Mecoprop is an acid herbicide that is widely used for agricultural, horticultural and domestic purposes. It is considered one of the key indicators of pollution from municipal solid waste landfill, as it is frequently identified in landfill leachate. Mecoprop is the most frequently occurring herbicide detected in UK groundwater and the second most common herbicide in UK surface waters. Mecoprop is water-soluble and subject to relatively little retardation by sorption processes, hence it is subject to relatively conservative transport in soils and aquifers. Once in the subsurface it can be persistent. Information and data to underpin the assessment of mecoprop fate and attenuation in the subsurface are therefore of particular importance. This paper reviews the processes that contribute to the attenuation of mecoprop in the subsurface, particularly in groundwater. Biodegradation of mecoprop is the only significant destructive attenuation mechanism operating under subsurface conditions. Biodegradation in topsoil has been relatively widely studied and is commonly observed, but the scientific literature on mecoprop biodegradation in the deeper subsurface is limited and indicates great variability as to the degree and rate at which it takes place, particularly in aerobic aquifers. The apparent recalcitrance under anaerobic conditions means that where it has been disposed of to landfill it is frequently among the most persistent organic compounds in chemically reducing leachate plumes. Mecoprop sorption to sediment surfaces is related to the organic and inorganic geochemistry of mecoprop and the sediment. It is suggested that the generally applied model that uses KOC for predicting sorption of organic solutes may not be appropriate for use with mecoprop.


Strenuous and/or prolonged exercise causes transient perturbations in immune function. It is well accepted that this is one mechanism contributing to the higher occurrence of infection (e.g. upper respiratory tract infection (URTI)) in athletes, especially endurance athletes. URTI or upper respiratory tract (URT) symptoms can negatively affect training and competition performance but athletes must train intensively to be successful. Therefore, interventions that can legitimately enhance immune function and reduce URTI risk can be of benefit to athletes. Bovine colostrum supplementation has been investigated as a possible nutritional countermeasure to enhance (or maintain) immune function, and reduce URTI risk, following strenuous or prolonged exercise and during intensive training periods. There is convincing evidence that daily supplementation with bovine colostrum, for a number of weeks (and preliminary evidence for acute effects after a single dose), can maintain intestinal barrier integrity, immune function and reduce the chances of suffering URTI or URT symptoms in athletes or those undertaking heavy training. The mechanisms are not fully understood at present but there is preliminary evidence suggesting that the effects on immune function are attributable, at least in part, to small bioactive components that survive digestion and are biologically available after consumption, but further work is required. In summary, the balance of existing evidence does support the notion that bovine colostrum is beneficial for certain groups of athletes, such as those involved in strenuous training (e.g. endurance athletes), in terms of immunity and resistance to infection.


The ratio of dissolved oxygen to argon in seawater is frequently employed to estimate rates of net community production (NCP) in the oceanic mixed layer. The in situ O2/Ar‐based method accounts for many physical factors that influence oxygen concentrations, permitting isolation of the biological oxygen signal produced by the balance of photosynthesis and respiration. However, this technique traditionally relies upon several assumptions when calculating the mixed‐layer O2/Ar budget, most notably the absence of vertical fluxes of O2/Ar and the principle that the air‐sea gas exchange of biological oxygen closely approximates net productivity rates. Employing a Lagrangian study design and leveraging data outputs from a regional physical oceanographic model, we conducted in situ measurements of O2/Ar in the California Current Ecosystem in spring 2016 and summer 2017 to evaluate these assumptions within a "worst‐case" field environment. Quantifying vertical fluxes, incorporating nonsteady state changes in O2/Ar, and comparing NCP estimates evaluated over several day versus longer timescales, we find differences in NCP metrics calculated over different time intervals to be considerable, also observing significant potential effects from vertical fluxes, particularly advection. Additionally, we observe strong diel variability in O2/Ar and NCP rates at multiple stations. Our results reemphasize the importance of accounting for vertical fluxes when interpreting O2/Ar‐derived NCP data and the potentially large effect of nonsteady state conditions on NCP evaluated over shorter timescales. In addition, diel cycles in surface O2/Ar can also bias interpretation of NCP data based on local productivity and the time of day when measurements were made.


Purpose
Insight has grown that for an organization to learn and change successfully, forgetting and unlearning are required. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the relevant existing body of empirical research on forgetting and unlearning, to encourage research using a greater variety of methods and to contribute to a more complementary body of empirical work by using designs and instruments with a stronger reference to previous studies.

Design/methodology/approach
As the number of theoretical papers clearly exceeds the number of empirical papers, the present paper deals with the main insights based on the empirical state of research on unlearning and forgetting. So far, these empirical results have shown relationships between unlearning and other organizational outcomes such as innovation on an organizational level, but many of the other proposed relationships have not been investigated. The authors presents suggestion to apply a larger variety of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods in organizational research.

Findings
Unlearning and forgetting research can benefit both from more diverse theoretical questions addressed in research and from a more complementary body of empirical work that applies methods, designs and instruments that refer to previous research designs and results. To understand and manage unlearning and forgetting, empirical work should relate to and expand upon previous empirical work to form a more coherent understanding of empirical results.

Originality/value
The paper presents a variety of research designs and methods that can be applied within the research context of understanding the nature of organizational forgetting and unlearning. Additionally, it illustrates the potential for different methods, such as experience sampling methods, which capture the temporal aspects of forgetting and unlearning.


The EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) accounts for about 40% of the overall EU budget. After its initial mandate to recover agriculture and food production in Europe in the aftermath of the II World War, CAP has been reformed through time to better take into account different aspects of European rural livelihoods. Subsidies from such policy have come to contribute filling the gap between harsher living conditions for EU rural dwellers (ie. lower access to basic services) and to compensate the rural-urban income divide (ie. rural workers in EU gain as an average about 60% of their urban peers – EU, 2011). Since the 1990s reforms have reframed the CAP 'welfare system' within a more multifunctional perspective; 2013 reform indicates that agriculture aims not only at delivering high quality food but also helps to manage our environment and fight climate change (EU, 2013).


Research concerns with the phenomenon of cellular phone of Elementary School students. Preliminary study finds that most of Class Sixth students in SD Negeri Dinoyo II Malang have cellular phone. This becomes evident due to several factors, among other the advertisement on television. The advertisement of cellular card Three refers to one using elementary school students as the artist. The author attempts to review the student?s parent perception about the advertisement of cellular card Three aiming at understanding the parent perception about the cellular card Three advertisement on television. Advertisement constitutes an activity to disseminate messages from communicator to communicant. The advertisement must be planned as the interesting one to persuade people to use the advertised product. The perception represents the experience on objects, incidents or relations obtained by summarizing the information and interpreting the messages (Desiderato). Two factors affect perception. First factor relates to the functional factor emanating from the demand, past experience, and others including personal factor. The second will be the structural factor from physical stimulus and nerve effects usually developed by individual nerve system. Research employs qualitative descriptive method with several techniques of data collection such as interview, documentation and observation. In addition to data collection technique, researcher also uses purposive sampling technique to determine the subject of research. The obtained data will be analyzed by qualitative data analysis technique consisting data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion remark (Mathew B. Miles and Hubberman). Results of research indicate the different opinion about the advertisement of cellular card Three. The different also prevails for the existed indicators. In essence, results show that most of research subjects assert that the advertisement of the cellular card Three submits to one stimulating consumptive passion of the public, particularly the parent. Other reason may be that the parent will judge the advertisement as a matter of learning about the recent earlier introduced technology. Keyword : Iklan dan Persepsi Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/278/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2008-indragunaw-13878-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


As world activities become more integrated, the rate of data growth has been increasing exponentially. And as a result of this data explosion, current data management methods can become inadequate. People are using the term big data (sometimes referred to as Big Data) to describe this latest industry trend. IBM is preparing the next generation of technology to meet these data management challenges.To provide the capability of incorporating big data sources and analytics of these sources, IBM developed a stream-computing product that is based on the open source computing framework Apache Hadoop. Each product in the framework provides unique capabilities to the data management environment, and further enhances the value of your data warehouse investment.In this IBM Redbooks publication, we describe the need for big data in an organization. We then introduce IBM InfoSphere BigInsightsTM and explain how it differs from standard Hadoop. BigInsights provides a packaged Hadoop distribution, a greatly simplified installation of Hadoop and corresponding open source tools for application development, data movement, and cluster management. BigInsights also brings more options for data security, and as a component of the IBM big data platform, it provides potential integration points with the other components of the platform. A new chapter has been added to this edition. Chapter 11 describes IBM Platform Symphony, which is a new scheduling product that works with IBM Insights, bringing low-latency scheduling and multi-tenancy to IBM InfoSphere BigInsights. The book is designed for clients, consultants, and other technical professionals.


