Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify how horizontal leaders (within project teams) execute their leadership task in the context of balanced leadership; and to pinpoint scenarios that can occur when horizontal leaders are identified and empowered by the vertical leader (senior or project managers) and a project task is handed over to them to lead. This research is based on the concept of balanced leadership, which conceptualizes leadership as a dynamic, situation-dependent transition of leadership authority from a vertical leader (like a project manager) to a horizontal leader (a project team member) and back again, in order to contribute positively to a project's success. Balanced leadership consists of five events (nomination, identification, empowerment, horizontal leadership and its governance, and transition). This paper focuses on the fourth event, and its specific aspect of leadership distribution between horizontal and vertical leader. This event begins when a team member(s) accepts the empowerment to assume the role of horizontal leader. This paper explicitly links the leadership style of the vertical leader based on Frame's (1987) leadership styles and the nature of decisions taken by both the vertical and horizontal leaders to deliver the project.

Design/methodology/approach
The method used for this paper is the qualitative phase of a sequential mixed methods (qualitative-quantitative) study. Data were collected through case studies in four different countries, using a maximum variety sampling approach. Data collection was through interviews of vertical leaders (senior leaders who were often sponsors of projects or members of senior management or project managers) and horizontal leaders (team leaders or members) in a variety of industry sectors. Data analysis was done through initial coding and constant comparison to arrive at themes. Thematic analysis was used to gain knowledge about the split of leadership and decision-making authority between the horizontal and vertical leader(s).

Findings
The results show that for Canadian and Australian projects, a combination of autocratic and democratic leadership styles were used by vertical leaders. In the case of Scandinavian projects, a democratic leadership style has been observed. Linked to these leadership styles, the horizontal decision making is predominantly focused on technical decisions and to daily task decisions to deliver the project. Delegation occurs most of the time to one specific team member, but occasionally to several team members simultaneously, for them to work collaboratively on a given issue.

Research limitations/implications
The paper supports a deeper investigation into a leadership theory, by validating one particular event of the balanced leadership theory, which is based on Archer's (1995) realist social theory. The findings from this paper will guide organizations to facilitate an effective approach to balancing the leadership roles between vertical and horizontal leaders in their projects. The findings can also be used to develop horizontal leaders to take up more responsibilities in projects.

Originality/value
The originality lies in the new leadership theory called balanced leadership, and its empirical validation. It is the first study on the leadership task distribution between vertical and horizontal leadership in projects. Its value is new insights, which allow practitioners to develop practices to find and empower the best possible leader at any given time in the project and academics to develop a more dynamic and, therefore, more realistic theory on leadership as it unfolds in projects.


The neural processes underlying the ability to divide attention between multiple sensory modalities remain poorly understood. To investigate the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in bimodal divided attention, we completed two repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) studies. We tested the hypothesis that the DLPFC is necessary in the ability to divide attention across modalities. This hypothesis originated as a result of a previous fMRI study in which the posterior DLPFC was active during a bimodal divided attention condition [Johnson, J. A., & Zatorre, R. J. Neural substrates for dividing and focusing attention between simultaneous auditory and visual events. Neuroimage, 2006]. In the current experiments, two separate groups of subjects underwent 10 min of slow rTMS to temporarily disrupt function of the DLPFC. In both groups, the ability to divide attention between unrelated auditory and visual stimuli decreased following DLPFC disruption compared to control site stimulation. Specifically, the ability to divide attention between modalities was hindered, leading to a pattern of behavior similar to bimodal selective attention (ability to attend to one or the other modality but not both). We discuss possible roles of the posterior DLPFC in bimodal divided attention and conclude that the area may be functioning to support the increased working memory load associated with divided, compared to selective attention.


In this Work, Laser energy effects on optical and morphological properties of TiO2 thin film has been carried out using Reactive Pulsed Laser as a Deposition technique (RPLD). Q-switched Nd-YAG laser with ( λ=1.06µm, t =7nsec) and different energies have been used to ablate pure Titanium target and deposited thin films on glass substrates with constant substrate temperature of (343K). The optical properties of the films prepared include Optical transmit ion and absorption measurement, surface uniformity measurement and FTIR structure of these films. The results films show that high transparency reached to about (85-98) % can be achieved with TiO2 film which itself decreases sharply with the increasing of Laser energy while the optical band gap is (3.7-3.9) eV at optimum Laser energy in all results (800mJ), the FTIRstructure result at 800 mJ is the optimum and peaks absorption of TiO2 are (408.91, 439.77, 524.64) cm -1


Some labor markets have recently developed formal signaling mechanisms, e.g. the signaling for interviews in the job market for new Ph.D. economists. We evaluate the effect of such mechanisms on two-sided matching markets by considering a game of incomplete information between firms and workers. Workers have almost aligned preferences over firms: each worker has 'typical' commonly known preferences with probability close to one and 'atypical' idiosyncratic preferences with the complementary probability close to zero. Firms have commonly known preferences over workers. We show that the introduction of a signaling mechanism is harmful for this environment. Though signals transmit previously unavailable information, they also facilitate information asymmetry that leads to coordination failures. As a result, the introduction of a signaling mechanism lessens the expected number of matches when signals are informative.


