By downplaying externalities, magnifying the cost of moral behavior, or suggesting not being pivotal, exculpatory narratives can allow individuals to maintain a positive image when in fact acting in a morally questionable way. Conversely, responsibilizing narratives can help sustain better social norms. We investigate when narratives emerge from a principal or the actor himself, how they are interpreted and transmitted by others, and when they spread virally. We then turn to how narratives compete with imperatives (general moral rules or precepts) as alternative modes of communication to persuade agents to behave in desirable ways.


For more than 30 years, with the last 20 years at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), I have been immersed in community efforts to focus water resources research on growing societal needs. Past strategies have stumbled, but creative thinking on basin function offers a way out. The following ideas are mine and are not necessarily shared by NSF.


In combination with conferring resistance to ADP-ribosylation by Pertussis toxin, the substitution of a conserved cysteine residue (C351) four amino acids from the C-terminus of Gialpha1 has been shown to modulate the efficiency of coupling to the α2A adrenoceptor. Investigation of this phenomenon through systematic substitution of this cysteine residue for all other amino acids highlighted a relationship between the hydrophobicity of the substituted residue and the capacity of the a-subunit to functionally couple to the α2A adrenoceptor. From the results of this investigation, it was noted that wild type Giα1 did not display optimal coupling at this receptor. Relative to wild type Giα1, coupling was enhanced by the substitution of a more hydrophobic residue at position C351, but diminished upon the substitution of a more hydrophilic residue. In contrast to this, substitution of proline or a charged residue at this position essentially attenuated functional coupling with the α2A adrenoceptor. Similarly, pEC50 values of the mutants also showed a high degree of correlation with the hydrophobic nature of the substituted residue, with more hydrophobic residues reducing pEC50 values and more hydrophilic residues increasing pEC50 values respectively relative to wild type Giαl. This change in coupling efficiency could not be attributed to a change in the affinity for nucleotides at the a-subunit or to a change in the rate of basal guanine nucleotide exchange. These data indicate that functional coupling of the Giαl subunit to the α2A adrenoceptor is in part modulated by the physiochemical properties of residue 351 and that a relationship exists between the hydrophobicity of residue 351 and the capacity of the α-subunit to functionally couple to the α2A adrenoceptor. A series of fusion constructs composed of the α2A adrenoceptor covalently linked to selected Giαl C351 mutants were used to assess the effects of substituting residue C351 in Giαl on agonist intrinsic activity at the α2A adrenoceptor. The agonist UK 14304 was shown to elicit a spectrum of responses at the fusion constructs, closely mirroring the order of coupling efficiency previously determined in the separately expressed components. While UK14304 essentially acted as a full agonist compared to adrenaline at the fusion construct composed of wild type Giαl (C351 Giαl), it was shown to act as a partial agonist at an equivalent construct containing a glycine residue at position 351 in the Giαl moiety. In contrast to this, relative to the wild type Giαl fusion, UK14304 displayed greater relative intrinsic activity at the fusion construct containing an isoleucine residue at position 351 in the Giαl moiety. Analysis of a more extensive range of partial agonists demonstrated that the order of agonist relative intrinsic activity at the respective fusion constructs was conserved regardless of the agonist assayed. This discrepancy of intrinsic activity at the fusion proteins could not be attributed to a change in the pharmacological profile of the receptor moiety or to a modification of its affinity for agonist. These data indicate that the intrinsic activity of partial agonists, relative to adrenaline, can be modulated by the physiochemical properties of residue 351 in the Giαl moiety. The capacity of a series of chimeras containing substitutions of the last 6 C- terminal residues of Giαl for those of Gsα, Gqα and G16α were assessed for functional coupling with a range of non Gi-linked receptors. Functional coupling was demonstrated at the Gi/Gs chimera with the V2 vasopressin receptor and α2 adrenoceptor. Similarly, the Gi/Gq chimera was shown to functionally couple with the P2Y4, and TRH, receptors. No functional coupling was detected for the Gi/G16 chimera. The inability of the Gi/G16 chimera to functionally couple to any of the receptors analysed was independent from its capacity to basally exchange guanine nucleotides, which was shown to be unchanged relative to the Gi/Gs, Gi/Gq chimeras and wild type Giαl. The substitution of the 6 C-terminal residues of Giαl for those of Gsα also conferred resistance to ADP-ribosylation by both pertussis and cholera toxins. This was demonstrated by functional coupling of the Gi/Gs chimera to a FLAG(TM) -tagged version of the IP prostanoid receptor following treatment with both bacterial toxins. The GiαlGsα chimera was seen to couple more efficiently at the IP prostanoid receptor in the presence of these toxins than in non toxin treated samples, indicating that coupling efficiency of this chimera at the IP prostanoid receptor was not optimal. These findings indicate that the C-terminus of the G-protein α-subunit is an important determinant in defining G-protein/receptor coupling and that additional determinants, not present in the C-terminus of the α-subunit, are required for optimal coupling efficiency.


Hierarchical clusterings compactly encode multiple granularities of clusters within a tree structure. Hierarchies, by definition, fail to capture di↵erent flat partitions that are not subsumed in one another. In this paper, we advocate for an alternative structure for representing multiple clusterings, a directed acyclic graph (DAG). By allowing nodes to have multiple parents, DAG structures are not only more flexible than trees, but also allow for points to be members of multiple clusters. We describe a scalable algorithm, Llama, which simply merges nearest neighbor substructures to form a DAG structure. Llama discovers structures that are more accurate than state-of-the-art tree-based techniques while remaining scalable to large-scale clustering benchmarks. Additionally, we support the proposed algorithm with theoretical guarantees on separated data, including types of data that cannot be correctly clustered by tree-based algorithms.


Law students of color typically avoid seeking the mentorship of white law professors, largely white males, finding female faculty and faculty of color more approachable and willing to serve as mentors. Yet, according to recent ABA statistics, white people make up eighty-eight percent of the legal profession, with sixty-four percent being male. In addition, relevant scholarship comments that one of the primary privileges of whiteness is having greater access to power and resources than people of color do. It follows then, as recent legal scholarship suggests, that law students of color who fail to develop a cultural competence may be at a professional disadvantage if they are ill-prepared to work with diverse clients and colleagues. In other words, the success of law students of color, as well as their access to resources in the legal profession, strongly correlates with an acclimation toward positive interracial relationships. This Article draws upon interdisciplinary research, which suggests a white person's heightened White Privilege Awareness (WPA), paired with the belief that their influence can enact positive change, reduces racial inequality against people of color. Specifically, this Article maintains that WPA among white law professors, who mentor students of color and then leverage their white privilege to open professional doors for these students, will reduce implicit bias and may ultimately increase the retention of diverse attorneys. While the best methods to diversify the legal profession have appeared elusive, it is actually equal opportunity and empowerment of attorneys of color that eludes us. Diversity then feels like a *38 "buzzword," not a tangible priority. Thus, this call to action for white professors is not rhetoric, but a unique opportunity for the white professor to diversify the legal profession.


This collective portrait documents the disproportionate vulnerability of African Americans to the ongoing transformations of the U.S. economy from industrial to service areas as the twenty-first century approaches. The chapters have been previously published in The Review of Black Political Economy between 1991 and 1996. This volume represents one of the best sources of up-to-date perspectives on the circumstances facing African Americans in post-industrial labor markets. African Americans and Post-Industrial Labor Markets is divided into seven sections: "The Intersection of Race, Power, Culture, and Economic Discrimination," "Black-White Wage Differentials," "Occupational Crowding," "Black Women in the Labor Market," "Structural Unemployment and Job Displacement," "Sectoral Analyses," and "Strategies to Increase Employment." The authors discuss such topics as: the impact of the general status of race relations on labor markets; increasing access to higher-paying occupations; the relationship between occupational segregation and local labor market dynamics; and the earnings of black women compared to white women and black and white men. The chapters are connected by a common theme: black employment is highly sensitive to changes in both aggregate and local economic conditions. As a result, policy changes designed to promote macro-level economic stabilization could well have the unintended effect of further increasing job instability among blacks. African Americans and Post-Industrial Labor Markets is a momentous compendium and should be read by economists, African American studies scholars, sociologists, and professionals in the business world.


Much research on developing countries highlights the developmental potential associated with ICTs as a rationale for implementing particular information systems. However, such initiatives are often problematic to realize and difficult to sustain. In this paper we examine the promise of development associated with the introduction of an Electronic Voters' Registration (EVR) system in Nigeria. We employ key concepts from Sen's capability approach to assess the arrangements made by the Nigerian government and its Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable participation in registration and polling exercises, focusing on the scope these opportunities provided for expanding people's freedoms to engage in developmental activities. Our analysis shows that the arrangements were sufficient to encourage significant voter turnout but inadequate to sustain developmental potential. We conclude with some implications for policy makers advancing an agenda of 'ICTs for development'.


This document presents the NIST Federated Cloud Reference Architecture model. This actor/role-based model used the guiding principles of the NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture to develop an eleven component model. This document describes these components individually and how they function as an ensemble. There are many possible deployments and governance options which lend themselves to create a suite of federation options from simple to complex. The basics of cloud federation can be described through the interactions of the actors in a layered three planes representation of trust, security, and resource sharing and usage. A discussion on possible future standards and use cases are also described in great detail.


