The Maldives' strategic location in the Indian Ocean has elicited interest in its politics. While it is the smallest state in South Asia and a classic example of a microstate, with a population of less than 400,000, its strategic location in the Indian Ocean region (IOR) and large EEZ allow it to play an outsize role in the region. When it comes to civil‒military relations, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has traditionally accepted a subordinate role to the civilian leadership. However, there has been intermittent political turmoil and instability as civilian leaders—many of whom have been autocratic—resist democratic changes. There are three components that require attention in assessing the nature of the Maldives' civil‒military relations. The first component is the great power rivalry between China and India operating in the region. While India has considered the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to be within its sphere of influence, it has been challenged by recent Chinese activities in the IOR. The second component is the stability and turmoil in the domestic political structures in the Maldives as the country seeks to democratize. Finally, although it is the largest contributor to the Maldives' GDP, a section of fundamentalist Muslims identify the tourism industry with a "decadent lifestyle" being promoted by the state solely for economic growth . Given that tourism is the primary economic sector in the Maldives, such opposition can pose both a security and an economic threat. Whether the growing radicalism has affected the military is unclear, but the possibility poses new threats to a country on the path of democratization.


In areas where bedrock outcrops are situated between converging glaciers, longitudinal debris accumulations mark the boundary between adjacent ice-flow units. These medial moraines often give the glacier surface a striped appearance. The seafloor offshore from Scott Inlet, Arctic Canada, exhibits well-preserved medial moraines and other elongate features. These elongate submarine landforms allow the reconstruction of the flow direction of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Late Glacial Maximum c. 24–23 14C ka BP (Dyke et al. 2002).

Scott Inlet is an area where two fjords, trending roughly normal to the coastline of northern Baffin Island, join to form a larger embayment (Fig. 1). An elongate central island, Scott Island, marks the branching of these two coalescing fjords (Fig. 1a). A cross-shelf trough approximately 75 km in length is present on the continental shelf seaward of Scott Island (Batchelor & Dowdeswell 2014). A large curvilinear ridge extends 35 km offshore of Remote Peninsula on the southern margin of Scott Inlet, along with numerous shorter elongate sediment ridges in the lee of bedrock highs (Fig. 1a, e). The longitudinal profile of the large ridge shows a relatively smooth descent to c. 735 m water depth (Fig. 1h, profile a–a′), with minor undulations and a shallowing trend further seaward to the limit of the multibeam data.

 Fig. 1.
( a ) Multibeam data from Scott Inlet, Baffin Island. MM, medial moraine; CT, crag-and-tail; SS, smooth seafloor; smm, subsidiary medial moraine; sbm, …


This paper proposes a new model of market structure determination. It demonstrates that market structure need not be the result of ideology, political power, collusion among producers or the nature of the technology. In our setting, it is determined by bureaucrats who maximize their share of the industry profits. The approach is illustrated by studying the relationship between industry size and the existing institutional norm and by identifying the bureaucrats' most preferred norm. In the latter context, we establish the fundamental inverse relationship between the costs of interaction with government officials and industry size.


Modeling plant growth and development underwent considerable development with strong incentives from various consortia. It emerged as an efficient tool in ecology and genetics to face new challenges raised by competition for resources and to benefit from breakthroughs in biotechnology. In this presentation, we propose a classification of approaches used in modeling plants based on our experience at the Laboratoire d'Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux (Montpellier, France). We present 5 types of models and discuss how they participate in a general workflow aimed at designing plant ideotypes for future climates.
Type 1 are frameworks for spatiotemporal analysis of growth and development. They consist in quantitative description of when and where growth occurs in a specific organ, or how growth is synchronized between organs at whole plant level or, more generally, how development occurs. They are developed almost systematically when a novel species or organ are to be studied in the lab, as they are critical to set up experimental designs (what to measure, when, ...) or to reason the sampling of tissues for omics studies (which part of the organ should be taken, when).
Type 2 are data-driven (statistical) representations of the responses to the environment and of determinant of growth. Often based on specialized statistical methods (multivariate analysis, structural equation models, mixed models,...), they allow us to formalize responses, reveal linkages and hierarchies between processes or multiple factors affecting growth, and demonstrate causalities between them. They are used as such to produce synthetic representations of growth processes or decipher between genetic and environmental effects. They are also used as bases for building other types of models.
Type 3 are empirical models of response to environmental factors specially designed for parameterizations in high throughput phenotyping. This entails parsimony in the parameterization (hence in input variables), high heritability of parameters (traits) and compatibility with high throughput measurements. Such models have proved to be very efficient in genetic studies, for characterizing allelic diversity or finding QTLs. They also are ready to use and genetically well parameterized components for more integrative models.
Type 4 are computer-assisted simulation models, used to make predictions a priori. They are based on hypothetical frames of integration of biological processes within the plant, and on physical models for the interactions with soil and atmospheric compartments. They allow simulation of complex system (crop
models). They are used in the lab to simulate the behavior of plants in different climatic scenarios and thus to assess the relevance of a given set of traits for a given location. They are also produced to help reasoning agricultural practices, and especially irrigation.
Type 5 are computer simulation models, used to reconstruct or interpret experiments a posteriori. Such models are designed to be fitted to experimental data, either to compute hidden variables (like sink strengths, radiation interception and efficiency), interpolate variables of interest from fragmental inputs in time or space (e.g. LAI time course) or interpret a macroscopic response by extracting meaningful parameters (e.g. hydraulic characteristics from difference in growth kinetics).
During this presentation, new challenges are proposed to modelers in each type of models. They consist in bottlenecks which currently hamper plant scientists from achieving multiple goals in biology, ecology, agronomy or breeding.


In this article we study the long-run average rate of forest conversion in Brazil. Deforestation results from the following trade-off: on the one hand, the uncertain value of benefits associated with forest conservation (biodiversity, carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services), on the other hand, the economic profits associated with land development (agriculture, ranching, etc.). We adopt the model by Bulte et al. (2002) as theoretical frame for studying land conversion and then derive, following Di Corato et al. (2013), the associated long-run average rate of forest conversion. We then identify the parameters to be used in our model. The object of our simulation is Brazil and 27 states. Our aim is to compute under several scenarios the time required to develop the remaining forested land in these states. We provide potential future scenarios, in terms of forest coverage, for the next 20, 100 and 200 years. Our results suggest that the uncertainty characterizing forest benefits plays a relevant role in deterring deforestation. We find that these benefits, if growing at a sufficiently high rate, may significantly slow down the conversion process. In contrast, a higher volatility accelerates the process of deforestation. We indicate the Brazilian states where forests are expected to be saturated earlier. In this respect, we find that forestland currently available may be expected to be fully converted within a 200-year horizon.


This paper introduces a family of multi-period poverty measures derived from commonly used static poverty measures. Our measures trade-off poverty levels and changes (gains and losses) over time, and are consistent with loss aversion. We characterize the partial ranking over income dynamics induced by these measures and use it in two empirical applications with longitudinal household level data. Comparing two decades of income dynamics in the United States, we find that the income dynamics of the 1990s-post Welfare reform dominates the income dynamics of the 1980s-pre Welfare reform. Next, we compare the contemporary income dynamics of three industrialized countries and conclude that United Kingdom dominates Germany and United States, and Germany dominates the United States if poverty stocks are given more importance than poverty flows. The differences between our ranking and those obtained using other welfare criteria such as social mobility suggest that our measures capture critical in formation about the evolution of poverty.


This thesis focuses on a year-long project of implementing active learning in undergraduate dynamics courses at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo from 2012-2013. The purpose is to increase conceptual understanding of critical dynamics concepts and to repair misconceptions of the students. Conceptual understanding in Dynamics is vital to understanding the big picture, building upon previous knowledge, and better understanding the behavior of engineering systems. Through various hands-on activities, students make predictions, test their conceptions, and solve real world problems. These active learning methods allow students to improve their learning of Dynamics concepts. Education research on active learning is present in Physics and Mathematics disciplines, yet is still growing in Engineering. Four Inquiry-Based Learning Activities (IBLAs) and two Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs) are discussed in this thesis. Inquiry-Based Learning Activities feature student prediction and experimentation in which the physical world acts as the authority. On the other hand, Model-Eliciting-Activities prompt students to solve real world problems and deliver results to a client. From the results, some activities yield an increase in conceptual understanding, as measured by assessment items, while others do not yield a significant increase. These activities not only help to promote conceptual gains, but also to motivate students and offer realistic engineering contexts. In conclusion, the six total IBLA and MEAS will continue in practice and be improved in their implementation. This thesis work will contribute to engineering education research of active learning methods, and improve the undergraduate dynamics curriculum locally at Cal Poly.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the decision of buying mobile phone devices in Hawassa town. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, a sample of 246 consumers were taken by using simple random sampling technique. Both primary and secondary data were explored. Moreover, six important factors i.e. price, social group, product features, brand name, durability and after sales services were selected and analyzed through the use of correlation and multiple regressions analysis. From the analysis, it was clear that consumer's value price followed by mobile phone features as the most important variable amongst all and it also acted as a motivational force that influences them to go for a mobile phone purchase decision. The study suggested that the mobile phone sellers should consider the above mentioned factors to equate the opportunity. Key w ords: Consumer Buying Behavior, Mobile Phone, Consumer Purchase Decision