The stages of the creative process?from ?unlearning? to beginning again?seen through examples from the practice of artists, architects, poets, inventors, scientists, and others. Although each instance of creativity is singular and specific, Kyna Leski tells us, the creative process is universal. Artists, architects, poets, inventors, scientists, and others all navigate the same stages of the process in order to discover something that does not yet exist. All of us must work our way through the empty page, the blank screen, writer's block, confusion, chaos, and doubt. In this book, Leski draws from her observations and experiences as a teacher, student, maker, writer, and architect to describe the workings of the creative process. Leski sees the creative process as being like a storm; it slowly begins to gather and take form until it overtakes us?if we are willing to let it. It is dynamic, continually in motion; it starts, stops, rages and abates, ebbs and flows. In illustrations that accompany each chapter, she maps the arc of the creative process by tracing the path of water droplets traveling the stages of a storm.Leski describes unlearning, ridding ourselves of preconceptions; only when we realize what we don't know can we pose the problem that we need to solve. We gather evidence?with notebook jottings, research, the collection of objects?propelling the process. We perceive and conceive; we look ahead without knowing where we are going; we make connections. We pause, retreat, and stop, only to start again. To illustrate these stages of the process, Leski draws on examples of creative practice that range from Paul Klee to Steve Jobs, from the discovery of continental drift to the design of Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Creativity, Leski tells us, is a path with no beginning or end; it is ongoing. This revelatory view of the creative process will be an essential guide for anyone engaged in creative discovery. The Creative ProcessUnlearningProblem MakingGathering and TrackingPropellingPerceiving and ConceivingSeeing AheadConnectingPausingContinuing


Not all of the mysteries of life lie in our genetic code. Some can be found buried in our membranes. These shells of fat, sculpted in the central nervous system into the cellular (and subcellular) boundaries of neurons and glia, are themselves complex systems of information. The diversity of neural phospholipids, coupled with their chameleon-like capacity to transmute into bioactive molecules, provides a vast repertoire of immediate response second messengers. The effects of compositional changes on synaptic function have only begun to be appreciated. Here, we mined 29 neurolipidomic datasets for changes in neuronal membrane phospholipid metabolism in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Three overarching metabolic disturbances were detected. We found that an increase in the hydrolysis of platelet activating factor precursors and ethanolamine-containing plasmalogens, coupled with a failure to regenerate relatively rare alkyl-acyl and alkenyl-acyl structural phospholipids, correlated with disease severity. Accumulation of specific bioactive metabolites [i.e., PC(O-16:0/2:0) and PE(P-16:0/0:0)] was associated with aggravating tau pathology, enhancing vesicular release, and signaling neuronal loss. Finally, depletion of PI(16:0/20:4), PI(16:0/22:6), and PI(18:0/22:6) was implicated in accelerating Aβ42 biogenesis. Our analysis further suggested that converging disruptions in platelet activating factor, plasmalogen, phosphoinositol, phosphoethanolamine (PE), and docosahexaenoic acid metabolism may contribute mechanistically to catastrophic vesicular depletion, impaired receptor trafficking, and morphological dendritic deformation. Together, this analysis supports an emerging hypothesis that aberrant phospholipid metabolism may be one of multiple critical determinants required for Alzheimer disease conversion.


In the wake of the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate (FFR) target essentially to zero and resorted to unconventional monetary policy. With the nominal FFR constrained by the zero lower bound (ZLB) for an extended period, empirical monetary models cannot be estimated as usual. In this paper, we consider whether the standard empirical model of monetary policy can be preserved without breaks. We consider whether alternative policy instruments (e.g., a long-term interest rate) can be considered substitutes for the FFR over the ZLB period. Furthermore, we compare the shadow rates proposed in Krippner [2012] and Wu and Xia [2016] as alternative measures of the stance of monetary policy. We ask whether the shadow rate is a sufficient representation of the policy instrument or if the financial crisis requires other modifications. We find that, when using a dataset that spans both the pre-ZLB and ZLB periods, the shadow rate acts as a fairly good proxy for monetary policy by producing impulse responses of macro indicators similar to what we'd expect based on the post-WWII, non-ZLB benchmark and by displaying stable parameter estimates when compared to this benchmark.


Considerable debate exists, in both academic and policy circles, about the utility of the European Union (EU) as a model for regional integration schemes elsewhere. While discussions of this sort remain interesting and important, they frequently run into the problem of the EU's specificity, which in turn hinders our capacity to make generalisations based upon the experience of European integration. In this paper, we think slightly differently about the relationship between the EU and the global political economy through the exploration of two distinct, but related, sets of questions. The first bundle of issues surrounds the EU's 'balance of trade' in various policy methodologies. Following Helen Wallace, we examine the ways in which the deployment of various styles of governance (including the classical 'Monnet method') have impacts upon or relate to the practices of economic governance elsewhere. The second set of questions emerge from the issue of 'actorness' in a global polity and the place that entities such as the EU might play in such a world order. In particular, we examine the politics of recognition in the global polity and a series of questions relating to the prerequisites for action in a globalised world.


Employability
   has
   been
   on
   the
   political
   as
   well
   as
   the
   research
   agenda
   for
   a
   long
   time.
   International research
   on
   engineering
   education
   has
   identified
   issues
   in
   the
   transition
   from
   engineering
   education
   to work.
   Engineering
   education
   designers
   therefore
   have
   to
   increase
   the
   alignment
   between
   engineering education
  and
  professional
  practice
  and
  be
   in
   the
   frontline
   to
  prepare
   students
   for
   future
   trajectories
  of technological
  innovation.
  The
  purpose
  of
  this
  paper
  is
  to
  study
  the
  changes
  in
  perspectives
  on
  engineering competence
  in
  the
  transition
  from
  engineering
  education
  to
  work. In
   Denmark,
   the
   research
   project
   PROCEED-‐2-‐Work
   was
   established
   as
   a
   longitudinal
   study
   with
   the purpose
  of
  identifying
  possible
  gaps
  in
  the
  transition
  from
  engineering
  education
  to
  work.
  The
  purpose
  of this
  article
  is
  to
  present
  comparative
  data
  on
  the
  respondents'
  perspectives
  on
  engineering
  when
  students are
   just
   about
   to
   graduate
   and
   after
   10
  months
   in
  work.
   The
   study
   is
   limited
   to
   a
  Danish
   context
   and
   it should
  also
  be
  taken
  into
  consideration
  that
  the
  cohort
   is
  to
  be
  considered
  as
  being
   in
  transition,
  as
  they only
  have
  10
  months
  of
  working
  experience. The
   key
   results
   are
   that
   the
   students
   just
   about
   to
   graduate
   feel
   ready
   in
   terms
   of
   their
   academic
   and societal
   competences
   and
   less
   prepared
   related
   to
   career
   and
   work
   competences.
   After
   10
   months
   of working
  experience,
  the
  priority
  of
  these
  factors
  are
  inverted,
  with
  academic
  and
  societal
  competences
  less prioritised
   than
   career
   and
   work
   competences.
   The
   respondents
   point
   out
   that
   project
   work
   and internships
   have
   been
   especially
   significant
   factors
   in
   preparing
   for
   and
   the
   learning
   of
   employable competences. However,
   students
   change
  perspective
  on
  engineering
  competences
  after
   just
  10
  months
  at
  work,
  which questions
  the
  alignment
  between
  current
  engineering
  curricula
  content
  and
  employability.
  The
  paper
  ends with
  a
  discussion
  of
  the
  potential
  of
  problem
  based
   learning
  to
   increase
  the
  employability
  of
  engineering students. Keywords:
  Employability,
  transition,
  engineering
  competences,
  problem
  based
  learning Type
  of
  contribution:
  Research
  paper.


Inoculation with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) induces malignant lymphomas in the cottontop tamarin (Saguinus oedipus oedipus). This provides an experimental animal model for assessing the efficacy of candidate EBV vaccines which are intended to reduce the incidence of human tumours associated with EBV infection. Previous work has shown that experimental vaccines based on the major virus envelope glycoprotein gp340 prepared from the membranes of EBV-infected cells are effective in protecting cottontop tamarins against EBV-induced disease. However, not all purified gp340 preparations induce protective immunity against EBV lymphoma in the tamarin. In this work, cottontop tamarins were immunized with recombinant gp340, produced using a bovine papillomavirus (BPV) expression vector, and a threonyl muramyl dipeptide adjuvant formulation. Although the recombinant-derived gp340 lacked the membrane anchor sequence of authentic gp340 and was expressed in mouse cells, it was immunogenic and induced virus-neutralizing antibodies. Healthy vaccinated tamarins were protected against EBV-induced disease. The demonstration that a recombinant gp340 product is able to elicit protective immunity in the cottontop tamarin is a significant step in the development of an EBV vaccine because previously it had not been clear whether a recombinant product would have the exact tertiary structure, including the necessary carbohydrate components, to induce protective immunity. A recombinant gp340 vaccine offers various advantages over production of the authentic molecule by laborious biochemical separation, including lower cost and the absence of potentially oncogenic EBV DNA. Therefore, recombinant gp340 produced using the BPV expression vector is suitable for development as a candidate EBV vaccine for a human Phase I trial and beyond.


This Article reconsiders the relationship between social justice and intellectual property through the lens of two conflicting cultural phenomena in China. The first cultural phenomenon, called shanzhai, legitimizes the production of inexpensive and trendy products like the HiPhone. The second phenomenon is the rise of China as the largest luxury market in the world, unleashing an unprecedented increase in the consumer demand for luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton. The shanzhai phenomenon clashes with the IP protection that forms the foundation of the successful luxury market in China.By exploring the conflict between these two cultural phenomena, this Article puts forward a new theory of social justice and intellectual property. This theory calls for intellectual property law to be redesigned to support the redistribution of three kinds of resources: benefits from technological development, cultural power, and sources of innovation. The focus on these three redistributive mandates functions to reorient the recent heated debate on social justice and intellectual property toward an inquiry about the redistribution of resources in intellectual property law.The Article further considers the substantive and symbolic values of the theory in promoting social justice through intellectual property law. With respect to its substantive value, it shows that this theory has the potential to overcome the limitations of John Rawls's Difference Principle in dealing with redistributive justice issues within the ambit of intellectual property law. Moreover, this theory is valuable because it sets workable goals for mobilizing social movements to achieve cumulative eradication of injustice through intellectual property law.


