour based on PFA combinations rather than discrete attributes. The method facilitates rapid and uniform assessment of plant response to environmental change at varying spatial scales regardless of species.


One of the few examples of high mountain prehistorical archaeological sites in northern Italy has been discovered within the so called Plan di Modzon area, at 2300 m a.s.l., in the Aosta Valley (Western Alps). This area shows interesting geological features and morphological evidence which have been recently linked to a wide Deep-Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation (DSGSD). A probable filled lake and the presence of buried landforms have been also hypno tized on the basis of geological observations, resulting in the need for new devoted surveys to confirm these hypotheses. A better and comprehensive understanding of the geological evolution of the area is indeed necessary to allow a precise reconstruction of the environments in which man has inhabited these territories. Combined Electric Resistivity Tomographies (ERT) and geological surveys have been therefore used to better define the occurrence and nature of morphological evidence along the western slope of the filled lake, in which one of the archaeological sites has been discovered and excavated. The outcomes of the integration of the two surveys is a more refined definition of the geological forms, in respect to the one previously assumed on the basis of surface surveys only. Indeed, ERT revealed buried zones with low resistivity associable to the presence of sliding surfaces and also showed the geometry and thickness of the sediments within the filled lake. Geological surveys also evidenced a DSGSD evolution in the area constrained to Lateglacial, because of the lack of particularly evident gravitative forms, i.e. remodeled by glacial abrasion.


Abstract. Pure culture studies have demonstrated that methanotrophs and ammonia oxidizers can both carry out the oxidation of methane and ammonia. However, the expected interactions resulting from these similarities are poorly understood, especially in complex, natural environments. Using DNA-based stable isotope probing and pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA and functional genes, we report on biogeochemical and molecular evidence for growth stimulation of methanotrophic communities by ammonium fertilization, and that methane modulates nitrogen cycling by competitive inhibition of nitrifying communities in a rice paddy soil. Pairwise comparison between microcosms amended with CH4, CH4+Urea, and Urea indicated that urea fertilization stimulated methane oxidation activity 6-fold during a 19-day incubation period, while ammonia oxidation activity was significantly suppressed in the presence of CH4. Pyrosequencing of the total 16S rRNA genes revealed that urea amendment resulted in rapid growth of Methylosarcina-like MOB, and nitrifying communities appeared to be partially inhibited by methane. High-throughput sequencing of the 13C-labeled DNA further revealed that methane amendment resulted in clear growth of Methylosarcina-related MOB while methane plus urea led to an equal increase in Methylosarcina and Methylobacter-related type Ia MOB, indicating the differential growth requirements of representatives of these genera. An increase in 13C assimilation by microorganisms related to methanol oxidizers clearly indicated carbon transfer from methane oxidation to other soil microbes, which was enhanced by urea addition. The active growth of type Ia methanotrops was significantly stimulated by urea amendment, and the pronounced growth of methanol-oxidizing bacteria occurred in CH4-treated microcosms only upon urea amendment. Methane addition partially inhibited the growth of Nitrosospira and Nitrosomonas in urea-amended microcosms, as well as growth of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. These results suggest that type I methanotrophs can outcompete type II methane oxidizers in nitrogen-rich environments, rendering the interactions among methane and ammonia oxidizers more complicated than previously appreciated.


Compliance with accounting standards is a major issue in Europe and elsewhere. Research on the horizontal dimension shows non-compliance even though financial reports state compliance and auditors concur. The vertical dimension is more relevant to discover the extent and reasons for non-compliance. Previous research shows that financial executives of multi-nationals indicated non-compliance when asked directly, even though financial reports and auditors state compliance. This follow-on study uses field-studies of subsidiaries of multi-nationals in three countries to explore the extent and reasons for non-compliance for vertical adjustments when consolidating. The method of agreement and method of differences were used to analyse data. Results show substantial non-compliance and some reasons for non-compliance, notably income smoothing. The vertical dimension is appropriate for continued research and this study provides a model for similar research.


The world of marketing has stumbled upon body positivity as a tool of feminist activism and now attempts to use its messages of empowerment to sell products. This is especially true when it comes to selling products specifically targeted toward women: beauty and personal care products, weight loss supplements, and more. Various aspects of body positivity have been appropriated by advertisers not only because they have the potential to make women feel better about themselves—feelings that they then associate with the product—but also for their ability to make women feel engaged in activism, even if the products themselves are controversial in feminist circles. In such a highly commercialized, neoliberal society, the idea that social change can be enacted through consumerism is pervasive. However, although advertisements position corporations as catalysts for a revolution in the way we see women's bodies, they ultimately serve the same beauty standard that they attempt to resist, and the very nature of advertising—as a tool of capitalism—makes it incompatible with the goals of activism.
EMMA LUCK is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Huron University College, where she is studying to complete an Honours Specialization in English with a Minor in Sociology. She intends to continue her English studies at the graduate level. Her research interests include feminist theory and dystopian fiction.


Very high traffic volumes may lead to extensive congestion during hurricane evacuations. Evacuation planners reduce this congestion by careful planning for multiple hurricane scenarios and assignment of evacuation routes and timing. This planning may be for naught if obstructions block key roadways. An advanced traveler information system (ATIS) may be used to guide evacuees to alternate routes, but how effective will that guidance be? Should the use of alternate routes be encouraged? How are drivers likely to respond to delays and information? Will information shorten or improve the reliability of travel times in emergency conditions? Integration of a dynamic evacuation simulation and a decision-making model (representative of the decisions made by potential hurricane evacuees when provided with information on downstream traffic congestion and alternate routes) can help emergency planners prepare for the unexpected. Advance modeling of likely accident locations and the severity can forecast the effects of alternate route use, help determine the best locations and timing of alternate route information, and support decision making. This study integrated an evacuee route choice decision model and a mesoscopic evacuation transportation simulation for southeastern Virginia. Study results show how the effects of ATIS can be tested in advance, thus allowing more comprehensive planning by emergency management and transportation professionals. Simulations of ATIS' effectiveness in evacuation scenarios have been largely unexplored. Methods presented can be applied in a variety of evacuation scenarios and may be of particular value to emergency planners.


Those who are old enough to have been working in the world of sports science/medicine in 1992 will remember a watershed moment: the publication of a paper by Roger Harris and co-workers1 on the capacity of the muscle to increase its phosphocreatine concentration following supplementation with a creatine product. With the genie out of the bottle, we bore witness to an explosion of interest in this unique ergogenic aid—a product of apparently genuine value to biochemists, sports scientists, athletes, coaches, clinicians and the supplement industry. This review will outline why the production and sales of creatine have increased exponentially over the past two decades, and will summarise which of the claims made about creatine supplements are evidence based.

### J R Poortmans, E S Rawson

Creatine, a derivative from three amino acids, is distributed at approximately 95% in skeletal muscle mass; the remainder is located in the brain, the testes and the kidneys. Its synthesis starts mainly in the kidneys from glycine and arginine, forming α-methylguanidoacetic acid, which is conducted through the blood to the liver where it reacts with S-adenosylmethionine to synthesise creatine. Approximately 1–2 g of creatine is produced over 24 h and released mainly to the skeletal muscle system. Some creatine is also added to the pool by adequate dietary intake, predominantly from meat and fish, with a typical diet supplying approximately 1–2 g of …


Abstract This review presents the occurrence of 62 parasitic copepod species from 72 different fish species (64 wild, two cultured, seven from aquarium) from Turkey. The parasite species list is arranged by providing parasite species name, host fish, location of host fish capture and author, date of published record. All parasites and their hosts are confirmed with the recent systematic accounts and full taxonomic account according to literature and internet database. Siphonostomatoida with 47 species and Caligidae with 12 species are the dominant order and family among parasitic copepoda with regard to species diversity, host distribution and location.