A Smart Grid (SG) is a modern electricity supply system. It uses information and communication technology (ICT) to run, monitor and control data between the generation source and the end user. It comprises a set of technologies that uses sensing, embedded processing and digital communications to intelligently control and monitor an electricity grid with improved reliability, security, and efficiency. SGs are classified as Critical Infrastructures. In the recent past, there have been cyber-attacks on SGs causing substantial damage and loss of services. A recent cyber-attack on Ukraine's SG caused over 2.3 million homes to be without power for around six hours. Apart from the loss of services, some portions of the SG are yet to be operational, due to the damage caused. SGs also face security challenges such as confidentiality, availability, fault tolerance, privacy, and other security issues. Communication and networking technologies integrated into the SG require new and existing security vulnerabilities to be thoroughly investigated. Key management is one of the most important security requirements to achieve data confidentiality and integrity in a SG system. It is not practical to design a single key management scheme/framework for all systems, actors and segments in the smart grid, since the security requirements of various sub-systems in the SG vary. We address two specific sub-systems categorised by the network connectivity layer – the Home Area Network (HAN) and the Neighbourhood Area Network (NAN). Currently, several security schemes and key management solutions for SGs have been proposed. However, these solutions lack better security for preventing common cyber-attacks such as node capture attack, replay attack and Sybil attack. We propose a cryptographic key management scheme that takes into account the differences in the HAN and NAN segments of the SG with respect to topology, authentication and forwarding of data. The scheme complies with the overall performance requirements of the smart grid. The proposed scheme uses group key management and group authentication in order to address end-to-end security for the HAN and NAN scenarios in a smart grid, which fulfils data confidentiality, integrity and scalability requirements. The security scheme is implemented in a multi-hop sensor network using TelosB motes and ZigBee OPNET simulation model. In addition, replay attack, Sybil attack and node capture attack scenarios have been implemented and evaluated in a NAN scenario. Evaluation results show that the scheme is resilient against node capture attacks and replay attacks. Smart Meters in a NAN are able to authenticate themselves in a group rather than authenticating one at a time. This significant improvement over existing schemes is discussed with comparisons with other security schemes.


In this paper the results of the research of the Lithuanian individual investors are presented with the purpose to assess whether the degree acquired by them during studies and investment experience could influence their behaviour and investment decision-making in the Lithuanian financial market. The authors attempt to discover the similarities and differences between the behaviour of investors having degree in economics or finance and degrees in other fields, investors having different investment experience and to evaluate the relationship between the occupation and experience of investors and the rationality of their investment decisions. The purpose of the research is to identify the connection between the Lithuanian individual investors' occupation and experience gained, their behaviour and decisions adopted in the financial market. The results of the research showed that without taking into consideration the reasons of overconfidence, the Lithuanian individual investors, who have acquired the degree in economics or finance are more overconfident in comparison to investors with a different occupation. This group of respondents is also risk-averse. Taking into consideration the other basic findings of the research (different risk perception, major factors influencing investors' mood, the influence of financial crises, etc.) it is possible to conclude that the degree acquired and the experience gained are important factors, affecting the behaviour and decisions adopted in the Lithuanian capital market.


The importance of gut microbes to metabolic health is becoming more evident and nutrition-based therapies to alter the composition of bacterial communities to manage metabolic disease are an attractive avenue to ameliorate some effects of Western diets. While the composition of gut microbial communities can vary significantly across disease states, it is not well known if these communities have common responses to nutritional interventions. To better understand fiber-bacterial community interactions, we collected biological parameters and fecal samples of overweight non-diabetic (OND) and diabetic (OD) individuals before and after daily supplementation of 2.8 g β-glucan on their habitual diet for 30 days. Fecal bacterial communities in an age-matched cohort were measured by sequencing partial 16S rRNA genes and imputed metagenomic content. Unexpectedly, we observed disconnected responses of biological measurements and the bacterial community. Based on average effect size, biological measurements were greater in the OND group while effects on the bacterial community were greatest on the OD cohort, and we suspect these observations are due to the significantly lower alpha diversity in the OD cohort. Our data indicate that responses to fiber supplementation are cohort specific and this should be considered when manipulating the microbiome via fiber supplementation.


A photo-identification tool was applied to identify and create a catalogue of photo from Risso's dolphins providing evidence of its site fidelity, residency and habitat use in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central-eastern Mediterranean Sea). Sightings carried out from 2013 to 2016, occurred in a depth range from 436 to 1000 m with a mean depth value of 762±217 m. A total of 215 specimens of G. griseus were observed including 206 adults and juveniles, 7 calves and 2 new-borns. The evidence of calving and nursering females was inferred from calf association without any other sex information. Group size varied between 2 and 30 dolphin specimens, with a mean value of 13±7 specimens. A total of 54 Risso's dolphins were identified as distinctly marked. Among these, 34 specimens (63%) were sighted only once and 20 specimens (37%) were re-sighted up to 4 times. Rates of re-sighting within single year were relatively high, reaching 23, 18 and 43% during 2013 (3 re-sighted/13 dolphins), 2014 (4 re-sighted/22 dolphins) and 2016 (12 re-sighted/28 dolphins), respectively. The site fidelity reached 0.50, with a mean value of 0.13 ± 0.18. The monthly residency rate varied between 0.11 and 0.44, with a mean value of 0.17 ± 0.09. Among a total of 9 Risso's dolphins considered as "multi-year residents", 7 specimens were re-sighted in two consecutive years and 2 were re-sighted in a period of two non-consecutive years. Although results suggest the need for further studies implementing the photo-identification catalogue for the Risso's dolphin and allowing possible reconstruction of its migration patterns on the Mediterranean and global scale, the Taranto Valley canyon system seems to be a critical habitat to enforce specific conservation measures for the effective protection of the species.


Generally, the vehicle engine mounting system consists of an engine as the vibration source and several mounts connected to the vehicle structure. The modern engine mounting systems have been successfully used to isolate the driver and passenger from both noise and vibration generated by the engine. However, there is still a need to improve the performance of engine mounting systems because of the requirements of vibration and noise level isolation for passenger cars and also because of the modern car designs that need lighter bodies and more power-intensive engines. Such a weight reduction and increased power requirements will often have adverse effects on vibratory behaviour that it will increase the vibration and noise level. This study is focusing on the current elastomeric engine mounts of different geometry and will also characterise the dynamic properties of elastomeric engine mount. This will be done by having parametric study of different engine mountings. The analysis of engine mounting rubber components should be accompanied by the vibration analysis of the engine mount system. This research opens up a passage to researchers to study and improve the elastomeric engine mount.


Excessive lipid accumulation in white adipose tissue (WAT) results in adipocyte hypertrophy and chronic low-grade inflammation, which is the major cause of obesity-associated insulin resistance and consequent metabolic disease. The development of beige adipocytes in WAT (browning of WAT) increases energy expenditure and has been considered as a novel strategy to counteract obesity. Thymoquinone (TQ) is the main bioactive quinone derived from the plant Nigella Sativa and has antioxidative and anti-inflammatory capacities. Fish oil omega 3 (ω3) enhances both insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis in obesity, but the involved mechanisms remain unclear. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of TQ and ω3 PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) on obesity-associated inflammation, markers of insulin resistance, and the metabolic effects of adipose tissue browning. 3T3-L1 cells were cultured to investigate the effects of TQ and ω3 on the browning of WAT. C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD), supplemented with 0.75% TQ, and 2% ω3 in combination for eight weeks. In 3T3-L1 cells, TQ and ω3 reduced lipid droplet size and increased hallmarks of beige adipocytes such as uncoupling protein-1 (UCP1), PR domain containing 16 (PRDM16), fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1), Mitofusion 2 (Mfn2), and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) protein expression, as well as increased the phosphorylation of Protein Kinase B (AKT) and insulin receptors. In the adipose tissue of HFD mice, TQ and ω3 treatment attenuated levels of inflammatory adipokines, Nephroblastoma Overexpressed (NOV/CCN3) and Twist related protein 2 (TWIST2), and diminished adipocyte hypoxia by decreasing HIF1α expression and hallmarks of beige adipocytes such as UCP1, PRDM16, FGF21, and mitochondrial biogenesis markers Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC1α), Sirt1, and Mfn2. Increased 5′ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) phosphorylation and HO-1 expression were observed in adipose with TQ and ω3 treatment, which led to increased pAKT and pIRS1 Ser307 expression. In addition to the adipose, TQ and ω3 also increased inflammation and markers of insulin sensitivity in the liver, as demonstrated by increased phosphorylated insulin receptor (pIR tyr972), insulin receptor beta (IRβ), UCP1, and pIRS1 Ser307 and reduced NOV/CCN3 expression. Our data demonstrate the enhanced browning of WAT from TQ treatment in combination with ω3, which may play an important role in decreasing obesity-associated insulin resistance and in reducing the chronic inflammatory state of obesity.


Although the critical role of teachers in curricular reform is well documented, there has been less focus on how the messiness of life in schools affects the daily work of change agents. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected over a 5-year period, we argue that in troubled urban school districts, teacher buy-in to curricular reform is best achieved when change agents adapt their program to the daily needs and problems of classroom teachers. We look in detail at how staff developers help teachers generate strategies for reading and dealing effectively with district demands, so they can simultaneously fulfill official directives and implement progressive classroom practices. Staff developers enable teachers to function as street-level bureaucrats, who then determine how policy will come to life in their classrooms. In turn staff developers learn to read resistance as a form of communicative action to be interpreted rather than a roadblock to be overcome. Finally, we identify three roles—strategist, translator, and advocate—that staff developers play when working with teachers to create the orderly and coherent classrooms children need to learn and thrive.