Memetics is the name commonly given to the study of memes - a term originally coined by Richard Dawkins to describe small inherited elements of human culture. Memes are the cultural equivalent of DNA genes - and memetics is the cultural equivalent of genetics. Memes have become ubiquitous in the modern world - but there has been relatively little proper scientific study of how they arise, spread and change - apparently due to turf wars within the social sciences and misguided resistance to Darwinian explanations being applied to human behaviour. However, with the modern explosion of internet memes, I think this is bound to change. With memes penetrating into every mass media channel, and with major companies riding on their coat tails for marketing purposes, social scientists will surely not be able to keep the subject at arm's length for much longer. This will be good - because an understanding of memes is important. Memes are important for marketing and advertising. They are important for defending against marketing and advertising. They are important for understanding and managing your own mind. They are important for understanding science, politics, religion, causes, propaganda and popular culture. Memetics is important for understanding the origin and evolution of modern humans. It provides insight into the rise of farming, science, industry, technology and machines. It is important for understanding the future of technological change and human evolution. This book covers the basic concepts of memetics, giving an overview of its history, development, applications and the controversy that has been associated with it.


In the United States, the constitutional constraints and administrative law requirements imposed on government agencies generally have no applicability to private entities performing outsourced public administrative activities. In this article, the authors broadly explore the issues associated with outsourcing constitutional and administrative law norms along with government work by imposing them on private contractors. The authors seek to help frame these issues more cogently for the public administration community in an effort to promote more comprehensive and thoughtful discussion of outsourcing and a greater role for public administrative expertise in determining when and how to apply constitutional and administrative law norms to government contractors.


Abstract The study aims to analyze the situation of unskilled laborers, in order to identify their problems and to make proposals to improve workers conditions. The study followed the development of presence of foreign workers, as well as analyzing labor laws, and their conformity with the Convention on International Labor and with human rights and applied a survey on random sample of 1114 workers in the construction sector. Interviews were conducted with groups of workers, and with employers. The Qatari labor law excludes workers in households, agriculture and grazing, which needs to be reviewed and modified, with some gaps exploited by the sponsor such as requiring the transfer of sponsorship with the consent of the sponsor. The National Commission for Human Rights monitoring reports find some workers, especially in the areas of construction, drilling and concrete working under harsh and unsafe conditions, with a lack of adequate health care. 8563 workers of different nationalities had submitted complaints to the Department of Labor, with wages arrears the most important of those complaints. The sponsorship system eliminates some of the code of labor law, such as the freedom to move to another job or to travel. Workers may remain in custody for long periods without being submitted to the court. The interviews showed that the employers see that the system may need to change, but under an appropriate mechanism to preserve employers rights. Survey results showed low wages in the construction sector, workers from Nepal are on the lowest wages, and most of workers had borrowed to come to Qatar, low educational levels, poor living conditions, fear of losing their jobs, makes them accept the excesses. Crowding in the rooms and use of only one toilet, lack of drinking water and meals at work sites, lack of awareness about labor laws which exposes them to abuse, whether by the employment offices in their country or the employers in some cases. The study recommends to look for alternatives to the sponsorship system. Reinforce the concepts of human rights in the relationship between the employer and workers. Improving safety conditions in the workplace.


Interventional paediatric cardiology mainly involves dilatation of stenotic vessels or valves and occlusion of abnormal communications. Many transcatheter techniques—such as balloon dilatation, stent implantation, and coil occlusion—have been adapted from adult practice. Devices to occlude septal defects, developed primarily for children, have also found application in adults.

Interventional procedures follow a common method. General anaesthesia or sedation is required, and most procedures start with percutaneous femoral access. Haemodynamic measurements and angiograms may further delineate the anatomy or lesion severity. A catheter is passed across the stenosis or abnormal communication. A guidewire is then passed through the catheter to provide a track over which therapeutic devices are delivered. Balloon catheters are threaded directly, whereas stents and occlusion devices are protected or constrained within long plastic sheaths.

### Septostomy

Balloon atrial septostomy, introduced by Rashkind 35 years ago, improves mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in patients with transposition physiology or in those requiring venting of an atrium with restricted outflow. Atrial septostomy outside the neonatal period, when the atrial septum is much tougher, is done by first cutting the atrial septum with a blade.

### Balloon valvuloplasty

#### Pulmonary valve stenosis

Balloon valvuloplasty has become the treatment of choice for pulmonary valve stenosis in all age groups. It relieves the stenosis by tearing the valve, and the resultant pulmonary regurgitation is mild and well tolerated. Surgery is used only for dysplastic valves in patients with Noonan's syndrome, who have small valve rings and require a patch to enlarge the annulus.

Valvuloplasty is especially useful in neonates with critical pulmonary stenosis, where traditional surgery carried a high mortality. In neonates with the more extreme form of pulmonary atresia with an intact ventricular septum, valvuloplasty can still be done by first perforating the pulmonary valve with a hot wire. Pulmonary valvuloplasty can also alleviate cyanotic spells in patients with tetralogy of Fallot …


This paper looks at the issues of transculturation as explored in auto and semi-autobiographical accounts of linguistic and cultural transitions. The paper also addresses a number of questions about the structure of these texts, the authors' linguistic competences, as well as questions about the theoretical and conceptual tool which may help us to discuss the issues the writers are reflecting on. Authors such as E. Hoffman (Lost in Translation), A. Makine (Le Testament Francais), A. Dorfman (Heading South, Looking North), A. Kaplan (French Lessons), and X. Guo (A Classical ChineseEnglish Dictionary for Lovers) will be referred to and their thoughts are discussed.


Biological colouration presents a canvas for the study of ecological and evolutionary processes. Enduring interest in colour-based phenotypes has driven, and been driven by, improved techniques for quantifying colour patterns in ever-more relevant ways, yet the need for flexible, open frameworks for data processing and analysis persists. Here we introduce pavo 2.0, the latest iteration of the R package pavo. This release represents the extensive refinement and expansion of existing methods, as well as a suite of new tools for the cohesive analysis of the spectral and (now) spatial structure of colour patterns and perception. At its core, the package retains a broad focus on (a) the organisation and processing of spectral and spatial data, and tools for the alternating (b) visualisation, and (c) analysis of data. Significantly, pavo 2.0 introduces image-analysis capabilities, providing a cohesive workflow for the comprehensive analysis of colour patterns. We demonstrate the utility of pavo with a brief example centred on mimicry in Heliconius butterflies. Drawing on visual modelling, adjacency, and boundary strength analyses, we show that the combined spectral (colour and luminance) and spatial (pattern element distribution and boundary salience) features of putative models and mimics are closely aligned. pavo 2.0 offers a flexible and reproducible environment for the analysis of colour, with renewed potential to assist researchers in answering fundamental questions in sensory ecology and evolution.


Moving Object Databases (MOD), although ubiquitous, still call for methods that will be able to understand, search, analyze, and browse their spatiotemporal content. In this paper, we propose a method for trajectory segmentation and sampling based on the representativeness of the (sub) trajectories in the MOD. In order to find the most representative sub trajectories, the following methodology is proposed. First, a novel global voting algorithm is performed, based on local density and trajectory similarity information. This method is applied for each segment of the trajectory, forming a local trajectory descriptor that represents line segment representativeness. The sequence of this descriptor over a trajectory gives the voting signal of the trajectory, where high values correspond to the most representative parts. Then, a novel segmentation algorithm is applied on this signal that automatically estimates the number of partitions and the partition borders, identifying homogenous partitions concerning their representativeness. Finally, a sampling method over the resulting segments yields the most representative sub trajectories in the MOD. Our experimental results in synthetic and real MOD verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, also in comparison with other sampling techniques.


Toward Unity among Environmentalists is Bryan Norton's most developed effort to surmount the frequently intractable debate between anthropocentrists and nonanthropocentrists. Norton argues that the basic axiological differences between the two positions have become irrelevant at the level of policy formation. His thesis is that the two camps converge when dealing with practical goals and aims for environmental management. I argue that Norton's approach falls significantly short of establishing such a convergence because of the overall methodological framework for policy formation that he defends. The key problem with that framework is that it fails to provide for the degree of species protection most suitable to the nonanthropocentrist position.


Natural disasters can be extremely disruptive to farmers and to others whose incomes depend on a successful crop. Society can gain from more efficient sharing of crop and natural disaster risks. However, the costs associated with traditional agricultural risk programs have historically exceeded the gains from improved risk sharing. This paper explores government intervention in agricultural risk markets and discusses new approaches to risk sharing with limited government involvement. In particular, we build the case for introducing negotiable state-contingent contracts settled on area crop yield estimates or locally appropriate weather indices. These instruments could replace traditional crop insurance at a lower cost to government while meeting the risk management needs of a wider clientele.


Accuracy in measuring displacement in optical interferometers is limited by cyclic errors introduced by various leakage paths within the system. Existing techniques to reduce this nonlinearity do not work when there is large optical loss in the target path, such as for long-range measurements. We describe a new approach to reducing nonlinearity that overcomes these limitations. Based on phase modulation of the laser light, and requiring minimal additional components, experiments have demonstrated rejection of the effects of leakage in the presence of large optical loss.