(I)Dendritic cells (DC), being key players in antigen presentation and initiation of virus-specific T-cell responses, have been reported to exhibit functional impairment in HBV carriers. Possible explanations for this phenomenon are infection of DCs with HBV or alteration of DC function by HBV. Therefore it was analysed whether DCs support the different steps of HBV infection: uptake, delivery of the HBV genome to the nucleus, antigen expression, and progeny virus release. When HBV genomes were artificially introduced into monocyte-derived DCs (moDC) by adenoviral vectors, low-level expression of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) but no HBV replication was detected. When subjecting moDCs to recombinant HBV expressing Renilla luciferase either under a non�liver-specific promoter or under a HBV promoter, no luciferase activity was detected. After incubation with wild-type HBV, intracellular HBV rcDNA was detected in a low percentage of cells, but nuclear cccDNA was not formed. This indicates that either uncoating or nucleocytoplasmic transport were blocked. To verify the observation in the in vivo situation, myeloid (mDC) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDC) were isolated from blood of high viremic HBV carriers, and analysed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and electron microscopy. Although circulating DCs had in vivo been exposed to more than 104 HBV virions per cell, HBV genomic DNA was hardly detected, and no nuclear cccDNA was detected at all. By using electron microscopy, subviral particles were found in endocytic vesicles, but virions were undetectable, as were viral capsids in the cytoplasm. Quantitative PCR analysis of B cells, monocytes and an enriched T-cell fraction of chronic HBV carriers showed uptake of HBV particles in low amounts, but no establishment of an infection. In conclusion, circulating DCs may take up HBV antigens, but neither support nucleocytoplasmic transport nor replication of HBV. It can be excluded that HBV infects DCs with a frequency sufficient to explain the functional impairment of the virus-specific T-cell response in chronic HBV carriers. One can hypothesise that the contact of DCs with HBV antigens, which are present in sera of infected persons in high amounts, influences DC and T-cell function. (II)Fluorescent labelling of viral proteins and viruses, or virus-like particles, has been shown to provide a powerful tool for investigating unexplored aspects in viral life cycles. A commonly used technique is the genetic incorporation of fluorophores into virus proteins. The insertion of GFP into the Gag protein of HIV for instance allowed studying the trafficking of this protein, as well as production of infectious virions (Muller et al., 2004). In case of adeno-associated virus, Lux et al. (2005) were able to directly monitor the cytosolic and nuclear trafficking with GFP-tagged virus particles. Since many aspects of the HBV life cycle still remain unclear, the visualisation of viral (VP) and subviral (SVP) HBV particles is a promising approach to elucidate different steps of virus entry and egress. GFP or RFP fused HBV S, M and L surface proteins were constructed and analysed for their fluorescence and stability properties. To ensure that the fusion did not alter the characteristic properties of the HBV surface proteins, they were compared to the parental proteins with regard to their localisation in cellular compartments and the ability to form subviral and viral particles. The GFP fused proteins did not co-localise with the parental proteins within the cell, suggesting that they were unstable. The RFP fusion proteins clearly co-localised with the parental proteins. But although they behaved similar to the parental proteins with regard to their distribution in the ER and golgi compartment, neither of them contributed to the formation of SVP or VP. Thus, GFP and RFP fusion to HBV surface proteins is not suitable to generate fluorescent HBV particles. The main impediment is most probably misfolding of the fusion proteins. The bulky GFP and RFP domains seem to have topological and sterical effects, affecting stability, correct integration into the ER membrane or assembly and secretion of properly formed particles. Labelling with small fluorescent molecules can minimise or overcome these problems and therefore perhaps provides a better strategy.


The paper attempts to investigate the validity of the Path-Goal leadership theory in the central bank fraternity, in particular the relationship between leader style and job satisfaction. From the point of view of subordinates, we survey the perceived leadership styles of central banks' managers and conduct an empirical study to determine whether the perceived leadership styles have any significant relationships with subordinates' job performance/satisfaction across the central banks. The results indicate that in the central bank fraternity, Perceived Participative Leadership style has a consistent positive effect on job satisfaction of subordinates. This result is generally consistent across genders, age groups, number of years of working experience, education background and the department in which they work. This finding has implicit implications for the subordinates' motivation to stay focused and perform better. For supervisors, they must be flexible enough to exercise the appropriate leadership styles at the right situation.


PURPOSE
Anophthalmos, microphthalmos, and typical coloboma (AMC) form an interrelated spectrum of congenital eye anomalies that can cause significant visual loss and cosmetic disfigurement in children. This prospective study of children born in the United Kingdom was undertaken to determine the incidence of AMC diagnosed by ophthalmologists and to explore sociodemographic risks.

METHODS
Recruitment was achieved though an established active surveillance system of U.K. ophthalmologists supported by a new research network of interested specialists, the Surveillance of Eye Anomalies (SEA-UK) Special Interest Group. It started October 1, 2006, and continued over 18 months.

RESULTS
One hundred thirty-five children were newly diagnosed with AMC. Typical colobomatous defects were the commonest phenotype, and anophthalmos was rare (n = 7). Both eyes were affected in 55.5% of the children. The cumulative incidence of AMC by age 16 years was 11.9 per 100,000 (95% CI, 10.9-15.4). Of the children examined, 41.5% had not seen an ophthalmologist by 3 months of age. The incidence in Scotland was nearly double that in England and Wales. The children of Pakistani ethnicity had a 3.7 (95% CI, 1.9-7.5) times higher risk of AMC than did white children. There was some evidence to suggest a higher incidence in the more socioeconomically deprived. The sibling risk ratio was 210 (95% CI, 25-722).

CONCLUSIONS
This is the first prospective study of AMC, and it establishes the frequency across the United Kingdom. Comparisons with data quoted in the literature are difficult because study methodologies differ, but the frequency appears to be lower than that quoted for other developed countries. There are geographic and ethnic variations in incidence that warrant further investigation.


Consistent increases in cumulative freight tonnages, combined with the move towards increased higher-speed intercity passenger rail operation, have placed greater demands on North American railroad infrastructure. Concrete sleepers and fastening system components are known to fail at a wide range of life cycle intervals when subjected to demanding loading environments. Such failures can cause track geometry defects, require repetitive maintenance procedures, and present critical engineering challenges. Rail seat deterioration, the degradation of the concrete material beneath the rail, has been identified through a survey of North American Class I railroads to be the most-critical engineering challenge for concrete sleepers. Shoulder/fastener wear or fatigue was identified by the same survey as the second-most-critical engineering challenge related to concrete sleepers. Lateral forces transferred through the fastening system are thought to be a primary cause of degradation of insulators. The objective of this study is to quantify the demands on the insulator through analysis of the transfer of lateral wheel loads into the fastening system by measuring the magnitude of the lateral forces entering the shoulder, a component of the fastening system adjacent to the insulator. The lateral load evaluation device (LLED) was developed at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign to quantify these forces. Data captured by the LLED will assist the rail industry in moving towards the mechanistic design of future fastening systems, by quantifying the lateral forces in the fastening system under representative loading conditions. Information gained through this study will also lead to a better understanding of the frictional forces at key interfaces in the fastening system. Preliminary results show that the transfer of lateral wheel loads into the fastening system is highly dependent on the magnitude of the lateral wheel loads and the frictional characteristics of the fastening system.


The aim of this study is to compare and determine the effective factors of traditional archers' bow brands preferences from the multicultural perspective. In depth-interviews and focus group studies were conducted with senior and experienced traditional archers from different countries in order to collect the data. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data and the proposed model was created accordingly. Traditional archers from Turkey and some European countries were participated in this research. According to the results of the analysis; perceived price of brand, customer relationships, product characteristics, and product availability were found as determiners of traditional archers' bow brand preferences.


Martin Scorsese's current position in the international film community is unrivaled, and his name has become synonymous with the highest standards of filmmaking excellence. He is widely considered America's best living film director, and his Taxi Driver and Raging Bull appear frequently on worldwide surveys of the best films of all time. Here, in the first biographical account of this artist's life, Vincent LoBrutto traces Scorsese's Italian-American heritage, his strict Catholic upbringing, the continuing role of religion in his life and art, his obsessive love of cinema history, and the powerful impact that the streets of New York City had on his personal life and his professional career. Meanwhile, the filmmaker's humble, soft-spoken public persona tells only part of the story, and LoBrutto will delve into the other side of a complex and often tortured personality. Scorsese's intense passion, his private relationships, his stormy marriages, and his battles with drugs and depression are all chronicled here, and, in many cases, for the first time. In addition, the book includes an interview with the director, as well as filmographies cataloging his work as a director, producer, actor, and presenter. As his Best Director award at the 2007 Oscars clearly demonstrated, Scorsese has become something like Hollywood royalty in recent years, finally enjoying the insider status and favor that eluded him for most of his career. But these recent developments aside, Scorsese is also notable as a distinctly American type of artist, one whose work-created in a medium largely controlled by commercialism and marketing-has always been unmistakably his own, and who thus remains a touchstone of artistic integrity in American cinema. In Martin Scorsese: A Biography, readers can examine not only the work of one of the form's genuine artists, but also the forces that have propelled the man behind it.