This article describes the establishment in 1990 of a School of Medicine at Ahfad University for Women in Sudan. The school was premised on the view that women doctors would have a better opportunity to affect and improve women's health than men doctors. The curriculum is innovative and relies on a community orientation and a problem-solving approach. Medicine and health are taught in a holistic way. The new approach is rooted in the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978 of Health for All by the year 2000. The new method of delivery of medical care in the School of Medicine is based on the promotion of health through health education, prevention of disease, proper nutrition, provision of a safe water supply, attention to maternal/child health and family planning, and attention to the treatment of endemic diseases. In order to teach primary health care, medical schools must change their practices. Delivery of health care will have to be changed. New curriculum approaches emphasize learning objectives in each of the teaching modules and small group teaching. Integrated learning means the separate disciplines of medicine are taught as a whole multidisciplinary unit. Case management learning has the potential for increasing motivation and the ability to discover the knowledge needed to solve the problem. McMaster University relies on a problem-oriented approach to medical education that prepares the student for coping with changes in medical knowledge in the future. The challenge for educators is to create an efficient and comprehensive curriculum that will prepare a doctor for lifelong learning. Health settings have also changed to deemphasize sophisticated hospital settings in favor of community-based health centers. Ahfad University is the only one of its kind in Sudan. Medical education includes 6 years of schooling divided into 3 phases.


The field-sequential-color liquid crystal display (FSC-LCD) without a color filter enables high light efficiency, wide color gamut, and low material cost. However, the visual defect of color breakup (CBU) is perceived when relative velocities exist between the screen image and the human eye. We proposed the Stencil-FSC method with a 240-Hz field rate to make CBU imperceptible. Given the Stencil-FSC method, the hardware parameters were optimized to reduce hardware complexity while maintaining sufficient suppression of CBU. After implementing Stencil-FSC on a 32-in FSC-LCD, the image contrast ratio was shown to be ten times more than that of a conventional CCFL LCD, and the average power consumption was reduced to less than 35 W-a 67% savings in power consumption.


Bond graph is an apt modelling tool for any system working across multiple energy domains. Power electronics system modelling is usually the study of the interplay of energy in the domains of electrical, mechanical, magnetic and thermal. The usefulness of bond graph modelling in power electronic field has been realised by researchers. Consequently in the last couple of decades, there has been a steadily increasing effort in developing simulation tools for bond graph modelling that are specially suited for power electronic study. For modelling rotating magnetic fields in electromagnetic machine models, a support for vector variables is essential. Unfortunately, all bond graph simulation tools presently provide support only for scalar variables. We propose an approach to provide complex variable and vector support to bond graph such that it will enable modelling of polyphase electromagnetic and spatial vector systems. We also introduced a rotary gyrator element and use it along with the switched junction for developing the complex/vector variable's toolbox. This approach is implemented by developing a complex S-function tool box in Simulink inside a MATLAB environment This choice has been made so as to synthesise the speed of S-function, the user friendliness of Simulink and the popularity of MATLAB.


The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) supports the initiation,
modification, and termination of media sessions between user agents.
These sessions are managed by SIP dialogs, which represent a SIP
relationship between a pair of user agents. Because dialogs are
between pairs of user agents, SIP's usage for two-party
communications (such as a phone call), is obvious. Communications
sessions with multiple participants, generally known as conferencing,
are more complicated. This document defines a framework for how such
conferencing can occur. This framework describes the overall
architecture, terminology, and protocol components needed for multi-
party conferencing. This memo provides information for the Internet
community.


Abstract. With remote sensing we can readily observe the Earth's surface, but direct observation of the sub-surface remains a challenge. In hydrology, but also in related disciplines such as agricultural and atmospheric sciences, knowledge of the dynamics of soil moisture in the root zone of vegetation is essential, as this part of the vadose zone is the core component controlling the partitioning of water into evaporative fluxes, drainage, recharge, and runoff. In this paper, we compared the catchment-scale soil moisture content in the root zone of vegetation, computed by a lumped conceptual model, with the remotely sensed Normalized Difference Infrared Index (NDII) in the Upper Ping River basin (UPRB) in northern Thailand. The NDII is widely used to monitor the equivalent water thickness (EWT) of leaves and canopy. Satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used to determine the NDII over an 8-day period, covering the study area from 2001 to 2013. The results show that NDII values decrease sharply at the end of the wet season in October and reach lowest values near the end of the dry season in March. The values then increase abruptly after rains have started, but vary in an insignificant manner from the middle to the late rainy season. This paper investigates if the NDII can be used as a proxy for moisture deficit and hence for the amount of moisture stored in the root zone of vegetation, which is a crucial component of hydrological models. During periods of moisture stress, the 8-day average NDII values were found to correlate well with the 8-day average soil moisture content (Su) simulated by the lumped conceptual hydrological rainfall–runoff model FLEX for eight sub-catchments in the Upper Ping basin. Even the deseasonalized Su and NDII (after subtracting the dominant seasonal signal) showed good correlation during periods of moisture stress. The results illustrate the potential of the NDII as a proxy for catchment-scale root zone moisture deficit and as a potentially valuable constraint for the internal dynamics of hydrological models. In dry periods, when plants are exposed to water stress, the EWT (reflecting leaf water deficit) decreases steadily, as moisture stress in the leaves is connected to moisture deficits in the root zone. Subsequently, when the soil moisture is replenished as a result of rainfall, the EWT increases without delay. Once leaf water is close to saturation – mostly during the heart of the wet season – leaf characteristics and NDII values are not well correlated. However, for both hydrological modelling and water management, the stress periods are most important, which is why this product has the potential of becoming a highly efficient model constraint, particularly in ungauged basins.


Abstract Objective.—To identify search and rescue (SAR) trends in US National Park Service (NPS) units. Methods.—A retrospective review of the US National Park Service Annual Search and Rescue Reports from 1992 to 2007 and the SAR statistics for all NPS units in 2005. Results.—From 1992 to 2007 there were 78 488 individuals involved in 65 439 SAR incidents. These incidents ended with 2659 fatalities, 24 288 ill or injured individuals, and 13 212 saves. On average there were 11.2 SAR incidents each day at an average cost of $895 per operation. Total SAR costs from 1992 to 2007 were $58 572 164. In 2005, 50% of the 2430 SAR operations occurred in just 5 NPS units. Grand Canyon National Park (307) and Gateway National Recreation Area (293) reported the most SAR operations. Yosemite National Park accounted for 25% of the total NPS SAR costs ($1.2 million); Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve ($29 310) and Denali National Park and Preserve ($18 345) had the highest average SAR costs. Hiking (48%) and boating (21%) were the most common activities requiring SAR assistance. Hiking (22.8%), suicides (12.1%), swimming (10.1%), and boating (10.1%) activities were the most common activities resulting in fatalities. Conclusions.—Without the presence of NPS personnel responding to SAR incidents, 1 in 5 (20%) of those requesting SAR assistance would be a fatality. Future research and the development of any prevention efforts should focus on the 5 NPS units where 50% of all SAR incidents are occurring.


Animal eyes evolve to process behaviourally important visual information, but how retinas deal with statistical asymmetries in visual space remains poorly understood. Using hyperspectral imaging in the field, in-vivo 2-photon imaging of retinal neurons and anatomy, here we show that larval zebrafish use a highly anisotropic retina to asymmetrically survey their natural visual world. First, different neurons dominate different parts of the eye, and are linked to a systematic shift in inner retinal function: Above the animal, there is little colour in nature and retinal circuits are largely achromatic. Conversely, the lower visual field and horizon are colour-rich, and are predominately surveyed by chromatic and colour-opponent circuits that are spectrally matched to the dominant chromatic axes in nature. Second, above the frontal horizon, a high-gain ultraviolet-system piggy-backs onto retinal circuits, likely to support prey-capture. Our results demonstrate high functional diversity among single genetically and morphologically defined types of neurons.


We show that the rank of a depth-$3$ circuit (over any field) that is simple, minimal and zero is at most $O(k^3\log d)$. The previous best rank bound known was $2^{O(k^2)}(\log d)^{k-2}$ by Dvir and Shpilka (STOC 2005). This almost resolves the rank question first posed by Dvir and Shpilka (as we also provide a simple and minimal identity of rank $\Omega(k\log d)$). Our rank bound significantly improves (dependence on $k$ exponentially reduced) the best known deterministic black-box identity tests for depth-$3$ circuits by Karnin and Shpilka (CCC 2008). Our techniques also shed light on the factorization pattern of nonzero depth-$3$ circuits, most strikingly: the rank of linear factors of a simple, minimal and nonzero depth-$3$ circuit (over any field) is at most $O(k^3\log d)$. The novel feature of this work is a new notion of maps between sets of linear forms, called \emph{ideal matchings}, used to study depth-$3$ circuits. We prove interesting structural results about depth-$3$ identities using these techniques. We believe that these can lead to the goal of a deterministic polynomial time identity test for these circuits.