The properties of sets of motor fibres responding to both clockwise and anticlockwise rotation have been studied in the oculomotor nerve of the rock lobster. There are probably three, but perhaps four, units in each set.
None of these fibres has statocyst input, but there is weak input onto the tonic fibres from the antennal joints such that the eye turns in the direction toward which the antenna points.
Many preparations show bilateral visual input onto all fibres but the degree of coupling between the eyes is very variable, and at times can be nearly totally absent.
Depending on the speed of rotation the fibres show a gradual build-up in frequency, during rotation in the preferred direction, interrupted by flipbacks. During the fast stage of the resulting nystagmic movements all agonistic fibres can be completely inhibited and all antagonistic ones can be activated, usually for a period of about 0.5 sec.
Fibre activity is demonstrated which appears to underlie an 'optokinetic memory' of contrasting target position in the visual field. It consists of (a) very prolonged after-discharges for a stationary striped pattern (b) resumption of discharges at an appropriate frequency after dark periods up to 2 min, and (c) adjustment of such frequencies to changes in stripe position during the dark period.
The fibres show habituation to repeated stripe movement but the response can be dishabituated by passive rotation of the animal.
The largest visual responses were obtained to intermediate speeds of stripe rotation (about 2°/sec).


In this paper we present a novel approach to generating
referring expressions (GRE) that is tailored to a model of the visual context the user is attending to. The approach
integrates a new computational model of visual salience in simulated 3-D environments with Dale and Reiter's (1995) Incremental Algorithm. The advantage of our GRE framework are: (1) the context set used by the GRE algorithm is dynamically computed by the visual saliency algorithm as a user navigates through a simulation; (2) the integration of visual salience into the generation process means that in some instances underspecified but sufficiently detailed descriptions of the target object are generated that are shorter than those generated by GRE algorithms which focus purely on adjectival and type attributes; (3) the integration of visual saliency into the generation process means that our GRE algorithm will in some instances succeed in generating a description of the target object in situations where GRE algorithms which focus purely on adjectival and type attributes fail.


OBJECTIVE
Arthritis is the most common chronic condition and the most common cause of disability among older US adults. We studied social participation, disabilities in many life domains, accommodations used (buffers), and accommodations needed (barriers) for US adults with arthritis disability compared with adults with disability from other conditions.

METHODS
The data source is the National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement Phase Two. Arthritis-disabled individuals named arthritis as the main cause of > or =1 disabilities. Other-disabled individuals named only other conditions as causes of their disabilities. We compared outcomes for the groups, taking sample weights and complex variances into account.

RESULTS
Arthritis-disabled individuals get out and about less often than other-disabled individuals, but they manage to maintain active social ties. They have more disabilities of all types (personal care, household management, physical tasks, transportation, home, work), and the disabilities often cause fatigue, long task time, and pain. Despite this, arthritis-disabled individuals use less personal assistance than other-disabled individuals; they do use more equipment assistance. Arthritis-disabled individuals report more barriers in getting around outside their home and at their workplace.

CONCLUSION
The distinctive profile of arthritis disability includes extensive and uncomfortable disabilities, yet there are active management strategies to handle these disabilities. Problems away from home and at work should inspire engineers and planners to improve public access and equipment for persons with this high-prevalence disability.


ABSTRACT Notch signaling is a conserved cell fate regulator during development and postnatal tissue regeneration. Using skeletal muscle satellite cells as a model and through myogenic cell lineage-specific NICDOE (overexpression of constitutively activated Notch 1 intracellular domain), here we investigate how Notch signaling regulates the cell fate choice of muscle stem cells. We show that in addition to inhibiting MyoD and myogenic differentiation, NICDOE upregulates Pax7 and promotes the self-renewal of satellite cell-derived primary myoblasts in culture. Using MyoD−/− myoblasts, we further show that NICDOE upregulates Pax7 independently of MyoD inhibition. In striking contrast to previous observations, NICDOE also inhibits S-phase entry and Ki67 expression and thus reduces the proliferation of primary myoblasts. Overexpression of canonical Notch target genes mimics the inhibitory effects of NICDOE on MyoD and Ki67 but not the stimulatory effect on Pax7. Instead, NICD regulates Pax7 through interaction with RBP-Jκ, which binds to two consensus sites upstream of the Pax7 gene. Importantly, satellite cell-specific NICDOE results in impaired regeneration of skeletal muscles along with increased Pax7+ mononuclear cells. Our results establish a role of Notch signaling in actively promoting the self-renewal of muscle stem cells through direct regulation of Pax7.


Introduction: Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States and among veterans. This study compares patterns of diagnosis, treatment, and survival for veterans diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using a recently established cancer registry for the Veterans Affairs Pacific Northwest Network with the Puget Sound Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry. Methods: A cohort of 1715 veterans with NSCLC were diagnosed between 2000 and 2006, and 7864 men were diagnosed in Washington State during the same period. Demographics, tumor characteristics, initial surgical patterns, and survival across the two registries were evaluated. Results: Veterans were more likely to be diagnosed with stage I or II disease (32.8%) compared with the surrounding community (21.5%, p = 0.001). Surgical resection rates were similar for veterans (70.2%) and nonveterans (71.2%) older than 65 years with early-stage disease (p = 0.298). However, veterans younger than 65 years with early-stage disease were less likely to undergo surgical resection (83.3% versus 91.5%, p = 0.003). Because there were fewer late-stage patients among veterans, overall survival was better, although within each stage group veterans experienced worse survival compared with community patients. The largest differences were among early-stage patients with 44.6% 5-year survival for veterans compared with 57.4% for nonveterans (p = 0.004). Conclusions: The use of surgical resection among younger veterans with NSCLC may be lower compared with the surrounding community and may be contributing to poorer survival. Cancer quality of care studies have primarily focused on patients older than 65 years using Medicare claims; however, efforts to examine care for younger patients within and outside the Department of Veterans Affairs are needed.


Differences between simulated and observed data often occur when the watershed model is applied under extreme climate. It is necessary to assess the stability of hydrological models in a wide range of climate variation. A case study was conducted in Fuhe basin of Poyang Lake, China using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, which was calibrated under different climates in average years, dry and wet years, high and low temperature years, respectively. The model was first calibrated with dataset in average years, and the validation in the whole period showed results agreed well with the observed stream flow. The well-parameterized model calibrated under extreme climate was used to simulate hydrological responses in different climate years. All simulations generated results closely matching observed data with R 2 and E NS greater than 0.88, although the model was likely to slightly overestimate stream flow in average and dry years, and underestimate in wet years and high temperature years. In addition, each simulation was independent to other simulations with different parameters calibrated in different climate periods tested by Student9s T-test. Therefore, the model has the potential probability to accommodate a large range of climate variation to predict hydrological responses to climate change.


ABSTRACT In the years after 1870, two theories of color vision vied for primacy: the "trichromatic" theory and a four-color theory, also known as an "opponent" theory of color vision. Among scientists who participated in this debate, mathematician Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847–1930) made special use of graphics as a rhetorical template for reasoning and explanation. Her later work included figures modeled upon novel graphic representations of logical relationships to describe chemical reactions fundamental to visual processes. These and other illustrations demonstrate, in retrospect, how innovation in graphic notation can underlie shifts in the practice and perception of science.


DEVELOPING CRITERIA AND METRICS FOR ASSESSING RECYCLED WATER PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS by Michelle R. Arias Many U.S. states are currently experiencing or expect to experience water shortages in the next ten years. Recycling water is one strategy states are pursuing to minimize water shortages. Many states, however, have been unable to reach goals for volume of water recycled, and many regional and municipal programs have been ineffective in meeting production goals. Existing literature focuses primarily on how to implement a program and defines success as the ability to establish a program. After several decades of recycled water use in the United States, there is a lack of accepted metrics that allow for a cross comparison of established programs that might enable states to achieve larger production goals. This study aimed to identify a common set of metrics that can be used to assess the effectiveness of urban recycled water programs. Proposed metrics were presented to a panel of experts from six major recycled water stakeholder groups in a Delphi Method study. The survey results showed the panel rated the Recycled Water Portfolio Contribution, Customer Satisfaction, Voter Support, and Community Support metrics as most appropriate. The Recycled Water Program stakeholders agreed most with the Water Supply Program stakeholders and agreed least with the Regulatory Agency stakeholders.


This research investigated the gender differences in job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in sample included 200 male and 200 female teachers and 80 male managers in boy elementary schools in Zahedan. Data was collected by means of questionnaires and was analyzed through Factorial Analysis of Variance, Pearson Fisher Correlation, Structural Equations Modeling, and Multiple Regression. The results show that the mean of female teachers in variables is significantly more than male teachers, but the correlation between variables is significantly more in male teachers. Moreover the modified models of intrinsic job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in male teachers have fitted well with data. Although the standard coefficients of direct and indirect effects were more in the models of male teachers, but they did not have significant difference with female teachers standard coefficients. The male teachers' model explained more variance of organizational citizenship behavior. The results have been discussed with emphasis on the reasons of gender differences.


SUMMARY A review of tree domestication principles, practices and case studies illustrates the importance of a methodological approach to domestication. Domestication of new species involves of the entire value chain from identification of candidate species, through production and management, to uptake by communities and markets. Efforts to domesticate forest trees have often neglected the final step of adoption, with the result that many projects have resulted in mature trees without markets. Ensuring adoption and marketability is important for the success of any domestication effort, but especially in small island nations where local markets may be small, transport limited and transaction costs high.


