Orographic cloud is investigated in a global context using both observations and a global climate model. Climatological cloud amounts from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) are used in conjunction with wind reanalyses to study orographic cirrus amounts over the globe. Significant increases in cirrus are seen over many land areas, with respect to any surrounding oceans. To aid in interpretation of this result special attention is given to the New Zealand region as a case study for orographic cloud formation. Cirrus is found be more prevalent over New Zealand when compared to the adjacent ocean to the west. ISCCP cloud amounts are also compared with a ten year simulation of the UK Meteorological Office's Unified Model. The model is found to be considerably lacking in both cirrus and total high cloud over major mountain ranges. The model is also found to lack trailing cirrus clouds in the lee of orography despite the inclusion of a prognostic ice variable capable of being advected by the model winds. To improve the simulations of orographic cirrus and high cloud in the Unified Model a linear hydrostatic gravity wave scheme that predicts both the amplitude and phase of subgrid orographic gravity waves is introduced. The temperature perturbation caused by these waves in the troposphere is used to modify the amount of both liquid and ice cloud. One important feature of the parameterisation is that the launch amplitude of the gravity waves is predicted by a directional variance function which accounts for anisotropy in the subgrid orography. The parameterisation is explored in the context of an off-line testbed before implementation in the Unified Model. In a ten year simulation the parameterisation is found to increase the high cloud amounts over a number of the world's major mountain ranges. However, this extra cloud is optically thick and unable to remove the deficiency in optically thin cirrus amounts. Suggestions, as part of future work, for improvements to the model and orographic cloud parameterisation are also made.


The stated purpose of the proposed research was to establish the applicability of the reversible-resistant model of adsorption and desorption of
toxic chemicals from dredged material and digested sewage sludge, and to make any necessary changes In the model as dictated by the experimental results. However, while this purpose was ultimately fulfilled, the actual
pathway of the investigation was somewhat different from that envisioned in the original proposal and, as will be seen, the role of particle concentration and ultimately kinetics must be included if a clear understanding of
the fate of toxic substances in the marine environment is to be attained.


The objective of this work was to test the hypothesis that in a situation where predators are excluded growth and mortality rates of cod larvae should be independent. This was evaluated from distributions of otolith increments in larvae sampled at different times of development. The mesocosm experiment was carried out in four 5.2 m 3 plastic-bag enclosures placed along a raft sys- tem in a 20000 m 3 seawater pond used for zooplankton production. Two different feed regimes (low and high ration, each in 2 enclosures) were set up on the basis of a fixed specific growth rate (SGR) applied in a bioenergetic model. Cod larvae showed a very dynamic relationship to food availability and larval growth. An increase in prey size after Day 20 had profound effects on otolith growth, which responded rapidly to availability of suitable prey. Thus, a short-term change in feeding condi- tions seems to be easily tracked in otoliths of cod larvae. The overall relationship between otolith radius and larval length was not linear, indicating a certain degree of decoupling between otolith and somatic growth. In a situation with adequate feeding conditions and exclusion of predators, mortality was not clearly dependent on otolith growth or size. This indicates that no strong inherent mecha- nisms in the larvae are responsible for growth- or size-dependent mortality.


In this study, we employed multilocus phylogenetic analysis for species identification of six Colletotrichum isolates belonging to the C. boninense species complex from India. Maximum parsimony analysis of the ITS/ 5.8S RNA, partial act, cal, chs1, gapdh, his3 and tub2 gene regions identified morphologically similar species, C. cymbidiicola, C. karstii and C. phyllanthi from diverse plant samples of Indian origin. Morphological description and photographic illustrations of C. phyllanthi from freshly collected material are provided, as the ex-type culture of C. phyllanthi deposited in CBS is in nonsporulating state. This is the first report of C. cymbidiicola and C. karstii from India. We are also reporting two new hosts: Bauhinia variegata (Orchid tree) and Bougainvillea glabra (Paper flower) for C. phyllanthi, and one new host: Olea dioica (Rose sandalwood) for C. karstii.


Temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a, and surface CO2 fugacity (fCO2) were extensively investigated in the Ulleung Basin of the East/Japan Sea during four seasonal cruises. In spring, surface fCO2 showed large variations ranging from 260 to 356 μatm, which were considerably lower than the atmospheric CO2 levels. Surface fCO2 was highest (316 to 409 μatm) in summer. The central part of the study area was undersaturated with respect to atmospheric CO2, while the coastal and easternmost regions were oversaturated. In autumn, the entire study area was fairly undersaturated with respect to atmospheric CO2. In winter, surface fCO2 ranged from 303 to 371 μatm, similar to that in autumn, despite the much lower sea surface temperature. The seasonal variation in surface fCO2 could not be explained solely by seasonal changes in sea surface temperature and salinity. The vertical mixing, lateral transport, and sea-air CO2 exchange considerably influenced the seasonal variation in surface fCO2. The Ulleung Basin of the East/Japan Sea was a sink of atmospheric CO2 in spring, autumn, and winter, but a weak source of CO2 to the atmosphere in summer. The annual integrated sea-air CO2 flux in the Ulleung Basin of the East/ Japan Sea was -2.47 ± 1.26 mol m^(-2) yr^(-1), quite similar to a previous estimate (-2.2 mol m^(-2) yr^(-1)) in the south East/Japan Sea. This indicates that the Ulleung Basin of the East/Japan Sea acts as a strong sink of atmospheric CO2.


Carbon Dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS) is nowadays an important area of research for alleviating CO 2 emissions worldwide. According to [1], CO 2 is globally the largest pollutant to which the global warming is attributed. Consequently, hydrates can become of great importance as they form the basis for a new technology that concerns CO 2 capture from flue gases (hydrate crystallization). In this work hydrate equilibrium data measured at the Centre Thermodynamic of Processes in MINES ParisTech (France) are presented as part of a collaborative project funded by the Danish Technical Research Council. More particularly, in this study experimental results for hydrate dissociation with several promoters are presented. The isochoric method is used to determine the gas hydrate dissociation points. Different CO 2 +N 2 gas mixtures were used with presence of promoters such as tetra-butylammonium bromide (TBAB), tetra-butylammonium fluoride (TBAF), cyclopentane (CP) and mixtures of TBAB and TBAF with CP. The combination of TBA halides with CP was inspired by [2] as it came out synergetic effect that enhances promotion between TBAB (5% w/w) and CP (5% v/v). The results have shown synergetic effect for 20% w/w TBAB+CP (5% v/v) and partly (>30 bar) for 5% w/w TBAF+CP (5% v/v). Concerning experiments with pure promoter, there is excellent consistency between our results and literature for different gas mixtures and promoter concentrations. Moreover, they exhibit very good agreement with existing literature.


A discrete region within STIM1 directly binds to and activates Orai1 to trigger influx of Ca2+. Ca2+ influx through Ca2+ release–activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels at the plasma membrane (PM) in response to the depletion of Ca2+ stored in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an essential component of Ca2+ signaling mechanisms in nonexcitable cells. CRAC channels composed of pore-forming Orai subunits are gated by STIM1 proteins, which are ER-localized Ca2+ sensors that oligomerize and cluster near Orai channels at ER-PM junctions after depletion of ER-stored Ca2+; however, the mechanism by which STIM1 activates Orai channels is unclear. Two studies now provide evidence that Orai1 function is mediated by a direct interaction with a discrete region within STIM1. Yuan et al. found that a STIM1 fragment consisting of residues 344 to 442, which they named the STIM1 Orai activating region (SOAR), recapitulated the effects of STIM1 on Ca2+ influx in transfected HEK cells. SOAR coimmunoprecipitated with Orai1 but not with a mutant Orai1 lacking its C terminus. Although SOAR mediated the activity of the Orai channel, another region of STIM1 mediated clustering of STIM1 and Orai1 in response to depletion of ER-stored Ca2+; this clustering was insufficient to mediate Ca2+ influx. Deletion of the N terminus of Orai1 prevented its activation by full-length STIM1 but not by SOAR. Park et al. found that a STIM1 peptide consisting of residues 342 to 448, termed the CRAC activation domain (CAD), activated Orai1 channels and bound directly to Orai1. Consistent with the other study, coclustering of STIM1 and Orai1, mediated by a polybasic region within STIM1, was insufficient to trigger Ca2+ influx. Together, these studies suggest a mechanism whereby clustering of STIM1 and Orai channels enables the binding of SOAR/CAD to Orai to activate the channel. J. P. Yuan, W. Zeng, M. R. Dorwart, Y.-J. Choi, P. F. Worley, S. Muallem, SOAR and the polybasic STIM1 domains gate and regulate Orai channels. Nat. Cell Biol. 11, 337–343 (2009). [PubMed] C. Y. Park, P. J. Hoover, F. M. Mullins, P. Bachhawat, E. D. Covington, S. Raunser, T. Walz, K. C. Garcia, R. E. Dolmetsch, R. S. Lewis, STIM1 clusters and activates CRAC channels via direct binding of a cytosolic domain to Orai1. Cell 136, 876–890 (2009). [PubMed]


The history of university education and training goes back to such varied roots and staid of development that it is impossible to present it in its entirety, with all its aspects, unless one is prepared to sacrifice its clarity in a single publication. The university in general is regarded as an educational hub that creates knowledge and skills necessary in promoting the socio-economic and political development of a nation. The more important questions that this study addressed were:[i] Why provide education and training, and [ii] How does this education and training best suit the global technological challenges and the future of the university student generation. Indeed, the programmes offered by universities must have a global perspective and a special connection with the communities around the world given today's technological know-how. This was a descriptive survey study on the system of university education and training in Kenya, the nature of their global programs, challenges experienced and influence on the socioeconomic, political and cultural development of the communities. Two sets of respondents were targeted, that is, university lecturers and students in the public universities in Kenya. Questionnaire instruments were used to collect data from the respondents. The findings indicated that despite these undertakings, employers and more particularly industrialists have expressed reservations on the type of graduates from our universities, for some have very little information technology knowledge. Important to note is the rate of unemployment among the university graduates, which perhaps could be attributed to the nature of education obtained at school. The study therefore recommends that Kenyan Universities should be a leading example in assisting the government in producing manpower relevant to the socio-economic and political development of the country and course the entire world.