Dried Chinese Reed (Miscanthus sinensis), a fast growing plant, was used as a model biomass for the development of anion exchangers using a quaternization agent, N-(3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl)trimethylammonium chloride (CHMAC), and a cross-linking agent, epichlorohydrin. Anions studied include nitrate, phosphate, perchlorate and sulfate. Batch mode adsorption studies were conducted using aqueous solutions of anions. Detailed kinetics were studied for nitrate removal. Parameters studied included anion concentration, agitation time, adsorbent dose, and pH. Adsorption equilibrium occurred in 10 min for all the anions studied. Equilibrium adsorption data followed both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The presence of phosphate, perchlorate, fluoride and sulfate lowered the adsorption significantly. The effects of pH on adsorption and desorption show that ion exchange is involved in the adsorption process. The adsorption capacity of the cross-linked and quaternized Chinese Reed for nitrate, sulfate, phosphate and perchlorate was found to be 7.55, 13.25, 16.61 and 10.07 mg of anion per g of the anion exchanger, respectively. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry


Semantic nets are a universal information structure that can be used for representing nearly any kind of information. This is why the semantic web has also chosen to use them as the universal format for representing data, usually using RDF (Resource Description Framework) as the syntax. Semantic nets are also suitable for sharing information between different domains, organizations, manufacturers etc. In this paper, we describe how a semantic net and agent-based shared storage called Smart-M3 has been implemented and can be used for such information sharing. The particular application domain studied is building automation, where interoperability between equipment made by different manufacturers is rare. This is a great challenge for implementing "ubiquitously smart buildings", where building automation systems, user interfaces and services could interact. The paper describes how the Smart-M3 concept can be used as an enabler of interoperability, where an ecosystem of supplementary services is created through manufacturer-


This study surveys the causes of massive failure in Senior School Certificate Examination. (SSCE). It investigates the causes of students' massive failure in English language in 47 Secondary Schools in Yobe state. It seeks to find out the major elements that bring about persistent and consistent setback to students' success in their final year of examination. The study uses mixed methods as a means of data collection which include both qualitative and quantitative sets of data. The study was conducted for a period of seven months. Where some selected secondary schools were visited to administer questionnaires in Zamfara, Edo and Abia States. The findings of the study revealed that among other things, lack of qualified language teachers, poor state of infrastructure, curricular, and students' attitudes toward learning generally are the main causes of heavy failure in Yobe State. The study finally suggests that the government should set up very strong supervisory team that will look after truant teachers.


The shadow economy and tax evasion are both widespread in Greece. This has adverse effects in terms of horizontal and vertical equity, as well as in terms of efficiency. We take advantage of access to a large sample of income tax returns in 2004/05, and compare tax reported incomes with those observed in the household budget survey of that year. We re-weight our two datasets to make them fully comparable, and carefully select the reference population. We then calculate ratios of income under-reporting by region and income source. The synthetic distribution of reported incomes is then fed into a taxbenefit model to provide preliminary estimates of the size and distribution of income tax evasion in Greece. Income under-reporting is estimated at 10%, resulting in a 26% shortfall in tax receipts. The paper finds that the effects of tax evasion are higher income inequality and poverty, as well as lower progressivity of the income tax system.


E-commerce is not wholly a technology phenomenon, though technology is utilized to facilitate the business processes. It changes the conventional workflow and practices. E-procurement in the Singapore construction industry is still in its infancy stage. Though Singapore construction companies should be encouraged to utilize informative technology (IT) systems, the potential legal challenges that surfaced while integrating these systems with the existing legal systems must be highlighted and understood to protect their corporate interests and assets. The perception of some Singapore construction players and application service providers (ASPs) on these issues related to lack of alignment in jurisdictions, legal liability, insecurity, confidentiality and service dependency risks were supported by the results compiled from the survey questionnaire conducted. The strategies namely legislation, self-regulation, technology and information security management to minimize the related risks and damages were recommended from a multidisciplinary approach. The mechanisms favored by the surveyors namely enactment of new law, interchange agreement, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and education were further discussed. By combining the strategies, the construction industry can better avoid these legal pitfalls while transforming with the advancement of technology and enjoying the benefits of adopting e-commerce.


Lead (Pb) is one of the most likely toxicants that could be potentially a risk factor in the development of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) through changes in the immune system. The purpose of the study was to describe the clinical features of MS in general and for sub-groups stratified for gender, age, residence, disease duration, disability degree, clinical diagnosis in Isfahan, Iran and also, to elucidate the relationship between the blood Pb level and the development of MS. Blood samples of 48 patients (20 to 57 years) were selected from the department of neurology of the Kashani hospital in Isfahan, Iran and were analyzed for Pb using anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV). The clinical and demographic characteristics in our study were similar to those in other reports. The blood Pb level in 70.83% of the total population was <20 μg/l. No statistically significant difference was observed between the Pb level and some patient characteristics. These findings did not support the assumption that Pb could be a pathogenetic factor in MS. However, the exposure to a large amount of Pb can increase the risk of developing MS. Obviously; more investigation is needed to investigate the contribution of Pb to the development of MS.


Wave diffraction is the phenomenon in which water waves are propagated into a sheltered region formed by a breakwater or similar barrier which interrupts a portion of a regular wave train (Fig. 1). The principles of diffraction have considerable practical application in connection with the design of breakwaters as discussed by Dunham (1951) at the Long Beach Conference. The phenomenon is analogous to the diffraction of light, sound, and electromagnetic waves. Two general types of diffraction problems usually are encountered: one, the passage of waves around the end of a semi-infinite impermeable breakwater (Putnam and Arthur, 1948), and, second, the passage of waves through a gap in a breakwater (Blue and Johnson, 1949t Carr and Stelzriede, 1951). In general, the theoretical solutions have been found to apply with conservative results, that is, the predicted wave heights in the lee of a breakwater are found to be slightly larger than the height of waves that may be expected under actual conditions. The use of the diffraction theory in breakwater design is made convenient when summarized in the form of diagrams with curves of equal values of diffraction coefficients on a coordinate system in which the origin of the Bystem is at the tip of a single breakwater (Figs. 2a-2b, and 3) or at the center of a gap (Figs. 2c, and 4-6). The diffraction coefficient in this instance is defined as the ratio of the diffracted wave height to the incident wave height and usually is designated by the symbol K». The procedure in preparing diffraction diagrams appears elsewhere (Johnson, 1950). The purpose of this paper is to present diffraction diagrams to supplement the material of Dunham (1951). For complete details on the application of diffraction diagrams to typical harbor problems the reader is referred to this latter paper.


The global trading system has underpinned huge growth in trade and the integration of economies that have signed on to it, whether they are political allies or not—none more so than in the Asia-Pacific region. It has prevented political disputes between Japan and China adversely affecting trade and investment flows between the two countries. The World Trade Organisation continues to play an important role. This is evidenced by the number of countries still willing to join the organisation, its record in keeping markets open during crises and the effectiveness of the dispute settlement mechanism. Yet the global trading system faces challenges. The rules and agenda, as well as the single undertaking mode of negotiations, are not effective or relevant to commerce in the twenty-first century. The shift to mega-regional agreements further undermines its primacy. A weakened global trading system could also have negative spillovers for political relations between countries.


We have designed and tested a single-chip analog VLSI sensor that detects imminent collisions by measuring radially expanding optic flow. The design of the chip is based on a model proposed to explain leg-extension behavior in flies during landing approaches. We evaluated a detailed version of this model in simulation using a library of 50 test movies taken through a fisheye lens. The algorithm was evaluated on its ability to distinguish movies ending in collisions from movies in which no collision occurred. This biologically inspired algorithm is capable of 94% correct performance in this task using an ultra-low-resolution (132-pixel) image as input. A new elementary motion detector (EMD) circuit was developed to measure optic flow on a CMOS focal-plane sensor. This EMD circuit models the bandpass nature of large monopolar cells (LMCs) immediately postsynaptic to photoreceptors in the fly visual system as well as a saturating multiplication operation proposed for Reichart-type motion detectors. A 16/spl times/16 array of two-dimensional motion detectors was fabricated in a standard 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The chip consumes 140 /spl mu/W of power from a 5 V supply. With the addition of wide-angle optics, the sensor is able to detect collisions 100-400 ms before impact in complex, real-world scenes.


The discovery of methane in the martian atmosphere via numerous groundand spacebased sources has prompted the study of methanogens as models for life on Mars. Methanogens are microorganisms within the domain Archaea, many of which utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen to produce methane. The non-photosynthetic nature of methanogens indicates that they could exist in sub-surface environments, protected from harmful UV and ionizing radiation on the surface of Mars. These organisms also do not require organics, which are sparse on the planet. Additionally, the wide variety of environments we find life in on Earth, as well as evidence for liquid brines on the surface of Mars, suggest that habitable environments may still exist on the planet. However, there are a variety of conditions that any extant life on Mars would need to endure, including wide variations in temperature over one sol, a low-pressure atmosphere, and a limited availability of liquid water, among others. This dissertation encompasses various experiments that examined the ability of four species of methanogens (Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanobacterium formicicum, Methanococcus maripaludis, and Methanothermobacter wolfeii) to survive and/or grow under 1) low-pressure conditions and 2) freeze/thaw cycles. Low pressure studies include both survival and active growth experiments conducted between 7 mbar (the average surface pressure on Mars) and 143 mbar. Freeze/thaw experiments utilized shortand long-term cycles varying in temperature between the organisms' growth temperatures (22 °C, M. maripaludis; 37 °C, M. barkeri and M. formicicum; 55 °C, M. wolfeii) and -80 °C, encompassing Mars-relevant temperature changes. As a comparison to methanogen growth and survivability, additional experiments were conducted using a non-spore-forming bacterium, Serratia liquefaciens, previously shown capable of growth at 7 mbar, 0 °C and within an anoxic CO2 atmosphere. The experiments described here assessed the survivability of S. liquefaciens exposed to martian UV irradiation within liquid brines and ices. The experiments discussed here demonstrate the ability of Earth microorganisms to withstand certain extreme conditions on Mars and suggest that the planet may contain relatively habitable microenvironments within the near subsurface.