ABSTRACT Synthetic carbonate fluorapatite (CFA) minerals produced with a range of manganese(II) and iron(II) concentrations exhibit varying intensities of luminescence when examined by cathodoluminescence (CL) petrography. Manganese(II) activates luminescence in CFA, with a rapid increase in relative luminescent intensity (RLI) between 40 and 100 ppmw Mn. A sample with less than 40 ppmw Mn is considered non-luminescent based on visual criteria. Above 100 ppmw Mn, the RLI value asymptotically approaches a maximum at about 400 ppmw Mn and remains constant to 1000 ppmw Mn. Iron(II) quenches luminescence and effectively reduces the RLI value of CFA samples with high Mn concentrations. This quenching behavior is not dependent on absolute Fe concentrations but rather on Mn/Fe ratios. Samples with Mn Fe weight ratios below 1 have lower RLI values than samples with Mn/Fe ratios above 1, regardless of the absolute Mn or Fe concentrations. RLI values increase linearly as Mn/Fe ratios increase from 0 to 1, then remain approximately constant at a bright luminescence with Mn/Fe ratios increasing from 1 to 6. For the CFA samples examined here, a plot of Mn versus Fe concentrations with an overlay of observed luminescent intensities reveals fields of bright, dull, and non-luminescence. Although this is a common procedure in characterizing carbonate luminescence, this is the first such plot for CFA. Both Mn/Ca and Fe/Ca are higher in the solid phase (CFA) compared with the precipitating solution. The best estimate from these experiments of the effective partition coefficient (D = (metal/Ca in solid)/(metal/Ca in solution)) for Mn incorporation in CFA is 2, and that for Fe is 13. Due to changing metal/calcium solution concentrations during precipitations, these Ds were estimated using assumptions about precipitation rates and solution composition changes during the course of experiments and are not representative of equilibrium values.


Migration has moved to the centre stage of development policy after decades of waiting in the wings. For most of the last sixty years, migration has been portrayed in development circles in largely negative terms and identified as one of the problems that development aims to address in Africa. Suddenly in the last five years, the potential positive role of migration in the development process has been recognised - in particular the contribution of migrants through remittances, skills transfers, and the development of transnational networks. A vituous circle has been identifed, whereby migration supports economic growth and development and this in turn reduces the pressure for further migration. Researchers and policy makers are now hunting for conditions which make for a "win-win-win" situation where migration is beneficial for countries of origin, countries of settlement and the migrants themselves. Despite this apparent change in attitudes to migration, the vast majority of development agencies hold on to a sedentary model of development; they aim to enable people to achieve a better quality of life at 'home'; within such models continued migration is an indicator of failure. This sedentary bias is a reflection of the roots of the 'development project' in Africa in the colonial administrations of the twentieth century. Today, many of the new initiatives on migration and development have the implicit objective of reducing the flow of international migration, especially to the industrialised world. However, for many people in Afria increased opportunities for international migration (within and outside the continent) are an essential ingredient for their future well-being. Migration has always been a strategy used by people to try to improve their quality of life, and a development industry that fails to recognise this will severely limit its impact on poverty reduction.


Perhaps one of the most reaffirming findings to emerge over the past several decades is that humans not only engage in generous behavior, they also appear to experience pleasure from doing so. Yet not all acts of helping lead to greater happiness. Here, we review the growing body of evidence showing that people engage in a wide array of prosocial behaviors (e.g., charitable giving, volunteering, blood/organ donation, offering advice, food sharing) which can promote positive emotions. Then, using self-determination theory, a foundational theory of human motivation, we consider when and how generous actions are most likely to boost the helper's happiness—and when they are not. Finally, we leverage these insights to consider how public policy and organizations can apply this information to make prosocial action more emotionally rewarding for citizens and employees alike.


AIM
The aim of this study was to provide a clear view of the existing knowledge regarding patients' significance to fellow patients during hospitalization.

METHOD
Sandelowski and Barroso's approach to qualitative meta-synthesis was selected and systematically used for collecting and assessing findings from qualitative studies. Data consisted of seven qualitative studies published as one book, four scientific articles and two doctoral theses from Scotland, UK, Norway and Denmark. The analysis and synthesis were conducted with inspiration from both Sandelowski and Barroso and Ian Dey's approach to qualitative data analysis.

RESULTS
The qualitative meta-synthesis resulted in the heading An Ambiguous Relationship under which three core categories illustrate the hospitalized patients' different interaction roles. The core categories were as follows: (i) the fellow patient experienced as an enforced companion, (ii) the fellow patient experienced as an expert on illness and hospital life and (iii) the fellow patient experienced as a care provider. Each core category was elaborated through several subcategories. Social interaction among hospitalized patients embedded elements of both enforced and volunteered participation. Typically, the social interaction was experienced as giving and was referred to in positive terms but recurrently, the opposite was experienced too. The ambiguity of the relationship clearly emerged in all of the synthesized themes presented in this article.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Hospitalized patients experienced interaction with fellow patients to be of great significance. We suggest that knowledge of patients' interaction is to be included in the nursing education and that nurses reflect on how this knowledge may be implemented as a part of caring in nursing.


Christians talked, debated, and wrote dialogues in late antiquity and on throughout Byzantium. Some were philosophical, others more literary, theological, or Platonic; Aristotle also came into the picture as time went on. Sometimes the written works claim to be records of actual public debates, and we know that many such debates did take place and continued to do so. Dialoguing in Late Antiquity" takes up a challenge laid down by recent scholars who argue that a wall of silence came down in the fifth century AD, after which Christians did not "dialogue." Averil Cameron now returns to questions raised in her book Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire" (1991), drawing on the large repertoire of surviving Christian dialogue texts from late antiquity to make a forceful case for their centrality in Greek literature from the second century and the Second Sophistic onward. At the same time, Dialoguing in Late Antiquity" points forward to the long and neglected history of dialogue in Byzantium. Throughout this study, Cameron engages with current literary approaches and is a powerful advocate for the greater integration of Christian texts by literary scholars and historians alike.


Efforts to improve health care provider performance in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) extend beyond isolated in-service training and traditional supervision methodologies to include additional approaches such as mentoring. This brief presents principles and recommendations for the use of mentoring for human capacity development (HCD) within the Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP). The guidance stems from a review of the literature on mentoring in LMICs and a survey of MCSP country programs about their experiences. It is intended to help programs strengthen their approaches to improving health care provider performance, thus contributing to the overall MCSP quality improvement and health systems strengthening efforts.


ER, F., S. GEZGIN and F. BAYRAKLI, 2009. The effect of different zinc application methods and levels on yield and quality of hesapali (Vitis vinifera L.) grape. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 15: 410-416 This study has been done to determine the effects of zinc, applied at different doses and in different ways in the fields where NPK was used and also not used as a base fertilizer on the yield and quality of the grape type of Hesapali grown widely in the environs of Aladag, Hadim, and Konya. The test has been applied to the vine grapevine at the doses of 0, 10, 20, 40g Zn/grapevine for both the ones to which NPK was not applied (N o P o K o ) and to which NPK was applied (150-50-50 g/grapevine N 1 P 1 K 1 ) in the form of ZnSO 4 7H 2 O. Zn application has been performed in two different forms: I. By mixing all the zinc with the soil (20-30 cm depth) in the projection of the grapevine 15 days before blossom and II. By spraying ¼ of all the zinc over the leaves with a fifteen-day interval at 4 times, which starts 15 days before blossom. According to results of the study: Wet grape yield obtained from each grapevine, which was exposed to the average of two different applications (N o P o K o and N 1 P 1 K 1 ) forms of zinc has statistically increased in an important proportion by increasing the dose of zinc applied to the grapevine. Comparing with the controls, the highest yield of wet grape with the proportion of 212% and 206% has been obtained in N o P o K o and N 1 P 1 K 1 applications by applying 10 and 40gram of zinc to each grapevine. Beside as an average of NPK and zinc levels, application of zinc over leaves has increased the yield of the wet grape more than the one applied to the soil (7.00 b and 8.4 a kg grape/grapevine).Moreover water soluble dry matter (%) , and titratable acidity (g/100 cc) of grape with rising zinc doses, has increased as an average of NPK and zinc application and, the most water soluble dry matter (18.91%) and titratable acidity (2.74g/100cc) has been obtained by application of 20g Zn/grapevine.


Introduction: We have aimed to evaluate the difference between the expression of p53, Ki-67, and laminin in keratoacanthoma and well-differentiated SCC (SCC) and to determine its importance in differential diagnosis. Methods: This study totally included 46 cases consisting of 23 cases with keratoacanthoma and 23 with SCC. As well as age, gender, localization, and diameter of the lesion, the expression of p53, Ki-67 and laminin was evaluated. Results: No statistically significant difference was found between KA and well-differentiated SCC in terms of diameter, age, and localization. There was a statistically significant difference between KA and well-differentiated SCC in terms of p53 and Ki-67 staining (P < 0.001). Increased expression of p53 and Ki-67 was found in well-differentiated SCC. A statistically significant correlation was present between the expression of p53 and Ki-67 in KA. A statistically significant difference was detected between KA and well-differentiated SCC in terms of laminin staining (P = 0.018). Increased laminin expression was determined in well-differentiated SCC. Conclusion: We have determined in this study that p53, Ki-67 and laminin may be used as adjuvant immunohistochemical markers in differential diagnosis of KA and well-differentiated SCC.