A series of tetradentate pyridyl-imine terminated Schiff-base ligands has been investigated for their ability in the catalytic oxidation of alcohols when combined with copper bromide (CuBr2) and 2,2,6,6tetramethylpiperidyl-1-oxy (TEMPO). Analogous bidentate ligands showed poorer catalytic activity and the ratio of Cu:ligand was of crucial importance in maintaining high yields. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) derived pyridyl-imine terminated ligand combined with copper(II) ions affords an effective and selective catalyst for aerobic oxidations of primary and secondary alcohols under aqueous conditions. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that bimetallic complexes may be playing a role in the catalytic transformation. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Deposits of fluvial systems in highly seasonal tropical climates possess unique architectural and facies characters owing to a flood-prone regime alternating with lengthy periods of ineffective discharge. Distally linked deltaic successions should also feature distinctive attributes, with great potential to preserve the stratigraphic evidence of exceptional discharge events. We describe Late Carboniferous delta-front, valley-confined sandstones from the Pennine Basin (UK), originally deposited at paleoequatorial latitudes during final assembly of the Pangean megacontinent and characterized by giant sedimentary structures with repetitively sigmoidal geometry. Facies traits indicate geologically instantaneous deposition of a large sediment volume from a density current at sustained supercritical-flow conditions, leading to aggradation of cyclic steps, recently identified bedforms developing in high-energy flows and of which this is the first complete outcrop example. The lack of unconformable erosional surfaces and absence of different associated facies point to a single aggradational event during which the structures attained dimensions comparable to those indicated by seismic data sets from which they are remotely detected on modern seafloors. Cyclic-step formation in a deltaic setting suggests that Pangean megamonsoons could have triggered hydrologic events capable of imprinting sedimentologic signatures on shallow-marine deposits.


The discovery of penicillin marked
the beginning of the golden era of antibiotics. Antibiotics have been the valuable
weapons combating an array of bacterial infections. However, each year,
millions of bacterial infections occur which lead to thousands of deaths. For instance, over three million infections were reported in
the United States in 2019, that were caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens
and Clostridioides difficile. These infections resulted in more than
50,000 deaths. Clostridioides difficile and
vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are listed as top-threat bacteria that
urgently require prompt action to fight the infections caused by both of them.
Both are highly prevalent in the healthcare settings, ranking as the first and
second bacterial species causing nosocomial infections. The increased incidence
and severity of diseases caused by both bacteria in addition to the dearth of
effective anticlostridial and anti-VRE agents have created an urgent need for development
of new therapeutic agents. The process of discovering new antibiotics is time-consuming
and associated with high costs and risk. Repurposing FDA-approved drugs represents
an attractive venture of antibacterial drug discovery. FDA-approved drugs
possess well-studied safety, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics. Hence, drug
repurposing saves time and costs, and reduces the risk associated with the de
novo drug discovery. In the following studies, new drugs discovered utilizing
the drug repurposing approach, were investigated C. difficile and VRE.

Against C. difficile,
diiodohydroxyquinoline (DIHQ) and auranofin were investigated. DIHQ exhibited potent
activity against C. difficile isolates inhibiting growth of 90% of these
isolates at the concentrations of 2 µg/mL. It demonstrated superior activity to
vancomycin and metronidazole, in its killing kinetics. Furthermore, it reacted synergistically
with vancomycin and metronidazole against C. difficile in vitro. Moreover,
at subinhibitory concentrations, DIHQ was superior to vancomycin and
metronidazole in inhibiting two key virulence factors of C. difficile, toxin
production and spore formation. Additionally, DIHQ did not inhibit growth of intestinal
normal microbiota. In addition, the in vivo activity of auranofin was
investigated in C. difficile infection (CDI) mouse and hamster model. It
efficiently protected mice and hamsters against CDI. Remarkably, at clinically
achieved concentrations, auranofin was capable of preventing CDI recurrence.

For VRE, three drugs where identified with
potent inhibitory activities both in vitro and in vivo,
auranofin, acetazolamide and dorzolamide. Auranofin's antibacterial activity was not affected when evaluated
against a higher inoculum size of VRE and it successfully reduced the burden of
stationary phase VRE cells. In addition, auranofin reduced VRE production of
key virulence factors including proteases, lipase and hemagglutinin. In a
lethal mouse model of VRE septicemia, auranofin-treated mice were protected
from the lethal VRE challenge. Interestingly, auranofin successfully reduced
VRE count below the limit of detection in murine internal organs after only
four days of oral or subcutaneous treatment. In addition to auranofin, two carbonic anhydrase inhibitors,
acetazolamide and dorzolamide, were investigated against VRE. Acetazolamide exhibited
potent activity against a wide panel of different enterococcal strains.
Moreover, it outperformed linezolid in two in
vivo VRE mouse models; murine colonization-reduction and VRE septicemia. Additionally, dorzolamide exhibited potent activity
against VRE isolates. Remarkably, in combination with gentamicin, dorzolamide
interacted synergistically reducing gentamicin's MICs by several folds.
Moreover, dorzolamide significantly reduced the VRE burden in mice fecal
samples by 99.9% after 3 days of treatment. Furthermore, dorzolamide
significantly surpassed linezolid in reducing the VRE count in the cecal and
ileal contents of mice.

Collectively, several drugs exhibited promising
activities against C. difficile and VRE, in vitro and in vivo.
The results presented suggest that these drugs merit further evaluation as
potential candidates for treatment of infections caused by either bacterium.


Abstract Lake Pontchartrain in southeastern Louisiana is the largest of several shallow estuaries that together cover over 15,000 km2. Wetlands, forests, and large urban areas surround the lake. Primary transport mechanisms of sediments to Lake Pontchartrain include urban runoff, major diversions of the Mississippi River, discharge from streams along the north and west shores, and tidal circulation. Sediments deposited in Lake Pontchartrain are subjected to resuspension and mixing by natural and human activities. Bioturbation and water turbulence throughout the lake are the major mixing agents, and mechanical shell dredging has reworked much of the lake bottom over the last century. Sediment characterization through direct sampling and geophysical surveys indicates that these processes continually rework the top meter of sediment. The lake receives discharge from roadways and industrial and agricultural sources. Contaminants from these sources accumulate in the lake sediments and are an important contributor to the degradation of the estuary. Decline in populations of various benthic organisms, such as shrimp and clams, has been documented in the lake. To characterize the health of this important estuary, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the geology, geomorphology, coastal processes, and environmental condition of the Pontchartrain Basin from 1994 to 1997. This report presents an assessment of sediment distribution and quality using a multidisciplinary approach to characterize the influence of various physical and chemical parameters: nearsurface stratigraphy, major trace metal concentrations (Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ni), and short-lived radionuclides (210Pb, 7Be, and 137Cs). The results are compared with water-circulation patterns to determine high-resolution sedimentation patterns in the lake. The data show a significant increase in trace metals in the top 1 m of lake sediments. Above this horizon, pollen analysis indicates a correlation with land clearing in the area, a proxy for increasing human development of the surrounding landscape and an increase in surface run-off. The data also show that the top meter of sediment undergoes frequent resuspension during high-energy circulation events and via circulation gyres in the lake. This regular turnover does not allow stratification of recently deposited sediments, restricting the sequestration of contaminated material that enters the lake.


The retarded potential, a solution of the non-homogeneous wave equation, is a subject of particular interest in many physics and engineering applications. Examples of such applications may be the problem of solving the wave equation involved in the emission and reception of a signal in a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), scattering and backscattering, and general electrodynamics for media free of magnetic charges. However, the construction of this potential solution is based on the theory of  distributions, a topic that requires special care and time to be understood with mathematical rigor. Thus, the goal of this study is to provide an introductory analysis, with a medium level of formalism, on the construction of this potential solution and the handling of Green functions represented by sequences of well-behaved approximating functions.


We have demonstrated an entirely new concept of a wearable theranostic device in the form of a contact lens (theranostic lens) with a dual-functional hybrid surface to modulate and detect a pathogenic attack, using a the corneal HSV serotype-1 (HSV-1) model. The theranostic lenses were constructed using a facile layer-by-layer surface engineering technique, keeping the theranostic lenses with good surface wettability, optically transparency, and nontoxic toward human corneal epithelial cells. The theranostic lenses were used to capture and concentrate inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1α (IL-1α), which is upregulated during HSV-1 reactivation, for sensitive, noninvasive diagnostics. The theranostic lens also incorporated an antiviral coating to serve as a first line of defense to protect patients against disease. Our strategy tackles major problems in tear diagnostics that are mainly associated with the sampling of a relatively small volume of fluid and the low concentration of biomarkers. The theranostic lenses show effective anti-HSV-1 activity and good analytical performance for the detection of IL-1α, with a limit of detection of 1.43 pg mL(-1) and a wide linear range covering the clinically relevant region. This work offers a new paradigm for "wearable" noninvasive healthcare devices combining "diagnosis" and "protection" against disease, while supporting patient compliance. We believe that this approach holds immense promise as a next-generation point-of-care and decentralized diagnostic/theranostic platform for a range of biomarkers.