It is essential that internationally educated healthcare professionals (IEHPs) residing in Canada re-enter and remain in their profession. To make the most of this important supply of healthcare professionals, it is vital to understand who IEHPs are, the challenges they face and how to facilitate their entry and integration into the workforce. In this article, after a summary of what is known of IEHPs who migrate to Canada, common problems of entry and integration into the workforce are discussed. Profession-specific challenges are considered, including how roles in certain professions vary globally and the importance of cultural and communication competencies. Resources to assist physicians and nurses are described and compared with those available for other professions. Finally, future possibilities and strategies for workforce integration are considered. Although the focus in this paper is on one province, the issues and strategies discussed are relevant to other provincial and international jurisdictions that are struggling with shortages and trying to capitalize on potential sources of workforce supply.


Small-area population estimation is an important task that has received considerable attention from the remote-sensing community in the past four decades. The wealth of related studies reveals that the notion of living space had been considered a key linkage between population and remote-sensing measurements. Unfortunately, a formal definition for this important variable has proved difficult, due, in part, to the relatively coarse spatial resolution of the remote-sensing data used for population estimation. The advent of airborne Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) sensors for measuring elevation at fine spatial resolutions has provided new opportunities for considering the three-dimensional nature of living space in urban environments and for improving small-area population estimations. In this study, we assess the potential of fine-spatial-resolution LiDAR measurements (1 m) coupled with automated techniques for building extraction and land-use classification. The study seeks to provide an answer to the question: what level of information extracted from fine-spatial-resolution LiDAR and aerial photographs can be realistically translated into improved small-area population estimation? This question is addressed through a comparative study of up to seven linear models with building count, building area and/or building volume as explanatory variables at one of two land-use levels: single-family dwelling, multi-family dwelling and other types, versus residential and other types. Results show that, while building volume fits more naturally the population figures, it also represents the most challenging variable to measure by automated means. Because of this, a simple model expressed in terms of residential-building counts results in more reliable population estimates.


This case study explored the effectiveness of telementoring as a vehicle for preservice teachers to hone skills in the teaching of writing, to establish a mentoring relationship with urban high school students, and to help struggling writers improve writing skills necessary for student achievement. Inherent in this research was the goal to develop a collaborative model between the university and the high school for using technology to improve "at-risk" urban students' skills in writing. Additionally, the research allowed preservice teachers to learn about themselves as evolving teachers as they broached some of the difficulties of teaching writing to academically diverse students and learned about the scarcity of resources and difficult realities that exist for urban students.


During an interaction between several software entities trying to solve a problem, two kinds of attitudes can occur: cooperation if all entities have the same goal, negotiation if self-interests are in conflict. Cooperation has largely been studied, whereas the later has not really been computationally studied. In this paper, we define a generic agent state model and a generic protocol for contract negotiations, called ANTS, and we propose a three-level methodology to build generic negotiation applications based on a communication protocol, a generic internal structuration for problem representation and a strategy level to obtain better rationality. Before comparing our approach with other researches on the same topic, we give an example of application of this work to solve a concrete virtual market problem and another exemple of application for appointment taking. The aim of this paper is to show that it is possible to describe precisely a generic model that we can use in several negotiation and marketplace problems. These researches on negotiation take place in software engineering works for artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems.


This thesis extends the robustness of genetic algorithms and fuzzy clustering in uncovering structure in noisy data. It presents three general-purpose clustering techniques applicable in the presence of noise. The objective of cluster analysis is to group observed data in such a way that the entities within a cluster are more similar to each other than to those in other clusters. It is one of the most widely used procedures for exploratory data analysis in many disciplines, including crystallographic statistics, economic trend analysis, image processing and data mining. These problems consist of a set of n points in $\rm\Re\sp{d}$ and require the accurate description of cluster center, shape and size despite the high percentage of noise points. The work presented in this dissertation extends traditional clustering techniques through the combination of noise models and validity measures.
This thesis examines several instances of clustering problems and solutions. The first clustering instance is the characterization of diffuse clusters embedded in data sets with noise levels typically greater than 50%. This algorithm is able to accurately locate clusters in both dense and sparse data sets and has a demonstrated sensitivity with even a few cluster points. A statistical test based on Ripley's K function is used to determine complete spatial randomness, or lack of any clustering. If clustering is present, a robust noise-clustering algorithm is implemented for increasing numbers of clusters. For each cluster assignment, a validity measure based on the combination of fuzzy hypervolume, partition density and average fuzzy density is used to identify the optimum number of clusters. This is an objective technique that requires no prior knowledge of the number or the size of the clusters in the data.
The second clustering instance is an elliptical shell characterization problem. Characterizing ellipses is difficult due to their nonlinear definition and the background noise associated with the images. An ellipsoidal shell cluster prototype is obtained by using a norm induced by an adaptive symmetric positive definite matrix as a distance metric in the objective function. A validity measure based on the combination of fuzzy circumference, average fuzzy density and shell thickness is used to identify the optimal number of clusters.
This thesis also investigates the utility of genetic algorithms in locating clusters in noisy data. A genetic algorithm with nonoverlapping populations is presented incorporating a fitness function similar to the objective function of the robust fuzzy clustering method. Empirical results compare the efficiency and accuracy with the robust fuzzy clustering method.