Abstract.
 A diverse crinoid fauna is described from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Fombuena Formation from the eastern Iberian Chains of Spain. New crinoids include the diplobathrid camerates Fombuenacrinus nodulus n. gen. n. sp., Goyacrinus gutierrezi n. gen. n. sp., Dalicrinus hammanni n. gen. n. sp., and Ambonacrinus decorus n. gen. n. sp.; the monobathrid camerate Eopatelliocrinus hispaniensis n. sp.; and the cladid Picassocrinus villasi n. gen. n. sp. A new occurrence of Heviacrinus melendezi Gil Cid, Domínguez Alonso, and Silván Pobes, 1996 is also documented from the Castillejo Formation (Darriwilian, Middle Ordovician) from the eastern Iberian Chains of Spain. The Fombuena Formation comprises a Gondwanan crinoid assemblage from a high paleolatitude and has the highest crinoid diversity of any currently known Katian Gondwanan fauna. This assemblage is compared to other Katian age faunas around the globe, and its paleobiogeographic implications are discussed.


StreamStats is a Web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) application that was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) to provide access to an assortment of analytical tools that are useful for water-resources planning and management. StreamStats allows users to easily obtain streamflow statistics, basin characteristics, and descriptive information for USGS data-collection sites and selected ungaged sites. StreamStats also allows users to identify stream reaches upstream and downstream from user-selected sites and obtain information for locations along streams where activities occur that can affect streamflow conditions. This functionality can be accessed through a map-based interface with the user's Web browser or through individual functions requested remotely through other Web applications. StreamStats is designed so that each state is implemented as a separate application, with a reliance on local partnerships to fund the individual applications. The USGS in cooperation with the Georgia Department of Transportation and Georgia Environmental Protection Division is currently in the process of implementing StreamStats for the State of Georgia..


/ The article addresses the relationships between new media and public urban environments. It advances an anti-reductionist argument, which seeks to understand the material and the immaterial as two irreducible yet intertwined layers or levels of the social sphere. In order to do so, the notion of prolongation is proposed. This notion, together with those of territory and visibility, is explicitly designed to escape both reductionist monism (material as immaterial or vice versa) and dualism (material versus immaterial). The hypothesis is that the environments created and edited by the new media can be conceptualized and studied as specific visibility regimes of urban territoriality. The use of the concepts of territory, prolongation, and visibility also leads to deexceptionalizing the new media, insofar as new media are explained as a specific techno-social configuration, determined by a pattern of the same analytical variables that are at stake in the social sphere at large.


This paper describes an operational concept for the Smart Landing Facility (SLF). The SLF is proposed as a component of the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) and is envisioned to utilize Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) technologies to support higher-volume air traffic operations in a wider variety of weather conditions than are currently possible at airports without an Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) or Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON). In order to accomplish this, the SLF will provide aircraft sequencing and separation within its terminal airspace (the SLF traffic area) and on the airport surface. The SLF infrastructure will provide timely and accurate weather and other flight information as well as traffic advisories. The SLF will provide a means to coordinate with nearby TRACONs or Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) to ensure proper integration of its traffic flows with those of adjacent airspace.


Proterozoic rocks in the Park Range comprise an assemblage of highly deformed metavolcanic and metasedimentary supracrustal rocks intruded by numerous plutons. The oldest rocks in the region are a suite of bimodal metavolcanic and associated metasedimentary rocks on Farwell Mountain. These rocks are similar to the Green Mountain Formation to the north, and are geochemically similar to modern continental volcanic arcs related to subduction. The most widely exposed Proterozoic supracrustal unit in the Park Range consists of a highly metamorphosed and deformed, bimodal volcanic sequence with trace-element patterns similar to those of continental interior bimodal suites instead of subduction-related volcanism. The metavolcanic rocks are overlain by a suite of metasedimentary rocks. Protoliths for the basal metasedimentary rocks are graded sequences of feldspar-rich lithic sandstones and conglomerates interpreted as turbidites. These grade stratigraphically upward into a sequence of interbedded shales and finegrained quartz arenites, similar to those found on passive-margin shelves. The top of the sedimentary sequence consists of a medium- to coarse-grained, cross-bedded quartzite. The supracrustal rocks are intruded by plutonic rocks with compositions from gabbro to granite and ages of 1.78 to 1.735 Ga. The youngest Proterozoic unit in the area is the ∼1.4-Ga Mount Ethel pluton.

Upper amphibolite-facies regional metamorphism produced abundant sillimanite in aluminous rocks throughout the Park Range and overprints structural fabrics associated with the older intrusions. Garnet-biotite/GASP thermobarometry indicates temperatures for this event ranging from 550–700°C and pressures of 4 to 6 kbar for most of the region south and east of greenschist-facies rocks at Farwell Mountain. Evidence of an earlier period of higher pressure metamorphism is present near Lester Mountain where kyanite that contains small blebs of staurolite has partly broken down to sillimanite. Evidence for a late, lower-pressure rehydration event is also recorded at Lester Mountain.

The dominant fabric in the supracrustal rocks throughout the range consists of a steeply dipping northeast-southwest-striking foliation with a steeply plunging stretching lineation. This fabric is also recorded in the oldest of the felsic plutonic rocks, although the amount of strain in the dated plutonic rocks decreases with age. The intensely deformed Soda Creek-Fish Creek shear zone might be a suture between major terranes in the Park Range. There are also changes in metamorphic grade and ages of plutonic rocks that may be related to the shear zone. The main deformation along this shear zone predated the Mount Ethel pluton and was northside-down. However, some left-lateral displacements along late mylonite zones offset rocks attributed to the Mount Ethel magmatic system. A second candidate for a suture is the area between Farwell Mountain and Lester Mountain, where metamorphic grades and compositions of metavolcanic rocks change abruptly.


This thesis is a collection of five independent but closely related studies. The overall purpose is to approach the analysis of learning outcomes from a perspective that combines three major elements, namely lifelonglifewide learning, human capital, and the benefits of learning. The approach is based on an interdisciplinary perspective of the human capital paradigm. It considers the multiple learning contexts that are responsible for the development of embodied potential – including formal, nonformal and informal learning – and the multiple outcomes – including knowledge, skills, economic, social and others– that result from learning. The studies also seek to examine the extent and relative influence of learning in different contexts on the formation of embodied potential and how in turn that affects economic and social well being. The first study combines the three major elements, lifelonglifewidelearning, human capital, and the benefits of learning into one common conceptual framework. This study forms a common basis for the four empirical studies that follow. All four empirical studies use data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) to investigate the relationships among the major elements of the conceptual framework presented in the first study.Study I. A conceptual framework for the analysis of learning outcomesThis study brings together some key concepts and theories that are relevant for the analysis of learning outcomes. Many of the concepts and theories have emerged from varied disciplines including economics, educational psychology, cognitive science and sociology, to name only a few. Accordingly, some of the research questions inherent in the framework relate to different disciplinary perspectives. The primary purpose is to create a common basis for formulating and testing hypotheses as well as to interpret the findings in the empirical studies that follow. In particular, the framework facilitates the process of theorizing and hypothesizing on the relationships and processes concerning lifelong learning as well as their antecedents and consequences.Study II. Determinants of literacy proficiency: A lifelong-lifewide learning perspectiveThis study investigates lifelong and lifewide processes of skill formation. In particular, it seeks to estimate the substitutability and complementarity effects of learning in multiple settings over the lifespan on literacy skill formation. This is done by investigating the predictive capacity of major determinants of literacy proficiency that are associated with a variety of learning contexts including school, home, work, community and leisure. An identical structural model based on previous research is fitted to the IALS data for 18 countries. The results show that even after accounting for all factors, education remains the most important predictor of literacy proficiency. In all countries, however, the total effect of education is significantly mediated through further learning occurring at work, at home and in the community. Therefore, the job and other literacy related factors complement education in predicting literacy proficiency. This result points to a virtual cycle of lifelong learning, particularly to how educational attainment influences other learning behaviours throughout life. In addition, results show that home background as measured by parents' education is also a strong predictor of literacy proficiency, but in many countries this occurs only if a favourable home background is complemented with some post-secondary education.Study III. The effect of literacy proficiency on earnings: An aggregated occupational approach using the Canadian IALS dataThis study uses data from the Canadian Adult Literacy Survey to estimate the earnings return to literacy skills. The approach adapts a labour segmented view of the labour market by aggregating occupations into seven types, enabling the estimation of the variable impact of literacy proficiency on earnings, both within and between different types of occupations. This is done using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The method used to construct the aggregated occupational classification is based on analysis that considers the role of cognitive and other skills in relation to the nature of occupational tasks. Substantial premiums are found to be associated with some occupational types even after adjusting for within occupational differences in individual characteristics such as schooling, literacy proficiency, labour force experience and gender. Average years of schooling and average levels of literacy proficiency at the between level account for over two-thirds of the premiums. Within occupations, there are significant returns to schooling but they vary depending on the type of occupations. In contrast, the within occupational return of literacy proficiency is not necessarily significant. The latter depends on the type of occupation.Study IV: Determinants of economic and social outcomes from a lifewide learning perspective in CanadaIn this study the relationship between learning in different contexts, which span the lifewide learning dimension, and individual earnings on the one hand and community participation on the other are examined in separate but comparable models. Data from the Canadian Adult Literacy Survey are used to estimate structural models, which correspond closely to the common conceptual framework outlined in Study I. The findings suggest that the relationship between formal education and economic and social outcomes is complex with confounding effects. The results indicate that learning occurring in different contexts and for different reasons leads to different kinds of benefits. The latter finding suggests a potential trade-off between realizing economic and social benefits through learning that are taken for either job-related or personal-interest related reasons.Study V: The effects of learning on economic and social well being: A comparative analysisUsing the same structural model as in Study IV, hypotheses are comparatively examined using the International Adult Literacy Survey data for Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The main finding from Study IV is confirmed for an additional five countries, namely that the effect of initial schooling on well being is more complex than a direct one and it is significantly mediated by subsequent learning. Additionally, findings suggest that people who devote more time to learning for job-related reasons than learning for personal-interest related reasons experience higher levels of economic well being. Moreover, devoting too much time to learning for personal-interest related reasons has a negative effect on earnings except in Denmark. But the more time people devote to learning for personal-interest related reasons tends to contribute to higher levels of social well being. These results again suggest a trade-off in learning for different reasons and in different contexts.