Continuous training on military ranges with ammunition filled with TNT-based compositions has caused environmental contamination over decades. These ranges may now require remediation for range sustainability, which is expensive, time-consuming, and can compromise use.

Due to increased environmental awareness society expects a preemptive approach for on-going management of military training ranges to minimize damage to the environment. Regarding TNT-based compositions it is possible to estimate likely contamination issues from historical data. However, TNT-based compositions are being replaced by new formulations designed to be less sensitive to accidental insult. A very promising alternative to TNT is 2,4-dinitroanilisole (DNAN), a melt-castable energetic material that has been successfully used as binding agent in some insensitive high explosive (IHE) formulation. For example, when combined with 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) and nitro-guanidine (NQ) in IMX-101. However, from an environmental point of view, the lack of historical data on how these materials impact the environmental might compromise training capability and disposal procedures in years to come.

To contribute to this area of knowledge, we simulated the dispersion of chemicals through soil using Hydrus-1D, which is a modelling tool for analysis of water flow and solute transport. Primary data was generated by soil column experiments that were artificially spiked with Insensitive High Explosives materials DNAN; NTO; and NQ. The primary aim of the research was to determine whether Hydrus-1D, can be used to predict environmental contamination on military training ranges.


Socio-technical energy transitions are long-term and major transformations in incumbent energy infrastructures. They include fundamental changes in technologies as well as institutions and social patterns. Transition studies are primarily focused on frameworks for analyzing the entire transition process by investigating the historical cases of transitions. A multi-phase approach to transition posits this process begins with a pre-development phase characterized by technological and institutional lock-ins, and resistance from incumbent actors. This period is critical for a forward-looking approach to transitions, since early developments shape path-dependent and irreversible processes leading to the emergence of new transition pathways. However, our understanding about the mechanisms and dynamics of this phase is still very limited. This is mainly due to lack of data, weak conceptualization and the necessity of developing new methods proper to deal with these limitations. This dissertation develops methodologies for investigating some complex questions arising in the pre-development phase, by focusing on the case of smart grid development. The first essay uses insights from modeling interventions in complex systems and builds a System Dynamics model to investigate the cost allocation problem of smart metering roll-out. The second essay takes ideas from Technological Innovation System approach and develops a method to analyze the emergence of spatial diversity in smart grid development by combining Social Network Analysis and Agent-Based Modeling. The third essay builds on ideas from network theory and evolutionary modeling to develop a method for identifying the main path of knowledge development and analyzing knowledge trajectories in smart grid initiatives.


Emergency in India is a rosy, reforming, revolutionary experience and an enriching experiment in democracy under the existing circumstances; and its flowering success is full justification of the seed planted by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the lightest moment in history.1A blanket of repression was cast over India by the emergency. About 110,000 people were arrested and imprisoned without trial. The emergency period was the most substantial assault on the liberal democratic nature of India since independence.2Diametrically opposed judgments on Indira Gandhi's emergency mle (1975-77) by the two political analysts J.S. Bright and Ramesh Thakur set the frame for a discussion of literary treatments of this phase in Indian history. While the three novels examined in this essay differ considerably in style and creative approach, they agree in their criticism of Gandhi's use of dictatorial powers. As works of fiction, historical novels are subject to the paradox that their non-fictional subject-matter is the very opposite of the literary genre to which they belong. The boundaries between 'documenting' historical facts, forming 'history' into a conclusive narrative, and adding a particular interpretation, political bias or artistic appeal to it have always been blurred; previous centuries have all but disregarded the difference between 'reporting' and 'creating' a literary past. There are, in this respect, striking similarities between medieval English historiography (Arthurian legend) and the ancient Indian epics (the Mahabharata).Contemporary historiographical fiction, however, openly admits the creative component of its narrative; still, it may cause controversy or even violent reactions, as was the case with Rushdie's Satanic Verses or Mistry's Such a Long Journey.3 The relationship between fiction and reality is far from easy to understand: can literature help us understand history or will novels written on historical subjects nurture half-knowledge and prejudice as they freely mingle fact with fiction? How can a novel reconcile its claim to historical accuracy despite its creative treatment of the subject? Before discussing representations of Indira Gandhi's emergency rule in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel, and Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, a brief look at the events in question will be helpful.Defending Democracy or Descending into Dictatorship?On 25 June 1975, India's President Fakhrudin Ali Ahmed declared a state of National Emergency on account of the threat to security, which opened the way to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's running the country for two years with die use of dictatorial powers. P.N. Dhar, who wrote a book-length account of Gandhi's premiership, was her principal secretary during the Emergency and therefore himself part of her government.4 Calling the Emergency "a severe setback in the political evolution of India" and a "tragedy,"5 he voices straightforward criticism. But it is wrong, he argues, to explain Indira Gandhi's dictatorial rule simply in terms of her supposed greed for power; Indira Gandhi has been subject to both exaggerated praise in the wake of her successful leadership during the war against Pakistan and criticism during and after her time as Indian PM. The causes of national politics need to be sought in the system of the young republic as it evolved, in the gap between the form and the substance of democracy in India.6 One of the problems with the country's newly created democracy was that the British parliamentary system had been adopted in a single step, whereas in Britain this system had evolved over centuries. Democratic systems, he argues, can be imported, but a political culture, which consists of inherited attitudes and behaviour, needs time to grow. Indian society, deeply rooted in religious traditions, was strained when secularism and a libertarian philosophy were adopted as its state policy.7Another burden on the democratic institutions was the immediate past, the struggle against the colonial authorities. …


The activity of several commercial and genetically engineered lipases, already immobilized on octyl-Sepharose, in aqueous solutions containing ionic liquids (ILs) in a molar concentration of 0.01 mol L−1 was investigated. Strong variations in the hydrolytic activity values were found depending on the lipase, the ionic liquid and the substrate used. The most interesting results were found in the engineered variants of Geobacillus thermocatenolatus lipase (GTL). The activity of GTLσ-L230C variant in the monodeacetylation of per-acetylated glucal increased seven fold when using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoliumhexafluorophosphate [emim[PF6] and fivefold when using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium methyl sulphate [emim][MeSO3]. In general, ILs containing BF4− had a very negative effect on the enzyme activity. Moreover, improvements in the enantio and regioselectivity of the immobilized lipases were obtained by adding ILs to the reaction medium. The regioselectivity of Candida rugosa lipase in the hydrolysis of peracetylated thymidine improved (from 72% to 81% yield of C-5 monodeprotected product) in the presence of [emim][PF6]. More interestingly, the addition of 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [bdmim][PF6] improved the regioselectivity of immobilized GTLσ-L230C variant in the hydrolysis of peracetylated glucal, from 78% to 96% yield of the C-3 monodeprotected product. Circular dichroism and fluorescence experiments revealed conformational changes in the tertiary structure of the enzyme induced by the ionic liquid which could explain these phenomena.


We present a model of succession in a firm controlled and managed by its founder. The founder decides between hiring a professional manager or leaving management to his heir, as well as on how much, if any, of the shares to float on the stock exchange. We assume that a professional is a better manager than the heir, and describe how the founder's decision is shaped by the legal environment. Specifically, we show that, in legal regimes that successfully limit the expropriation of minority shareholders, the widely held professionally managed corporation emerges as the equilibrium outcome. In legal regimes with intermediate protection, management is delegated to a professional, but the family stays on as large shareholders to monitor the manager. In legal regimes with the weakest protection, the founder designates his heir to manage and ownership remains inside the family. This theory of separation of ownership from management includes the Anglo-Saxon and the Continental European patterns of corporate governance as special cases, and generates additional empirical predictions consistent with cross-country evidence.


The virtue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the voluntary incorporation of social and environmental concerns into business conduct has established itself as an international norm. Businesses, intellectuals, local and international development agencies like the USAID have embraced this concept with the hope that it could bring about sustainable development to developing countries. Using qualitative data collection tools of semi-structured interviews and field observations, it was found out that although the company mining the Obuasi mine - AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) seems to uphold the concept of social responsibility, their willingness and zeal to ensure the reality of such policies are almost non-existent. CSR is best practiced when done in partnership with the local community, but in the case of AGA, the formulation and implementation of the policies are done by the company with very little consultation with the people. Nonetheless, it expects the community to accept their stretched hand of philanthropy as a favour from them and not complain about the economic, cultural, social and environmental hazards that they have to endure as a result of the operations of the mine. Being a signatory to the Global Compact agreement and the ISO 14001, the company has tried to consistently improve their social commitment but they still have a very long way to go in terms of sustainable development in the Obuasi municipality as defined by the Rio conference.


Using resonant magnetic x-ray scattering we address the unresolved nature of the magnetic ground state and the low-energy effective Hamiltonian of Sm_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7}, a prototypical pyrochlore iridate with a finite temperature metal-insulator transition. Through a combination of elastic and inelastic measurements, we show that the magnetic ground state is an all-in-all-out (AIAO) antiferromagnet. The magnon dispersion indicates significant electronic correlations and can be well described by a minimal Hamiltonian that includes Heisenberg exchange [J=27.3(6)  meV] and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions [D=4.9(3)  meV], which provides a consistent description of the magnetic order and excitations. In establishing that Sm_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7} has the requisite inversion symmetry preserving AIAO magnetic ground state, our results support the notion that pyrochlore iridates may host correlated Weyl semimetals.