This study investigated the learning of the stationary hockey slap shot by two physically awkward boys; for comparison purposes, two age-matched boys performed the same skill. In an initial data collection session, the physically awkward and the control boys performed three successful slap shots. Following this, the physically awkward subjects practiced 400 trials at home every 2 weeks over a 6-week training period, under the supervision of their parents. Performance data were collected every 2 weeks, after 400, 800, and 1,200 practice trials. Cinematographic analysis of each subject's three successful responses led to an examination of the kinematics, phasing, and timing of the slap shot. In the initial baseline session, the control subjects exhibited consistency of performance; however, even after 1,200 trials of supervised practice the performance of the two physically awkward children was extremely variable.


The ZNF217 transcription factor is an oncogene found within the 20q13 amplicon and is amplified and overexpressed in many cancers including breast and ovarian. Overexpression of ZNF217 leads to increased cell proliferation, survival, and causes resistance to TGFβ's anti-proliferative effects.
ZNF217 is a core constituent of a transcriptional complex that includes CoREST, HDAC1/2, LSD1, and the CtBP1/2. In this study, I have combined genome-wide biochemical approaches to identify genes directly regulated by ZNF217. I have identified the tumor suppressor and cell cycle inhibitor, p15ink4b, as a direct target of the ZNF217 complex and demonstrated that ZNF217 represses the p15ink4b gene by promoting a repressive chromatin environment and facilitating promoter DNA hypermethylation that involves a novel interaction with DNMT3A.
Furthermore, treatment of cells with TGFβ triggers DNA demethylation of the p15ink4b promoter and the release of ZNF217/CoREST/DNMT3A complex. Subsequently, a novel activation complex is recruited that consists of SMAD2/3, CBP, and the DNA glycosylase TDG which precedes increases in p15ink4b protein expression. Knockdown of TDG, or its functional homolog MBD4, prevents TGF-β-dependent demethylation of the p15ink4b promoter suggesting that the demethylation occurs through an active mechanism and is required for TGFβ dependant activation of gene expression. DNA immunoprecipitation experiments indicate that 5mC undergoes conversion to 5hmC in response to TGFβ treatment. AID/APOBEC2 deaminases are also required for the DNA demethylation by TGFβ supporting a mechanism whereby 5mC is hydroxylated to 5hmC and then deaminated to 5hmU which is reverted to the unmethylated cytosine by the BER enzymes.
Overexpression of ZNF217 inhibits promoter demethylation and expression of the p15ink4b gene in response to TGFβ by preventing recruitment of SMAD2/3/TDG complex. These findings suggest that the coregulator balance at promoters of genes is an important determinant of gene regulation and oncogenic amplifications such as ZNF217 can upset this balance causing deregulation of many genes. Taken together, these results establish the ZNF217 complex as a negative regulator of the p15ink4b gene and may constitute an important link between amplification of ZNF217, increased cell proliferation and loss of TGFβ responsiveness in cancer.


This article examines the representations of the Israeli Palestinian conflict in the British press, starting from the premise that media representations in Britain should be analysed in relation to Britain's role as a postcolonial power. Focusing on Britain's colonial and postcolonial connection to this conflict, this study is based on the findings of a Postcolonial Critical Discourse Analysis of four British national newspapers (the Guardian, or Manchester Guardian; The Times; the Daily Herald, or the Sun; and the Daily Mirror) at four different points during the history of the conflict. The findings indicate that the classification of Palestine, Palestinians, Israel, Israelis, Jews, Zionists and Arabs as agents of political violence evolved over time, as violent acts and agents were perceived differently according to the dominant political discourse during each period. The contextualization of the conflict also provides insights into how the British press constructed its various ideological positions in relation to this conflict, and the extent to which the British Mandate remained visible in the later coverage of the conflict. The postcolonial approach adopted in this study indicates that the generalized lack of references to the historical facts that underpin Britain's role in the development of the conflict represents an attempt to move away from the historical responsibilities derived from colonial encounters. This framework therefore helps to restore the largely neglected historical connection of the British Mandate to its proper place in the analysis of these mediated events.


title and further information inscribed in pencil on verso. inscribed in pencil on verso: c. fox photo 20 melbourne road geelong west vic.