The fact that people do not behave in the way they are expected to, does not have to do only with a lack of motivation and intention but also with cognitive processes that might interfere with this. Even if the person has an intention to perform an ecological behavior, there can be barriers and constraints that prevent the pro-ecological goal of being attained. Accordingly, one of the techniques that can be used to increase the success in attaining pro-ecological behavioral goals is the development of implementation intentions. However, this technique is sometime ineffectively used due to a disregard of contextual characteristics. To overcome this, we propose the use of context "tuning" as a means to increase the effectiveness of habit change in a habitual context and thus, promote new behaviors in this same context. By conducting two studies, we promoted changes in the salience of the means to attain a behavioral goal, in order to facilitate the desired response elicited by implementation intentions. This was assessed in an online shopping simulation (study 1), with organic and non-organic products to choose from, in two variations of the same habitual context: equal salience (equally salient organic and non-organic goals) and lower salience context(organic goals less salient). Results showed that implementation intentions benefited from context "tuning", with a higher number of organic products being chosen in the equal salience context compared to a lower salience context. In study 2, we used what we call cognitive "tuning," directed towards the modification of the mentally represented means-goal connections, to produce cognitive changes equivalent to the context changes. Results showed that, although this did not increase the context "tuning" effect success, it still allowed for it to be replicated. Moreover, it showed a pattern in which this cognitive "tuning" can be used as a "vaccine" to prevent habitual behavior to be performed.


In addition to posting news and status updates, many Twitter users post questions that seek various types of subjective and objective information. These questions are often labeled with 'Q&A' hashtags, such as #lazyweb or #twoogle. We surveyed Twitter users and found they employ these Q&A hashtags both as a topical signifier (this tweet needs an answer!) and to reach out to those beyond their immediate followers (a community of helpful tweeters who monitor the hashtag). However, our log analysis of thousands of hashtagged Q&A exchanges reveals that nearly all replies to hashtagged questions come from a user's immediate follower network, contradicting users' beliefs that they are tapping into a larger community by tagging their question tweets. This finding has implications for designing next-generation social search systems that reach and engage a wide audience of answerers.


Neurogenetics is an emerging discipline in Peru that links basic research with clinical practice. The Neurogenetics Research Center located in Lima, Peru is the only unit dedicated to the specialized care of neurogenetic diseases in the country. From the beginning, neurogenetics research has been closely linked to the study of Huntington's Disease (HD), from the PCR genotyping of the HTT gene, to the current haplogroup studies in HD. Research in other monogenic diseases led to the implementation of alternative methodologies for the genotyping of Fragile X and Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. Both, national and international collaborative efforts have facilitated the discovery of new genetic variants in complex multigenic diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, multidisciplinary education and mentoring have allowed for the training of new neurogenetics specialists, supporting the sustained growth of the discipline in the country. The promotion of research in Peru has spurred the growth of neurogenetics research, although limitations in infrastructure, technology, and education remain a challenge for the further growth of research in this field.


Thrombocytopenic disorders have been treated with the Thrombopoietin-receptor agonist Eltrombopag. Patients with the same apparent form of thrombocytopenia may respond differently to the treatment. We describe a miniaturized bone marrow tissue model that provides a screening bioreactor for personalized, pre-treatment response prediction to Eltrombopag for individual patients. Using silk fibroin, a 3D bone marrow niche was developed that reproduces platelet biogenesis. Hematopoietic progenitors were isolated from a small amount of peripheral blood of patients with mutations in ANKRD26 and MYH9 genes, who had previously received Eltrombopag. The ex vivo response was strongly correlated with the in vivo platelet response. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) from one patient with mutated MYH9 differentiated into functional megakaryocytes that responded to Eltrombopag. Combining patient-derived cells and iPSCs with the 3D bone marrow model technology allows having a reproducible system for studying drug mechanisms and for individualized, pre-treatment selection of effective therapy in Inherited Thrombocytopenias.


Building upon the idea that nationhood and nationality are social constructions, I argue that the actors who create these often multiple and contradictory narratives are not only the citizens of a nation-state with officially recognized belonging. Rather, those individuals outside official recognition and the imagined limits of a nation – foreigners and strangers – are also essential to the articulation of the boundaries of national belonging. Focusing on the interaction between immigrant street hawkers and international holidaymakers in Italy, I analyse the ways different foreigners enter into a dialogue of national and local authenticity and belonging. I examine the context of Bangladeshi and Senegalese migration to Italy, establishing how these populations are constructed as foreigners by the Italian nation and its imagined cohesive and authentic embodied community, and analyse how these communities have forged a place for themselves within that context. Then, I breakdown the interaction between immigrant hawkers and holidaymakers to see how the dialogue between foreigners reshapes the discussion of local authenticity and national belonging as something very different from the Italian national narration but which has parallel lines of inclusion and exclusion.


In this paper I discuss the role of manager as choice architect. The notion of nudging and choice architecture has received significant interest in law, economics and public policy. But the behavioral insights from this literature also have important implications for managers, HR professionals and organizations. In essence, employees are consumers of choice and are constantly confronted with a large array and interface of options, and this interface can be designed so as to maximize individual welfare and organizational outcomes.

I first discuss the theoretical foundations of the nudge idea and then highlight how managers can design effective choice architectures for the management of human capital. By way of illustration, I specifically focus on four practical areas: 1) nudge hiring, 2) nudge training and development, 3) nudge human capital and organization, and 4) nudge strategy and innovation. Throughout the paper I also point out comparative differences in decision making between contexts (e.g., consumer choice versus decision making in organizations), including implied debates, and also highlight novel opportunities for future research in management and strategy. I particularly focus on the possibilities associated with nudges and choice architectures at the nexus of organizations, crowds and aggregate decision making.


The well-known Lighthill-Whitham-Richards (LWR) theory is the fundamental pillar for most macroscopic traffic models. In the past, many methods were developed to numerically derive solutions for LWR problems. Examples for such numerical solution schemes are the cell transmission model, the link transmission model, and the variational theory (VT) of traffic flow. So far, the latter framework found applications in the fields of traffic modelling, macroscopic fundamental diagram estimation, multi-modal traffic analyses, and data fusion. However, these studies apply VT only at the link or corridor level. To the best of our knowledge, there is no methodology yet to apply VT at the network level. We address this gap by developing a VT-based framework applicable to networks. Our model allows us to account for source terms (e.g. inflows and outflows at intersections) and the propagation of spillbacks between adjacent corridors consistent with kinematic wave theory. We show that the trajectories extracted from a microscopic simulation fit the predicted traffic states from our model for a simple intersection with both source terms and spillbacks. We also use this simple example to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed model. Additionally, we apply our model to the Sioux Falls network and again compare the results to those from a microscopic simulation. Our results indicate a close fit of traffic states, but with substantially lower computational cost. The developed methodology is useful for network-wide traffic state estimations in real-time, or other applications within a model-based optimization framework.


The article provides an overview of governmental regulations affecting the operation and economic situation of local self-governments in Hungary during the pandemic crisis. The research covers the period from the declaration of the state of emergency in March 2020 until the end of the year. The study aims to explore the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government's special provisions related to local democracy concerns in times of crisis. The article analyses the relationship between the pandemic and governmental measures that affected the economic position of local self-governments. It does not provide an objective assessment, but rather presents and analyses the relevant resources. The article is primarily based on the review of the legal framework and the relevant Constitutional Court's decisions. The analysis demonstrates that the Constitutional Court did not or only partially defended the legal interests of local self-governments. The governmental measures 'stood the test of constitutionality'. The study confirms the initial assumption that the excessive centralization process was significantly reinforced, while the position of local self-governments in the  state organs system weakened. However, some measures cause concern as they highlight deeper problems in the Hungarian legal system, irrespective of the pandemic.


GlaToBI, a version of the ToBI prosodic transcription system which can be used to transcribe the intonation patterns of western Scottish (Glasgow) English, is currently under development. An assessment of GlaToBI, similar to the evaluation studies that were undertaken for the original ToBI system [7], and for GToBI, a version developed for German [4], has been carried out to test the new system's reliability, learnability and comprehensiveness. The results of this study show that this adaptation of the ToBI system can be applied with the expected level of reliability to the transcription of Glasgow English.