Many past and current generations of historians, anthropologists, and literary writers have acknowledged the existence of a Delaware Indian nation. They, however, have failed to thoroughly understand or address the historical and cultural dynamics that contributed to both the formation and quick decline of this Indian nation. This multidisciplinary study includes the oral traditions and oratory of Delaware Indians, the observances of Moravian missionaries and colonial-revolutionary officials, and contemporary anthropological and historical sources, to construct the building of the Delaware nation during the eighteenth century. Once decentralized and living in the Delaware River watershed, three phratries or animal tribes (Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf) of Delawares, in response to their unfair treatment at the hands of the Pennsylvania-Iroquois alliance of 1732, moved west to the Allegheny Valley of western Pennsylvania and eventually across the Ohio River into the Muskingum River valley. Western Delawares developed a sense of common cause and weathered the turmoil of imperial conflict between the French and British during the Seven Years' War in western Pennsylvania. A regional identity was greatly enhanced when western Delawares by 1765 separated themselves politically from their eastern kin who remained on the Susquehanna. This dissertation also considers the creation of a National Council or Lupwaaeenoawuk, the influence of Moravian missionaries, and the importance of visionary leaders, such as Tamaqua, White Eyes, and Captain Pipe-three important factors, imperative to the story of Delaware centralization and nationhood in the Ohio. The stability of a lasting political Delaware nation, however, was undermined by the stress of factionalism in the Great Council as the American Revolution divided Delaware leaders in 1780. This study will also examine the processes, which led to the fractured state of the Delawares after Washington's Indian War in the Old Northwest Territory and the subsequent Treaty of Greenville that followed in 1795. The story of the Delawares from 1730-1795 demonstrates a dramatic and arduous struggle for autonomy, identity, and political union. In the end, however, the Delaware nation became weakened and broken, driven from the Ohio and forced to migrate west once again.


1. Facultative endosymbiotic bacteria of insects are known to affect lifehistory traits of their hosts, and can provide important fitness benefits under certain environmental conditions. While several distinct endosymbiont-induced effects have been reported, there is no data on whether heritable facultative endosymbionts in any species affect their hosts' performance at low temperatures, something that could have a major effect on insect physiology and survival, and thus population structure and distribution. 2. The original facultative endosymbionts were experimentally removed from five clonal genotypes of the grain aphid, Sitobion avenae Fab., which were then exposed to frost. 3. Aphid genotypes differed considerably in survival following the exposure and in fecundity of the survivors. However, the presence of the facultative symbionts had no overall effect on the studied traits. 4. The results suggest that the facultative symbionts have limited effects on the cold hardiness of their grain aphid hosts.


Abstract. The inhabitants of Santiago, Chile have been exposed to harmful levels of air pollutants for decades. The city's poor air quality is a result of steady economic growth, and stable atmospheric conditions adverse to mixing and ventilation that favor the formation of oxidants and secondary aerosols. Identifying and quantifying the sources that contribute to the ambient levels of pollutants is key for designing adequate mitigation measures. Estimating the evolution of source contributions to ambient pollution levels is also paramount to evaluating the effectiveness of pollution reduction measures that have been implemented in recent decades. Here, we quantify the main sources that have contributed to fine particulate matter (PM2. 5) between April 1998 and August 2012 in downtown Santiago by using two different source-receptor models (PMF 5.0 and UNMIX 6.0) that were applied to elemental measurements of 1243 24 h filter samples of ambient PM2.5. PMF resolved six sources that contributed to ambient PM2. 5, with UNMIX producing similar results: motor vehicles (37.3 ± 1.1 %), industrial sources (18.5 ± 1.3 %), copper smelters (14.4 ± 0.8 %), wood burning (12.3 ± 1.0 %), coastal sources (9.5 ± 0.7 %) and urban dust (3.0 ± 1.2 %). Our results show that over the 15 years analyzed here, four of the resolved sources significantly decreased [95 % confidence interval]: motor vehicles 21.3 % [2.6, 36.5], industrial sources 39.3 % [28.6, 48.4], copper smelters 81.5 % [75.5, 85.9], and coastal sources 58.9 % [38.5, 72.5], while wood burning did not significantly change and urban dust increased by 72 % [48.9, 99.9]. These changes are consistent with emission reduction measures, such as improved vehicle emission standards, cleaner smelting technology, introduction of low-sulfur diesel for vehicles and natural gas for industrial processes, public transport improvements, etc. However, it is also apparent that the mitigation expected from the above regulations has been partially offset by the increasing amount of private vehicle use in the city, with motor vehicles becoming the dominant source of ambient PM2. 5 in recent years. Consequently, Santiago still experiences ambient PM2. 5 levels above the annual and 24 h Chilean and World Health Organization standards, and further regulations are required to reach ambient air quality standards.


Objectives: 1.) Assess utility of biomarkers as a surrogate endpoint and a reflection of total body burden of Gaucher cells by examining correlations between biomarkers and liver volume and characterizing biomarker response to enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), and 2.) to gain insight into pathophysiologic pathways of GD. Study Design: This is an observational study Subjects and Methods: 114 patients with both pretreatment and post-treatment data were identified. These patients were further subdivided into intact spleen and asplenic patients. Differences in means among the subgroups of patients were determined, then regression analyses were run to investigate correlations between biomarkers and liver volume. Multiple serial measurements of liver volume, spleen volume, and chitotriosidase while undergoing ERT were graphed in a subgroup of 5 patients. Results: ACE, ferritin, transferrin saturation percentage, platelet count, and white blood cell count are all significantly increased in asplenic patients compared intact spleen patients. Correlations with liver volume and biomarkers were weak, but some were significant: In intact spleen patients, liver volume was positively correlated with chitotriosidase and ACE and negatively correlated with HDL, LDL, hemoglobin, and white blood cell count. In asplenic patients, liver volume was positively correlated with ACE and platelets. Chitotriosidase vs. liver volume and spleen volume responses to ERT showed a sigmoid curve. Conclusion: This study shows that certain biomarker levels are increased in asplenic GD patients, suggesting that the spleen normally traps these substances in circulation. In addition, there were weak and inconsistent correlations between biomarkers and liver volume. These results in addition to the sigmoid


Formidable difficulties arise when attempting to explain the non-enzymatic replication, proliferation, and the acquisition of homochirality and information content, of RNA and DNA at the beginnings of life. However, new light can be shed on these problems by viewing the origin of life as a non-equilibrium thermodynamic process in which RNA, DNA and other fundamental molecules of life arose as structures to dissipate the prevailing solar spectrum. Here we present experimental results which demonstrate that the absorption and dissipation of UV-C light by DNA at temperatures below their melting temperature leads to complete and reversible denaturing for small synthetic DNA of 25 base pairs (bp), and to partial and reversible denaturing for 48 bp DNA and for large salmon sperm and yeast DNA of average size 100 kbp. This result has direct bearing on the above mentioned problems and thereby opens the door to a possible thermodynamic route to the origin of life.


Abstract Angina pectoris is a chest discomfort caused by myocardial ischaemia, and it is classified as 'typical' or 'atypical' if specific features are present. Unfortunately, there is a heterogeneous list of cardiac diseases characterized by this symptom as onset sign. Mostly, angina is due to significant epicardial coronary artery stenosis, which causes inadequate oxygen supply increase after raised myocardial oxygen demand. In the absence of significant epicardial stenoses, another potential cause of angina is microvascular dysfunction, related to inadequate response of resistance coronary vessels to vasodilator stimuli. The unique capability of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in providing extremely detailed morphological and functional information, along with precise stress perfusion defects and wall motion abnormalities depiction, translates it into the test with one of the best diagnostic performance and prognostic stratification among non-invasive cardiac imaging modality. Moreover, CMR is also extremely accurate in detecting non-ischaemic cardiac causes of chest pain (such as myocardial and pericardial inflammation, or stress-related cardiomyopathy), and is very useful in helping physicians to correctly approach patients affected by chest pain.