Doxorubicin is an effective anticancer drug used in the treatment of several cancers such as osteosarcoma, kaposis sarcoma. The usage of the drug is limited because of its adverse effects on the heart. To reduce the adverse effects and to increase the release rate doxorubicin is formulated into liposomal dosage form. The liposomes are prepared by the thin film hydration method.Using soyalecithin as the phospholipid. This study mainly explains about the effect of concentration of soyalecithin, cholesterol and DSPE-MPEG2000 on the particle size of formulated liposomes which ranges in between 0.766 ± 0.03μm to 13.56 ± 0.10 μm , drug entrappment efficiency of different formulations in which maximum entrapment efficiency was determined as 96.45 ± 0.95 % and minimum was 24.89 ± 1.18 % , zeta potential which is determainedd as -0.271 mV, in vitro drug release in which the the maximum sustain release was found as 41.45 ± 1.06 % and stability studies at different temperatures and maximum drug retention was found in refrigerated temperature 2-8 C.


Actinomycosis is an underreported chronic invasive disease caused by Actinomyces spp. In that group of diseases, pelvic actinomycosis is very rare and most of the cases reported in the literature have shown unilateral psoas muscle involvement. We report a 35-year-old woman with a retroperitoneal mass located in the left psoas muscle that makes abdominal tenderness and difficulty in walking. She had a 7-year history of intrauterine device which had been removed one month just before this event. After undergoing two laparotomies to perform a biopsy with undetermined results, she developed a new mass in the right psoas muscle which was similar to the left one. On the third attempt, the histopathology revealed yellow sulfur granules of Actinomyces which reacted positively with periodic acid Schiff and Grocott's dye. After three months of treatment with Amoxicillin plus Clavulanic acid, her abscesses were completely resolved. Actinomycosis should always be included in the diagnostic list in patients with a pelvic mass and a history of intrauterine device.


Rarely in the atomic age have hopes for genuine progress towards disarmament been raised as high as they are now. Governments, prompted by the renewed momentum of non-proliferation and disarmament initiatives, have put nuclear policy at the top of the international agenda. But how can countries move from warm words to meaningful action? By what means could the world be weaned from its addiction to nuclear weapons and who should undertake the task of supervising this process? This Adelphi examines practical steps for achieving progress toward disarmament, assessing the challenges and opportunities associated with achieving a world without nuclear weapons. It places the current debate over abolition in the context of urgent non-proliferation priorities, such as the need to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of extremist regimes and terrorists. It distils lessons from states that have already given up nuclear programmes and from the end of the Cold War to suggest ways of countering the efforts of Iran and North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons. For the longer term, it offers policy recommendations for moving towards a reduced global reliance on nuclear weapons.


Since the publication of Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By (1980), conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) has dominated metaphor studies. While one of the central tenets of that monograph is that metaphors are primarily a phenomenon of thought, not of language, conceptual metaphors have until recently been studied almost exclusively via verbal expressions. Another limitation of the CMT paradigm is that it has tended to focus on deeply embedded metaphors rather than on creative metaphors of the kind that Black (1979) discusses. One result of this focus is that relatively little attention is paid in CMT to the form and appearance a metaphor can assume (cf. Lakoff and Turner 1989). Clearly, which channel(s) of information (language, visuals, sound, gestures, among others) are chosen to convey a metaphor is a central factor in how a metaphor is construed and interpreted. A healthy theory of metaphor as a structuring element of thought therefore requires systematic examination of both its multimodal and its creative manifestations. Conversely, research into non-verbal and multimodal metaphor can help the theorization of multimodality. In this paper it is shown that creative metaphors occurring in commercials usually draw on a combination of language, pictures, and non-verbal sound. After an inventory of parameters involved in the analysis of multimodal metaphors, ten cases are discussed, with specific attention to the role of the various modes in the metaphors' construal and interpretation. On the basis of the case studies, the last sections of the paper discuss three issues that are crucial for further study: (1) the ways in which similarity is cued in multimodal, as opposed to verbal, metaphors; (2) the problems adhering to the verbalization of multimodal metaphors; (3) the influence of textual genre on the interpretation of multimodal metaphors.