Languages like ML and Haskell encourage the view of values as first-class entities that can be passed as arguments or results of functions, or stored as components of data structures. The same languages offer parametric polymorphism, which allows the use of values that behave uniformly over a range of different types. But the combination of these features is not supported-- polymorphic values are not first-class. This restriction is sometimes attributed to the dependence of such languages on type inference, in contrast to more expressive, explicitly typed languages, like System F, that do support first-class polymorphism.This paper uses relationships between types and logic to develop a type system, FCP, that supports first-class polymorphism, type inference, and also first-class abstract datatypes. The immediate result is a more expressive language, but there are also long term implications for language design.


The hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) pool is maintained under hypoxic conditions within the bone marrow microenvironment. Cellular responses to hypoxia are largely mediated by the hypoxia-inducible factors, Hif-1 and Hif-2. The oxygen-regulated α subunits of Hif-1 and Hif-2 (namely, Hif-1α and Hif-2α) form dimers with their stably expressed β subunits and control the transcription of downstream hypoxia-responsive genes to facilitate adaptation to low oxygen tension. An initial study concluded that Hif-1α is essential for HSC maintenance, whereby Hif-1α-deficient HSCs lost their ability to self-renew in serial transplantation assays. In another study, we demonstrated that Hif-2α is dispensable for cell-autonomous HSC maintenance, both under steady-state conditions and following transplantation. Given these unexpected findings, we set out to revisit the role of Hif-1α in cell-autonomous HSC functions. Here we demonstrate that inducible acute deletion of Hif-1α has no impact on HSC survival. Notably, unstressed HSCs lacking Hif-1α efficiently self-renew and sustain long-term multilineage hematopoiesis upon serial transplantation. Finally, Hif-1α-deficient HSCs recover normally after hematopoietic injury induced by serial administration of 5-fluorouracil. We therefore conclude that despite the hypoxic nature of the bone marrow microenvironment, Hif-1α is dispensable for cell-autonomous HSC maintenance.


Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) is a resonant optical phenomenon arising within nanoscale metallic particles and is capable of generating vibrant, high resolution and enduring colour. Coupled with their high sensitivity to nearby changes, such structures have been the focus of significant research over the past couple decades. At present, much of the investigation has been focused towards developing novel nanomaterials along with new processes for their realization. While such efforts have yielded an array of impressive static colour features, progress towards realizing dynamic devices has only recently gained significant traction. In recent years, several researchers have reported upon dynamic plasmonic response primarily based on mechanically tunable or electro-chromic responses.
This document focuses on the development of novel mechanically and electrically responsive plasmonic features. Dynamic colour was achieved by embedding metal nanoparticles within a deformable gap. The gap serves to control the optical coupling between the nanoparticles and an opposing reflector film; as the gap changes, so to does the color. The intent of this work is to develop a structure that is amenable to volume manufacturing and that has the potential for broad colour response.


The receptor for the plant hormone known as cytokinin is a histidine kinase. Sakai et al. now demonstrate that a target for this receptor kinase is the response regulator ARR1, which contains DNA binding domains that can be put to good use in activating downstream target genes. The receptor and the response regulator together act as a two-component system that transduces hormone detection into transcriptional regulation. H. Sakai, T. Honma, T. Aoyama, S. Sato, T. Kato, S. Tabata, A. Oka, ARR1, a transcription factor for genes immediately responsive to cytokinins. Science 294, 1519-1521 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Status-seeking is an important aspect of the foreign policies of a number of small states, but one that has been rarely studied. This book aims to contribute to our understanding not only of status-seeking, by coming at that question from a new angle, that of a small state, but also to our understanding of foreign policy, by discussing the importance of status for foreign policy overall. If status is a hierarchy, then it is important to focus not just on the highest-ranking powers, but also those at lower levels. As the distribution of power is becoming more diffuse, the role of small and medium powers becomes more significant than it was during the Cold war. The book chapters go beyond familiar explications of "soft power" or conflict resolution to highlight new aspects of Norway's foreign policy, including contributions to national defense, global warming, and management of Arctic resources. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in areas including US Foreign Policy, International Relations and European Politics.


A 24-year-old man presented to the emergency department following an assault where he was punched in the face and fell backwards hitting his head onto concrete. Upon arrival, he was intoxicated with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 12/15. Due to his agitation, he was sedated and intubated to allow formal assessment of his injuries including CT imaging. Upon withdrawal of sedation and extubation, the patient presented with complete deafness, tinnitus and dizziness on mobilisation. Ear, nose and throat examination revealed a right haemotympanum. There was no obvious facial nerve palsy or other neurological deficits, and clinical balance tests, including Romberg's, Unterberger's and head impulse tests, were normal. Further audiological assessment …


The pulp and paper industry and the forestry sector in general, have declined in Newfoundland. In 2005, the Stephenville mill closed; in 2009, the Grand Falls mill closed; in recent years, the remaining mill in Corner Brook has shut down two of its four paper machines and gone through labour disputes and land relinquishments. The Department of Natural Resources, Forestry Branch (DNR Forestry) has based forest management and planning on the pulp and paper industry – for example, only pulp and paper companies can establish long-term leases on Crown lands. Since the once-dominant pulp and paper industry has left entire regions of the province, there are opportunities for new tenure types and new forest management. Community forestry is one such possibility that holds great promise for rural development and sustainable forestry.

Community forestry consists of giving a community-based group the right to manage the forest, and the right to determine who benefits from forest products. Details of ownership and lease arrangements would be up to the province and to the communities involved, but could be based on pulp and paper leases, where a Community Forest Authority would assume control of the land and create forest management plans, working alongside agencies such as DNR Forestry, Wildlife, Tourism, and others.

Community forestry has demonstrated successes in other provinces, though the structure of a community forest would need to be adapted for Newfoundland, where residents have strong economic and social links to the forest through domestic fuel wood and saw log harvests, moose hunting, fishing, cabin building, and recreational activities. Possible benefits of a community forest include expanding the decision-making power of local residents and communities over nearby forests; linking rural economic development with natural resource management; and providing a platform for discussing and resolving land use conflicts.

A community forest was recently proposed in the Great Northern Peninsula, but it has a long way to go before it is actually created. Its proponents, including the St. Barbe Development Association, recognize many of the benefits of community forestry, but cannot move forward without the support of the provincial government. Though significant obstacles remain, the Great Northern Peninsula Community Forest could provide a model for communities across the province, integrating local community voices with economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable forestry.


The distinction between implicit and unselfconscious design cultures on one hand and explicit, self-conscious design cultures on the other provides a principle for interrelating a variety of game design approaches within a coherent game design meta-model. The design approaches in order of increasing design self-consciousness include implicit design, 'cookbook' design methods, taxonomy and ontology-based game design, theory-driven design and formalist reflexive design. Implicit design proceeds by copying existing examples of game designs, while 'cookbook' methods generalize from examples to create lists of design heuristics. Taxonomy and ontology-based game design is based upon more systematic models of the types, features, elements, structure and properties of games. The theory-driven level involves the design of game systems to facilitate game play motivated by cognitive, scientific and/or rhetorical theories of game affect and functionality, or incorporating technical innovations providing the basis for new game mechanics and experiences. The formalist level represents the application of reflexive contemporary artistic perspectives to games, resulting in games that reflect upon, question or reveal game form. In placing these different approaches within a hierarchy of increasing self-consciousness of design practices, the metamodel provides a clear account of the roles of research and artistic methods in game design and innovation, providing a foundation for more explicit design decision making and game education curriculum development integrated with higher-level research.


Next-generation, hard real-time systems will require new, flexible functionality and guaranteed, predictable performance. This paper describes the UMass Spring threads package, designed specifically for multiprocessing in dynamic, hard real-time environments. This package is unique because of its support for new thread semantics for real-time processing. Predictable creation and execution of threads is achieved because of an underlying predictable kernel, the UMass Spring kernel. Design decisions and lessons learned while implementing the threads package are presented. Measurements affirm the predictability of this implementation on a representative multiprocessor platform. The adoption of the threads package in the UMass Spring kernel results in additional performance improvements, which include reduced context switching overhead and reduced average-case memory access durations.


The automatic creation of man-made 3D objects is an active area in computer graphics. Computer-assisted mixing and blending of components or subcomponents from existing example shapes can help users quickly produce interesting and creative designs. A key factor for automating this task is using algorithms that can match compatible parts between objects of different shape and structure. However, due to the coarse correspondence computed by current matching algorithms, automatic shape blending is mainly limited to the substitution of large compatible part sets. In this thesis, we address the problem of relating 3D shapes of different geometry and topology, with applications in shape synthesis. Our goal is to compute a fine-grained mapping between two shapes differing in the geometry, cardinality, and connectivity of their parts, and to use this mapping for continuous shape interpolation. First, we propose a framework for shape matching using a joint geometric and topological transformation. The framework follows the assumption that the best mapping for a pair of shapes is one that results from a shape transformation that minimally distorts the structural properties of a shape. We establish meaningful correspondences between shapes with large topological discrepancy by going beyond shape deformations and incorporating topological operations such as part split, duplication, and merging. We evaluate our correspondence algorithm on a diverse set of shape classes and compare the results to state-of-the-art methods. Second, we propose an algorithm for synthesizing interpolations between structurally different 3D shapes. Our algorithm produces a continuous and plausible shape transformation that gradually morphs the geometry of the individual parts, as well as performs any necessary topology-changing operations. We further demonstrate the utility of our framework by developing intuitive shape creation tools. We show how these tools can allow novice users to synthesize new 3D models from continuous blends of topologically different shapes.