Composed for the 2011 Prestige FOCUS Conference on Mission and Ethics at the University of Pretoria, this essay addressed the interrelationship between the New Testament conception of mission and one of the most significant moral topics in Scripture: the provision for the needy. In keeping with the investigative focus of the conference, the article began with an exegetical analysis of Matthew, Luke, the Pauline Epistles, James, and 1 John, demonstrating that generosity to the poor is an integral feature of these authors' understanding of mission. The second half of the article investigated the rhetorical and theological strategies utilised by the aforementioned New Testament authors in motivating their readership to charitable action. Without aiming to be exhaustive, the article identified ten different strategies utilised by the New Testament texts in question: the authority of Jesus, the imitation of Christ, the theology of the cross, the imitation of the saints, equality, eschatological punishment, eschatological reward, earthly blessings, observing the Law, and love. The author not only described the ways in which these appeals functioned, but evaluated to what degrees and in which 21st century global Christian contexts these various appeals might be effective in motivating contemporary expressions of provision for the needy.


A vital requirement for all-air ventilation systems are their functionality to operate both in cooling and heating mode. This article experimentally investigates two newly designed air distribution systems, corner impinging jet (CIJV) and hybrid displacement ventilation (HDV) in comparison against a mixing type air distribution system. These three different systems are examined and compared to one another to evaluate their performance based on local thermal comfort and ventilation effectiveness when operating in heating mode. The evaluated test room is an office environment with two workstations. One of the office walls, which has three windows, faces a cold climate chamber. The results show that CIJV and HDV perform similar to a mixing ventilation in terms of ventilation effectiveness close to the workstations. As for local thermal comfort evaluation, the results show a small advantage for CIJV in the occupied zone. Comparing C2-CIJV to C2-CMV the average draught rate (DR) in the occupied zone is 0.3% for C2-CIJV and 5.3% for C2-CMV with the highest difference reaching as high as 10% at the height of 1.7 m. The results indicate that these systems can perform as well as mixing ventilation when used in offices that require moderate heating. The results also show that downdraught from the windows greatly impacts on the overall airflow and temperature pattern in the room.


Scientists have an inherent interest in claiming their contributions to the scholarly record, but the fragmented state of identity management across the landscape of astronomy, physics, and other fields makes highlighting the contributions of any single individual a formidable and often frustratingly complex task. The problem is exacerbated by the expanding variety of academic research products and the growing footprints of large collaborations and interdisciplinary teams. In this essay, we outline the benefits of a unique scholarly identifier with persistent value on a global scale and we review astronomy and physics engagement with the Open Researcher and Contributor iD (ORCID) service as a solution.


We consider a mobile edge computing problem, in which mobile users offload their computation tasks to computing nodes (e.g., base stations) at the network edge. The edge nodes compute the requested functions and communicate the computed results to the users via wireless links. For this problem, we propose a Universal Coded Edge Computing (UCEC) scheme for linear functions to simultaneously minimize the load of computation at the edge nodes, and maximize the physical-layer communication efficiency towards the mobile users. In the proposed UCEC scheme, edge nodes create coded inputs of the users, from which they compute coded output results. Then, the edge nodes utilize the computed coded results to create communication messages that zero-force all the interference signals over the air at each user. Specifically, the proposed scheme is universal since the coded computations performed at the edge nodes are oblivious of the channel states during the communication process from the edge nodes to the users.


Exploring the World's Visual History Ricardo Martin Brualla Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Steven M. Seitz Computer Science and Engineering Collectively, every day we take hundreds of millions of photos of people, objects and places and share them in online services, like Facebook, Instagram, or Flickr. Together, these photos create a living visual record of the world that is growing every day and covers the whole planet. Now is the first time in history that we have access to more than a decade worth of such detailed visual information. In my thesis, I proposed novel techniques to analyze and visualize the world's history through the lens of these Internet photos. First, I propose a method to synthesizing time-lapse videos of the world's most famous landmarks over several years from publicly available photos on the Internet. I processed a database containing 86 million photos and generated thousands of time-lapse videos that span up to a decade, and are effectively some of the longest time-series ever captured. The synthesized time-lapses show, for example, the retreat of glaciers, the construction floor by floor of skyscrapers, and seasonal changes in landscapes across the world. Furthermore, I extend the technique to create 3D time-lapses, where the virtual camera moves continuously in time and space, creating compelling parallax effects. Next, I propose the 3D Wikipedia, a system that analyzes online text together with online photos to automatically create interactive visualizations of famous landmarks that effectively convey their history. The system mines text and image co-occurrences across the Internet, to generate correspondences between objects described in the text and bounding boxes in the 3D model, that enable novel interactions for coordinated browsing of the reference text and the 3D model. Selecting discovered objects in the 3D visualization scrolls the text where the object is mentioned, and when clicking on discovered objects in the text, the camera moves to show the corresponding objects in the 3D model. In another mode, the text serves as a visual guide to the scene, where the visualization highlights the described objects as the user reads the text. Finally, I propose a method to help visualize and analyze the millions of visits to tourist sites, by generating 3D reconstructions of large indoor spaces. These are a common failure case for Structure-from-Motion systems, that fail to generate a complete 3D model due to sparse coverage, and break them up instead into small, disconnected pieces. I jointly analyze Internet photos together with an annotated floorplan of the landmark to recover a 3D model of the landmark, where the disconnected 3D pieces are localized into the map's reference frame. My approach is akin to solving a 3D jigsaw puzzle, where the position and orientation of the 3D pieces is unknown. I extract position, orientation, and shape cues from the map and introduce a novel crowd flow cue between pieces that is based on how people travel between the rooms. The recovered complete 3D reconstructions allow mapping tourists' visits through the space, enabling compelling visualizations of their visits, and provide insights on tourists' spatio-temporal behaviors.


OBJECTIVES
This study attempted to determine whether long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an indicator of motor vehicle exhaust, increases the risk of myocardial infarction (MI).

METHODS
A population-based case-control study was conducted among men aged 25-64 years and residing in Kaunas, Lithuania. The study included all cases of first-time myocardial infarction in 1997-2000. Interviews with patients treated in hospitals elicited information on smoking and other risk factors, including residential histories. A high response rate (77.4%) resulted in 448 cases and 1777 controls. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was selected for analysis as an indicator of traffic-related air pollution. The annual air pollution levels were estimated for the residential districts; thereafter the data were linked to the home addresses of the cases and controls.

RESULTS
After adjustment for age, education, smoking, blood pressure, body mass index, marital status, and psychological stress, the risk of myocardial infarction was higher for the men exposed to medium [odds ratio (OR) 1.43, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.04-1.96] and high (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.07-1.92) NO2 levels. The data suggested a stronger association among 55- to 64-year-old men. The risk of myocardial infarction increased by 17% among the 25- to 64-year-old men (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.01-1.35) and by 34% among those aged 55-64 years (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.08-1.67) from the first to the third tertile of NO2 exposure.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that urban NO2 pollution may increase the risk of myocardial infarction and that vehicle emissions may be of particular importance.


Based on the idea about the different stereotype between male and female in relation with people tendency to interrupt, the writer is interested in analyzing their tendency especially in the discussion in informal meeting. Moreover, in all speech communities, male and female speak differently. These differences encouraged the writer to analyze and reveal the similarities and differences between discourse markers used by male and female students for interrupting in terms of the types and frequencies. In doing this research, the writer used some theories from Wardhaugh?s theory (1985;1998), Tannen?s theory (1994;1998), and also Stenstorm?s theory (1994). In addition, the writer also used Schiffrin?s theory (1987;1999) as the guideline to analyze discourse markers. The data for this research were obtained by recording the conversation and later identified and classified based on the type of discourse markers used. Finally, the findings showed that markers Ya"/ "Iya"/ "Yah"/ "Heeh"/ "OK"/ "itu", which were known as markers of response were the most popular type of markers for interruption used both by male and female students. However, there are some differences that the female students rarely used "Oh"/ "Eh" / "Hmm", which were known as markers of information management to interrupt while the males were more likely to use them. Moreover, female students were likely to use markers "Nah"/"gini"/"ini"/"Sekarang" which were known as markers of temporal adverbs. Thus, it can be concluded that the males tended to behave competitively while the females tended to behave cooperatively. Finally, it implied that the existence of discourse markers is really important for the interrupter in order to open and hold the turn.