+ -dependent sorbitol dehydrogenase, Prunus persica, radicle, sinks, sorbitol, sucrose synthase ABSTRACT. Terminal portions of 'Flordaguard' peach roots ( Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) were divided into six segments and the activities of NAD + -dependent sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH), sorbitol oxidase (SOX), sucrose synthase (SS), soluble acid invertase (AI), and soluble neutral invertase (NI) were measured in each segment 10, 15, and 20 days after seed germination. The same type of experiment was conducted with terminal portions of 'Flordaguard' and 'Nemaguard' peach shoots except that one of the six segments consisted of the leaflets surrounding the apex. Independent of the age of individual roots, activi ties of SDH and AI were consistently highest in the meristematic portion and decreased with tissue maturation. In shoots, AI was the most active enzyme in the elongating portion subtending the apex, whereas SDH was primarily associated with meristematic tissues. A positive correlation between SDH and AI activities was found in various developmental zones of roots (r = 0.96) and shoots (r = 0.90). Sorbitol and sucrose contents were low in roots regardless of distance from tip, while sucrose showed a decreasing trend with distance and sorbitol, fructose, and glucose increased with distance from the meristem in shoots. Activity of SDH in internodes, but not apices, correlated with shoot elongation rate of both cultivars, whereas activit ies of other enzymes did not correlate with shoot elongation rate. We conclude that AI and SDH are the predominant enzymes of carbohydrate catabolism and the best indicators of sink growth and development in vegetative sinks of peach.


Recent claims that arthropods are monophyletic because all have jaws composed of a five-segmented coxa, that the groundplan of arthropod legs has no less than 11 segments, that crustaceans, chelicerates and insects share a 'polyramous arthropod leg', and that the labrum is formed from a pair of legs, are rejected on factual grounds. It is suggested that the earliest arthropod appendages were unsegmented. Putative homologies among mandibulate arthropods are considered. Striking as some of these are, a good case can be made for their convergent evolution, and the concept of the Mandibulata is rejected. Suggested separate ancestries of crustaceans and tracheates are compared. A realistic explanation of radiation from a common arthropod ancestor remains illusory. A polyphyletic concept of arthropod evolution from soft-bodied, segmented, haemocoele-possessing, non-annelid worms is elaborated. The degree of convergence demanded is amply matched by proven examples of the phenomenon. If the earliest arthropods lacked compound eyes, and these were acquired several times, as they have been at least twice in non-arthropods, several otherwise intractable problems are resolved. Sequence comparisons provide a powerful tool for determining relationships but seem powerless to establish whether arthropods are monophyletic, or polyphyletic in the manner envisaged here.


Rice, after cotton, is second most important cash crop of Pakistan. Pakistani Basmati rice holds a great commercial value and it is distinguished by its long grain and aroma. Insect attack is one of the vital cause of its production loss in every year. Inspite of enormous efforts made to develop insect resistant Basmati varieties no results are still visible to combat insect attack. Under the present investigations, efforts have been made to develop an alternative measure of pest resistance by genetic manipulation of Basmati rice. For this purpose twelve rice varieties (Basmati 370, Super Basmati, Basmati Pak, Basmati 385, Jhona, KS282, RP15, RP18, RP20 and Taipei 309) were screened out through an elaborate study in tissue culture response and regeneration potentiality. In the study of comparative tissue culture response the varieties Basmati 370, Super Basmati, IRRI6 and BR11 produced higher percentage of embryogenic calli proving themselves as suitable varieties for regeneration and genetic manipulation. In vitro tissue culture experiments five explants namely scutellum, immature embryo, leaf base, mesocotyl and root were selected as the target tissue explants. scutellum proved to be the most suitable explant. for callus formation in all rice varieties. The mesocotyl explant showed least response in callus induction and was not further used in regeneration experiments. Considering their better tissue culture performance and economic importance the varieties Basmati 370 and IRRI6 were selected for regeneration study.

In a comparative study Basmati 370 proved to be the best variety giving 91 % regeneration frequency from somatic embryogenesis. Four explants (scutellum, immature embryo, leaf base and root) were used as the target tissue explants for regeneration. Scutellum gave highest regeneration (91 %) followed by immature embryo (74%). The embryogenic calli were subjected to nine regeneration media supplemented with different phytohormones. The MS medium containing sorbitol 3% sucrose 3%, NAA 1 mg/L, BAP 2mg/L, casamino acids 0.2% and higher concentration (0.4%) of phytagel was found to be the best medium for regeneration in tested rice varieties. In meristem culture the highest regeneration frequency was observed in meristem isolated from four day old seedlings. Variable range of regeneration response was observed in different rice varieties. The varieties IRRI6 and Basmati 370 gave the highest percentage of regeneration Le. 55% and 50% respectively. Basmati 370 was selected as the target variety for transformation studies because of its best in vitro tissue culture response and economic importance in the country.