We consider probabilistic programming for birth-death models of evolution and introduce a new widely-applicable inference method that combines an extension of the alive particle filter (APF) with automatic Rao-Blackwellization via delayed sampling. Birth-death models of evolution are an important family of phylogenetic models of the diversification processes that lead to evolutionary trees. Probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) give phylogeneticists a new and exciting tool: their models can be implemented as probabilistic programs with just a basic knowledge of programming. The general inference methods in PPLs reduce the need for external experts, allow quick prototyping and testing, and accelerate the development and deployment of new models. We show how these birth-death models can be implemented as simple programs in existing PPLs, and demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed inference method for such models. For the popular BiSSE model the method yields an increase of the effective sample size and the conditional acceptance rate by a factor of 30 in comparison with a standard bootstrap particle filter. Although concentrating on phylogenetics, the extended APF is a general inference method that shows its strength in situations where particles are often assigned zero weight. In the case when the weights are always positive, the extra cost of using the APF rather than the bootstrap particle filter is negligible, making our method a suitable drop-in replacement for the bootstrap particle filter in probabilistic programming inference.


In this paper we develop methods for maximizing the throughput of a mobility-on-demand urban transportation system. We consider a finite group of shared vehicles, located at a set of stations. Users arrive at the stations, pick-up vehicles, and drive (or are driven) to their destination station where they drop-off the vehicle. When some origins and destinations are more popular than others, the system will inevitably become out of balance: Vehicles will build up at some stations, and become depleted at others. We propose a robotic solution to this rebalancing problem that involves empty robotic vehicles autonomously driving between stations. We develop a rebalancing policy that minimizes the number of vehicles performing rebalancing trips. To do this, we utilize a fluid model for the customers and vehicles in the system. The model takes the form of a set of nonlinear time-delay differential equations. We then show that the optimal rebalancing policy can be found as the solution to a linear program. By analyzing the dynamical system model, we show that every station reaches an equilibrium in which there are excess vehicles and no waiting customers.We use this solution to develop a real-time rebalancing policy which can operate in highly variable environments. We verify policy performance in a simulated mobility-on-demand environment with stochastic features found in real-world urban transportation networks.


The paper presents an integrated environment for designing object-oriented enterprise models. The conceptual framework it is based on recommends a multi-perspective approach. For this purpose three main views on the enterprise are proposed: a strategic view, an organizational/operational view and an information system view. The environment that is introduced is intended to encourage the design of enterprise models on these three levels as well as interconnecting them. It features three tools each of which is related to one or more main levels of abstraction. The Object Model Designer guides conceptualization of an enterprise wide object model. Object models are represented using a graphical notation that is completed by a structured description of classes and associations. In order to facilitate user feedback fast prototyping is supported by generating code from class descriptions. The object model s implementation demonstrates the automatic control of semantically rich integrity constrains as well as the benefits of inter-application communication using domain concepts as common references rather than technical ones. The Office Procedure Designer guides the description of office procedures which are conceptualized as ordered graphs of activity blocks. It provides means to analyze the effectiveness of business procedures and generates prototypical user-interfaces as a representation of a virtual procedure document. The Value Chain Designer is mainly a tool for representing and documenting business activities and for strategic scrutiny. Based on Porter s value chain concept it provides a general framework as well as analytical categories to segment business units and to establish relations between different activities. It thus supports modelling of alternative future strategies. Beside a detailed description of the tools listed above the paper presents a conceptual framework for the design of multi-perspective enterprise model. Furthermore it is demonstrated how the tools and the related methods interact during analysis and design and how the partial models managed by the tools are integrated.


Crowdsourcing, due to its inexpensive and timely nature, has become a popular method of collecting data that is difficult for computers to generate. We focus on using this method of human computation to gather labels for classification tasks, to be used for machine learning. However, data gathered this way may be of varying quality, ranging from spam to perfect. We aim to maintain the cost-effective property of crowdsourcing, while also obtaining quality results. Towards a solution, we have multiple workers label the same problem instance, aggregating the responses into one label afterwards. We study what aggregation method to use, and what guarantees we can provide on its estimates. Different crowdsourcing models call for different techniques – we outline and organize various directions taken in the literature, and focus on the Dawid-Skene model. In this setting each instance has a true label, workers are independent, and the performance of each individual is assumed to be uniform over all instances, in the sense that she has an inherent skill that governs the probability with which she labels correctly. Her skill is unknown to us. Aggregation methods aim to find the true label of each task based solely on the labels the workers reported. We measure the performance of these methods by the probability with which the estimates they output match the true label. In practice, a popular procedure is to run the EM algorithm to find estimates of the skills and labels. However, this method is not directly guaranteed to perform well in our measure. We collect and evaluate theoretical results that bound the error of various aggregation methods, including specific variants of EM. Finally, we prove a guarantee on the error suffered by the maximum likelihood estimator, the global optima of the function that EM aims to numerically optimize.


The respiratory mucosa is continuously exposed to a myriad of pathogens and allergens that are inhaled during respiration. B cells of the immune system produce immunoglobulin A (IgA) that protects the respiratory mucosa from inhaled pathogens and allergens. IgA is produced after naive B cells undergo activation, proliferation and differentiation, developing into antibody producing plasma cells. The process that facilitates IgA production as B cells develop into plasma cells is known as class switch recombination (CSR).

Factors favouring IgA have been determined by in vitro studies of CSR. These established two cytokines, IL-21 and TGF-β1, to be important factors for IgA production. Prior studies with human naive B cells that were cultured with IL-21 and TGF-β1, in addition to anti-IgM, anti-CD40, IL-2 and CpG, developed into precursors of IgA producing plasma cells (plasmablasts) that possessed mucosal homing capabilities: a process termed B cell conditioning.

The aim of this project was to establish whether the same factors were active on murine naive B cells in order to eventually test the in vivo therapeutic potential of B cell conditioning. A protocol was optimised for CD19+CD27- naive B cell isolation from mouse spleen and cell division, which is crucial for IgA CSR, by CFSE labelling and flow cytometry. The number of divisions predicts the generation of IgA mucosal homing plasmablasts in vitro. Cells were found to have undergone 5 divisions after 7 days in culture suggesting that cells had undergone a sufficient number of divisions for CSR and IgA production. Attempts were made to quantitate IgA production in culture supernatants, however evidence for the generation of these cells by IgA production remains to be confirmed. The results of this project provide preliminary evidence that murine naive B cells can be conditioned in vitro for IgA production, with potential for homing to, and protection of, mucosal surfaces in vivo.


In Indonesia, the present role of fish in the daily diet
is very small. This study is aimed at determining the nature
and causes of the 1011 consumption level of fish in Indonesia.
Using cross section data of 179 sampled households and 65
fresh fishmongers in the public markets, the results of this
study show that in the retail outlets of fresh fish the market
is efficient. Both fishmongers and consumers (households) in
majority indicated that fresh fish is readily available in the
market. The largest number of households bought fresh fish
regularly at least once a week. Milkfish, Mullet, Tilapia and
Tuna are the species usually purchased. The major problem when
buying fresh fish is freshness of fish.The acceptability of fresh fish varies among households,
but in general, the relative acceptability index shows that
chicken is preferred to fresh fish and beef, while milkfish is
preferred to other fish and beef.
Two models have been used in this study for estimating the
parameters of the fresh fish demand system. First, logarithmic
linear functions of demand system model-using OLS and second,
Zellner's Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model.
The logarithmic linear function of demand system of fresh
fish used in this study looks appropriate for estimating the
demand for fresh fish. The symmetry restriction on this demand
function is accepted. The Goldfeld-Quandt test applied to the
data indicates heteroscedasticity is not a problem in this
logarithmic demand system. Meanwhile Zellner' s Seemingly
Unrelated Regression (SUR) yield estimates which are
asymptotically more efficient than those obtained by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). So, the Seemingly Unrelated Regression
have been applied in this study for estimating the demand
function of fresh fish.
With the exception of Tilapia, the findings of this study
show that the demand for fresh fish is elastic with respect to
its own price. The coefficient of own price elasticities ranged
from -0.6756 to -2.2591. While the expenditure elasticities are positive and significantly different from zero except for
Mullet.
Based on the results of this study, consumption of
fresh fish can be enhanced if the following actions are also
taken: improvement of the fish stall in public markets,
promotion of fish consumption, provision of government
subsidies on fuel for fishermen, provision of subsidies on
fertilizer, pesticides and low interest credit scheme far
fish farmers.


This paper presents a new method in identifying the switched capacitor location from the measured transient voltage waveform. The measured transient voltage waveform due to capacitor switching is composed of a summation of damped sinusoidal components. Total Least Square-Estimation of Signal Parameters Via Rotational Invariance Technique (TLS-ESPRIT) is used to estimate the transient signal parameters of different modes contained in the signals. These parameters are functions of the switched capacitor location. Feed Forward Artificial Neural Network (FF-ANN) is employed to identify the location of the switched capacitor based on the frequencies and amplitudes of various modes, contained in the transient voltage signal, extracted using TLS-ESPRIT. The simulation results prove the competence of the proposed methodology.