Data distribution in embedded real-time sensor networks requires new protocols and programming environments that achieve time-sensitive message delivery and provide useful abstractions to the application programmer Attainment of these goals requires changes to multiple layers of the communication protocol stack. In this paper, we review a protocol suite developed by the authors for data communication in embedded sensor networks. It takes into account time constraints and exports attribute-based connections that are tightly integrated with properties of the monitored environment. A programming language is described that allows external physical objects to be represented as first class abstractions in the computing System. The language facilitates writing monitoring applications. The system was implemented on a prototypical sensor network based on MICA motes.


Whilst traditional automotive manufacturing regions continue to face tremendous competitive pressures new opportunities are emerging with strong governmental support to encourage the manufacture and adoption of low carbon vehicles (LCVs). This paper examines such opportunities in the West Midlands region of the UK, where the automotive 'cluster' remains one of the largest in the country and where failure to adapt to changing markets could prove economically and socially damaging. It suggests that the region should build on its strengths at the upper end of the technology spectrum and establish itself as a leader in the area of LCV technologies. In doing so, it is recognised that a coordinated and holistic approach is required, involving multiple layers of government, backed up by a strong and supportive policy framework. As such, the abolition of regional government in England presents a serious challenge. Whether new local delivery structures can fill the void given the centralisation of power, policy and funding for economic development remains to be seen and casts doubt on the extent to which potential opportunities and benefits presented by low carbon vehicles are fully realised.


One of the hallmarks of the 2004 presidential election was the unusual emphasis on face-to-face voter mobilization, particularly face-to-face mobilization conducted within neighborhoods or social networks. Unlike previous studies of face-to-face voter mobilization, which have focused largely on nonpartisan campaigns conducted during midterm or local elections, this study assesses the effects of a campaign organized by MoveOn.org, an organization that allied itself with the Democratic Party in 2004 to aid presidential candidate John Kerry. A regression discontinuity analysis of 46,277 voters from 13 swing states demonstrates that neighbor-to-neighbor mobilization substantially increased turnout among target voters during the 2004 presidential election. Contact with MoveOn volunteers increased turnout by approximately nine percentage-points. This finding corroborates experimental findings showing the effectiveness of door-to-door canvassing but contradicts results suggesting that such mobilization is ineffective in the context of high-salience elections.


The Chinese population has a high prevalence of mental illness, but the treatment gap is high; identifying the barriers to mental health services utilization can improve access and promote better mental health care. Very few empirical studies systematically examined the barriers to help-seeking in the Chinese population. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to review the literature on the utilization of mental health services by the Asian American population in order to understand the barriers in seeking professional mental health care among the Chinese. As part of this study, a mix method research survey comprising 10 demographic questions and 26 multidimensional questions pertaining to barriers for accessing mental health services was conducted. This survey combined open-ended and closed-ended questions. The results revealed that people of Chinese descent are less likely to use mental health services due to the critical influence of its culturally-oriented values and beliefs in perceptions of mental health issues and help-seeking behaviors. The practical implications include more culturally appropriate services, changing policy, and addressing stigma through interventions. Since it is a pilot study focus on preliminary data collection with a small sample to test out the survey questionnaire, so further studies with a larger sample population of Chinese especially in China should be carried out to better examine the barriers to mental health services by the former.


A very material question has been started concerning abstract or general ideas, whether they be general or particular in the mind's conception of them. A great philosopher [Dr. Berkeley] has disputed the receiv'd opinion in this particular, and has asserted, that all general ideas are nothing but particular ones, annexed to a certain term, which gives them a more extensive signification, and makes them recall upon occasion other individuals, which are similar to them. As I look upon this to be one of the greatest and most valuable discoveries that has been made of late years in the republic of letters, I shall here endeavour to confirm it by some arguments, which I hope will put it beyond all doubt and controversy.


Abstract. Determining when and how a Loop Current eddy (LCE) in the Gulf of Mexico will finally separate is a difficult task, since several detachment re-attachment processes can occur during one of these events. Separation is usually defined based on snapshots of Eulerian fields such as sea surface height (SSH) but here we suggest that a Lagrangian view of the LCE separation process is more appropriate and objective. The basic idea is very simple: separation should be defined whenever water particles from the cyclonic side of the Loop Current move swiftly from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Florida Straits instead of penetrating into the NE Gulf of Mexico. The properties of backward-time finite time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE) computed from a numerical model of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea are used to estimate the "skeleton" of flow and the structures involved in LCE detachment events. An Eulerian metric is defined, based on the slope of the strain direction of the instantaneous hyperbolic point of the Loop Current anticyclone that provides useful information to forecast final LCE detachments. We highlight cases in which an LCE separation metric based on SSH contours (Leben, 2005) suggests there is a separated LCE that later reattaches, whereas the slope method and FTLE structure indicate the eddy remains dynamically connected to the Loop Current during the process.


Abstract Management of human impacts in the Antarctic requires an effective system of monitoring to provide information about the process being managed and the effectiveness of management actions. Human impacts arise as a result of processes that originate in the region (endogenous) and those that originate outside the region (exogenous). A number of monitoring programmes have been established in both terrestrial and marine systems to measure impacts that arise as a result of endogenous process such as fishing, tourism and research. However, most of this monitoring is surveillance monitoring, which is not linked to a specific management objective, and does not produce quantitative metrics that can be assessed and compared to agreed targets. However, defining such target levels for the Antarctic, where the aim is to minimise human impacts, is a complex process. Although potential analogues for target setting exist in other parts of the world these are generally insufficiently precautionary to be applied in the Antarctic. The challenge for scientists and policymakers working in the Antarctic is to provide quantitative measures, with agreed trigger levels, and to develop appropriate monitoring schemes to manage human impacts in the future.


Abstract By applying a non-standardized methodology and by using electric- and magnetic-field probes of small dimensions (< 1cm), we experimentally characterized the electromagnetic shielding properties of a fabric containing ferromagnetic microwires weaved on a single direction. Electronic microscopy and X-ray spectroscopy revealed the structure, dimensions and chemical elements content of the amorphous magnetic material. Electric shielding factor proved to be very low in the investigated frequency range, but magnetic shielding factor was high, especially when the weaving direction of the magnetic wires corresponded to the polarization direction of the emitting antenna, and showed some resonances. The magnetic shielding efficiency, if checked against an increasing incident magnetic flux density, proved not to change up to 200 nT. The investigated fabric have been previously proved to be very efficient in shielding the field emitted by a mobile phone in its near field, but present results show that near and far field shielding properties are different.


Research Article Khim-Yong Goh National University of Singapore email@example.com Jerry Wenjie Ping National University of Singapore email@example.com Advergames are increasingly popular for online advertising campaigns. However, few IS studies have investigated the effectiveness of this unique advertising strategy. This study sheds light on the effectiveness of advergames by studying three design factors of advergame: interactivity, fit, and expectancy. We use multiple dependent variables (e.g., attitude toward advergames, attitude toward brand, and purchase intention) to evaluate the effectiveness of advergames. Based on work from human-computer interaction research and the transportation theory, we propose two-way interaction effects of interactivity, fit, and expectancy on attitudes toward advergame, and also their main effects on attitude toward brand. A positive mediating relationship from attitude toward advergame to attitude toward brand, and to purchase intention is also hypothesized. We conducted a 2*2*2 factorial design experiment in an online 3D virtual world environment to test our hypotheses. The results show that, in the high fit condition, both high interactivity and low expectancy lead to a more favorable attitude toward advergames. However, in the low interactivity condition, low expectancy generates a more positive attitude toward advergames. Interactivity and attitude toward advergames have significant positive effects on attitude toward brand, which, in turn, positively impacts purchase intention.


The yeast Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that causes infections in immunocompromised individuals with a high morbidity and mortality levels. Recognition of yeasts by host cells is directly mediated by cell wall components of the yeast, including a wide range of abundantly expressed glycoconjugates. Of particular interest in C. albicans are the beta-mannosylated epitopes that show a complex expression pattern on N-glycan moiety of phosphopeptidomannans and are absent in the non-pathogenic species Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Being known as potent antigens for the adaptive immune response and elicitors of specific infection-protective antibodies, the exact delineation of beta-mannosides regulation and expression pathways has lately become a major milestone toward the comprehension of host-pathogen interplay. Using the newly developed HR-MAS NMR methodology, we demonstrate the possibility of assessing the general profiles of cell-surface-exposed glycoconjugates from intact living yeast cells without any prior purification step. This technique permitted to directly observe structural modifications of surface expressed phosphodiester-linked beta-mannosides on a series of deletion strains in beta-mannosyltransferases and phospho-mannosyltransferases compared with their parental strains.


A filtered progress variable approach is adopted for large eddy simulations (LES) of turbulent deflagrations. The deflagration model is coupled with a non-premixed combustion model, either an equilibrium-chemistry, mixture-fraction based model, or an eddy dissipation model. The coupling interface uses a LES-resolved flame index formulation and provides partially-premixed combustion (PPC) modeling capability. The PPC sub-model is implemented into the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is then applied to the study of explosive combustion in confined fuel vapor clouds. Current limitations of the PPC model are identified first in two separate series of simulations: 1) a series of simulation corresponding to laminar flame propagation across homogeneous mixtures in open or closed tunnel-like configurations; and 2) a grid refinement study corresponding to laminar flame propagation across a vertically-stratified layer.