To accomplish an efficient transformation in Basmati 370 a number of methods namely, PEG mediated transformation of protoplasts, electroporation of intact tissue, pollen tube path way and agrobacterium mediated transformation were used. None of them was found suitable for stable transformation of this local rice variety. Attempts were taken to use biolistic gun for bombarding the target gene into the Basmati rice. As a new approach, genetic transformation with home made biolistic gun needed for optimization of the tool and efficient demonstration of gene transfer technology. Conditions of biolistic bombardment were optimized by using GUS reporter gene. Conditions for stable transformation were established by bombarding hygromycin (hph) resistant gene. Biolistic method was found suitable for genetic transformation of indica rice. Pesticidal gene CyIA(c) was selected as a target gene for transformation. The target gene coated on tungsten particles was bombarded into leaf base and meristem of mature embryo of Basmati 370. Transformation efficiency at the rate of 0.45 and 0.39% was obtained respectively from leaf base and mature embryo meristem by using biolistic bombardment. A number of sixty two putative transformants were produced by bombarding 10,000 mature embryo and 3000 meristem. A number of forty putative transformed plants were successfully transferred into soil and their toxic level was evaluated by insect feeding assay. Out of forty putative transformants nine plants were finally screened out for molecular analysis on the basis of 33% and above insect mortality.

The results of dot blot and southern blot analysis confirmed the presence and integration of CryIA(c) gene into the genome of three putative transformants. One of these plant produced viable seeds. Molecular analysis (PCR, dot blot and southern blot) of T1 progeny plants confirmed the presence, stable integration and inheritance of CryIA(c) gene in T1 generation. Expression of the integrated gene was confirmed by western blot analysis. Incorporation of pest resistance in Basmati 370 was finally confirmed by insect bioassay.


Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a pervasive contaminant in the workplace. Our objective was to determine the oxidative stress effects of ETS on employees who are exposed. The results provide information that is useful to the resolution of risk assessment questions associated with ETS. We analyzed two blood draws from volunteers in our control and exposed groups. The level of exposure to ETS was determined through plasma cotinine measurements, which showed a 65% increase from the control group to the exposed group. Exposure to ETS resulted in a statistically significant increase of 63% of the oxidative DNA mutagen 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine in the blood of exposed subjects. This oxidative DNA damage has been linked to an increased risk of developing several degenerative chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease and cancer. The exposed subjects also had increased levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPOX), and glutathione reductase. However, these increases were only statistically significant in catalase and GPOX. Catalase levels were 13% higher in the exposed group, and GPOX levels were 37% higher in exposed volunteers. The biochemical evidence suggests that exposure to ETS causes oxidative stress, resulting in DNA damage that may increase the risk of certain diseases.


This article examines several examples of messianic individuals and movements in Israel that have had to confront the failure of their predictions of imminent collective Redemption. These case studies suggest that individuals who expect Messiah's immediate coming, but who do not share this conviction with others, may experience greater freedom to reinterpret their prophecy and then proselytize a new vision of Redemption. When a small group's predictions are publicized widely and then fail, its members may find themselves facing a particularly sharp crisis of faith because of social pressure and may decide to abandon both the prophecy and group membership. Participants in large and diffuse messianic movements may become anxious when events begin to indicate that their predicted Redemption will fail, thus they are likely to adjust the prophecy and take steps to actualize it.


We construct various self-similar configurations using parallel $\delta$-function plates and show that it is possible to evaluate the Casimir interaction energy of these configurations using the idea of self-similarity alone. We restrict our analysis to interactions mediated by a scalar field, but the extension to electromagnetic field is immediate. Our work unveils an easy and powerful method that can be easily employed to calculate the Casimir energies of a class of self-similar configurations. As a highlight, in an example, we determine the Casimir interaction energy of a stack of parallel plates constructed by positioning $\delta$-function plates at the points constituting the Cantor set, a prototype of a fractal. This, to our knowledge, is the first time that the Casimir energy of a fractal configuration has been reported. Remarkably, the Casimir energy of some of the configurations we consider turn out to be positive, and a few even have zero Casimir energy. For the case of positive Casimir energy that is monotonically decreasing as the stacking parameter increases the interpretation is that the pressure of vacuum tends to inflate the infinite stack of plates. We further support our results, derived using the idea of self-similarity alone, by rederiving them using the Green's function formalism. These expositions gives us insight into the connections between the regularization methods used in quantum field theories and regularized sums of divergent series in number theory.