In this paper, a sand deposit with liquefaction potential was simulated in FLAC using Finn constitutive model. Equivalent loads of 5, 10, 15 and 20-story buildings were applied to the deposit. As a cyclic loading, acceleration time history of Bam earthquake was used. To examine pore water pressure variations in the soil mass during the earthquake loading, parameter ru (pore water pressure ration, which equals pore water pressure increment divided by the initial mean effective stress in the soil mass) was defined for the software by a Fish function. Static analyses show that by increasing the applied loading due to building construction, the values of effective and shear stress increase and it generally can be a factor to influence liquefaction potential. Furthermore, dynamic analyses show that there is a shallow longitudinal area beneath 15 and 20-story buildings in which liquefaction potential increases due to high confining effective stress.


We describe the finding of an urban roost of wintering Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica in Aveiro, Portugal, which remained stable with c.150 individuals from at least early December to mid-January 2015/16. The stability in numbers and the occurrence of freshly-shed primary feathers below the roost strongly indicate that these were indeed wintering birds that completed their annual moult and suffered a relatively low mortality during this period. The number of roosting Barn Swallows steeply declined in late January, coinciding with the appearance of singing males in the area and the arrival of numerous migrants from Africa to Portugal. The site characteristics and roosting behaviour are described, and the potential advantages of urban roosting discussed. Although this particular winter was unusually mild, observations indicate that this roost may have been present in previous years, and others may occur elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula.


Hypothesis testing is a fundamental issue in statistical inference and has been a crucial element in the development of information sciences. The Chernoff bound gives the minimal Bayesian error probability when discriminating two hypotheses given a large number of observations. Recently the combined work of Audenaert et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 160501 2007 and Nussbaum and Szkola e-print arXiv:quant-ph/0607216 has proved the quantum analog of this bound, which applies when the hypotheses correspond to two quantum states. Based on this quantum Chernoff bound, we define a physically meaningful distinguishability measure and its corresponding metric in the space of states; the latter is shown to coincide with the Wigner-Yanase metric. Along the same lines, we define a second, more easily implementable, distinguishability measure based on the error probability of discrimination when the same local measurement is performed on every copy. We study some general properties of these measures, including the probability distribution of density matrices, defined via the volume element induced by the metric. It is shown that the Bures and the local-measurement based metrics are always proportional. Finally, we illustrate their use in the paradigmatic cases of qubits and Gaussian infinite-dimensional states. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.77.032311


The book presents the reader with clear instructions for setting up specific activities, based around an example maths course (Pythagorean Theorem) with plenty of examples and screenshots. No Moodle experience is required to use the book, but the book will focus only on activities and modules relevant to teaching mathematics. We will assume that the reader has access to a working installation of Moodle. The activities will be appropriate for teaching math in high schools and universities. The book is aimed at math teachers who want to use Moodle to deliver or support their teaching. The book will also be useful for teachers of "mathematical sciences", or courses with a significant mathematical content that will benefit from the use of some of the tools explored in the book.


The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a very important organelle in the eukaryotic cells. It has two types: rough endoplasmic reticulum (rough ER, RER) and smooth endoplasmic reticulum (smooth ER, SER). ER plays a vital role in many cellular processes such as secretory and membrane protein synthesis, folding, assembly, trafficking and post-modulation. The lumen of the ER contains the highest concentration of Ca2+ within the cell because of active transport of calcium ions by Ca2+ ATPases and it is a unique environment in which an incredible process of protein quality control checking is performed.


Part I of this three-part series set forth a blueprint for change. In this essay, we get more specific and propose a three-year legal writing curriculum that is designed to mirror the actual practice of law, from start to finish, and provide alternative paths for students who prefer to focus on transactional drafting or alternative dispute resolution. In so doing, we include: (1) required courses for each of the six semesters of law school; (2) a discussion of the practical skills that students will acquire in each course; (3) electives that students may take to complement their required courses; and (4) suggestions for textbooks and other materials. In our view, law students should not just learn to "think like lawyers," but also to "do what lawyers do." They should graduate with knowledge of how law is practiced, and not merely how it is acquired. This essay continues that quest.


We study the complexity of estimating the probability of an outcome in an election over probabilistic votes. The focus is on voting rules expressed as positional scoring rules, and two models of probabilistic voters: the uniform distribution over the completions of a partial voting profile (consisting of a partial ordering of the candidates by each voter), and the Repeated Insertion Model (RIM) over the candidates, including the special case of the Mallows distribution. Past research has established that, while exact inference of the probability of winning is computationally hard (#P-hard), an additive polynomial-time approximation (additive FPRAS) is attained by sampling and averaging. There is often, though, a need for multiplicative approximation guarantees that are crucial for important measures such as conditional probabilities. Unfortunately, a multiplicative approximation of the probability of winning cannot be efficient (under conventional complexity assumptions) since it is already NP-complete to determine whether this probability is nonzero. Contrastingly, we devise multiplicative polynomial-time approximations (multiplicative FPRAS) for the probability of the complement event, namely, losing the election.


Professor Harold Koh's thoughtful article ends with the observation that "globalization has both sinister and constructive faces." Indeed, we live in a world that is increasingly interdependent. Even some of those opposed to the project of globalization ironically depend on the tools of globalization to undermine it. Consider the terrorists who hijacked airplanes on September 11, 2001 and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands of innocent civilians from many different nations. The terrorists used the Internet and other online technology to spread the message of hate underlying their plot, transnational money transfers to finance it, and commercial airlines to execute it. Rather than allow such sinister forms of interdependence to flourish without an effective counter-weight, U.S. human rights policy in the twenty-first century should be more fully engaged in shaping and participating in international institutions and legal regimes that promote constructive forms of global interdependence. However, the United States has disengaged from a number of critical efforts to promote rule of law through multilateral institutions and regimes. This disengagement is disturbing and can be criticized on both normative and instrumentalist grounds. In this Response, I first discuss a number of international initiatives in which U.S. participation was sought but rejected or resisted. Second, I discuss normative considerations concerning U.S. participation in international institutions. Finally, I turn to instrumentalist considerations concerning U.S. involvement in these institutions.


Prior research demonstrates that performance can be highly sensitive to index construction choices related to rebalance dates. The authors define the measure of rebalance timing luck as the standard deviation in returns between identically managed investment portfolios that are rebalanced on different dates (sub-indexes). Using a simple fixed-mix strategy, the authors identify that rebalance timing luck can have significant implications for realized results. Statistical tests imply that the ex ante expected returns for the sub-indexes are identical and that realized performance differences are not expected to mean-revert over time. The authors demonstrate that investors can minimize the impact of rebalance timing luck through equal-weight exposure to the sub-indexes. The authors propose an ex ante model to estimate the magnitude of rebalance timing luck and to confirm that the process of equal weighting across N sub-indexes reduces rebalance timing luck by 1/N. TOPICS: Mutual funds/passive investing/indexing, portfolio construction, performance measurement, statistical methods


Teaching law has its special pleasures. At Yale, they come in abundance, since our classes are small, the atmosphere is highly congenial, and we are given absolute freedom to teach what we want and when we want. Yet the joys of law teaching extend to the entire profession. Unencumbered by the demands of clients, bureaucratic procedures, and sectarian loyalties, law teachers in this country are free to engage the highest issues of state and to speak to them in whatever terms we deem appropriate. The one problem all of us in the profession labor under, and one that I feel acutely, is that of obsolescence. We stand before our students in 1995, and we build on books, classes, and professional experiences that reach back to the 1960's, sometimes even before. As teachers, we must constantly renew our own education-not just school education, but life education-so that we can speak to the issues that are of concern to our students now and that will be of concern to them in their careers and future lives. We need to prepare our students for a world that is so very different from ours. My involvement with the First Amendment began about twenty-five years ago. I was then a young professor at the University of Chicago, and got the chance to develop a close relationship with one of the leading figures in the field, Harry Kalven, Jr.' We spent much of our time together talking about free speech, and the special attraction that he felt towards the First Amendment inevitably rubbed off on me. In the Fall of 1974, just after I moved to Yale, Harry died and left as part of his legacy a huge manuscript that he had begun


In Stalinist Russia, the idealized Soviet man projected an image of strength, virility, and unyielding drive in his desire to build a powerful socialist state. In monuments, posters, and other tools of cultural production, he became the demigod of Communist ideology. But beneath the surface of this fantasy, between the lines of texts and in film, lurked another figure: the wounded body of the heroic invalid, an inversion of Stalin's New Man.In "How the Soviet Man Was Unmade", Lilya Kaganovsky exposes the paradox behind the myth of the indestructible Stalinist-era male. In her analysis of social-realist literature and cinema, she examines the recurring theme of the mutilated male body, which appears with startling frequency. Kaganovsky views this representation as a thinly veiled statement about the emasculated male condition during the Stalinist era. Because the communist state was "full of heroes," a man could only truly distinguish himself and attain hero status through bodily sacrifice - yet in his wounding, he was forever reminded that he would be limited in what he could achieve, and was expected to remain in a state of continued subservience to Stalin and the party.Kaganovsky provides an insightful reevaluation of classic works of the period, including the novels of Nikolai Ostrovskii ("How Steel Was Tempered") and Boris Polevoi ("A Story About a Real Man"), and films such as Ivan Pyr'ev's "The Party Card", Eduard Pentslin's "The Fighter Pilots", and Mikhail Chiaureli's "The Fall of Berlin", among others. The symbolism of wounding and dismemberment in these works acts as a fissure in the facade of Stalinist cultural production through which we can view the consequences of historic and political trauma.