The Middle East and North Africa are a long-term demographic nightmare. The US Census Bureau estimates that the Middle East is a region where the population will nearly double between now and 2030. Some of the most important, and sometimes troubled, countries in the region will experience explosive population growth. Population growth presents major problems for infrastructure. Much of the region has become a permanent food importer. Employment and education will be critical challenges to regional stability... All these and other features make the Middle East less competitive with the leading developing regions despite the recent boom in oil prices... The trends in population growth actually represent potential threats to security and stability. Yet, despite the extreme sensitivity of these themes, we can hardly say that demographic evolution in the Middle East is considered as an issue deserving the same concern in the U.S. official spheres than energy, Islamism rise, non-conventional armament programs, etc. Actually, neither the president of the United States nor any high-ranking official in his administration seem concerned for example about the fact that about 2010 the pool of unemployed Arabs is expected to reach 25 million. True, this is first and above all an Arab problem. Yet, if the expectations are accurate, by 2050, according to the latest UN projections, the population growth rate of the Muslim world will converge on that of the United States (although it will be much higher than Europe's or China's). In the focus on the political processes in the Middle East, the demographic issue goes almost unnoticed, although this is the very source of future problems. However, we just ask: what will become of those 25 million idle young men in an Arab world where violence and terrorism seem to be generated by local as well as regional and international political interests, where the perspectives seem locked up and the future unsure and unsafe? What would we do of some reports claiming that the next civilisation clash will not spare the West, since some Islamist thinkers believe that Islam has one generation in which to establish a global theocracy before hitting a demographic barrier? Islam has enough young men, they claim, to fight a war during the next 30 years. Because of mass migration to Western Europe - which will be the attracting perspective for the expected 25 million unemployed Arabs - the worst of the war might be fought on European soil.


Mainstream management literature and research regarding the international
career has long focused on the traditional expatriate experience
(for example Adler 1986; Boyacigiller 1995; Dowling and Welch 2004;
Feldman and Tompson 1993; Mendenhall and Oddou 2000). In this
discourse, the tendency has been to outline the benefits and issues to be
considered for organizations and individuals embarking on international
assignments. In contrast, this chapter focuses on a special group whose
positioning in the structures of employment and organization is in some
ways exemplary of developing trends in the global labor force. They
are the highly educated permanent expatriates1 who remain in the host
country indefinitely (that is without a pre-determined organizational
option of repatriation to their initial home country). We engage with the
mainstream ways of dealing with this group and take a critical approach
in exploring their international careers. In fact, we take a critical stance
on the notion of 'career' itself and question its ubiquitous application.
Adopting a loose and critical review of Foucault's governmentality, technologies
of power and domination and technologies of the self, we aim to
explore organizational and individual power and control with regard to
an individual's career in an international context, and to propose a practical
model for professionals working in areas such as human resource
management (HRM), human resource development (HRD) and career
management consultancy.


Introduction: Divorce, unwanted pregnancies and failed marriages inflict severe mental, emotional, physical and financial damages on individuals, families and the community. Meanwhile, premarital education programs are considered one of the effective factors to prevent such problems. Objective : The present study aimed to determine challenges of premarital education program in Iran. Materials and Methods: This systematic review was conducted by searching the PubMed, Elsevier, Magiran, IranMedex, SID Irandoc, Medlib, and Google scholar databases in order to find papers in Farsi and English with the keywords of couples, training, consultation, premarital, Iran, health program, preparation for marriage, educational needs, and divorce. We reviewed different case-control, descriptive, and descriptive-analytical studies on premarital education. Of the 28 published papers on premarital education, 17 articles met the inclusion criteria. Results: Factors and challenges associated with premarital education can be divided into two main categories: policy making challenges and operational challenges. Conclusion: The results showed that marrying couples need the knowledge and skills that are not provided in the current premarital education. Complete execution of premarital education in Iran is possible only in the light of awareness, sufficient resources, considering the needs of the target group, and the presence of an accountable system.


The prevalence of and risk factors for varicose veins (VV) were studied in elderly persons over 60 years of age who had visited the Tonya and Farabi Hospitals in Trabzon, a city in northeastern Turkey. VV were defined as dilated, tortuous and elongated veins of the lower extremities and were classified into four types. The total prevalence of VV was 36.7% (14.6% in males and 22.1% in females). Segment type varices were observed in 16.5%, saphenous type in 5.6%, reticular type in 4.7%, web type in 2.3%, and combined types in 7.5%. The prevalence of VV increased with age and was greater among those with a family history of the condition in 154 of 312 patients with VV (49.4%). Other factors, such as congestive heart failure, angina pectoris, hypertension, cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus, height, weight, obesity, or hyperlipidemia, were not found to be associated with the prevalence of VV. However, the factors of age, work posture and childbirth did show an association with prevalence, as reported by others.


The majority of individuals with ASD are law-abiding (Murphy, 2017, King & Murphy, 2014). However, research has shown how ASD symptomology can contribute to various types of offending behaviour, with those behaviours most associated with ASD including violent behaviour, sexual offending, fire setting/arson, obsessive harassment (stalking), and cyber-crimes (e.g. Baron-Cohen, 1988; Everall & Lecouteur, 1990; Schwartz-Watts, 2005; Mouridsen et al., 2008; Ledingham & Mills, 2015; Allely and Creaby-Attwood, 2016). There is much debate about whether individuals with ASD should be treated exactly the same as the general population in the criminal justice system as currently happens (e.g., Hayes, 2016). As highlighted in the paper by Hayes (2016), not every offence which is committed by someone with ASD is due to their disorder. There are cases involving individuals who have engaged in offending behaviour which have been intentional and voluntary criminal acts (Freckelton, 2013; Berryessa, 2014). The difficulty is trying to identify whether ASD symptomology did in fact contribute or not to the offending behaviour on a case-by-case basis (see also, Allely & Cooper, 2017; Cooper & Allely, 2017).


In order to explore the quantum-to-classical transition, the ambition of this thesis was the design and synthesis of tailor-made molecules for matter-wave interference experiments. Firstly, the focus was set on a deeper understanding of the influence of a molecule's internal structure, especially its polarizability, on quantum interference. Furthermore, the limits of quantum mechanics were addressed by increasing the size of the interfering objects. The metrological aspect of molecule interferometry - to measure influences of molecule properties on the wave nature - is described in the first part of this thesis. Two fourfold perfluorohexyl functionalized constitutional isomers were synthesized in order to demonstrate that different molecular conformations can be distinguished in quantum interference experiments. A tetrahedral isomer and a rod-like oligo(phenylene ethynylene) derivative were applied in a near-field Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometer. Although de Broglie quantum interference describes the center of mass motion of a massive body, it was shown to be sensitive to the internal molecular structure of the constitutional isomers. The different total susceptibilities of both isomers lead to different de Broglie interference shifts in the presence of external electric fields. The isomers thus become distinguishable in spite of their identical mass and chemical sum formula. Besides metrological applications, a main goal of this thesis was to synthesize model compounds for molecule interferometry to increase the preexisting mass record for quantum interferometry, which was held by the fluorofullerene C60F48 with a molecular weight of 1 633 g/mol. Near-field interferometry is a promising concept to set new records and thus to approach the quantum-to-classical transition. To meet the requirements of quantum studies with complex organic molecules in a Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau near-field interferometer – high volatility, high stability, and high molecular mass – we chose the functionalization of tetraarylporphyrins with perfluoroalkyl moieties. A modular synthesis of seven perfluoroalkyl-substituted porphyrin derivatives with up to 16 fluorous alkyl chains was presented. With this series in hand, it was possible to observe interference patterns for three of the seven derivatives. The heaviest molecule of this series for which the wave nature has been observed has a 3.3 fold higher molecular weight than the preexisting mass record for quantum interference. These experiments open a new window for quantum experiments with nanoobjects in a complexity class comparable to that of small proteins. The experimental setup of the near-field Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometer is not restricted to monodisperse and pure starting compounds. It also allows for experiments with compound mixtures because individual components of compound libraries can be detected in the mass spectrometric detection unit. The preparation of porphyrin libraries gave access to compounds in a new mass region (> 10 000 g/mol). Preliminary investigations in near-field interferometers with these structures revealed suitable molecule beam properties. With these porphyrin libraries in hand, it is expected to exceed for the first time the ceiling of 10 000 g/mol for an interfering object in the future. Large, stable, highly volatile and fluorescent molecules were the goal of synthetic work that was performed for novel far-field interference experiments in a setup based on fluorescence detection. For this purpose three fluorescent fluorous phthalocyanine derivatives were prepared. With the help of a new laser-controlled micro-evaporation source it was possible to produce a beam of molecules with the required intensity and coherence. The observation of the wave nature of a free base phthalocyanine having a molecular weight of 1 299 g/mol set a new mass record for far-field molecule interferometry. The preexisting record for far-field interferometry was held by the fullerene C70 with a mass of 841 g/mol. To conclude, major contributions to the exploration of the frontiers of quantum mechanics were achieved by matter-wave interferometry using the perfluoroalkyl-functionalized molecules described in this thesis.