Self-esteem involves the evaluative and affective dimensions of self-concept. It could be influenced by stress situations such as diseases or injuries, especially in the period of puberty and adolescence. The aim of this study was to establish the influence of isolated long tubular bone limbs' fractures in children and adolescents and type of its treatment (conservative or active surgical treatment-various techniques) on self-esteem of patients, as well as to establish relationships between self-esteem, depression, anxiety and perception of the social support in the mentioned patients. This prospective clinical trial comprehends 135 patients, 94 male and 41 female, aged 10 to 18, treated for the mentioned fractures in the period from October 2003 until March 2005 in Departments for Pediatric Surgery of three hospitals: the Clinical Hospital Center in Rijeka (88.8% patients), the Clinical Children's Hospital in Zagreb (9.7%), both in Croatia, and 1.5% of the patients in the Clinical Hospital in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina). 53.3% of the patients were treated conservatively, 29.6% of them underwent the elastic stable intramedullary nailing (ESIN), while the remaining 17.1% of the patients were treated with other surgical techniques (AO-plates or Kirschner-wire ostheosyntheses). The basic methods of work were self-reported questionnaires: Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSS), to establish the degree of self-esteem; Children Depression Inventory (CDI), to establish existence and degree of depression; Spielberg State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-form STAI2, to establish general anxiety; and Test of Perception of Social Support (TPSS). RSS, CDI and STAI2 were administered twice to the patients: at baseline and after 6 months of the trauma, whereas TPSS once, after 1 month of the trauma. Our results point at an decreased self-esteem followed by increased depression and increased general anxiety indicators in all patients within 1 week of experienced trauma, especially in those who underwent the ESIN method, whereas after 6 months of the experienced trauma, self-esteem significantly increased and depression and general anxiety indicators were greatly reduced in all patients. The type of treatment of fractures has no influence on the perception of the social support. Our results suggest that the ESIN method (regardless of its good surgical results and advantages in relation to many other surgical techniques) reduces self-esteem more than conservatively treatment of fractures and AO-plates and K-wire ostheosyntheses. At the same time self-esteem has been recuperated faster in patients treated with ESIN method. Thus, there is no difference in the influence of the type of the treatment of fractures on self-esteem, but in the dynamics of its recuperation in patients according to type of treatment of fractures. Anyway, from a psychological point of view, any type of surgical treatment could be additional stressor, so it should be practiced with criticism and according to the strict surgical indications.


The chapter gives an account of genocide, linking this with the wider phenomenon of state sponsored killing. Firstly some of the key dimensions of genocide in legal and extra-legal scholarship are introduced, identifying points where differing interpretations of the crime emerge. The prevalence and distribution of genocide is examined in terms of a snapshot of the current situation, historical surveys and attempts to calculate the number dying in state sponsored killings. An account of different ways of thinking about victims and perpetrators leads in to a summary of explanatory frameworks, concluding with recent attempts to create multi-level, integrated explanations for genocide. Finally, the record of preventive action since 1948 is examined, suggesting some reasons for changes in the willingness to intervene during, or to prosecute after, genocidal episodes.


Tsunamis, impulse waves, and dam failures are disasters that challenge humanity, often leading to massive casualties and extreme economic losses. The highly unsteady flow conditions generated by such events are often in the form of turbulent bores. The purpose of this study was to investigate and validate a new generation system for bores propagating over dry and wet bed conditions. There are multiple techniques to generate such waves experimentally, and the study focused on the generation of tsunami-like inundation conditions through the vertical release of a water volume. A detailed methodology to characterize the generated waves hydraulically, in terms of their wave heights and flow velocities, is presented, and good agreement with the classical dam-break case for both dry bed surges and wet bed bores was demonstrated. Because of the importance of estimating the impact forces induced by such waves, particular attention was given to the wavefront celerity and the velocity profiles measured behind the wavefront; these were found in agreement with Prandtl's power law for open channel flows, and in-depth measurements allowed for the definition of an expression to estimate flow deceleration behind the wavefront. Along with considerations of the Froude number and momentum, this paper provides relevant information to assist engineers in designing safer infrastructures in areas prone to such extreme loading.


In this fine new commentary on Paul's letter to the Philippians, Stephen Fowl notes that for the great premodern commentators of the Christian tradition, the literal sense of Scripture is always regulated by theological concerns. Thus, unlike commentaries that simply append theology to historical criticism, Fowl's volume displays disciplined attention to the text of Philippians in ways that enhance rather than frustrate theological inquiry.
 While Fowl engages the great scholars of the past, John Chrysostom and Thomas Aquinas among them, he also draws a novel theology of friendship from Paul's letter and unpacks how the teachings of Philippians might be embodied today by Christians in the West.