Farms
in England and Wales
continue to have low levels of crime prevention measures in
use
despite the increasing threat, and what is used is often ineffective. As such, there is
a
clear need to employ different decision-making models in crime prevention advice for
farmers.
The principal aim of this research was to
explore
and better understand the thoughts,
feelings, and attitudes of farmers towards crime, crime prevention, the police, and insurers.
Moreover, an attempt to understand how farmers make decisions about crime prevention,
what factors influence those decisions, and how this compares to approaches the police
are taking to tackle farm crime.
A mixed methods sequential
explanatory model was used so that both quantitative and
qualitative data could be fully examined separately, before being
brought
together to provide
appropriate conclusions based on the combined results.
Results show an impasse between how the police are tackling farm crime and prevention,
and the needs of the farmers. This results in farmers believing the police treat them as second
-
class
citizens, and so they do not engage with crime prevention despite knowing
they should. Further, farmers do not report crimes to the police as they feel they will
not
get
a
response, and it is a waste of their time.
This research concludes that there is much
the police, insurers, and the media can do to
better respond to farm crime. Moreover, this research is the first to
identify
key factors
affecting farmer attitudes and beliefs towards farm crime, farm crime prevention, the police,
and their insurers.
It is argued that
the findings of this research support
the use of
behavioural science to improve the uptake of appropriate and effective crime prevention on
-
farm in light of the relative failure of traditional policy.


The most devastating nematodes to worldwide agriculture are the root-knot nematodes with Meloidogyne incognita being the most widely distributed and damaging species. This parasitic and ecological success seem surprising given its supposed obligatory clonal reproduction. Clonal reproduction has been suspected based on cytological observations but, so far, never confirmed by population genomics data. At the species level, M. incognita is highly polyphagous with thousands of host plants. However, the host range varies among different M. incognita isolates that may present distinct and more restricted host compatibilities. Historically, four 'host races' had been defined as a function of ranges of compatible and incompatible plants. We sequenced the genomes of 11 isolates across Brazil, covering these four distinct races to assess (i) how clonal reproduction is and (ii) how the level of genome variability associates with biological traits such as the host races, affected agronomic culture, and geographical distribution. By aligning the genomic reads of the isolates to the M. incognita reference genome assembly, we identified SNV and small-scale insertions/deletions. Analysis of linkage disequilibrium and 4-gametes test, showed no sign of recombination, confirming the clonal mode of reproduction of M. incognita. We showed that there are relatively few point variations between the different isolates, and these variations show no significant association with either the host races, the geographical origin of the samples or the host plant on which they have been collected. Due to the lack of phylogenetic signal underlying their existence, we recommend the discontinuation of the terminology 'race'. Overall, these results suggest that multiple gains and losses of parasitic abilities and adaptations to different environmental conditions account for the broad host spectrum and wide geographic distribution of M. incognita. Hence, this nematode constitutes a model species to study adaptability without sexual recombination and overall low genomic variations in animals.


The subsurface 'deep biosphere' represents one-tenth to one-third of Earth's total global present-day biomass. The rest is dominated by land plants, a relatively recent development in geological history. Before c. 400 Ma, a relatively low surface biomass with high productivity and fast turnover supplied carbon to a deep biosphere with high biomass but low productivity and slow turnover. Here, we argue that the deep biosphere outweighed the surface biosphere by about one order of magnitude for at least half of the history of life on Earth. This result offers a new perspective on the history of life on Earth with important implications for the search for life on other worlds.


During angiosperm reproduction, one of the two synergid cells within the female gametophyte undergoes cell death prior to fertilization. The pollen tube enters the female gametophyte by growing into the synergid cell that undergoes cell death and releases its two sperm cells within the degenerating synergid cytoplasm to effect double fertilization. In Arabidopsis and many other species, synergid cell death is dependent upon pollination. However, the mechanism by which the pollen tube causes synergid cell death is not understood. As a first step toward understanding this mechanism, we defined the temporal relationship between pollen tube arrival at the female gametophyte and synergid cell death in Arabidopsis. Using confocal laser scanning microscopy, light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and real-time observation of these two events in vitro, we demonstrate that synergid cell death initiates after the pollen tube arrives at the female gametophyte but before pollen tube discharge. Our results support a model in which a signaling cascade triggered by pollen tube-synergid cell contact induces synergid cell death in Arabidopsis. 4 www.plantphysiol.org on September 1, 2017 Published by Downloaded from Copyright © 2007 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.


My research is an ethnographic exploration of how cultural and ethnic diversity manifests through regular, face-to-face social contact on the Walworth Road in South London. My focus is the small independent shops along the mile length of this multi-ethnic street and the social and spatial interactions between proprietors and customers within them. While absorbed in an ethnography of everyday life, I searched for ways of understanding the layers of place, time and experience that make this street. As an architect, I had a fascination for how urban space is designed and appropriated, and a predilection for a visual reading of the city. As an inexperienced ethnographer, I had to learn about a much slower process of looking; making time to sit, listen and talk. My research methodology has been influenced by a combination of architectural and ethnographic approaches to how individuals appropriate and re-constitute urban space in the habitual rhythm of their day-to-day lives. In this paper I expand on my ethnographic process of exploring difference through pictures made during fieldwork. I use juxtaposition, collage and layering as both illustrative forms and analytic methods for observing and representing difference.


Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerabilities are caused by the program operating on a dangling pointer and can be exploited to compromise critical software systems. While there have been many tools to mitigate UAF vulnerabilities, UAF remains one of the most common attack vectors. UAF is particularly di cult to detect in concurrent programs, in which a UAF may only occur with rare thread schedules. In this paper, we present a novel technique, UFO, that can precisely predict UAFs based on a single observed execution trace with a provably higher detection capability than existing techniques with no false positives. The key technical advancement of UFO is an extended maximal thread causality model that captures the largest possible set of feasible traces that can be inferred from a given multithreaded execution trace. By formulating UAF detection as a constraint solving problem atop this model, we can explore a much larger thread scheduling space than classical happens-before based techniques. We have evaluated UFO on several real-world large complex C/C++ programs including Chromium and FireFox. UFO scales to real-world systems with hundreds of millions of events in their execution and has detected a large number of real concurrency UAFs.


The significance of flows of temporary, skilled labour migrants under conditions of globalization is widely acknowledged. Using a case study of elite cricket professionals moving from the UK to Australia for a maximum duration of 6 months, out and return migration flows and processes are examined. In doing so, this thesis exposes migration motives, notably in relation to career progression and personal development, and the processes and regulations that control temporary sojourns. Furthermore, the discussion reveals important social, cultural, economic and familial impacts of undertaking temporary, skilled, international migration.
Using this case study of a sport-led migration, a largely under-researched occupational sector in migration studies, a number of theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions are provided, which advance knowledge of skilled, international migration. First, utilising Bourdieu's (1986) notions of capital as an analytical framework, the comparative importance of migration motives are emphasised. Second, it is shown that migration can be viewed as a normalised aspect of a skilled worker's career trajectory, and that desired outcomes can be achieved during increasingly temporary stays overseas. Third, a three phase model of the migration flow is adopted to enable the development of professionalization and migration within cricket to be examined. It is asserted that cricket, as a professional sport, has changed under conditions of globalization, alongside smaller scale developments initiated by both employers and intermediaries, and the migrant cricketers. It is concluded that these connections will have salience for the other skilled occupations identified in Salt's (1997) typology of highly-skilled migrants.


The inhibitory effect of a diphtheria toxin-related interleukin 2 fusion protein, IL-2-toxin, on protein synthesis in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) cells was examined in vitro. Peripheral blood ATL cells from 12 patients (six acute type, four chronic type, and two smoldering type ATL) and the lymph node cells from three ATL patients (two acute type and one lymphoma type ATL) were examined. At a concentration of 10(-8) M, IL-2-toxin inhibited protein synthesis by 60 to 98% in lymph node ATL cells, whereas protein synthesis in peripheral blood ATL cells was inhibited from 20 to 57% in acute type, and from 3 to 13% in chronic type. In contrast, IL-2-toxin had no measurable effect on T-cells from either patients with smoldering type ATL or normal controls. The cytopathic effects of IL-2-toxin were blocked by the addition of anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody, suggesting that the inhibition of protein synthesis in target cells was mediated by the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R). The degree of inhibition of protein synthesis, however, was not closely correlated with expression of CD25 antigen (low-affinity Mr 55,000 glycoprotein, IL-2R, Tac antigen) on ATL cells. There was an apparent correlation between the degree of inhibition and the rate of protein synthesis in ATL cells. We demonstrate that ATL cells from patients with acute or lymphoma type disease were more sensitive to IL-2-toxin than cells from chronic or smoldering disease. These findings suggest that the high affinity IL-2R present on acute and lymphoma type ATL cells may serve as a target for therapy with this recombinant chimeric toxin.