Phages build themselves a wall The compartmentalization of DNA replication away from other cytoplasmic events is a key feature of the cell nucleus. Chaikeeratisak et al. studied the replication of the very large Pseudomonas bacteriophage 201φ2-1 by using fluorescence microscopy and cryo–electron tomography. They found that the phage assembled a nucleus-like compartment when it infected a bacterial cell. The phage genome was completely enclosed by an apparently contiguous protein shell, within which DNA replication, recombination, and transcription occurred. Translation, precursor biosynthesis, and viral assembly occurred outside the structure. Science, this issue p. 194 Phages assemble a compartment that separates DNA replication and transcription from metabolism and translation in host cells. We observed the assembly of a nucleus-like structure in bacteria during viral infection. Using fluorescence microscopy and cryo-electron tomography, we showed that Pseudomonas chlororaphis phage 201φ2-1 assembled a compartment that separated viral DNA from the cytoplasm. The phage compartment was centered by a bipolar tubulin-based spindle, and it segregated phage and bacterial proteins according to function. Proteins involved in DNA replication and transcription localized inside the compartment, whereas proteins involved in translation and nucleotide synthesis localized outside. Later during infection, viral capsids assembled on the cytoplasmic membrane and moved to the surface of the compartment for DNA packaging. Ultimately, viral particles were released from the compartment and the cell lysed. These results demonstrate that phages have evolved a specialized structure to compartmentalize viral replication.


Virtualization is a hot topic in operating systems these days. It is useful in many scenarios: server consolidation, virtual test environments, and for Linux enthusiasts who still can not decide which distribution is best. Recently, hardware vendors of commodity x86 processors have added virtualization extensions to the instruction set that can be utilized to write relatively simple virtual machine monitors. The Kernel-based Virtual Machine, or kvm, is a new Linux subsystem which leverages these virtualization extensions to add a virtual machine monitor (or hypervisor) capability to Linux. Using kvm, one can create and run multiple virtual machines. These virtual machines appear as normal Linux processes and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the system.


Kinematic data from cogenetic dikes, magmatic foliation, and high-temperature solid-state deformation observed in 1.4 Ga plutons and their aureoles in the southwestern United States show a synmagmatic strain regime involving regional contraction. We propose that these plutons were preferentially emplaced along Paleoproterozoic shear zones and province boundaries. Thermal softening of the middle crust (8-12 km) during intrusion allowed regional strain and pluton-enhanced metamorphism to be recorded as much as 1500 km inboard of the southern margin of Laurentia. We abandon the term "anorogenic" and instead view these plutons as recording compressional or transpressional plate-margin tectonism from 1.5 to 1.3 Ga along southern Laurentia. Further study of 1.4 Ga plutons may also offer insights into middle-crustal processes that occur in broad zones of transpressional deformation.


Detailed description of fruit, seed and pollen macro- and micromorphological characters of Turkish Chorispora species are provided with illustrations. Typical fruits are linear, straight or strongly curved upward. Nonglandular and glandular trichomes are present or absent. Seeds varied in shape from oblong, oblong-broadly elliptic to subglobose and winged at the apex and base or not. The pollen grains are tricolpate and the basic shape of the pollen grains in species studied is perprolate. The surface sculpturing type is reticulate. Among the studied characters, fruit, seed size and colour, seed shape, fruit trichome structure and pollen size were of taxonomic importance and useful in separating taxa.


In rural areas of the UK, properties are often served by septic tanks, which discharge sewage effluent to ground close to the property served. Dissolved phosphorus as orthophosphate (OP) is present in the raw sewage and the discharge. This study investigated whether OP from sewage effluent discharges to ground from septic tanks is a significant OP source within the Upper River Nar at the catchment scale. An approach involving multiple strands of evidence was used: first, a high-level source apportionment apportioned only 0.9–1.0% of the catchment phosphorus to septic tanks compared with 40% agricultural sources and 9.9% urban (Mileham village); second, a bulk phosphate dilution assessment, based on diluting the total OP from septic tank discharges by potential recharge (excluding attenuation) predicted diluted effluent concentrations that were insufficient to affect surface water; third, an individual septic tank assessment using a groundwater fate and transport model showed that septic tank OP for the majority of properties is attenuated to concentrations below 0.001 mg P l−1 before the effluent reaches surface water. Consideration is given to higher rural population densities, septic tanks clustered proximal to surface water and where greater fracture flow in the Chalk reduces the aquifer's ability to attenuate the OP.


This paper argues that to adopt a "naturalized morals" perspective, and to match it with narrative studies, may help advance the study of empathy and its relation to multi-cultural ethics within the larger study of audience involvement. Firstly, different texts may convey different morals, and therefore require different audiences adhering to different morals in order to obtain a preferred or negotiated reading. This invites us to reconsider some old concepts (e.g. anti-hero) as well as some newer ones (e.g. the "bad fan"). Secondly, if studies of empathy tend to focus on character (dis)liking, narratologists generally adopt a wider view, involving multiple narrative agents including real makers, implied makers, narrator(s), narratee(s), implied audience(s) and real audience(s). Adopting this wider view allows for a more refined study of empathy that may play (or not) as a more diversified phenomenon at multiple levels. Thirdly, empathy is not the only player in this game. A brief introduction to phenomena such as prank culture and hate reading/watching suggests that a study of empathy needs to look also at some competitors in the field of audience involvement.


The legal regimes of offshore jurisdictions have historically differed in significant ways from those applicable in onshore jurisdictions. Inevitably, legal and financial professionals have seized upon these differences to develop strategies for reducing transactions costs. A prominent example of such cross-border arbitrage was the routing of Eurodollar loans through a small group of former Dutch island colonies in the Caribbean, a practice which peaked in the mid-1980s, when virtually every major U.S. corporation made interest payments to a Netherlands Antilles finance subsidiary. The "Antilles sandwich" strategy exploited the difference between high U.S. withholding tax rates that applied to interest payments made to most foreign lenders, and the zero rate of tax that applied to U.S. interest payments made to residents of the Antilles under its tax treaty with the United States. Both jurisdictions reaped significant benefits from the strategy until the United States unilaterally terminated the tax treaty in 1987, virtually wiping out the Antilles offshore financial sector overnight. Unfortunately, because of rigidity in its governance structure, the Antilles' failed to develop alternative financial intermediation strategies to replace the Antilles sandwich structure before its demise. The rise and fall of the Antilles' offshore financial sector provides insight into the current struggle between onshore and offshore governments over the role of offshore financial centers like the Antilles within the global economy. Concerned about tax evasion by their residents, onshore jurisdictions including France, Germany, and the United States are pressing for major changes in offshore jurisdictions' legal and regulatory regimes that may eliminate legitimate opportunities for international arbitrage. In such an environment, offshore financial centers may find it difficult to survive. In this article, we distill from the Antilles experience a theory of "regime plasticity" and examine the role that it plays in allowing offshore financial centers to adapt to changes in the legal and political environments within which they operate. How offshore financial centers react, and whether they have learned the lessons of the Antilles' experience will play a major role in determining the future of the global offshore financial sector.


Treat yourself to 77 true stories that celebrate life and capture the essence of what it means to be a woman. Like chocolate, these stories soothe, satisfy, and delight-- better yet, they're good for you! Written by and for women, here are heartfelt insights on commitment, compassion, work, marriage, friendship, motherhood, love, courage, spirituality, passion, and dozens of other topics. Contributors share their most personal experiences-- funny, poignant, powerful, and uplifting-- as they inspire you to jump-start your own life, discover your talents and vocations, overcome old fears, find love, and let your dreams take flight. Like a box of chocolates, this book can be enjoyed in one sitting, or you can pick out treats at random and savor them one at a time. Whether you want a good laugh or need a good cry, the perfect "chocolate story" is right here, waiting for you!


There are three conditions that guide this conversation. Firstly, this paper is not an effort to provide a solution to the questions and concerns that have been repeatedly raised by the community of scholars who have worked in the area of Public Understanding of Science (PUS) over the past 30 years. The paper tries to argue that all science communication activities should aim at develop- ing a 'scientifically tempered society'. Secondly, this paper is a continuation of the keynote address presented at the International Conference on Science Communication, Nancy, France, 2012 (Raza, 2012), and two editorials published in the Journal of Scientific Temper. Thirdly, the paper draws heavily on the Indian experience and history; therefore, any generalization requires careful scrutiny to ensure local applicability.


Background: Corporate entrepreneurial activity and innovation are presented as essential elements of organisational success, and gender diversity is often seen as an important variable in this context. The efficient measurement of these variables is essential to the management thereof. It is within this context that the Brief Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (BCEAI) was developed. Shorter instruments seem to be favoured by researchers and practitioners alike. However, little is known about the psychometric properties of the BCEAI, particularly regarding measurement invariance. Aim: This study seeks to address the structural validity and measurement invariance for the BCEAI applied for men and women. The objective was to establish the utility of the instrument within the South African context, with specific emphasis on cross-gender comparisons. Setting: Medium to large South African organisations, with more than 60 employees, were targeted for inclusion in the study. Once organisations indicated their willingness to participate, 60 employees per organisation were randomly selected to participate in the study. Methods: Data on the BCEAI were captured and pairwise multi-group confirmatory factor analyses with robust maximum likelihood estimation were used to examine four levels of measurement invariance, as well as the equivalence of latent means pertaining to male and female respondents. Results: Data were collected from 3180 employees representing 52 SouthAfrican organisations. The results support the structural validity of the BCEAI and demonstrate strict measurement invariance for the BCEAI across gender. Equivalence of latent means across gender was also supported. Conclusion: These results reveal that the BCEAI mirrors the structure of the original instrument in the South African context and that BCEAI yields psychometrically equivalent scores among employees of both genders. Researchers and practitioners can therefore use the BCEAI with the knowledge that its theoretical structure is sound and can apply it with confidence when comparing male and female employees in the workplace.