An experimental database previously developed by FM Global Research, featuring controlled ignition followed by explosive combustion in an enclosure filled with vertically-stratified mixtures of propane in air, is used as a test configuration for model validation. Sealed and vented configurations are both considered, with and without obstacles in the chamber. These pressurized combustion cases present a particular challenge to the bulk pressure algorithm in FDS, which has robustness, accuracy and stability issues, in particular in vented configurations. Two modified bulk pressure models are proposed and evaluated by comparison between measured and simulated pressure data in the Factory Mutual Global (FMG) test configuration. The first model is based on a modified bulk pressure algorithm and uses a simplified expression for pressure valid in a vented compartment under quasi-steady conditions. The second model is based on solving an ordinary differential equation for bulk pressure (including a relaxation term proposed to stabilize possible Helmholtz oscillations) and modified vent flow velocity boundary conditions that are made bulk-pressure-sensitive. Comparisons with experiments are encouraging and demonstrate the potential of the new modeling capability for simulations of low pressure explosions in stratified fuel vapor clouds.


Three new species of the genus Heritschioides, i.e., H. alaskensis sp. nov., H. kuiuensis sp. nov., and H. splendidus sp. nov., and Kekuphyllum sandoense gen. et sp. nov. from the northeastern Kuiu Island area and nearby islets, part of Alexander terrane in southeastern Alaska, and Heritschioides separatus sp. nov. from the Brooks Range, Alaska, are described and illustrated. The three new fasciculate colonial coral species from the Kuiu Island area, collected from the Moscovian Saginaw Bay Formation, are phylogenetically related to those of probable Bashkirian age in the Brooks Range in northern Alaska as shown by the presence of morphologically similar species of Heritschioides. These corals from both areas also are related to one species in the Quesnel terrane in western Canada. Kekuphyllum sandoense from the Saginaw Bay Formation of the Kuiu Island area is the only cerioid-aphroid species within the Subfamily Heritschioidinae described so far. The complete early ontogeny of a protocorallite is for the first time described here on a basis of H. kuiuensis sp. nov. and compared to the hystero-ontogeny in order to show similarities and differences in those processes.


Background: Fibergraft material is a synthetic bone graft substitute that has been proven in animal models to reveal 100% fusion in posterolateral spine fusion at 26 weeks. The purpose of this study is to analyze post-op CT scans to evaluate the fusion effectiveness of Fibergraft BG Morsels when combined with bone marrow aspirate (BMA) in one-, two-, three-, and four-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF).
 Methods: In this retrospective, single-center medical record review, post-op cervical CT scans at approximately six months were evaluated in 27 patients by one senior orthopedic spine surgeon. The surgeon was blinded to the clinical outcomes, patient demographics and past medical history. Fusion results were given a grade of either I, II, III or IV based on the presence of trabecular bridging bone across both graft-vertebral body interfaces.
 Results: A total of 52 levels were grafted in the 27 subjects who underwent the Smith-Robinson anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. 88.5% of the levels were classified as Grade I complete fusion, 5.8% of the levels classified as Grade II, 3.8% classified as Grade III, and 1.9% classified as Grade IV.
Conclusions: Fibergraft BG Morsels mixed with bone marrow aspirate (BA) is an effective bone graft option in one-, two-, three-, and four-level ACDF procedures. This synthetic bioactive glass bone graft substitute combined with BMA achieves high rates of fusion comparable to the biological performance of autologous bone graft.


Purpose
To investigate the role of two deep-intronic ABCA4 variants, that showed a mild splice defect in vitro and can occur on the same allele as the low penetrant c.5603A>T, in Stargardt disease (STGD1).

Methods
Ophthalmic data were assessed of 18 STGD1 patients who harbored c.769-784C>T or c.4253+43G>A in combination with a severe ABCA4 variant. Subjects carrying c.[769-784C>T; 5603A>T] were clinically compared with a STGD1 cohort previously published carrying c.5603A>T noncomplex. We calculated the penetrances of the intronic variants using ABCA4 allele frequency data of the general population and investigated the effect of c.769-784C>T on splicing in photoreceptor progenitor cells (PPCs).

Results
Mostly, late-onset, foveal-sparing STGD1 was observed among subjects harboring c.769-784C>T or c.4253+43G>A (median age of onset, 54.5 and 52.0 years, respectively). However, ages of onset, phenotypes in fundo, and visual acuity courses varied widely. No significant clinical differences were observed between the c.[769-784C>T; 5603A>T] cohort and the c.4253+43G>A or the c.5603A>T cohort. The penetrances of c.769-784C>T (20.5%-39.6%) and c.4253+43G>A (35.8%-43.1%) were reduced, when not considering the effect of yet unidentified or known factors in cis, such as c.5603A>T (identified in 7/7 probands with c.769-784C>T; 1/8 probands with c.4253+43G>A). Variant c.769-784C>T resulted in a pseudo-exon insertion in 15% of the total mRNA (i.e., ∼30% of the c.769-784C>T allele alone).

Conclusions
Two mild intronic ABCA4 variants could further explain missing heritability in late-onset STGD1, distinguishing it from AMD. The observed clinical variability and calculated reduced penetrance urge research into modifiers within and outside of the ABCA4 gene.


Recent studies indicate that androgen receptor (AR) signaling is critical for prostate cancer cell survival, even in castration-resistant disease wherein AR continues to function independently of exogenous androgens. Integrin-mediated adhesion to the extracellular matrix is also important for prostate cell survival. AR-positive prostate cancer cells express primarily integrin a6b1 and adhere to a laminin-rich matrix. In this study, we show that active nuclear-localized AR protects prostate cancer cells from death induced by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibition when cells adhere to laminin. Resistance to PI3K inhibition is mediated directly by an ARdependent increase in integrin a6b1 mRNA transcription and protein expression. Subsequent signaling by integrin a6b1 in AR-expressing cells increased NF-kB activation and Bcl-xL expression. Blocking AR, integrin a6, NF-kB, or Bcl-xL concurrent with inhibition of PI3K was sufficient and necessary to trigger death of lamininadherent AR-expressing cells. Taken together, these results define a novel integrin-dependent survival pathway in prostate cancer cells that is regulated by AR, independent of and parallel to the PI3K pathway. Our findings suggest that combined targeting of both the AR/a6b1 and PI3K pathways may effectively trigger prostate cancer cell death, enhancing the potential therapeutic value of PI3K inhibitors being evaluated in this setting. Cancer Res; 71(7); 2739–49. 2011 AACR.


Heulandite, clinoptilolite, mordenite, analcime, thomsonite(?), erionite, and chabazite(?) occur with other authigenic minerals in the thick Miocene volcaniclastic sequence of the southern Desatoya Mountains, Nevada. The mineral assemblages formed diagenetically in an open system probably at depths of 2,500 m or less and in a variety of rock types, including rhyolite, quartz latite, dacite, latite, and andesite. The authigenic minerals developed mainly through the breakdown of the inherently unstable glassy components, and the original porosity and permeability of the rocks were major factors controlling the degree of alteration. Determination of the temperatures of diagenesis depends greatly on ascertaining the time of diagenesis and, thus, the geothermal gradient at that time. The paragenetic sequence of events between primary and secondary materials and among authigenic mineral species is (1) partial replacement of glass by clay minerals, (2) solution of remaining glass, (3) precipitation of heulandite and/or clinoptilolite (± silica) and/or other authigenic minerals, and (4) deposition of opal or chalcedony in cavities or veinlets. Twenty-seven electron microprobe analyses are given for single crystals and crystal clusters of heulandite, clinoptilolite, and thomsonite(?). Chemical comparisons between (1) petrographically identified glass and its adjacent alteration products and (2) unaltered and/or partially altered and completely altered whole rocks from the same unit indicate that Si, Ca, Na, K, and H 2 O were mobile components. It is inferred from petrographic observations that Fe and Mg also were mobile. Na, and possibly some K, apparently were lost during diagenesis. Mineral development and chemical changes seem to have followed the general pattern for leaching in an open system.


This paper applies ex ante econometric, cost–benefit, and financial methodologies to predict diffusion and feasibility of the irrigation project in Shahrazoor, Kurdistan, Iraq. To do so, I investigated the socio-economic, psycho-cultural, and financial factors that determine participation. The socio-economic part of the econometric analysis showed that the project was appreciated more by poorer and economically weaker farmers who rely on agriculture than those who rely on livestock activities. The psycho-cultural part of the econometric analysis emphasized that the project was appreciated more by literate farmers who adopt a maximization (rather than a status quo) approach. The cost–benefit analysis applied to the irrigation project tailored to poorer and weaker farmers determined an acceptable internal rate of return, but the financial analysis highlighted that values for water prices, a feasible internal rate of return and loan interest rates that simultaneously meet the government and farmer budgets might not exist.


Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as a tool for studying star formation in the Universe, so it is crucial to investigate whether their host galaxies and immediate environments are in any way special compared with other star-forming galaxies. Here we present spatially resolved maps of dust emission of the host galaxy of the closest known GRB 980425 at z = 0.0085 using our new high-resolution observations from Herschel, Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We modelled the spectral energy distributions of the host and of the star-forming region displaying the Wolf-Rayet signatures in the spectrum (WR region), located 800 pc from the GRB position. The host is characterised by low dust content and a high fraction of UV-visible star formation, similar to other dwarf galaxies. These galaxies are abundant in the local universe, so it is not surprising to find a GRB in one of them, assuming the correspondence between the GRB rate and star formation. The WR region contributes substantially to the host emission at the far-infrared, millimetre, and radio wavelengths and we propose that this is a consequence of its high gas density. If dense environments are also found close to the positions of other GRBs, then the ISM density should also be considered, along with metallicity, an important factor influencing whether a given stellar population can produce a GRB.


Lexical ambiguity is one of the most intractable problems facing language processing studies and, not surprisingly, it is at the core of research in lexical semantics. The papers in this collection constitute not just a set of diverse yet related articles in this core area of research, but rather make up a unique collection of work on the relationship between logical polysemy, sense extension, and discourse structure. Each paper addresses the following questions: what is the representation of a lexical item such that it may assume different senses? What is it about the representation of a lexical item that gives rise to sense extensions and to the phenomenon of logical polysemy? Three major subthemes run through the papers: the role of pragmatics and discourse in lexical disambiguation; the analysis of logical polysemy as a compositional process; and the treament of sense extension and referential transfer phenomena.


At the end of the 1980s, I was Chairman of the Board of the Socialist International while Willy Brandt was its President. Willy always liked to make our formal meetings in Bonn, where the Federal Republic of Germany had its capital, as short as possible so we could go to his regular restaurant on the hill, overlooking the Rhine. There we would sit and talk for hours. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Once he asked me: "Thorbjorn, do you see over there the bridge that crosses the Rhine? It was the last one standing when the Allied Forces arrived in 1945." He continued, "Why this unimaginable tragedy, young man?" before answering it himself: "There was unemployment, discontent with the Versailles Treaty, and the burden of debt incurred by Germany was great. But remember this: there is no excuse for what spread in Germany. There was a general belief that human dignity didn't need to apply to everyone. Jews were a pariah caste and a scapegoat for problems others had created. Therefore it was no longer necessary to treat them as people. But I say to you, young man, if human dignity does not apply to everyone, it applies to no one." Willy Brandt's words have since become my political credo: no political and societal advances can be right and just unless they promote human dignity based on fundamental rights and security, the rule of law, and democratic governance. This is the essence of modern day democracies: society must exist for the sake of the individual and not the other way around. Today, no European state should use its citizens as tools for religious or political ideologies. The fundamental and universal values of humanity go beyond an individual country's national or cultural characteristics and bind us together. Today, this is the European core. But it has not always been the case. The Lessons of European History Europe has always been a unique place. For many centuries, it was considered the center of the world, its developments associated with the progress of human civilization, and its ideas, inventions, and political dominance reaching other countries. The view of the world, and in particular of its history, was for many centuries very Eurocentric. At the same time, Europe had held the world hostage to conflicts between European nations for many years. When those nations went to war, the rest of the world had to be prepared to suffer. Europe today can no longer claim to be the center of gravity for global development. Yet its history can teach an important lesson, and the way Europe has become a civilization can be a source of inspiration to others. The pivotal change in Europe came about at the beginning of the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution, which transformed society in Europe and in North America soon after. But the European Industrial Revolution would probably not have occurred without the revolution in people's minds known as the Enlightenment. It was the Age of Enlightenment that released the creativity and innovation in the minds of individuals and allowed these innovations to be put to practical use. Europe became the center of global civilization, not only because of its favorable climate or strategic geographical location, but because it allowed Europeans to think and act in this spirit of freedom. That freedom was the engine of development. This observation is particularly valid when we keep in mind the developments taking place in the world today. Many believe that the current financial and economic crisis is more than just a regular crisis in the cycles of economic performance; they claim that this crisis signals the demise of the West as such and the end of its moral authority. Indeed, the weight of the West in terms of global economic development has shrunk. The rapid growth of new economic giants like China and India has left a deep imprint on how we perceive the balance of power in the world. Yet history teaches us a very clear lesson. …


I assess the opportunities of English-learning for slaves in early Surinam. Under the gradualist approach no creole could develop until the population balance had shifted significantly in favour of the slaves. With the population figures given by Arends for the years 1675, 1684 and 1695, I calculate that a third of the population could still be English-speaking in 1684 suggesting no prior creolization. However Sranan has to have creolized before the emergence of Saramaccan, due to their many similarities. Arends notes massive slave imports between 1680 and 1689. Price identifies the formation of the Saramaccan tribe from 1690. The figures for 1684 and 1695 reveal that more than half the slaves escaped in this period, supporting Price's position, and favouring rapid creolization.


In the last decade, the number of seismic stations has increased significantly, and new denser regional networks with advanced technology have been installed worldwide. Moreover, the recent improvements in the quality of seismological instruments have resulted in the application of modern broadband seismometers with high dynamic range digitizers for most seismological studies. Among various seismic data, broadband networks provide valuable data for seismological research. Broadband systems are being widely used in many research areas, such as seismic source studies and frequency‐dependent attenuation in the Earth, particularly from body waves and moment tensor solutions (Marshall et al. , 1972; Douglas, 2001).

Tectonically, the Iranian plateau is located in the central part of the Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt, which is known as one of the most active seismic regions of the world. Many major and strong earthquakes have occurred in Iran during its history (Berberian and Yeats, 1999). The 1962 Boen‐Zahra M s 7.2, 1978 Tabas M w 7.4, 1990 Manjil M w 7.4, and 2003 Bam M w 6.4 earthquakes are among the deadliest earthquakes in the world. Installation of broadband networks greatly helps to monitor the seismicity of the country, obtain accurate crustal velocity models, and study source characteristics.

In Iran, major activities related to monitoring of earthquakes are carrying out by the seismography networks of the Geophysical Institute of Tehran University (IGTU) and the broadband seismic network of the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES). The main purpose of the IGTU network is the determination and announcement of location and magnitude of earthquakes around the country; the IIEES network is mainly used for research purposes. Local networks also have been installed in some provinces and cities, including the seismic network of Khorasan (operated by Mashhad University) and an affiliated network of seismic monitoring of the Tehran Disaster …


The authors present a comprehensive study of efficient protocols and techniques for secure two-party computation both general constructions that can be used to securely compute any functionality, and protocols for specific problems of interest. The book focuses on techniques for constructing efficient protocols and proving them secure. In addition, the authors study different definitional paradigms and compare the efficiency of protocols achieved under these different definitions.The book opens with a general introduction to secure computation and then presents definitions of security for a number of different adversary models and definitional paradigms. In the second part, the book shows how any functionality can be securely computed in an efficient way in the presence of semi-honest, malicious and covert adversaries. These general constructions provide a basis for understanding the feasibility of secure computation, and they are a good introduction to design paradigms and proof techniques for efficient protocols. In the final part, the book presents specific constructions of importance. The authors begin with an in-depth study of sigma protocols and zero knowledge, focusing on secure computation, and they then provide a comprehensive study of the fundamental oblivious transfer function. Starting from protocols that achieve privacy only, they show highly efficient constructions that achieve security in the presence of malicious adversaries for both a single and multiple batch executions. Oblivious pseudorandom function evaluation is then presented as an immediate application of oblivious transfer. Finally, the book concludes with two examples of high-level protocol problems that demonstrate how specific properties of a problem can be exploited to gain high efficiency: securely computing the kth-ranked element, and secure database and text search. This book is essential for practitioners and researchers in the field of secure protocols, particularly those with a focus on efficiency, and for researchers in the area of privacy-preserving data mining. This book can also be used as a textbook for an advanced course on secure protocols.This book is essential for practitioners and researchers in the field of secure protocols, particularly those with a focus on efficiency, and for researchers in the area of privacy-preserving data mining. This book can also be used as a textbook for an advanced course on secure protocols.This book is essential for practitioners and researchers in the field of secure protocols, particularly those with a focus on efficiency, and for researchers in the area of privacy-preserving data mining. This book can also be used as a textbook for an advanced course on secure protocols.