This paper presents findings of a study examining state-voluntary sector inter-organizational relationships, and the capacity of third-sector organizations to exercise autonomy over employment matters in this relationship. The aim is to provide insights into an under-researched area of the inter-organizational literature, especially in relation to its employment implications. In doing so, it reveals how, as with broader studies of inter-organizational relations, state-voluntary sector relations are not homogenous and therefore lead to differing implications for employment. In particular, three Types of voluntary organization emerge, employing, with varying degrees of success, various strategies to protect the terms and conditions of their employees in the face of cost-cutting pressures from funding bodies. As industrialized countries increasingly turn to the third sector for the provision of social services, it argues that even for the strongest of these organizations, there are long-term risks for staff morale and therefore quality of care provided by the sector if organizations fail to manage these external pressures from funders.


This book identifies the 13 main challenges designers face when they talk about their work and provides communication strategies so that a better design, not a louder argument, is what makes it into the world. It is a fact that we all want to put great design into the world, but no product ever makes it out of the building without rounds of reviews, feedback, and signoff. As an interaction or UX designer, youve felt the general trend toward faster development, more work, and less discussion. As we spend time crafting, we become attached to our own ideas and it gets all too easy to react to feedback emotionally or dismiss it, when we should be taking the time to decode it and explain or adapt the design. Communicating the UX Vision helps you identify the skills and behavioral patterns to present your work in more persuasive ways, and respond more constructively to feedback from coworkers and stakeholders. Learn presentation tips that make stakeholders and other departments take your designs more seriously Uncover valuable techniques to make feedback sessions more productive Understand how to improve empathy with business stakeholders and learn to speak their language better Discover how to better understand your behavior and identify your personal anti-patterns


Local people in South-east Asia are often cited as skilled forest managers. It is barely acknowledged that an essential part of this forest management does not concern natural forests, but forests that have been planted, often after the removal of pre-existing natural forests; forests that are cultivated not by professional foresters, but by sedentary or swidden farmers, on their farmlands; forests that are based not on exotic, fast-growing trees, but on local tree species, and harbour an incredible variety of plant and animal species. This book concentrates on forest cultivation by smallholder farmers in South-east Asia, not only because it constitutes altogether the most original and lesser known aspect of local forest management in the region, but also because, it represents the most promising field for the design of alternative strategies for the management of forest resources and forest lands. Natural forests are still present and actively managed in the region. So, why do people cut natural forests to replant the same species of forest trees they have just chopped down? Why have professional foresters, or the decision-makers in forest management, never seriously considered these examples of indigenous forest culture, however sustainable and profitable they may be? Many elements of the answer to these questions are given in this book, which is built on the conclusions of 10 years of multidisciplinary research and analysis on these systems. It shows how forest culture by farmers constitutes a strategy that questions the practical, conceptual and legal aspects of conventional forest management. It speaks for more scientific and political support to these systems, because they are altogether neglected, endangered and full of potential. Further it explains a why it is important to consider these examples as interesting alternative models to either forest extraction or specialized forest plantations, especially in the present context of depletion of natural forests all over the planet. Can the transfer of these original examples to other parts of the world be achieved? How can it be successful? This book helps to answer these important questions.


Considerable claims have been made for the development of e-learning, either as stand-alone programmes or alongside more traditional approaches to teaching and learning, for students across school and tertiary education. National initiatives have improved the position of schools in terms of access to hardware and electronic networking, software and educational resources, and staff development. The potential of e-learning to improve learning and teaching, and in turn, attainment, may be contested by academics but the policy makers are generally positive. Many countries across Europe and North America have adopted information and communication technology (ICT) as a central plank in school improvement and effectiveness planning. At the centre, however, remain the teacher and the learner. The impact of ICT on the learning experience will depend upon the roles adopted by each, the model of the learner held by the teacher and the pedagogy adopted. This paper considers the ways in which teachers and students responded to the implementation of one particular online programme and considers the approaches adopted and the attitudes to its use. The SCHOLAR programme is designed to complement rather than replace traditional teaching and learning approaches within schools and is aimed at students in the post-compulsory years of secondary school working towards external certification. It has a number of features including course materials, revision exercises, self-assessment facilities and a discussion forum. The independent evaluation of SCHOLAR looked at the impact that its use made on learning and teaching in the post-16 classroom and the differing ways in which teachers and students used the various elements of the programme. While it did appear to have a positive impact on attainment, the evidence indicates that this might have been greater had the teachers modified their practice, blending learning through SCHOLAR with more traditional methods.


Teaching an introductory web design course is already a blended environment. Students meet face-to-face, yet have access to a myriad of online resources, YouTube videos, blogs, and forums to support their learning. However, the challenges of learning to understand code can inhibit students and diminish their motivation to look for resources. The authors have attempted to address this issue by focusing on the use and design of games for learning to code, as well as providing video lecture material in combination with the traditional face-to-face learning environment. By using games and gamification in the course design, the authors have found that students are able not only to bridge their knowledge between modalities more smoothly, but that they understand that there are multiple ways to solve a problem and feel empowered to search for solutions in innovative ways.


This paper presents simulations of propagating turbulent premixed deflagrating flames past built-in solid obstructions in a small-scale combustion chamber. The design of the chamber allows for up to three baffle plates and a central square obstacle to be positioned in the path of the propagating flames in order to generate turbulence and increase the flame propagating speed. The test case considered in this paper uses a stagnant, stoichiometric propane-air mixture in the configuration of three baffles and one central obstacle. Simulations have been carried out with the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technique. The filtered reaction rate in LES is accounted for using a novel dynamic flame surface density (DFSD) model. Both numerical and experimental results show that the flame is initially laminar and becomes fully turbulent after continuous interaction with the obstacles downstream. Satisfactory agreement made between the LES calculations and the experimental data confirms the capability of the DFSD model in reproducing essential flame characteristic parameters including the maximum overpressure and flame front speed. The interaction between obstacle-generated turbulence and the flame front is quantified using the sub-grid-scale (SGS) wrinkling factor. Various stages of flame propagation and the dynamic behaviours of the flame are also examined based on the evolution and spatial distribution of the wrinkling factor.


Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is foreseen as a promising source for liquid biopsies in cancer diagnostics. Despite its promise, methods available for its evaluation lack in robustness or, in the case of next-generation sequencing (NGS), are extremely sensitive but overly complex for routine operation. In contrast to NGS, integrated lab-on-chip devices offer advantages particularly in terms of automation, cost and speed. These devices, however, have rarely demonstrated the detection of biologically relevant DNA fragments originating from blood. To this end, we present a strategy for the magnetic labeling and detection of cfDNA fragments, using an array of 30 magnetoresistive (MR) sensors integrated in a portable biochip platform. As a proof-of-concept, we selected the fragments ALU115 and ALU247, recently identified as promising cancer targets in cfDNA integrity assessment. This work reveals a rational optimization of the DNA probes design and density at the surface which allowed achieving specific target detection and increased inhibition of unspecific interactions, without the need for blocking agents. The developed strategy is adaptable for the detection of mutations, homologous or truncated sequences such as the case of ALU115 and ALU247, sequences that share great similarity. Upon optimization, the MR sensors detected a concentration of the ALU elements within the picomolar range, showing potential for cfDNA analysis in cancer diagnostics.


AIM
To assess safety of combined low-dose oral contraceptives in women after renal transplantation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Twenty six female renal graft-recipients, aged from 18 to 44 (mean 31 years), who used combined low-dose oral contraceptives after renal transplantation for at least 18 months were enrolled in the study. All patients had stable graft function with mean serum creatinine of 1.3 mg/dl. In 58% of women effective contraception was the mean indication for the therapy, in the remaining group pills were indicated additionally for the development of ovarian cysts and excessive menstrual bleedings. Ethinyl estradiol dose was 20 mug in 73% of cases and 30-35 microg in the remaining group.