The current study is an attempt to provide insights into the nature of tensions and consistencies between teachers' belief-practice relationships and how these impact on teaching practices. The study aims to address three main research gaps. Firstly, it explores EFL teachers' belief-practice consistency level in relation to the teaching of speaking, an understudied curricular domain. Secondly, the phenomenon is examined from two major perspectives: teachers' perceptions of their own pedagogical contexts and their core-peripheral belief systems, thus using a multi-perspective approach which is usually not the case with other studies in the field. Finally, the study took place in Kazakhstani secondary school EFL classrooms, a geographical context which has not featured at all in the language teacher cognition literature to date. Using a multiple-case design and multiple methods of data collection, the research project explored the relationship between four EFL teachers' stated beliefs and classroom practices in relation to the teaching of speaking. The teachers were interviewed and observed over a period of nine months. The findings provide evidence of how speaking instruction unfolded in the classroom and the multiplicity of factors which shaped teacher decision-making and behavior. Specifically, the insights from my study highlight the impact of a) teachers' perceptions of their pedagogical contexts, b) their core and peripheral beliefs, and c) the interaction of all these factors on the enactment of their speaking instruction beliefs. These findings carry important implications for the field of language teacher cognition, and for teacher education and professional development.


Background Diabetic wounds with additional comorbidities are costly, time intensive, and difficult to heal. Often, multiple modalities may be necessary to achieve wound resolution, relying on the synergistic advantage of each therapy to affect wound healing. The selectivity of Clostridium collagenase is physiologically effective at degrading non-viable collagen fibers while preserving living collagen tissue. Additionally, negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has long been used to aid wound healing while concurrently depreciating biological wound burden time. Methods Six patients were selected from those appearing to our university based limb salvage service. Inclusion criteria included patients with a recurrent mixed fibrotic and granular wound base, in which NPWT was indicated, without exclusion criteria. Patients enrolled were administered clostridial collagenase ointment at each regularly scheduled NPWT dressing change. Patients were followed until healing, with visual representations of wound progression and time to full healing recorded. Results Tandem application of these therapies appeared to expedite wound healing by clearing degenerative fibrous tissue and expediting wound granulation without additional complication. Unfortunately, not all patients were able to reach full healing; with two patients experiencing ulcer recurrence, likely a result of their significant comorbid nature. Conclusion In our experience, we have noticed a specific subgroup of patients who benefit greatly when collagenase enzymatic debridement therapy is combined with NPWT. It is our belief that this combination therapy combines the molecular clearing of non-viable collagen with the wound granulation necessary to advance complex wounds to the next step in healing despite the current paucity in literature discussing this specific pairing.


This thesis is concerned with an issue of considerable importance to the development of revision skills: the role of teacher feedback. Prompted by the concern to develop a model of instruction which will help students write to the best of their capacities, the present study forms a proposal: an interactive model of revision. The study researches whether the kind of feedback proposed in this model is indeed a helpful tool for revision and whether the kind of negotiated revision that occurs is a vehicle for learning. The first section of the thesis reviews different areas of literature which are relevant to the study. More specifically, Chapter 2 presents the historical and theoretical foundations of different writing instructional practices and sheds light on issues concerning the use of the process approach. It also reviews research based on sociocognitive theoretical perspectives in an attempt to delineate the impact of interpersonal or social activity on individual performance and progress. Chapter 3 examines issues associated with the process approach in particular and illustrates how theory and method come together in a process writing classroom. Chapter 4 presents the differences in revising behaviours between experienced and inexperienced writers in both L1 and L2 contexts and the various ways these differences have been justified. It also highlights a number of issues which have been identified as contributing to effective revision. Particular attention is paid to the role that teacher feedback has to play as a means of promoting substantive student revision with an instructional emphasis on fluency, organisation and language. Chapter 5 presents an interactive model of revision, which envisions a communicative exchange between two partners, the student-writer and the teacher-reader, collaborating in order to develop awareness of revision strategies and establish criteria for effective writing. Chapter 6 investigates the epistemological basis of the research and presents a set of research questions and hypotheses, which guided the investigation. Chapter 7 frames the context of the research and details the methods used to collect the data from the study. The study involved 100 Year 7 students in two gymnasia in Koblenz, Germany. During the time of the investigation, the students wrote and revised five tasks. Three of these tasks were revised after receiving teacher feedback, which focused on aspects such as appropriacy and sufficiency of information, organization, coherence and grammatical accuracy. The study investigates the effects of this kind of focused feedback on the students" revisions and explores the relationship between revision and text improvement. Large quantitative and qualitative data sets were generated during the research. The quantitative data was based on the student documents (1000 original and revised drafts) whereas the qualitative data emerged from student questionnaires and seven case studies. Chapter 8 presents descriptions of the data analyses. More specifically, it describes the initial and final coding of the revisions traced in the student documents. Then it focuses on the type of qualitative analysis employed in the case studies in order to investigate the relationship between revision and text improvement. The final section of the chapter describes the questionnaire analysis, which was carried out to investigate attitudes, benefits and constraints from the implementation of the model. Chapter 9 examines the statistical results from the analysis of the students" revisions. More specifically, it explores the revisions made by the students across tasks and the relationships between the features of the teacher feedback and these revisions. The analysis highlights patterns in the development of revision skills and positive correlations of student revisions with features of the teacher feedback. Chapter 10 looks at the descriptive data from the case studies of seven individual student writers. The analysis of this data illustrates how the specific students negotiated the revisions and sheds more light on the relationship between feedback, revision and text improvement. Chapter 11 contains the analysis of the students" answers to the questionnaire, which provide illuminative information about the feedback-related attitudes. In Chapter 12, the thesis reaches its final destination. The journey over the paths of literature exploration, data gathering and data analysis ends with reflections on the messages that emerge from the data analysis. The conclusion reached is that young students can learn how to revise their writing and focused feedback is a viable pedagogic option for teaching revision. In addition to discussing the findings, this final section considers the pedagogical implications for the teaching of writing and suggests possible avenues for further work.


Changing patterns in detrital provenance through time have the ability to resolve salient features of an orogenic cycle. Such changes in the age spectrum of detrital minerals may be attributable to fluctuations in the geodynamic regime (e.g., opening of seaways, initiation of subduction and arc magmatism, and transition from subduction to collisional tectonics with arrival of exotic crustal material). This changing geodynamic regime leads to a variety of sedimentary responses driven by basin formation, transition from rift to drift sedimentation, or inversion and basement unroofing. Detrital zircon grains within sedimentary rocks chart the aforementioned processes by the presence of older detrital zircon populations during basement unroofing events, followed by a successive younging in the detrital zircon age signature either through arrival of young island arc terranes or the progression of subduction magmatism along a continental margin. Hence, the response within the detrital zircon cargo to the geodynamic environment can be visualized in their changing age patterns. However, such patterns are often cryptic and evaluated on the basis of visual comparisons. In an effort to enhance objectivity in the diagnosis of the sedimentary response to the orogenic cycle, we illustrate the utility of a multidimensional scaling approach to detrital zircon age spectra. This statistical tool characterizes the "dissimilarity" of age spectra from various sedimentary successions, but it importantly also charts this measure through time.
We present three case studies in which multidimensional scaling reveals additional useful information on the style of basin evolution within the orogenic cycle. The Albany-Fraser orogen in Western Australia and Grenville orogen (sensu stricto) in Laurentia demonstrate clear patterns in which detrital zircon age spectra become more dissimilar with time. In stark contrast, sedimentary successions from the Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic North Atlantic region reveal no consistent pattern. Rather, the North Atlantic region reflects a signature consistent with significant zircon age communication due to a distal position from the orogenic front, oblique translation of terranes, and complexity of the continental margin.
This statistical approach provides a mechanism to connect the evolutionary patterns of detrital zircon age spectra to the geodynamics of an orogenic system, which in many cases is a direct function of proximity to the orogenic front.


Learning the minimum/maximum mean among a finite set of distributions is a fundamental sub-task in planning, game tree search and reinforcement learning. We formalize this learning task as the problem of sequentially testing how the minimum mean among a finite set of distributions compares to a given threshold. We develop refined non-asymptotic lower bounds, which show that optimality mandates very different sampling behavior for a low vs high true minimum. We show that Thompson Sampling and the intuitive Lower Confidence Bounds policy each nail only one of these cases. We develop a novel approach that we call Murphy Sampling. Even though it entertains exclusively low true minima, we prove that MS is optimal for both possibilities. We then design advanced self-normalized deviation inequalities, fueling more aggressive stopping rules. We complement our theoretical guarantees by experiments showing that MS works best in practice.


The Information area has revolutionized the workplace. Douglas Kruse, a professor of human resources and the director of the program for disability research at Rutgers University, states that 7% of employed persons with disabilities work 20 hours or more a week from home. While some modern countries have established "virtual teams", which are said to be comprised of people who are geographically scattered and who work across boundaries of space and time using computer driven communication technologies, it is also true that many developing countries remain structured around conventional face-to-face teams. A motive toward virtual team working may be cost effectiveness. Increasing transport and human resource costs makes face to face contact less attractive unless they are essential. In an environment of urging to move into the direction of governing the activities via electronic moves, consideration of the individuals who deliver their services to the society in the form of virtual teams are of the primary value which should accelerate the E culture while E government is aimed at. By reviewing literature and theories, this paper present the definition and characteristics of virtual teams. A comparison of different types of virtual teams along with the application, strengths and limitations of them regarding as the promising elements of e activities are elaborated. Persons with disabilities are entitled to and capable of the same career options as their non-disabled counterparts and increasing numbers of them are taking advantage of virtual workplaces therefore creating a condition to facilitate the cultivation of e moves in the society.