Efficient Generation of Entangled Photon-Pairs
The first experiments with correlated photons have been performed in the context of
EPR-Bell experiments on the realistic and local properties of quantum mechanics. The
source used there produced pairs of polarization entangled photons from a 2-photon
decay of Calcium atoms. The technical requirements of these experiments were high
(vacuum systems, stronge dye-lasers, etc.) whereas the efficiency of the source was quite
low.
An important step forward was the introduction of spontaneous parametric down
conversion (SPDC), which has become the most common source in quantum optics for
generating correlated or entangled photon pairs. In this process photons of an intense
pump laser convert to photon pairs in an optical nonlinear crystal. Conservation of energy
and momentum leads to strong correlations between the generated photons. With this
kind of two-photon source it was possible to realize or improve many experiments on the
foundations of quantum mechanics addressing the EPR-Paradoxon and in the new field
of quantum information.
But again, more advanced experiments and applications suffer from the limited ef-
ficiency of the fluorescence process. Many photon pairs are lost by spatial and spectral
filtering, which is necessary to achieve polarization entanglement and long coherence times.
Different techniques have been implemented to increase the number of photon pairs
using two-crystal arrangements, focusing techniques or periodically poled crystals. Most
of these methods have the disadvantage that no entangled photons have been observed.
It is the aim of this work to increase the yield and to improve the mode definition
of entangled photon pairs generated by resonant enhancement of the pump mode and
the fluorescence modes. As a first step a linear cavity for the pump mode was realized.
Since the conversion probability is proportional to the pump power it was possible to
increase the photon pair count rate by factor of 7 over the previous source. Besides the
possibility of further improvement on already established pair correlation experiments,
such an enhancement allows to build a compact source for photon pairs, in which an
expensive argon-ion laser is replaced by a cheap diode laser. Among other applications
such sources are of strong interest for quantum cryptography.
3 In many quantum information experiments optical fibers are use to carry the photons
over long distance. Therefore, light from the parametric down-conversion source has to
be efficiently coupled into fibers. In the second part we report on a new method to
optimize collection efficiency by matching the angular distribution of the parametric
fluorescence to the spatial mode of an optical fiber. By using this technique, we detected
366500 polarization-entangled photon pairs per second in the near-infrared region in
single-mode optical fibers for 465 mW pump power (at 351.1 nm) with a 2 mm BBOcrystal.
The entanglement of the photon pairs was verified by measuring polarization
correlations of more than 96% in a HV-basis and in a ±45◦-basis. To our knowledge,
such enormous count rates of highly entangled photon pairs have not been reached yet
with any other technique.
In the third part of this thesis we investigated the process of parametric downconversion
in a cavity which is resonant to certain longitudinal down-conversion modes
only. The idea of placing the parametric down-conversion source inside a cavity is not
new. Such a device is usually referred to as a single or double resonant optical parametric
oscillator (OPO) and is mainly used to generate squeezed quantum states. In
that kind of application the system is operating close to but still under the threshold of
oscillation. In our application the situation is quite different. The system is operating far
below threshold so that mainly spontaneous emission occurs. In that mode correlations
between single photons can still be observed. But bouncing the light back and forth
inside the cavity increases the interaction length and hence enhances the signal levels
of the down-conversion fields. Further, by resonating two certain modes only, the bandwidth
is reduced by orders of magnitude and the coherence time is found to be inverse
proportional to the bandwidth. A similar experiment has already been realized with a
type-I parametric down-converter in the resonator. We have tried to realize a compact
double resonant OPO far below threshold with a type-II parametric down-converter in
a high-finesse cavity to realize a bright source of entangled photon pairs with extremely
narrow bandwidth.


Within the MARS Crop Yield Forecasting System (MCYFS; Royer and Genovese, 2004) of the European Commission vegetation indicators like NDVI, SAVI and fAPAR are operationally derived for daily, decadal and monthly time steps. Besides low resolution sensors as SPOT-VGT and NOAA-AVHRR, medium resolution data from TERRA/AQUA-MODIS or ENVISAT-MERIS are used at pan-European level. In case of available time series, esp. NOAA-AVHRR (since 1981) and SPOT-VGT (since 1998) difference values of the indicators (e.g. relative or absolute differences) and frequency analysis of the indicators (e.g. position in historical range or distribution) are calculated. The exploitation of the data is performed at full resolution, at grid level of the MCYFS or regional unmixed means (C-indicators) are used. Therefore a database has been set-up in order to provide the indicators based on a weighted average for each CORINE land cover class within an area of interest. The current work aims to develop a strategy for an optimal use of the different sensors and thus derived indicators at different aggregation levels for the ingestion into the MCYFS. As a first step smoothing algorithms have to be applied to the time series to diminish noise effects. Therefore, existing methods as simple sliding windows, piecewise linear regression or fitting of polynomial functions are employed and compared. Thereafter, the time series analysis is performed with the aim to establish relationships between indicators profile features and the crop phenology.


Media depictions of Burning Man focus on the picturesque and eccentric appearance of the weeklong affair. The event is sometimes misportrayed as a lawless environment where participants are encouraged to engage in rowdy behavior. Most carnivalesque events offer an escape from reality and are generally thought to enable unruly conduct. Despite stereotypes, Burning Man is a different beast. Not only is the crime rate in Black Rock City lower than any other city of comparable size, but Burners show a high level of cooperative and law abiding behavior that helps maintain the social order without depending on official means of external social control. Looking at the interplay between the Black Rock Rangers, law enforcement agencies and participants themselves helps clarify how this works.


Records constitute one of the key resources of an organization that must be managed just like the other corporate resources such as finance and human resources. Models exist for the proper management of records. Nevertheless, there is a proposition that universities are not managing their records in accordance with established principles and procedures. The purpose of this study was to investigate records management practices and procedures at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in order to find out if the University was managing its records in accordance with established principles and procedures. To accomplish its objectives, the study adopted a survey approach with a self-administered questionnaire as the primary tool of data collection. The results of the study showed that the University of KwaZulu-Natal did not manage its records in accordance with established procedures for records management. Based on the findings, the study recommended the development and implementation of records management policies and guidelines for the effective management of University records.


ABSTRACT The combination of Open Sim and Scratch4OS can be a worthwhile innovation for introductory programming courses, using a Community of Inquiry (CoI) model as a theoretical instructional design framework. This empirical study had a threefold purpose to present: (a) an instructional design framework for the beneficial formalization of a virtual community, by utilizing a CoI model which consisted of 81 high school students and (b) the results of linear correlations to amplify the interrelationships among presence indicators (cognitive, social, and teaching) of a CoI model to learn basic programming concepts via a 3D multi-user game-like environment underpinned by Papert's theory of constructionism. The findings indicated that social presence (communication and cohesiveness of a group) had not only a direct correlation with the cognitive presence (learning process for the construction of knowledge), but also had a positive association with teaching presence (organization, planning, and guidance of learning activities), reinforcing them as well.


BACKGROUND
Associations between poor health and sociodemographics exist, but the role of coping strategies in this relationship is understudied. Therefore, we examined how adaptive and maladaptive coping affected the relationship between social determinants of health and health outcomes.

METHODS
Participants completed survey questions about demographics, health status, and coping strategies. Mediation analyses examined whether education, income, and race affected health status indirectly through coping behaviors.

RESULTS
Maladaptive, but not adaptive, coping strategies, mediated the relationship between income and health and education and health.

DISCUSSION
The use of maladaptive coping strategies plays an intervening role in the relationship between income and health and education and health for some groups. Recommendations for promoting education and policies to reduce the use of maladaptive coping are discussed.


This is a unique insider account of the new world of unfettered finance. The author, an Asian regulator, examines how old mindsets, market fundamentalism, loose monetary policy, carry trade, lax supervision, greed, cronyism, and financial engineering caused both the Asian crisis of the late 1990s and the global crisis of 2008–9. This book shows how the Japanese zero interest rate policy to fight deflation helped create the carry trade that generated bubbles in Asia whose effects brought Asian economies down. The study's main purpose is to demonstrate that global finance is so interlinked and interactive that our current tools and institutional structure to deal with critical episodes are completely outdated. The book explains how current financial policies and regulation failed to deal with a global bubble and makes recommendations on what must change.


GreenshellTM mussels (GSM) are a mollusc endemic to New Zealand and are of economic importance to the New Zealand aquaculture industry. The primary focus of the GSM industry is selection for increased meat weight, however, aesthetics also influence marketability. This study focused on pedigree-based estimation of heritabilities and genetic correlations among GSM traits collected during two harvest seasons: standard and winter. Sizes and weights were highly heritable (0.41±0.07 to 0.92±0.09), and highly genetically correlated across traits and seasons (≥0.75±0.07). Meat cover and gonad scores (measures of visual appeal) had lower heritabilities than did size and yield traits (0.08±0.03-0.25±0.05). Under standard conditions, meat cover had a high genetic correlation with gonad condition scores (0.85±0.04). Under winter conditions the relationship between meat cover and gonad scores was negative (-0.52±0.19). Substantial GxE was observed across seasons (meat cover: rg=-0.58±0.16; gonad: rg=0.62±0.11). Progress made from genetic selection to increase meat yield while controlling for the size may be slow, so selecting for traits related to visual appeal may be preferable. Given that production traits are genetically similar across harvest conditions, selection within standard conditions is likely to improve performance in both standard and winter harvests, thereby allowing for an extended harvest period. However, the genetic improvement of visual appeal of the mussels is likely to be influenced by target harvest season.