I think the people of the state said they want something done and they want it done now ... Let's act. (1) --Governor Andrew Cuomo The bill was muscled through with disturbing speed after days of secret negotiations and a late-night vote Monday by state senators who had barely read the complicated measure before passing it. (2) --The New York Times Three days of debate, everyone has an opinion, it's entirely transparent, [and] we never reach resolution ... I get 100 percent for transparency. I get zero for results. (3) --Governor Andrew Cuomo A legislature that rushes critical, controversial bills to passage is one that deliberately excludes the public. A legislature that cannot wait three days to revise a mission statement governs by crisis. This must stop. (4) --Syracuse Post Standard Among the qualities we use to assess the performance of our state legislature are "high 'visibility,' performing its duties responsibly and in such a fashion that the public can oversee and judge its actions; ... its rules permit majority rule while protecting against arbitrary action; ... [and] it has sufficient time and resources for informed deliberation. (5) --Patricia Shumate Wirt I have come to the conclusion that the making of laws is like the making of sausages--the less you know about the process the more you respect the result. (6) --Unnamed Member of the Illinois State Legislature I. INTRODUCTION Among the various restrictions on the legislative process found in the New York Constitution, (7) none has raised more controversy or received more attention than the provision authorizing the governor to issue a message of necessity to suspend the constitutional requirement that legislation be on the desks of legislators in final form at least three calendar days before final passage. Both the three-day requirement and the message of necessity provision were added to the constitution by the 1894 Constitutional Convention. (8) Following amendments in 1938 and 2001, the section, Article III, section 14, reads as follows: No bill shall be passed or become a law unless it shall have been printed and upon the desks of the members, in its final form, at least three calendar legislative days prior to its final passage, unless the governor, or the acting governor, shall have certified, under his or her hand and the seal of the state, the facts which in his or her opinion necessitate an immediate vote thereon, in which case it must nevertheless be upon the desks of the members in final form, not necessarily printed, before its final passage; nor shall any bill be passed or become a law, except by the assent of a majority of the members elected to each branch of the legislature; and upon the last reading of a bill, no amendment thereof shall be allowed, and the question upon its final passage shall be taken immediately thereafter, and the ayes and nays entered on the journal. (9) The three-day rule, one of a number of constitutional restrictions imposed on the legislature during the nineteenth century, (10) was aimed at preventing hasty, ill-considered, and one-sided legislation. At the same time, allowing the legislature to bypass the three-day rule through the message of necessity enables the state government to respond quickly when extraordinary circumstances justify a waiver of the required public airing of legislation before final passage. Unlike several other constitutionally prescribed messages that the governor is authorized to issue, (11) the Article III message of necessity does not require a vote by the house in question to accept the message. (12) Nor does it require that an "emergency" exists. (13) Messages allowing suspension of the three-day requirement must certify that facts exist which "necessitate an immediate vote." (14) The absence of stringent standards for the issuance of messages of necessity has resulted in practices that have frustrated the original intent of the three-day aging requirement. …


Children with language-based learning impairments (LLIs) have major deficits in their recognition of some rapidly successive phonetic elements and nonspeech sound stimuli. In the current study, LLI children were engaged in adaptive training exercises mounted as computer "games" designed to drive improvements in their "temporal processing" skills. With 8 to 16 hours of training during a 20-day period, LLI children improved markedly in their abilities to recognize brief and fast sequences of nonspeech and speech stimuli.


In thermomechanical data storage, a heated atomic force microscope cantilever tip is in contact with and scans over a polymer film. Heating in the cantilever and cantilever tip induces local deformation of the polymer near the tip, with indents as small as 22 nm. This paper reports a simple modeling approach for predicting heat and mass transfer in the cantilever tip and polymer with the goal of predicting indent formation conditions. The model accounts for subcontinuum conduction in the cantilever tip and for the time- and temperature-dependent mechanical properties of the polymer. Simulations predict steady state and transient indent formation, and the results compare well with data. For loading forces 30-200 nN and a tip radius of 20 nm, a cantilever temperature of 200°C is required to form an indent at steady state. For heating pulses as short as 5 μs, the cantilever temperature required for bit formation is as high as 500 °C. By quantifying the conditions required for indent formation, this work may improve the operation of heated probes for thermomechanical data storage.


We argue that the continuous-time random walk approach may be a useful guide to extend the Schrodinger equation in order to incorporate nonlocal effects, avoiding the inconsistencies raised by Jeng et al. [J. Math. Phys. 51, 062102 (2010)]. As an application, we work out a free particle in a half space, obtaining the time dependent solution by considering an arbitrary initial condition.


Health care markets in China and India have expanded rapidly. The regulatory response has lagged behind in both countries and has followed a different pathway in each. Using the examples of front-line health providers and health insurance, this paper discusses how their different approaches have emerged from their own historical and political contexts and have led to different ways to address the main regulatory questions concerning quality of care, value for money, social agreement, and accountability. In both countries, the challenge is to build trust-based institutions that rely less on state-dominated approaches to regulation and involve other key actors.


" Front-loading " problem-solving is one of the major strategies to reduce development costs and development lead time. In co-development situations, the implementation of such methodologies rises specific questions, due to the difficult partition in responsabilities and skills between the car manufacturer and the supplier, especially when customer and supplier contributions cannot be clearly interfaced in a " black-box sourcing " relation. This results in a difficult and permanent debate about design modifications. The article analyses such a co-development situation in the case of a car manufacturer and its die design and engineering suppliers. The case illustrate how to combine organizational integration (i.e. co-localization, shared development methodologies) with new economic contracting rules which create front-loading problem-solving incentives for the two partners. We compare the economic outcomes of a traditional process with a co-developped project, from the viewpoint of both the customer and the suppliers. The study demonstrates how co-development played a major role in reducing the number and cost of modifications for the customer. The benefits which suppliers can earn depend on their ability to involve in the project in terms of design and engineering capacity at an early stage. These results generate theoretical outputs which bridge the gap between incentive and contract theories on one side, and cognitive and learning fields on the other.


ABSTRACT The early Holocene in North Africa remains a poorly known period, documented unequally by region. Eastern Algeria and Tunisia have the greatest number of deposits, but most were excavated decades ago without the controls and recording required for modern interpretation. The chronological framework is based on radiocarbon (14C) dates that are also old, for the most part. Recent work on Mesolithic lithic industries of Western Europe has enabled us to revive the hypothesis of the existence of contacts between the northern and southern shores of the western Mediterranean at least by the 6th millennium cal BC. A collective research program was conducted in 2016–2017 to test this hypothesis with a particular focus on documenting the technological traditions in the lithic industry and situating them precisely in time. We have 46 new radiocarbon dates that were recently carried out on previously excavated Algerian sites, some of which contain several levels, allowing the construction of Bayesian models. These new measures reinforce the hypothesis of contacts between Europe and Africa by demonstrating the contemporaneity of similar technological processes. Above all, they make it possible to accurately refine the chronology of the main cultural entities of the Maghreb at the beginning of the Holocene.


Air pollution from industrial centers in Siberia pose observable environmental threats. Siberian ecosystems have begun to show stress from the accumulation of pollution depositions that come from cities and industrial plants. While some uncertainty exists as to the long-term effects of air pollution upon forests, in measurable terms such as human mortality and incidence of disease, forest species decline or forest dieback, observable impacts indicate that there is a cause for concern. Industrial emissions from large production centers regularly release toxins into the air, pollutants that find their way into forest soils and water systems. The risk-ranked and volume based chemical profiles here provide insight into the possible threats posed to the environment in specific regions and by specific compounds. More dynamic models must come forward to account for accumulation of pollutants, environmental response, and effects upon biodiversity in these areas. This report analyses a pollution database provided by the Russian Federation for Siberia from the years 1992 and 1993. It reveals a pollution profile with acute spots of emission exposure and large areas of less-affected environments. The report uses two methods to analyze emission and to identify possible abatement strategies. The first simply identifies the volume of given pollutants in given administrative regions (oblast, kray, republic), in specific towns, and in specific industrial sectors. The second approach applies a risk-weighting factor to help identify those chemicals that, regardless of total volume emitted, have higher destructive potential than the majority of reported pollutants. This approach reveals that Siberian policy makers can take several cost-effective steps towards reducing emissions and environmental threat in the region, while helping to improve industrial performance and the international competitiveness of Siberian enterprise.


Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing, ed. Donna Bailey Nurse. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006. 384 pp. $29.99 sc. The back cover of the newest anthology of black Canadian writing claims quite honestly to "celebrate one of our most vibrant, significant, and thriving literary communities, one that holds an increasingly important place within Canadian and contemporary world literature." The emphasis, though none is typographically indicated, should be on the here-and-nowness of the collection assembled between the bright red and black covers, for if Revival is nothing else, it is urgently contemporary. The oldest (and most anomalous) listed print date in the book belongs to Claire Harris's 1984 untitled haiku which opens the anthology--"in the prairie dawn/a pheasant calls to its mate/love go hide go hide" (p. 1)--while the newest is listed as Lorna Goodison's excerpt of From Harvey River, due out in early 2007. Given the lucky accident of Harris's geography and location, and given that all but one of the anthology's twenty-nine contributors remain active members of the living Canadian literary community, Revival immediately establishes itself as a viable and fresh point of entry into the tangible Canadian black writing scene of the new millennium. Fortunately, the anthology's value to the casual reader, the aficionado, and the literary scholar extends far beyond its topicality. Editor Donna Bailey Nurse's selections (perhaps more than her self-conscious omissions) bring together a pastiche of genres, styles, vocabularies, and histories congruent with the identity-politics of what is often dangerously lumped together as "the African-Canadian experience." Notably lacking is the literary theatre community, hesitantly dismissed by the editor in her introduction on the grounds of "space, budget, and permissions" (p. xxii), though notably present are several dub poets and spoken-word artists previously ignored by earlier anthologists. Toronto performance poet and former radio personality Jemeni, for example, brings an unabashed directness to the collection that is elsewhere inlaid more reticently. She notes (not without legitimate bitterness) the distance at which black writers are held by the mainstream when she writes, "[u]nless of course it's February/Why then you'll even pay her for her tire./She's a walking talking eleven months of forgiveness for hire" (p. 348). Jemeni, along with fellow spoken word artist Motion and poets Shane Book and Wayde Compton, provides a biting edginess and beat that compliments the richly austere and intricate prose of writers like Ken Wiwa, Andre Alexis, and Tessa McWatt. To call Revival textured might inadequately touch upon the actual depth and breadth of the collection as a whole. …