The mounting evidence on the demographics of COVID-19 fatalities points to an overrepresentation of minorities and an underrepresentation of women. Using individual-level, race-disaggregated, and georeferenced death data collected by the Cook County Medical Examiner, we jointly investigate the racial and gendered impact of COVID-19, its timing, and its determinants. Through an event study approach we establish that Blacks individuals are affected earlier and more harshly and that the effect is driven by Black women. Rather than comorbidity or aging, the Black female bias is associated with poverty and channeled by occupational segregation in the health care and transportation sectors and by commuting on public transport. Living arrangements and lack of health insurance are instead found uninfluential. The Black female bias is spatially concentrated in neighborhoods that were subject to historical redlining.


Official government statistics on the "mission-distribution" of U.S. R&D investment are based on the assumption that only the government sponsors military R&D. In this paper we advance and test the alternative hypothesis, that a significant share of privately-financed industrial R&D is military in orientation. We argue that in addition to (prior to) contracting with firms to perform military R&D, the government deliberately encourages firms to sponsor defense research at their own expense, to enable the government to identify the firms most capable of performing certain government contracts, particularly those for major weapons systems. To test the hypothesis of, and estimate the quantity of, private investment in 'signaling' R&D, we estimate variants of a model of company R&D expenditure on longitudinal, firm-level data, including detailed data on federal contracts. Our estimates imply that about 30 percent of U.S. private industrial R&D expenditure in 1984 was procurement- (largely defense-) related, and that almost half of the increase in private R&D between 1979 and 1984 was stimulated by the increase in Federal demand.


A bacterial strain designated in this study as
POXN01 was found to be capable of degrading the synthetic organophosphorus
pesticides paraoxon and methyl parathion. The strain was initially isolated
through enrichment technique from rice field soil near Harlingen, Texas.
Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA, gyrB and rpoD gene
alignments identified the POXN01 isolate as a new strain of Pseudomonas putida,
which is closely related to the
recently discovered nicotine-degrading strain Pseudomonas putida S16.
While being unable to metabolize nicotine, the POXN01 isolate was observed to
actively proliferate using monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in particular
toluene, as nutrients. Search for the genetic determinants of paraoxon
catabolism revealed the presence of organophosphorus-degrading gene, opd,
identical to the one from Sphingobium fuliginis (former Flavobacterium sp. ATCC 27551). Assimilation of aromatic compounds likely
relies on phc ARKLMNOPQ gene cluster for phenol, benzene and toluene
catabolism, and on benRABCDKGEF cluster for benzoate catabolism. The
observed versatility of POXN01 strain in degradation of xenobiotics makes it
useful for the multi-purpose bioremediation of contaminated sites in both
agricultural and industrial environmental settings.


With the increased levels of wind power being seen worldwide and the projected further increases over the coming decades, there has been significant attention paid to emerging flexible resources such as storage and demand‐side options as a means to meet many of the challenges associated with wind integration. In particular, these resources could meet the increased flexibility requirements of systems with high wind due to variability and uncertainty of wind across timescales from seconds to minutes to hours or even days. Storage and demand‐side options are both characterized by the ability to respond quickly and accurately, to increase load as well as to provide generation resources and by the fact that they are energy limited in nature. Demand response can contribute to wind integration in different ways, using either price‐ or incentive‐based programs; the extent to which they can be used to integrate wind depends on the nature of the program. Electricity storage comes in many forms, with pumped hydro storage presently accounting for almost all grid storage, along with recent advances in battery and compressed air energy storage. The ability of storage to contribute to integrating wind power is limited mainly by the cost of deployment and the efficiency losses. While these features may not be as significant for demand response, there are significant regulatory and policy barriers in the way of deploying demand‐side options. Both storage and demand‐side resources provide support for wind integration in particular regarding provision of ancillary services and reduction of wind curtailment. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:93–109. doi: 10.1002/wene.92


Social processes are essential components of human-environment systems and their dynamics. However, modeling a tightly coupled socio-environmental system over a large area and across wide social and environmental diversity presents several challenges, given the complexity of the interactions and their spatial heterogeneity. The transboundary Rio Grande/Río Bravo (RGB) Basin is an excellent case study to address these challenges. Water scarcity and over-allocation of water are present in a highly engineered system with extensive damming and a complex structure of agreements and compacts that govern the distribution of hydrological resources among users. Since no basin-wide approaches to modeling the RGB as a socio-environmental system exist, we attempt to close this gap. Building on data collected through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, we used a structured, collaborative, and integrative approach for documenting existing knowledge on and modeling of the RGB socio-environmental system. We assess different models for conceptualizing human behavior applied in the RGB, identify a need to redefine the (spatial) boundaries of the system and produce inductively generated knowledge about the interlinkages of social processes with environmental system components in the form of a semi-quantitative conceptual model. Our research demonstrates an alternative to ad-hoc approaches to defining "the social" in socio-environmental models and is a first step towards the development of a basin-wide computer simulation model of the RGB socio-environmental system.


This thesis considers and evaluates mathematical models and methods of data analysis used in the quantitative study of hillslope profile form. Models of hillslope profiles are brought together in a critical and comprehensive review. Modelling approaches are classified using five dichotomies (static/dynamic, deterministic/ stochastic, phenomenological/representational, analytical/ simulation, discrete/continuous). Profile data to serve as examples were collected using a pantometer in a 100 km(^2) square centred on Bilsdale in the North York Moors. Geomorphological interpretations put forward for this area include theses of profound lithological influence, polycyclic denudation history, proglacial lake overflow channels and profound cryonival influence. Profile dimensions, profile shapes, angle and curvature frequency distributions and bedrock geology can be related via a fourfold grouping of profiles. The use of quantile-based summary measures and of a method of spatial averaging and differencing are advocated and illustrated. Autocorrelation analysis of hillslope angle series appears to be of limited geomorphological interest, as autocorrelation functions tell a story of overall profile shape, which can be measured more directly in other ways. Problems of non stationarity and estimator choice deserve greater emphasis. Methods of profile analysis previously proposed by Ahnert, Ongley, Pitty and Young are all unsatisfactory. A method based on additive error partition and nonlinear smoothing is proposed as an interim alternative, and results related to bedrock geology. An approach to model fitting is outlined which treats specification, estimation and checking in sequence. A power function due to Kirkby is used as an example and fitted to field data for components. The exercise works well if regarded as a minimum descriptive approach but much greater difficulties arise if process interpretation is attempted.


Information processing biases, such as interpretation bias and attention bias, play a significant role in social anxiety disorder (Williams et al., 1997). Interpretation bias refers to the tendency to interpret both negative and neutral stimuli as more negative than they are objectively. Attention bias refers to the tendency to attend preferentially to threatening stimuli. Socially anxious individuals display a negative interpretation bias for ambiguous social stimuli (e.g., social scenarios) (for review see, Amir & Bomyea, 2010). In addition, socially anxious individuals exhibit a bias to orient attention either towards or away from threatening social stimuli (e.g., facial expressions; see Bar-Haim et al., 2007). Whereas an extensive body of research focuses on both interpretation bias and attention bias in social anxiety in isolation, very few studies have concurrently examined the associations between these two biases and social anxiety symptoms and evaluated their distinct predictive power. Further, no studies have examined their relation to behavioral avoidance, which is a key symptom of social anxiety that directly contributes to clinical severity (Kazdin, 1999). The current study examined how interpretation and attention biases independently relate to symptomology, situational anxiety, and behavior in adults diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Thirty-four participants diagnosed with social anxiety completed computerized interpretation bias and attention bias tasks, a behavioral avoidance speech task, and self-report measures of state and trait social anxiety and general state anxiety. Results indicated that a negative interpretation bias was significantly related to state and trait social anxiety and a lack of benign interpretation bias was related to general state anxiety. There were no associations between attention bias and anxiety or behavior. Findings highlight the unique importance of both negative and benign interpretation biases in social phobia. Suggestions for future research include incorporating benign interpretation training, particularly under stress, into treatment programs such as cognitive modification or exposure therapy for social phobia. INDEX WORDS: Social anxiety, Interpretation bias, Attention bias, Behavior, COGNITIVE BIASES IN SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER: EXAMINING INTERPRETATION AND ATTENTION BIAS AND THEIR RELATION TO ANXIOUS BEHAVIOR


The target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1) is a highly conserved multiprotein complex that functions in many cellular processes, including cell growth and cell cycle progression. In this study, we define a novel role for TORC1 as a critical regulator of nuclear microtubule (MT) dynamics in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This activity requires interactions between EB1 and CLIP-170 plus end–tracking protein (+TIP) family members with the TORC1 subunit Kog1/Raptor, which in turn allow the TORC1 proximal kinase Sch9/S6K1 to regulate the MT polymerase Stu2/XMAP215. Sch9-dependent phosphorylation of Stu2 adjacent to a nuclear export signal prevents nuclear accumulation of Stu2 before cells enter mitosis. Mutants impaired in +TIP–TORC1 interactions or Stu2 nuclear export show increased nuclear but not cytoplasmic MT length and display nuclear fusion, spindle positioning, and elongation kinetics defects. Our results reveal key mechanisms by which TORC1 signaling controls Stu2 localization and thereby contributes to proper MT cytoskeletal organization in interphase and mitosis.