RESULTS
No case of pregnancy was observed. Contraceptive therapy was discontinued in two cases: for profound vein thrombosis in one and deterioration of liver function in the other case. No side effects of contraceptives were observed in the remaining group of patients within at least 18-month observational period. No case of ovarian cyst was reported. Oral contraceptives were not found to influence body mass index (BMI), mean blood pressure, serum creatinine and biochemical parameters (AST, ALT, total bilirubin, glucose and cholesterol).

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the presence of relative contraindications for hormonal drugs (arterial hypertension and deteriorated liver function) in female renal recipients, administration of combined low-dose contraceptive pill should be taken into account as highly effective contraceptive method, that additionally regulates menstrual bleeding patterns, protects from ovarian cysts development and improves life quality of the patient.


Government and donor projects that deliver microfinance-that is, credit and other financial services for poor and low-income people-usually involve microfinance institutions (MFIs) with professional staff. However, an increasing minority of microfinance projects rely instead on community-managed loan funds (CMLFs). In CMLFs, credit to the members of a small group is managed by the members themselves, with no professional management or supervision of the approval, disbursement, and collection of loans. These funds are referred to by a variety of names, including revolving funds, self-managed village banks, accumulating savings and credit associations (ASCAs), and community-based finance. This focus note presents conclusions from a performance review of dozens of CMLF projects established or supported by donors and international non-government organizations (NGOs) over the past 15 years. It turns out that success is strongly linked to the source of funding for the loans group members receive.


A software product line is a set of program variants, typically generated from a common code base. Feature models describe variability in product lines by documenting features and their valid combinations. In product-line engineering, we need to reason about variability and program variants for many different tasks. For example, given a feature model, we might want to determine the number of all valid feature combinations or compute specific feature combinations for testing. However, we found that contemporary reasoning approaches can only reason about feature combinations, not about program variants, because they do not take abstract features into account. Abstract features are features used to structure a feature model that, however, do not have any impact at implementation level. Using existing feature-model reasoning mechanisms for program variants leads to incorrect results. Hence, although abstract features represent domain decisions that do not affect the generation of a program variant. We raise awareness of the problem of abstract features for different kinds of analyses on feature models. We argue that, in order to reason about program variants, abstract features should be made explicit in feature models. We present a technique based on propositional formulas that enables to reason about program variants rather than feature combinations. In practice, our technique can save effort that is caused by considering the same program variant multiple times, for example, in product-line testing.


The thesis, supervised by Jean Lafontaine, focussed on migration from the Comoro Islands near Madagascar, to Zanzibar and the East African Swahili coast, between the 1830s and the 1970s. Comorians had shared a common history and culture with the Swahili for many centuries; in colonial East Africa, chance offered them a unique 'racial' and employment niche which evaporated abruptly after 1964 and East African independence. They had suddenly to reassess marriage, residence and self-definition strategies, and their implications for the future. The thesis addressed ethnic identity (which had focussed excessively on its immutability) and demonstrated its adaptability to changing political and economic context. The study also attempted to escape from timeless, fixed-location ethnography, and followed links which led to data-collection in several East African and Comorian locations. Finally, by following Comorian choices over 150 years, the thesis made a contribution to an understanding of broader Swahili history which demands similar light-footed mobility through time and space for the processes of change to be understood. Gill Shepherd completed her PhD at a time when university recruitment was a standstill. Instead she built a career in tropical forest policy at London's Overseas Development Institute, and focussed on rights for forest peoples.


BackgroundPatients with delirium and dementia admitted to general hospitals have poor outcomes, and their carers report poor experiences. We developed an acute geriatric medical ward into a specialist Medical and Mental Health Unit over an eighteen month period. Additional specialist mental health staff were employed, other staff were trained in the 'person-centred' dementia care approach, a programme of meaningful activity was devised, the environment adapted to the needs of people with cognitive impairment, and attention given to communication with family carers. We hypothesise that patients managed on this ward will have better outcomes than those receiving standard care, and that such care will be cost-effective.Methods/designWe will perform a controlled clinical trial comparing in-patient management on a specialist Medical and Mental Health Unit with standard care. Study participants are patients over the age of 65, admitted as an emergency to a single general hospital, and identified on the Acute Medical Admissions Unit as being 'confused'. Sample size is 300 per group. The evaluation design has been adapted to accommodate pressures on bed management and patient flows. If beds are available on the specialist Unit, the clinical service allocates patients at random between the Unit and standard care on general or geriatric medical wards. Once admitted, randomised patients and their carers are invited to take part in a follow up study, and baseline data are collected. Quality of care and patient experience are assessed in a non-participant observer study. Outcomes are ascertained at a follow up home visit 90 days after randomisation, by a researcher blind to allocation. The primary outcome is days spent at home (for those admitted from home), or days spent in the same care home (if admitted from a care home). Secondary outcomes include mortality, institutionalisation, resource use, and scaled outcome measures, including quality of life, cognitive function, disability, behavioural and psychological symptoms, carer strain and carer satisfaction with hospital care. Analyses will comprise comparisons of process, outcomes and costs between the specialist unit and standard care treatment groups.Trial Registration numberClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01136148


The material process in grinding involves rubbing, ploughing and cutting. Rubbing and ploughing, which usually occur before or after cutting, essentially mean the energy is being applied less efficiently than cutting. It is therefore important to identify the effects of these different phenomena experienced during grinding. A fundamental investigation has been made with Single Grit (SG) cutting tests. To identify the different phenomena, Acoustic Emission (AE) signals extracted by sensor would give the information relating to the groove profile in terms of material removal and deformation. Each AE signal profile would be accurately measured against the surface profile measurements providing the dimensions of the indented groove made into the aerospace material test pieces. A combination of filters, Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT), Wavelets Transform (WT), statistical windowing of the WT would provide the principal components for classifying different levels of SG cutting phenomenon. Classification would be obtained from a Neural Network (NN) paradigm.


The paper considers the effects of economic globalization on the relationship between national economic and political elites. It is contended that high levels of globalization lead to the de-coupling of economic elites from national political elites and that economic globalization also marginalizes the powers of dependent nation states. The thesis of this paper is that in economically globalized states there is a duality of power.  A political elite is legitimated electorally to a national constituency but excluded from the nexus of power by globalized processes.  The composition and balance between ruling elites diverge between nation states.  A comparison is made between the British and Russian economic elites.  The paper considers the composition of the boards of directors of twelve leading companies in the UK and fourteen in Russia. Attention is given to their national and educational background as well as their current or previous links with governments and economic institutions. On the basis of the biographies of directors and other company data, it is concluded that the economic elites in British companies are global in composition and decoupled from the UK's political elites.  Globalization moves capitalism out of a nation state framework and neo-liberalism legitimates markets over states. Such de-coupling leads to increasing political weakness of national political elites and stimulates movements for economic nationalism. Russia is considered a hybrid system with many leading companies being closely integrated with the political elite but others are more autonomous and multinational in control and ownership. The economic structure is the basis of Russia's economic nationalism.  Political leadership is considered a key variable in tipping the balance.


Abstract. Number concentrations and mean sizes of ice crystals and derived microphysical and optical properties of subvisible cirrus clouds (SVCs) formed by homogeneous freezing of supercooled aerosols are investigated as a function of temperature and updraft speed of adiabatically ascending air parcels. The properties of such clouds are insensitive to variations of the aerosol number and size distribution. Based on criteria constraining the optical extinction, sedimentation time, and existence time of SVCs, longer-lived (>10min) clouds, capable of exerting a measurable radiative or chemical impact, are generated within a narrow range of updraft speeds below 1-2cm s-1 at temperatures below about 215K, with concentrations of ice crystals not exceeding 0.1cm-3. The clouds do not reach an equilibrium state because the ice crystals sediment out of the formation layer typically before the supersaturation is removed. Two important conclusions emerge from this work. First, the above characteristics of SVCs may provide an explanation for why SVCs are more common in the cold tropical than in the warmer midlatitude tropopause region. Second, it seems likely that a limited number (


This paper presents a methodology for determining the probability of structural failures for VLSI circuits. An analytically based approach is used to perform simulations accurately and efficiently. This approach considers the specific IC layout and accounts for most of the fault mechanisms caused by global geometrical variations and local defects. A hierarchical model is proposed to describe the defect statistics including clustering. Strict analytical methods are used to find probabilities of failure for simple layout patterns. Then, the probability of failure for macrocells are calculated hierarchically. This methodology has been implemented in a CAD tool called RYE (Realistic Yield Evaluator). To demonstrate the effectiveness of this tool, the simulation results of several examples and the CPU time comparisons with Monte Carlo methods are also presented in this paper.