In this paper, it is presented a new approach to the design of intelligent control system of a autonomous robot with two drive wheel. The proposed control scheme uses a Gaussian function as a unit function in the fuzzy neural network, and back propagation algorithm to train the fuzzy neural network controller in the framework of the specialized learning architecture. It is proposed a learning controller consisting of two neural network-fuzzy based on independent reasoning and a connection net with fixed weights to simply the neural networks-fuzzy. The performance of the proposed controller is shown by performing the computer simulation for trajectory tracking of the speed and azimuth of a mobile robot driven by two independent wheels.


Abstract. The classical taxonomy of fossil invertebrates is based on subjective judgments of morphology, which can cause confusion, because there are no codified standards for the classification of genera. Here, we explore the validity of the genus taxonomy of 75 species and morphospecies of the Follicucullidae, a late Paleozoic family of radiolarians, using a new method, Hayashi's quantification theory II (HQT-II), a general multivariate statistical method for categorical datasets relevant to discriminant analysis. We identify a scheme of 10 genera rather than the currently accepted 3 genera (Follicucullus, Ishigaconus, and Parafollicucullus). As HQT-II cannot incorporate stratigraphic data, a phylogenetic tree of Follicucullidae was reconstructed for 38 species using maximum parsimony. Six lineages emerged, roughly in concordance with the results of HQT-II. Combined with parsimony ancestral state reconstruction, the ancestral group of this family is Haplodiacanthus. Five other groups were discriminated, the Parafollicucullus, Curvalbaillella, Pseudoalbaillella, Longtanella, and Follicucullus–Cariver lineages. The morphological evolution of these lineages comprises a minimum essential list of eight states of four traits. HQT-II is a novel discriminant analytical multivariate method that may be of value in other taxonomic problems of paleobiology.


The Zagros forests (west of Iran) have been highly exploited in recent decades by human impacts. Easy access, abundance and variety of valuable forest yields have led to population growth density, creation of new residential areas and deforestation activities. In order to determinate the distribution and rate of deforestation from 1995 to 2006 by using the satellite imagery (IRS-1C and  LANDSAT image) and possibility of modeling the changes extent and its relation to physiographic and some human factors by using multiple regression in the Kohkeloeye and Boveirahmad province,  Golestan province. Southern Zagros forest, west of Iran. Classification was performed using maximum likelihood classifiers and forest divided two classes (forest and non – forest). Results showed that the maximum likelihood classifiers exhibited the highest results with 96% overall accuracy and 74% kappa coefficient. The results showed that about 462.5 ha from forest areas were deforested in the 12 years. To determination of major element of forest destruction used the multiple regression methods. According to results distance from road and village variables were in contrary of deforestation expanding. Forest destruction was increased with increasing around populated villages and near of this village.


All over Europe, wetlands have decreased in size, lost their original dynamics and became fragmented as the consequence of an ever increasing human land use. These processes have resulted in losses of nature values, among which declines in marshland bird populations. Ecological restoration of wetland systems follows from initiatives like EU Bird and Habitat Directives and Water Framework Directive, but may be, in itself, too costly to be widely applied. More promising perspectives to reinforce the wetland part of the ecological network Natura 2000 might come into focus when combined with spatial water management which is primarily aimed at more sustainable safety against flooding. In this way, the wetland network may acquire a wider public and political support. Knowledge on scale-related habitat use of wetland birds can play a role in the process of spatial planning. We illustrate this point by distinguishing four levels of spatial and temporal habitat use by wetland birds, and giving examples for each. The four levels are: (1) birds on stopover sites during migration, (2) territorial breeding birds, (3) colonial breeding birds, and (4) staging birds on wintering sites. This asks for ecological coherence on different scales, e.g. on the international level of migration flyways, on the regional level of landscapes and on the local level of individual wetlands. It is advocated that wetland ecologists dedicate themselves more specifically to quantifying the relevant data on habitat use of birds on each of these scale levels. Meanwhile, spatial planners should try to incorporate them into their efforts in realising combinations of ecological restoration or rehabilitation of wetlands and solutions for sustainable water management. These combinations might turn the tide for some seriously threatened species of marshland and wetland birds.


Recent large-scale genomics efforts have better characterized the molecular correlates of schizophrenia in postmortem human neocortex, but not hippocampus which is a brain region prominently implicated in its pathogenesis. Here in the second phase of the BrainSeq Consortium (Phase II), we have generated RiboZero RNA-seq data for 900 samples across both the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the hippocampus (HIPPO) for 551 individuals (286 affected by schizophrenia disorder: SCZD). We identify substantial regional differences in gene expression, in both pre- and post-natal life, and find widespread differences in how genes are regulated across development. By extending quality surrogate variable analysis (qSVA) to multiple brain regions, we identified 48 and 245 differentially expressed genes (DEG) by SCZD diagnosis (FDR<5%) in HIPPO and DLPFC, respectively, with surprisingly minimal overlap in DEG between the two brain regions. We further identified 205,618 brain region-dependent eQTLs (FDR<1%) and found that 124 GWAS risk loci contain eQTLs in at least one of the regions. We also identify potential molecular correlates of in vivo evidence of altered prefrontal-hippocampal functional coherence in schizophrenia. These results underscore the complexity and regional heterogeneity of the transcriptional correlates of schizophrenia, and suggest future schizophrenia therapeutics may need to target molecular pathologies localized to specific brain regions.


Despite a raft of policies targeting biodiversity, Australia has yet to stem biodiversity decline. This study analyses biodiversity conservation policies in two contrasting Australian landscapes, with a specific emphasis on how authority and responsibility are determined and allocated, using a novel linguistic tool (the Institutional Grammar Tool) and interviews with policymakers. Analysis revealed concerns around the narrowness of authority and the dominance of normative statements rather than rules. Unclear roles and responsibilities further diluted the clarity and allocation of authority. Political and economic factors drive policy implementation and constrain authority in both of the studied regions. A heavy focus on procedures rather than outcomes was also evident. Implications for policy design and the associated authority include broadening the definition of biodiversity, ensuring policy language more clearly allocates responsibilities, paying increased attention to the distributive as well as procedural elements of biodiversity policy, and developing buffering mechanisms to better cope with political and economic drivers.


Lumen formation by mammary epithelial cells involves two distinct effects of cAMP signaling in the inner and outer cells. Understanding polarization and lumen formation during development of epithelial tubes may aid in understanding tumorigenesis. The normally empty luminal space fills with cells in various types of epithelial cancers. Acini, which are empty ball-like structures surrounded by a single layer of cells, can be induced to form in vitro by culturing mammary epithelial cells or cell lines in a reconstituted extracellular matrix (ECM). Nedvetsky et al. noted that cholera toxin, which stimulates the production of adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP), was routinely included in the medium used to induce acinar formation of the breast cancer epithelial cell line MCF10A. Addition of cell-permeable cAMP analogs that stimulated protein kinase A (PKA), but not those that stimulated only the cAMP-regulated guanine nucleotide exchange factor Epac, promoted acinar formation. Addition of PKA-stimulating cAMP analogs increased the abundance of the proapoptotic factor BIM and, at early times in culture, increased the number of apoptotic cells detected in the lumen. The cAMP-mediated increase in BIM abundance was not accompanied by an induction of BIM mRNA; however, culturing the cells in suspension or blocking integrin activity, which also increased the abundance of BIM, was associated with an increase in mRNA abundance. Thus, cAMP and loss of ECM contact appear to regulate BIM through distinct mechanisms. Addition of a β-adrenergic receptor agonist to stimulate cAMP formation through a more physiological pathway also enhanced the formation of MCF10A acini with empty lumen. Dissection of the downstream signaling events in cultured mammary epithelial cell lines or primary human mammary epithelial cells suggested that cAMP signaling reduced the activity of extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) and stimulated the activity of the kinase AKT. The addition of PKA-stimulating cAMP analogs also affected the outer cells of the acini. In this case, the rate of polarization of the cells was increased and was associated with an accumulation of integrins with the α6 subunit at the outer periphery of the outer cells. Addition of a blocking antibody that recognizes α6 integrins prevented cAMP-induced polarization of the outer cells. This study identifies two distinct effects of cAMP signaling in acinar formation—a proapoptotic role in the inner cells and a polarization-promoting role in the outer cells. P. I. Nedvetsky, S.-H. Kwon, J. Debnath, K. E. Mostov, Cyclic AMP regulates formation of mammary epithelial acini in vitro. Mol. Biol. Cell 23, 2973–2981 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


A study of the effect of the well-known aerodynamic device low profile vortex generators (VGs) on the viscous resistance of the DTMB 5415 ship hull form through the control of the ship boundary layer separation is performed using the finite volume code Ansys CFX. The tetrahedral unstructural grids have been used for meshing the different cases. Different types of VGs have been tested, but the study has forced on two main types of VGs. The effects of VGs on the ship viscous resistance and its components have been investigated for the different cases in this study, and comparisons between the various results have been made.