The spatial resolution of a ground-based microwave radiometer is analyzed through a multiresolution wavelet transform. This technique allows us to compare the ability of the instrument to detect perturbations in a profile under different observing configurations and different noise levels. The use of a wavelet transform applied to performance indicators enables us to isolate the altitude and scale of the perturbation providing an unambiguous definition of resolution. A suitable ensemble of channels and view angles can then be selected to optimize the performance at different altitudes and different resolutions. Several angle/channel configurations are simulated. Among the configurations examined, a scanning system with only one channel offered a resolution comparable to a multichannel system for boundary layer sensing. The simulation suggests that increasing the bandwidth in the multichannel system improves the performance of the fixed view configuration. For investigation above 1 km, a multichannel system with fixed angle seems to offer a better performance at a coarser resolution.


Syndication has long been a fundamental organizing principle in the entertainment world, but it's been rare elsewhere in business. The fixed physical assets and slow-moving information that characterized the industrial economy made it difficult, if not impossible, to create the kind of fluid networks that are essential for syndication. But with the rise of the information economy, flexible business networks are not only becoming possible, they're becoming essential. As a result, syndication is moving from business's periphery to its center. Within a syndication network there are three roles that businesses can play. Originators create original content, which encompasses everything from entertainment programming to products to business processes. Syndicators package that content, often integrating it with content from other originators. Distributors deliver the content to consumers. A company can play a single role, or it can play two or three roles simultaneously. Syndication requires businesses to rethink their strategies and relationships in radical ways. Because a company's success hinges on its connections to other companies, it can no longer view its core capabilities as secrets to protect. Instead, it needs to see them as products to sell. FedEx, for example, is succeeding by distributing its sophisticated package-tracking capability to other companies on the Internet. Syndication promises to change the nature of business. As this new way of doing business takes hold, companies may look the same as before to their customers, but behind the scenes they will be in constant flux, melding with one another in ever-changing, self-organizing networks.


In 2001, a school teacher in Gueckedou, on Guinea's border with Liberia, saw rebel forces including child soldiers destroy his town. Reflecting a few years later on the childhood immunization programmes that are now well established in the region, he worried that they might be creating a new generation of children – strengthened, but more violent.

The notion of strength, and the processes that build or deplete it, is central to local understanding of many issues in this part of west Africa – from health to the power of communities and regions. Not surprisingly, people have come to frame and evaluate immunization and its effects through this particular logic. Much of the time, they do so appreciatively. Yet, as this teacher expressed, the strengthening effects of immunization can also be a source of ambivalence and anxiety.

Awareness of local social and cultural perspectives such as these can greatly assist in meeting the challenges associated with immunization programmes. Since the 1950s, immunization has brought nine major diseases under varying degrees of control and has achieved remarkable success as a universal technology promoted through globalized approaches. Yet, as immunization plays into diverse personal, social and cultural worlds, its reception has varied: there is acceptance and increasingly active demand among many, but anxiety, distrust, refusal and resistance among others. Today, scientific and technological advancements, coupled with growing international and philanthropic investment, are making strides in addressing the "supply-side" challenges of immunization. Addressing the "demand side" challenges assumes relatively greater importance for expanding immunization coverage.

Health professionals often assume that low demand or refusal reflects public ignorance or misinformation that needs to be corrected through education. Recent cases of resistance to immunization – such as to tetanus toxoid campaigns in Cameroon and Uganda and oral polio vaccines in Nigeria – have reignited concern over "anti-vaccination rumours". Yet assumptions of ignorance and rumour overlook the effect of local knowledge and cultural perspectives on leading people to demand or shun immunization.

In the Gambia, for example, mothers value immunization as introducing a powerful substance into the blood, building its defences against disease: "The injection strengthens the health of the child. It gives the child good body." Within this logic, many believe that vaccinations are effective against illness in general. In a survey, 29% of urban and 48% of rural mothers could not correctly name any biomedically vaccinable diseases, yet were actively seeking immunization – reflected in national coverage rates of 90% in 2003. Such ideas about strength, fluid and substance do not conform to biomedical notions yet they are the foundation behind a strong appreciation of immunization in areas across the Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and beyond.1

The same belief can also underlie anxiety. Mothers who regularly miss clinic sessions often worry that a backlog of vaccinations will have "stacked up" and that nurses will give their child several at once. They believe that this can be too much substance for the blood and body to cope with.

In these west African regions, ideas of strength and proper circulatory flow frame not just bodily, but also wider social and political reflection. Routine immunization delivery by trusted health agents is interpreted as part of the valued throughflow of people and goods that builds healthy, strong communities. Vaccination has long been delivered primarily by the government, promoting the notion that strong bodies help to build a populous, strong national body politic. Yet within this context, vaccination services can also be perceived as weakening the community.

Rumours that vaccines contain sterilizing agents or HIV can make sense in these terms, which link individual weakening with weakening of the body politic, as a population or area is sapped of fertility and strength. In contrast with routine health delivery, externally-led, one-off vaccination campaigns and National Immunization Days do not become part of local strength-building relations. Instead, it is easy for campaigns to be experienced as invasive and alien, and this calls into question their agenda. These perspectives provide a further layer to White's2 argument that international disease eradication programmes in Africa have – since the 1960s – often been experienced as a kind of "un-national sovereignty".

To understand why people accept (and why they sometimes reject) immunization requires engagement with local cultural perceptions of both the technologies involved and of the approach of particular programmes. Appreciating them is essential when developing strategies to improve immunization uptake, to design effective and acceptable programmes, and to build appropriate, dialogue-based communication approaches. ■


This thesis investigates the problem of market mechanism design for supply chain management and e-marketplace development. Firstly, we consider how to design a market mechanism design for capacity allocation. We examine the game-theoretic properties of allocation mechanisms, such as efficiency, profit maximisation, and truth-telling, with respect to quantity competition and price competition in a related market of the supply chain. We find that a few typical allocation mechanisms are sensitive to supply chain settings. We design a new allocation mechanism for supply chains with quantity competition and prove that it is a truth-telling mechanism. Secondly, we investigate the design of market mechanisms for online markets. We introduce an approach to the modelling of online markets as supply chains, in which a coordination mechanism is applied to the market between the online market owner and the sellers. We design a new online market contact based on the idea of profit-sharing and prove that it achieves coordination with advertisement. Finally, we introduce an experimental approach to the design, analysis and implementation of market mechanisms based on double auction. We define a formal market model that specifies the market policies in a double auction market. Based on this model, we introduce a set of criteria for the evaluation of a market mechanism. We design and implement a set of market policies and test them with different experimental settings. The results of experiments provide us a better understanding of the interrelationship among the market policies and also show that an experimental approach can greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of market mechanism design.


This interpretive study provides original insights into the socioemotional experiences that contributed to referee attrition in English grassroots football. Data were generated using an online survey (n = 251) and in-depth interviews (n = 20) with former referees. Using complementary symbolic interactionist and relational conceptualizations of identity, social interaction, and emotional pain, the analysis addressed the participants' interpretations of their problematic encounters with the various significant others (e.g., coaches, managers, players, spectators, and administrators) that comprised their respective social networks in grassroots football. Importantly, the participants described several emotionally painful issues related to match day environments, disciplinary proceedings, and deployment and development processes that simultaneously coexisted alongside and exacerbated one another. The findings present important implications for those individuals and governing bodies who are responsible for referee retention.


The present work is a continuation of research on alloys based on iron, with the aim to understanding the solidification behaviour of Fe-V-Nb alloys. Solidification sequences are proposed in relation to the observed microstructures for Fe-V-Nb synthesis alloys. Fe-V-Nb binary alloys with different concentrations are arc melted and characterized systematically by means of differential thermal analysis, optical and scanning electron microscopy coupled to an energy dispersive X-Ray microprobe analysis, quantitative XRF spectrometry and X-Ray diffraction. In the present work, the thermal and microsructural behavior of Fe–V –Nb alloys with different concentrations have been studied with the aim of answering some questions and especially paying attention to the microstructures and temperature transition. Two primary surfaces are identified: (Fe) and Fe2Nb. Moreover, one invariant line is also identified as a binary eutectic reaction (L   + Fe2Nb), which is clearly shown according to the observed microstructure. In perspective, other shades of this ternary alloy will be studied for a path projection of liquidus surface. Copyright © 2014 VBRI press.


The textual criticism of the New Testament (1): The current methodological Situation This first article in a two-part series on the textual criticism of the New Testament focuses on the current state of affairs regarding textcritical methodology. Majority text methods and the two main streams of eclecticism, viz moderate and rigorous eclecticism, as well as statistical methods and the use of conjectural emendation, are reviewed with regard to their views on method as well as the history of the text. The purpose is to arrive at a workable solution which the keen and often not so able textual critic, translator and exegete can use in his handling of the Greek text of the New Testament.


The worldwide distribution of goats was discussed leading to the justifiable assumption that more people drink goat milk or eat their products than any other milk after weaning from human nursing. Goats have had a superior growth rate in numbers compared to other milk producing domestic animals, especially in the developing countries with large population increases and high rates of undernutrition and malnutrition. Goat farming, especially with milking goats can be quite profitable regardless of country, if intensive types of management are practiced, leading to the prospect that for the increasing people populations there are increasing numbers of milk producing goats available to fight undernutrition and malnutrition. The choice for goat milk has at least three reasons, A. They are more adapted to severe climate and geological conditions than any other domestic milk producing mammal. B. They are easier and cheaper kept, especially by women and children than any other domestic milk producing mammal. C. Their milk has superior nutritional and health qualities compared to the milk of the other domestic milk producing mammals. Thus it can seriously be asked why does goat milk matter?.