Decades of work in the field of spatial cognition have revealed fundamental aspects of how navigation is structured in two-dimensional, horizontal spaces and have exposed remarkable insights into how the brain processes spatial information. However, animals and humans daily encounter navigation tasks in complex environments that include many vertical features. Until now, it has been only poorly understood how navigation behaviours are organised in three-dimensional spaces and how the additional vertical dimension is encoded. The aim of the present thesis was threefold: first, to review behavioural and neurophysiological literature involving three-dimensional navigation; second, to characterise spatial behaviours in environments with a vertical dimension; and third, to study neural substrates of three-dimensional navigation. Rats' navigation abilities were tested in two types of environments: the pegboard, which is a vertical climbing wall, and the lattice maze, which is a three-dimensional climbing cube. Foraging and detour experiments were conducted in both environments and revealed that the use of three-dimensional space is horizontally biased. Such biases were manifested in three ways. Rats exhibited more horizontal than vertical movements, structured their foraging behaviours in a horizontal fashion and showed preference for initially-horizontal paths when offered two routes requiring equivalent effort to reach a goal. In order to understand how the vertical dimension is represented at a neural level, hippocampal place cells and entorhinal grid cells were recorded on the pegboard during foraging. In horizontal environments, place cells exhibit location-specific firing, whereas grid cells map space with multiple hexagonally arranged firing fields. The experiments with the pegboard revealed that both cell types represented the horizontal dimension better than the vertical dimension. Furthermore, grid cells formed vertically aligned stripes on the pegboard, suggesting that encoding of the vertical dimension was more strongly impaired in grid cells than by place cells. It is suggested that in rats, three-dimensional spaces are – both at a neural and a behavioural level – anisotropically represented.


In Romania, as in other former communist countries, there has long been a deficit of information about social research and its data. In light of the growing need for high-quality data, which are a pre-condition for effective social policies, solutions to address the deficit are currently being sought both nationally and internationally. The article summarises the recent establishment of the Romanian Social Data Archive, which is supported by the Institute for Quality of Life Research (an institute of the Romanian Academy of Sciences) and by the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the University of Bucharest and points to the main technical and legal challenges that it faces. Indications about collaborative activities are also provided, pointing to the common problems raised by social science data in Eastern Europe and the considerable scope for cooperation in addressing them.


The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between the number of series and duration of shoulder stretching exercises on the immediate and late acute effects on flexibility. Seventy individuals with ages ranging from 20 and 30 years with no previous flexibility training participated in this study. Randomly, 10 subjects composed the control group (CG) and the others were equally divided into three groups according to the duration of the stimulus, namely: 10 seconds (G10), 60 seconds (G60) and 120 seconds (G120). Later, each group was subdivided in relation to the number of series, namely: one (G10A, G60A, G120A) and three series (G10B, G60B, G120B). Flexibility was measured through an universal goniometer and the observations occurred shortly after, 90 minutes after and 24 hours after stimulation. The analysis of variance ANOVA identified significant association between the time of stimulus and the other variables (p = 0.042). No differences of flexibility were verified between experimental groups, but all groups exhibited values higher than CG. The temporal comparison of absolute values of flexibility for groups submitted to the same stimulus duration and number of series revealed significant differences only for G120A, G60B and G120B, between the first observation and 24 hours after. On the other hand, the analysis of the percentile values showed that the stimulation time and the number of series were associated with the duration of the flexibility acute increment. In this case, no differences between groups were verified, except between G60A and G60B in the observation after 24 hours. One concludes that stimulus duration may provide higher initial flexibility, regardless the number of series. However, the immediate gains of flexibility could not be maintained after 24 hours. No one knows, however, if progressive long-duration stimuli would provide long-term higher amplitude if compared with stretching exercises performed in shorter periods of time.


This study investigated the impact of brand elements on creating brand equity of Jordanian corporations. Despite the significant development in branding globally and its role in increasing the equity of the companies, a quick preview of previous research indicates that there are still some gaps in research related to brand elements and its impact on creating brand equity and branding in general and especially in the Jordanian context. The main aim of the research was to answer a number of questions: Is there an impact of brand elements: Brand names, URL's, Logos & Symbols, Characters, Slogans, Jingles and Signage & Packaging on brand equity? If so, which elements have the major impact on brand equity? A quantitative approach was adopted in this research. A questionnaire was developed and administered for collecting data from the sample. 160 questionnaires were distributed using cluster sampling method to the marketing officers of the corporations that appeared in the sample, (138) retrieved and (131) were accepted for analysis. Data analysis took place to examine the study variables and test hypothesis using the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS). After conducting the analysis of study data and hypotheses, the study found that Jordanian corporations most frequently used brand elements are name, logo, symbol, packaging or signage and that these have positive impact on creating and sustaining brand equity. Based on the findings it is recommended that Jordanian Corporations pay more attention to branding and brand elements due to the positive influence that they have on brand equity.

 Key words: Brand elements, brand equity, Jordan, Corporations, local brands.


Abstract: In the last decades, the Spanish legislature has expressed its concern regarding thenegative impact of the existing duality in its national labour market. Many of the employment Actsadopted in the last few years specifically mention this problem in their preambles.In order to analyse the effectiveness of the measures adopted about this question it is necessary tohighlight the two different ways to approach the problem of duality. On the one hand, the existing dualitycould be reduced by making the access to temporary contacts of employment harder (reducing thenumber and the possibilities of temporary contracts and increasing the labour cost of these contracts) Onthe other hand, protection to open-ended contracts could be loosened so that differences of protection inboth kind of contracts would be shortened. For some years the focus was on reducing hiring flexibility.Since the economic crisis of 2008, and in accordance with the recommendations of the European Council,initiatives to combat the duality of the Spanish labour market have affected firing flexibility. Thispaper studies the effectiveness and consequences of those policies. Keywords: duality and segmentation, hiring flexibility, firing flexibility, labour law reforms. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.20318/sllerj.2016.3308


Some new methods for factor analyzing socioeconomic data are presented, discussed and illustrated with analyses of new and old datasets. A general socioeconomic factor (S) was found in a dataset of 47 French-speaking Swiss provinces from 1888. It was strongly related (r's .64 to .70) to cognitive ability as measured by an army examination. Fertility had a strong negative loading (r -.44 to -.67). Results were similar when using rank-transformed data. The S factor of international rankings data was found to have a split-half factor reliability of .93, that of the general factor of personality extracted from 25 OCEAN items .55, and that of the general cognitive ability factor .68 based on 16 items from the International Cognitive Ability Resource.


Increasingly, medical choices involve deciding whether to look for evidence of undetected, asymptomatic conditions, or increased risk of future conditions (i.e. screening). Those who screen at sufficiently high risk face decisions about interventions to prevent or postpone the onset of possible, but not certain, future symptomatic conditions. Other preventive decisions include whether or not to accept population-based intervention, such as vaccination. Using decision trees, we model the normative structures and associated uncertainties that underlie five medical decision situations, each of which involves assessing the probabilistic hypothesis that a person has, or will in the future have, a given symptomatic condition. The probability estimate that results from assessment becomes an input into predicting treatment benefit, with the probability of benefit decreasing as that of the symptomatic condition decreases. The five situations identified in this paper involve assessing: (1) a symptomatic patient; (2) an asymptomatic individual for an undetected condition; (3) an individual for risk of a future condition; (4) an individual for multiple risks simultaneously (shotgun assessment); and (5) an individual for a population-based intervention. Analysis of these situations facilitates examination of intuitive probabilistic reasoning. Drawing on evidence in related literature, we discuss some implications of decision-makers imposing the wrong structure or probabilistic reasoning when making medical choices. In particular, we discuss (1) overestimation of expected benefit due to systematic underestimation of uncertainty in a given decision; (2) overconfidence in probabilistic test results; and (3) failure to understand the implications of cumulative probabilities when 'shot-gun' testing.


The polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) transports polymeric immunoglobulins (IgA) from the basolateral to the apical surface of epithelial cells. At the apical surface, its amino-terminal domain, termed secretory component (SC), is proteolytically cleaved and released either unbound (free SC) or bound to IgA. We examined the effects of changes in water balance and vasopressin on the production and secretion of the pIgR in the rat kidney in vivo. Water deprivation induced a 2.7-fold increase in the pIgR mRNA and a 2.2-fold increase in intracellular pIgR protein compared with water-loaded animals. Physiological doses of desmopressin reproduced the effects of water deprivation on mRNA and intracellular protein levels, suggesting that pIgR expression may be regulated by a vasopressin-coupled mechanism. Secretion of free SC and secretory IgA in the urine, however, correlated directly with water intake and urine flow. These results suggest that hydration status and vasopressin may affect the mucosal immunity of the kidney by regulating at different steps the epithelial cell production and secretion of the polymeric immunoglobulin transporter/ secretory component.


Pumped‐storage (PS) systems are used to store electric energy as potential energy for release during peak demand. We investigate the impacts of a planned 1000 MW PS scheme connecting Lago Bianco with Lago di Poschiavo (Switzerland) on temperature and particle mass concentration in both basins. The upper (turbid) basin is a reservoir receiving large amounts of fine particles from the partially glaciated watershed, while the lower basin is a much clearer natural lake. Stratification, temperature and particle concentrations in the two basins were simulated with and without PS for four different hydrological conditions and 27 years of meteorological forcing using the software CE‐QUAL‐W2. The simulations showed that the PS operations lead to an increase in temperature in both basins during most of the year. The increase is most pronounced (up to 4°C) in the upper hypolimnion of the natural lake toward the end of summer stratification and is partially due to frictional losses in the penstocks, pumps and turbines. The remainder of the warming is from intense coupling to the atmosphere while water resides in the shallower upper reservoir. These impacts are most pronounced during warm and dry years, when the upper reservoir is strongly heated and the effects are least concealed by floods. The exchange of water between the two basins relocates particles from the upper reservoir to the lower lake, where they accumulate during summer in the upper hypolimnion (10 to 20 mg L−1) but also to some extent decrease light availability in the trophic surface layer.


A variety of goods and services in the contemporary world requires permanent improvement of services e-commerce platform performance. Modern society is so deeply integrated with mail deliveries, purchasing of goods and services online, that makes competition between service and good providers a key selection factor. As long as logistic, timely, and cost-effective delivery plays important part authors decided to analyze possible ways of improvements in the current field, especially for regions distantly located from popular distribution centers. Considering both: fast and lazy delivery the factor of costs is playing an important role for each end-user. Given work proposes a simulation that analyses the current cost of delivery for e-commerce orders in the context of delivery by the Supplier Fleet, World-Wide delivery service fleet, and possible vendor drop-ship and checks of the alternative ways can be used to minimize the costs. The main object of investigation is focused around mid and small businesses living far from big distribution centers (except edge cases like lighthouses, edge rocks with very limited accessibility) but actively using e-commerce solutions for daily activities fulfillment. Authors analyzed and proposed a solution for the problem of cost optimization for packages delivery for long-distance deliveries using a combination of paths delivered by supplier fleets, worldwide and local carriers. Data models and Add-ons of contemporary Enterprise Resource Planning systems were used, and additional development is proposed in the perspective of the flow selection change. The experiment is based on data sources of the United States companies using a wide range of carriers for delivery services and uses the data sources of the real companies; however, it applies repetitive simulations to analyze variances in obtained solutions.


Fiber Optics and Copper wires are the two prominent communication links used in modern communication and play a great role. A lot of articles have been written comparing these two technologies. Each of this communication links has its own advantages and disadvantages over the other. In this paper, both fiber optics and copper are evaluated and compared regarding their advantages and disadvantages based on bandwidth, cost, weight, size and flexibility, signal loss, information capacity, safety and immunity .In today's modern-world communication demand, having an understanding of how these interconnects and interfaces devices is critical to successful system design.


—Computer vision (CV) is widely expected to be the next big thing in mobile computing. The availability of a camera and a large number of sensors in mobile devices will enable CV applications that understand the environment and enhance people's lives through augmented reality. One of the problems yet to solve is how to transfer demanding state-of-the-art CV algorithms —designed to run on powerful desktop computers with several GPUs— onto energy-efficient, but slow, processors and GPUs found in mobile devices. To accommodate to the lack of performance, current CV applications for mobile devices are simpler versions of more complex algorithms, which generally run slowly and unreliably and provide a poor user experience. In this paper, we investigate ways to speed up demanding CV applications to run faster on mobile devices. We selected KinectFusion (KF) as a representative CV application. The KF application constructs a 3D model from the images captured by a Kinect. After porting it to an ARM platform, we applied several optimisation and parallelisation techniques using OpenCL to exploit all the available computing resources. We evaluated the impact on performance and power and demonstrate a 4 ⇥ speed-up with just a 1.38 ⇥ power increase. We also evaluated the performance portability of our optimisations by running on a different platform, and assessed similar improvements despite the different multi-core configuration and memory system. By measuring processor temperature, we found overheating to be the main limiting factor for running such high-performance codes on a mobile device not designed for full continuous utilisation.


The arctic tundra vegetation classified in the study area, Toolik Lake Field Station, Alaska, was relatively small in stature (with varying species growing in clusters) and must therefore be placed in different communities. This study compared different digital image processing classification techniques, including unsupervised, supervised (using spectral and spatial features), and expert systems. The dataset was a pan-sharpened 5 × 5 meter spatial resolution SPOT image. Accuracy assessments based on field inspections of each final map were performed. The expert system classification yielded the highest overall accuracy of 74.66%, with a Kappa coefficient of agreeement of 0.6725.


THEME ARTICLE What is the relationship between females and science? Most studies show that there is not a strong relationship. Interest in science among adolescents has declined even though society is increasingly affected by scientific and technological developments (Smith & Hausafus 1988). Females are even less interested in science than males. This trend can be changed - and the key is incorporating science into the AgriScience curriculum. As female members of a strong high school AgriScience program, our interest in science developed early in high school. Our AgriScience teacher firmly believed in using science to demonstrate the principles of agriculture and taught us those same beliefs. As sophomores majoring in AgriScience Education at Michigan State University, we recognize the importance of developing and using a curriculum centered on the core principles of science. What is Science? According to AgriScience Explorations, an AgriScience book that we used in high school, science is learning about the world in which we live through observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Although we agree with this definition, to the typical high school student, the definition of science seems much simpler. Science provides the opportunity to be creative, experimental and experience information through entertaining avenues, such as hands-on projects, like planting seeds and observing their growth or dissecting animals. With much of today's population being visual learners, this action-oriented type of science-based learning proves extremely beneficial to students. Science in the Classroom Thinking back to science in junior high, we recall learning about the basic aspects of science, including biology and earth science. In these classes, we learned information from the textbook; however, we also performed projects dealing with dissections, research papers, and lab reports where textbook information was put to use. In high school, these scientific principles were reinforced in additional science courses; however, it was not until our AgriScience courses that we really grasped the concept of science. With many different AgriScience options in our high school, including botany, veterinary science, ag economics/business management, environmental science, and horticulture/landscaping, we had a variety of choices when looking for an AgriScience class. Throughout school, we enrolled in three of these classes and found each subject to contain different aspects of science. For example, in botany, we studied the germination of several different types of seeds. After looking at the way in which seeds germinate, we narrowed the study to look at one type of seed. Before beginning, we studied the scientific method and developed a proper experimental design to determine the hypothesis, independent/dependent variables, and control measures. At the end of the experiment, we drew conclusions, determined implications, and identified further studies. We used the same methods in veterinary science when conducting experiments with animals. In addition, we performed many dissections, including those on a fetal pig and a Cornish hen. This allowed us to visualize the reactions that take place in animals and to identify their different organs. After dissecting, we learned how science plays a role in the functions of living organisms. Science Applied to Life Information and hands-on experience that we gained from within our AgriScience curriculum proved to be useful to us outside of our AgriScience classes. During our junior and senior year of high school, we served as the co-managers of our AgriScience program's greenhouse where we were in charge of plant selection, production schedules and marketing of plant material. The principles that we learned in classes proved invaluable in this position. …