Legal education is at a crossroads. As a media saturated generation of students enters law school, they find themselves thrust into a fairly backward mode of instruction, much of which is over 100 years old. Over those years, legal education has resisted many creditable reports recommending change, most recently those from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Clinical Legal Education Association. Meanwhile, the cost of legal education continues to skyrocket, with many law students graduating with crushing debt they have difficulty paying back. All of these factors are likely to reach a crescendo in the next few years, setting the stage for a perfect storm out of which can come significant change.But legal education has successfully resisted systemic change for many years. Given that dubious track record, the only way significant change can reasonably be predicted is if something is different this time. Fortunately, there is something different this time: the ubiquity of technology. Since the MacCrate report in 1992, the internet has achieved massive growth, and a generation of students have grown up with sophisticated and pervasive use of technology in nearly every facet of their lives. This book describes how the perfect storm of generational change and the rising cost and criticisms of legal education, combined with extraordinary technological developments, will change the face of legal education as we know it today. Its scope extends from generational changes in our students, to pedagogical shifts inside and outside of the classroom, to hybrid textbooks, all the way to methods of active, interactive, and hypertextual learning. And it describes how this shift can - and will - better prepare law students for the law practice of tomorrow.


To compare dynamics of localized meningitis epidemics (LE) by meningococcal (Nm) serogroup, we analyzed a surveillance database of suspected and laboratory-confirmed Nm cases from 373 health areas (HA) of three regions in Niger during 2002–2012 and one region concerned by NmC epidemics during 2015. We defined LE as HA weekly incidence rates of ≥20 suspected cases per 100,000 during ≥2 weeks and assigned the predominant serogroup based on polymerase chain reaction testing of cerebrospinal fluid. Among the 175 LE, median peak weekly incidence rate in LE due to NmA, W, X and C were 54, 39, 109 and 46 per 100,000, respectively. These differences impacted ability of the epidemic to be detected at the district level. While this analysis is limited by the small number of LE due to NmX (N = 4) and NmW (N = 5), further research should explore whether strategies for prevention and response to meningitis epidemics need to be adapted according to predominant meningococcal serogroups.


Firms often collaborate with other firms to set information technology standards in order to decrease each firm's individual risk. But does this work? We propose that, in a capital market setting, establishing standards in a group does not decrease the total risk faced by an individual firm's shareholders. However, the market risks its investors face decrease and idiosyncratic risks increase, changing the risk profiles of the group members. We collected data on standard-setting events from 1996 to 2005. In our dataset, a firm obtained a 4.07 percent, three-day cumulative risk-adjusted return on stock price when engaging in a standard-setting initiative, after controlling event year, firm size, and group size. More importantly, we found that an increase in the number of firms in the group decreased the risk-adjusted abnormal return and the market risk (as measured by beta) of each firm, but increased the idiosyncratic risk (as measured by the variance of firm returns). Our findings suggest that firms electing to participate in a large standardization group obtain a reduction in abnormal returns on stocks on the days of the standard-setting events. They also expect to reduce market risks but increase idiosyncratic risks after the standard-setting events, as compared to firms choosing to participate in a smaller group or attempting to standardize their products unilaterally. This study contributes to the literature on IT standards and standardization, and expands our understanding of the implications of standardization strategy on shareholder risks.


Verificationism is the first comprehensive history of a concept that dominated philosophy and scientific methodology between the 1930s and the 1960s. The verificationist principle - the concept that a belief with no connection to experience is spurious - is the most sophisticated version of empiricism. More flexible ideas of verification are now being rehabilitated by a number of philosophers. C.J. Misak surveys the precursors, the main proponents and the rehabilitators. Unlike traditional studies, she follows verificationist theory beyond the demise of positivism to examine its reappearance in the work of modern philosophers. Most interestingly, she argues that despite feminism's strenuous opposition to positivism, verificationist thought is at the heart of much of contemporary feminist philosophy. Verificationism is an excellent assessment of a major and influential system of thought.


Particle deposition in ventilation ducts influences particle exposures of building occupants and may lead to a variety of indoor air quality concerns. Experiments have been performed in a laboratory to study the effects of particle size and air speed on deposition rates of particles from turbulent air flows in galvanized steel and internally insulated ducts with hydraulic diameters of 15.2 cm. The duct systems were constructed of materials typically found in commercial heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In the steel duct system, experiments with nominal particle sizes of 1, 3, 5, 9, and 16 μm were conducted at each of three nominal air speeds: 2.2, 5.3, and 9.0 m/s. In the insulated duct system, deposition rates of particles with nominal sizes of 1, 3, 5, 8, and 13 μm were measured at nominal air speeds of 2.2, 5.3, and 8.8 m/s. Fluorescent techniques were used to directly measure the deposition velocities of monodisperse fluorescent particles to duct surfaces (floor, wall, and ceiling) at two straight duct sections where the turbulent flow profile was fully developed. In steel ducts, deposition rates were higher to the duct floor than to the wall, which in turn were greater than to the ceiling. In insulated ducts, deposition was nearly the same to the duct floor, wall, and ceiling for a given particle size and air speed. Deposition to duct walls and ceilings was greatly enhanced in insulated ducts compared to steel ducts. Deposition velocities to each of the three duct surface orientations in both systems were found to increase with increasing particle size or air velocity over the ranges studies. Deposition rates measured in the current experiments were in general agreement with the limited observations of similar systems by previous researchers.


The design of bug-free and safe medical device software is challenging, especially in complex implantable devices. This is due to the device's closed-loop interaction with the patient's organs, which are stochastic physical environments. The life-critical nature and the lack of existing industry standards to enforce software validation make this an ideal domain for exploring design automation challenges for integrated functional and formal modeling with closed-loop analysis. The primary goal of high-confidence medical device software is to guarantee the device will never drive the patient into an unsafe condition even though we do not have complete understanding of the physiological plant. There are two major differences between modeling physiology and modeling man-made systems: first, physiology is much more complex and less well-understood than man-made systems like cars and airplanes, and spans several scales from the molecular to the entire human body. Secondly, the variability between humans is orders of magnitude larger than that between two cars coming off the assembly line. Using the implantable cardiac pacemaker as an example of closed-loop device, and the heart as the organ to be modeled, we present several of the challenges and early results in model-based device validation. We begin with detailed timed automata model of the pacemaker, based on the specifications and algorithm descriptions from Boston Scientific. For closed-loop evaluation, a real-time Virtual Heart Model VHM has been developed to model the electrophysiological operation of the functioning and malfunctioning i.e., during arrhythmia hearts. By extracting the timing properties of the heart and pacemaker device, we present a methodology to construct timed-automata models for formal model checking and functional testing of the closed-loop system. The VHM's capability of generating clinically-relevant response has been validated for a variety of common arrhythmias. Based on a set of requirements, we describe a framework of Abstraction Trees that allows for interactive and physiologically relevant closed-loop model checking and testing for basic pacemaker device operations such as maintaining the heart rate, atrial-ventricle synchrony and complex conditions such as avoiding pacemaker-mediated tachycardia. Through automatic model translation of abstract models to simulation-based testing and code generation for platform-level testing, this model-based design approach ensures the closed-loop safety properties are retained through the design toolchain and facilitates the development of verified software from verified models. This system is a step toward a validation and testing approach for medical cyber-physical systems with the patient-in-the-loop.


The current discourse around Open Science has tended to focus on the creation of new technological platforms and tools to facilitate sharing and reuse of a wide range of research outputs. There is an assumption that once these new tools are in place, researchers—and at times, members of the general public—will be able to participate in the creation of scientific knowledge in more accessible and efficient ways. While many of these new tools have indeed assisted in the ease of collaboration through online spaces and mechanisms, the narrowness of how infrastructure is imagined by open science practitioners tends to put the use of technology ahead of the issues that people are actually trying to solve and fails to acknowledge the systemic constraints that exist within and between some communities. Drawing on an analytical framework grounded in Black feminist intersectionality (Noble 2016), this paper highlights the need for more inclusive knowledge infrastructures, particularly in the context of sustainable development. Three case studies from the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet), are outlined in order to illustrate the importance of moving beyond a definition of infrastructure as merely a technical or physical entity. These cases, arising from research conducted in South Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean, demonstrate how more sustainable and nuanced forms of collaboration and participation may be enabled through broader understandings of knowledge infrastructures. This paper further argues that leveraging the feminist concept of intersectionality when conceptualizing the development of knowledge infrastructures could be one way to move from narrow assumptions about standardized knowledge "users" towards more inclusive reimaginings of how knowledges can be produced and shared via networked technologies.


Purpose: Since the start of the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, patients with dental conditions find it difficult to consult their physicians and to preserve the continuity of dental treatment. All routine appointments were suspended and postponed indefinitely so that infection control procedures could be administered. This study aimed to assess the value of Turkish videos for patients seeking information on dental treatments during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: Videos on YouTube were screened using the following keywords: 'Coronavirus, diş tedavileri', 'COVID-19, diş tedavileri' and 'SARS-Cov-2, diş tedavileri'. The search results were limited to the first 100 videos. Videos were analysed independently by two examiners and re-evaluated by an independent examiner. The scope was limited to videos in Turkish. Results: The keyword search resulted in an initial list of 919 videos, from which the first 100 videos were viewed. The final analysis included 39 videos that qualified the inclusion criteria. Of the 39 videos, only one had excellent quality, while 13 (33.3%) had poor quality. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that YouTube videos in the Turkish language were limited sources for patients seeking reliable information on dental treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies from other countries are needed to evaluate the available YouTube videos during and after the period of the COVID-19 outbreak.


Evaluation of a newly designed button heat pulse probe (BHPP) demonstrated the potential for improved soil water content measurements. Compared with the conventional heat pulse probe (HPP), the BHPP does not use needles, but instead consists of a ring‐shaped 6‐mm‐radius heating element and a central thermistor, both embedded in the face of a plastic disk (6 mm thick and 16 mm in diameter). After calibration of the effective heater–thermistor spacing from temperature response measurements in agar, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to demonstrate the potential advantages of the BHPP. Measurement accuracy and robustness of the BHPP were significantly improved compared with the conventional HPP. Errors associated with needle deflection were eliminated by the design, whereas the water content measurement sensitivity was increased by the central placement of the thermistor. We used inverse modeling with a finite‐element heat transport model to illustrate the increased sensitivity of the BHPP to soil water content measurements.


Surviving subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) patients' experience significantly reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in both the short- and long-term, as well as mysterious symptoms of fatigue and sleep dysfunction. Patients' family members and friends - who often act as their informal carers - can also experience psychosocial disability. The cause for these poor outcomes remains unknown. Traditional explanations focusing on the neurological sequelae associated with SAH or the characteristics of the illness are not satisfactory; nor are attempts to explain family members' difficulties on the basis of carer burden. The hypothesis which is tested in this thesis is that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be abnormally high in both the SAH patient and 'significant other' (SO) population and that this may explain their outcomes. SAH patients are known to be at risk of suffering from PTSD, but it is unknown if this explains their outcome. In terms of patients' SOs, they are known to experience psychiatric symptoms and I suggest these could be caused by their development of PTSD, but this has never been examined. In Part One (Chapter 2-5), I focus on patients' outcomes. Before examining my PTSD hypothesis, I present a meta-analysis (Chapter 2) I conducted of studies which have tried to explain patients' outcome using neurological factors. I conducted the meta-analysis as a tendency for prior studies to be underpowered and use unreliable statistics could have meant that the actual importance of traditional factors was obscured. The results of my meta-analysis however did not support this possibility and instead showed traditional neurological variables did not explain patients' outcome. With this in mind, I then present a longitudinal study (Chapter 5) in which I examined one of the largest prospective series of SAH patients to establish PTS D's explanative importance. Using regression analyses, this study showed PTSD was the best predictor for patients' mental HRQoL - the domain most persistently impaired. It also helped predict patients' physical HRQoL. Moreover, PTSD was linked to sleep problems and may therefore cause fatigue. Crucially, to establish the cause of PTSD, logistic regression was performed. This showed that maladaptive stress coping strategies were the best predictor for PTSD development. In Part Two of the thesis (Chapter 6), I present my longitudinal study of one of the largest prospective samples of SOs. All SOs were assessed with a diagnostic PTSD measure and coping skills were assessed. An elevated incidence of PTSD was found in both the short- and long-term. Although SOs' PTSD did not impinge on the recovery of the SAH patients being cared for, given that it is important to ensure SOs continue caring, regression results are presented which show the cause of SOs' PTSD was (at least in the short- term) due to the use of maladaptive coping strategies. The overarching conclusion is that the elevated incidence of PTSD in SAH patients and SOs helps explain why they experience psychosocial disability. In the final part of the thesis (Chapter 8) the clinical and theoretical implications of this conclusion are considered, such as that teaching patients and their SOs more effective coping skills might prevent PTSD and psychosocial disability.


This paper investigates productivity changes of Malaysian Non-bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs), during the post-crisis period of 2001-2004 by applying the non-parametric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) method, which allows us to examine five different indices namely, the Total Factor Productivity Change (TFPCH), Technological Change (TECHCH), Efficiency Change (EFFCH), Pure Technical Efficiency Change (PEFFCH) and Scale Efficiency Change (SECH) indices. The results suggest that Malaysian NBFIs have exhibited productivity progress during all years under study. The decomposition of the productivity change index suggests that Malaysian NBFIs productivity progress were mainly attributable to efficiency change rather than technological change during 2002 and 2003, while the opposite was true during 2004. The author examines the productivity progress/regress of different NBFI groups operating in Malaysia. The findings suggest that while the merchant banks' productivity increase are mainly attributed to technological change, the opposite is true for the finance companies, which exhibit productivity regress mainly due to technological regress. The paper explores the relationship between different NBFIs size and productivity. The results indicate that while the majority of Malaysian NBFIs, which experienced productivity progress due to technological change, came from the large NBFIs group, the majority of NBFIs that experienced productivity regress due to technological regress came from the small NBFIs group. The results imply that the small NBFIs group with its limited capabilities has lagged behind its larger counterparts in terms of technological advancements. INTRODUCTION Given the substantial task of a non-bank financial sector, it is worth raising the issue of why it matters. In particular, since Gerschenkron (1962) classic study emphasized the role of the banking systems in the economic development of Germany, France and Italy in the 19th century, it may appear that the need for a non-bank financial sector is largely redundant in the specific circumstances of the developing economies. However, there are two main reasons why the existence of Non-bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) matters: One concerns economic development, and the other relates to financial stability. In the first place, banks offer assets (deposits) that claim to be capital certain. If this promise is to be honored, then there must be limits to the range and nature of assets that a bank can reasonably take on to its balance sheets. Notwithstanding the existence of universal banking in many parts of the world (i.e., banks also engaged in securities market activities), this consideration implies that bank-based financial system will tend to have a smaller range of equity-type assets than those with a more broadly based structure including a wide range of NBFIs. More generally, NBFIs play range of roles that are not suitable for banks and through their provision of liquidity, divisibility, informational efficiencies, and risk pooling services, they broaden the spectrum of risks available to investors. In this way, they encourage and improve the efficiency of investment and savings. Through the provision of a broader range of financial instruments, they are able to foster a risk management culture by attracting customers who are least able to bear risks and fill the gaps in financial services that otherwise occur in bank-based financial systems. secondly, from the view of financial stability, in a financial sector in which NBFIs are comparatively undeveloped, banks will inevitably be required to assume risks that otherwise might be borne by the stock market, collective investment schemes or insurance companies. However, there is basic incompatibility between the kinds of financial contracts offered by the banks and those offered by the financial institutions. Thus, banks are more likely to fail as a result. One way of minimizing financial fragility in the developing economies may be to encourage a diversity of financial markets and institutions, where investors are able to assume a variety of risks outside the banking system itself. …


Abstract. Changes in ocean chemistry as a direct response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations is causing a reduction of pH in the surface ocean. While the dynamics and trends in carbonate chemistry are reasonably constrained for open ocean waters, the ways in which ocean acidification (OA) manifests within the shallow near-shore waters, where coral reefs reside, is less understood. Constraining near-reef variability in carbonate chemistry and net ecosystem metabolic processes across diel, seasonal, and annual scales is important in evaluating potential biogeochemical thresholds of OA that could result in ecological community changes. The OA Test-Bed at La Parguera Marine Reserve in Puerto Rico provides long-term carbonate chemistry observations at high-temporal resolution within a Caribbean near-shore coral reef ecosystem. A 1-D model was developed using the carbon mass balance approach to yield information about net ecosystem production and calcification processes occurring in the water column adjacent to the reef. We present results of nine years of sustained monitoring at the Enrique mid-shelf forereef, which provides for the characterization of temporal dynamics in carbonate chemistry and net ecosystem metabolic processes encompassing near-shore and upstream locations. Results indicate that net heterotrophy and net dissolution dominate over most of the year, while net autotrophic conditions coupled with calcification dominated from only January to mid-April. The average carbonate dissolution rate observed during summer is estimated at −2.19 g CaCO3 m−2 day−1 and net community dissolution persists 76 % of the seasonal year despite the water column remaining super-saturated with respect to aragonite. This corresponds to −0.62 kg CaCO3 m−2 year−1, classifying the Enrique fore-reef and off-reef areas in a net dissolutional state. The combination of thermodynamically-driven depressed aragonite saturation state and high rates of respiration during the summer cause conditions that jeopardize the most soluble carbonate minerals and the free energy in the system for calcification. These data suggest that the reef area and associated ecosystems upstream of the sampling location are experiencing a net loss of CaCO3, possibly compromising coral ecosystem health and reef accretion processes necessary for maintenance as sea level increases. Resiliency from other climate-scale stressors including rising sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching is likely to be compromised in a system exhibiting net carbonate loss.


We investigate two previously little studied aspects of favor-trading. First, we study whether and how individuals who stand to gain from favor-trading can best form cooperative relationships in an environment with private information about each agent's ability and willingness to do favors. For agents with a low discount factor (low types) cooperation is not incentive compatible, for agents with a high discount factor (high types) it is. Both types receive privately observed opportunities to do favors with positive probability each period. We show high types are always able to separate from low types. Separation is implementable as soon as a high type receives a favor opportunity if the opportunities are independent across agents. If they are mutually exclusive, high types continue to separate with probability one if one of the agents is designated to do the first favor and that agent is a high type. Equilibria that designate an agent to act first implement separation approximately twice as slowly as symmetric equilibria that task the first high type with opportunity to separate first. Therefore the latter type of symmetric equilibria may dominate the former type of non-symmetric equilibria. Second, we study two-player games of favor-trading in a complete information environment standard to the literature, but in contrast to prominent models of favor-trading to date, we assume agents have concave utility functions of the form u(x)=x^a; 0 Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Economics First Advisor Andrew Postlewaite Second Advisor George J. Mailath Third Advisor Philipp Kircher