Direct dating of brittle fault activity is of fundamental importance to tectonic reconstructions and paleoseismic studies. One way to address this issue is by constraining the timing of fault striations, but this requires a better understanding of the striation formation mechanism and associated mineralization. We present results from a microstructural, geochemical, and geochronological study of calcite precipitates associated with striated fault planes from the Dead Sea fault zone in northern Israel. We recognize four types of coexisting calcite precipitates, including calcite cement in dilation breccia, calcite in striated groove morphology, calcite gouge associated with hydraulic fracturing and pressure solution, and calcite coating of the fault surface. Carbon-oxygen isotopes, 87Sr/86Sr ratios, and rare earth element and yttrium (REY) patterns indicate various precipitation mechanisms associated with formation of syntectonic (calcite cement and striations), coseismic (calcite gouge), and interseismic (calcite coating) precipitates in the fault zone. Using U-Th dating of samples from three adjacent fault planes, we delineate four welldefined deformation ages in the period from 220 to 60 ka. We conclude that these ages constrain the timing of activity along the Dead Sea fault zone in northern Israel, and argue that a similar methodological approach could potentially shed light on the timing of deformation in other brittle fault zones.


In the three decades between 1920 and 1950, the Detroit Tigers won four American League pennants, the first world championship in team history in 1935, and a second world crown ten years later. Star players of this era-including Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochrane, George Kell, and Hal Newhouser-represent the majority of Tigers players inducted into the Hall of Fame. Sports writers followed the team feverishly, and fans packed Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium) to cheer on the high-flying Tigers, with the first record season attendance of one million recorded in 1924 and surpassed eight more times before 1950. In The Glory Years of the Detroit Tigers: 1920-1950, author William M. Anderson combines historical narrative and photographs of these years to argue that these years were the greatest in the history of the franchise.Anderson presents over 350 unique and lively images, mostly culled from the remarkable Detroit News archive, that showcase players' personalities as well as their exploits on the field. For their meticulous coverage and colorful style, Anderson consults Tigers reporting from the three daily Detroit newspapers of the era (the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, and Detroit Times) and the Sporting News, which was known then as the "Baseball Bible." Some especially compelling columns are reproduced intact to give readers a feel for the exciting and careful reporting of these years. Anderson combines historical text with photos in six topical chapters: "Spring Training: When Dreams are Entertained," "Franchise Stars," "The Supporting Cast," "Moments of Glory and Notable Games," "The War Years," and "The Old Ballpark: Where Legends and Memories Were Made." Anderson presents sketches of many fine players who have been overlooked in other histories and visits characters who often acted in strange ways: Dizzy Trout, Gee Walker, Elwood "Boots" "The Baron" Poffenbeger, and Louis "Bobo" "Buck" Newsom. Tigers fans and anyone interested in local sports culture will enjoy this comprehensive and compelling look into the glory years of Tigers history.


Since the 1930s, the fundamental tenet of American labor law has been the government should foster employee organization and regulate industrial relations to promote equity in bargaining between employers and employees and to promote industrial peace. Those who enacted our basic labor laws, as well as the majority of the legal scholars who have since commented on those laws, believed unions necessary for workers to achieve the benefits of industrial democracy and a larger share of industry's profit. Moreover, these same legislators and scholars believed that the government stewardship of labor relations should go beyond the mere removal of barriers to organization, to the active regulation of industrial relations conflicts with respect to organizing, collective bargaining, and enforcing collective agreements. Elections, the requirement of bargaining in good faith, and arbitration were advanced to replace the parties' cruder methods of resolving such conflicts. Without this extensive tutelage of labor-management relations, the legislators and legal scholars believed that conflicts in labor relations would escalate into strife and economic warfare and that many workers would be denied the benefits of dealing with their employers on equal terms. The traditional economic analysis of unions and collective bargaining calls into question this fundamental tenet and thus the basis for much of American labor law. Proponents of this analysis argue that individual bargaining will secure for each worker all of the benefits to which she is entitled in accordance with her productivity. Unions achieve higher wages and benefits for employees by establishing a labor cartel, to which the employer responds by raising prices, cutting output, substituting capital for labor, and laying-off workers. Although the union may gain benefits for some workers, these benefits come only at the expense of consumers, other workers, and economic efficiency. Thus, the traditional economic analysis suggests that, rather than fostering unions and collective bargaining, the government should undertake measures to extirpate them. Far from promoting equity in bargaining between employers and employees, unions promote workers to a superior bargaining position – that of a labor cartel – and cause inefficiency and inequitable redistributions of income among similarly situated workers. Moreover, under this analysis, no sound basis exists for the government's efforts to regulate industrial relations to promote industrial peace. In this article, I present an alternative economic analysis of unions and collective bargaining that utilizes recent advances in labor economics and some simple applications of game theory to address the deficiencies of the traditional monopoly model. First, I assume that the primary sources of union benefits are employer rents, quasi-rents, and productivity increases associated with unionism. These rents and productivity increases constitute the cooperative surplus that the parties divide through collective bargaining. Individual bargaining will not secure for employees a share of this surplus. The workers must organize and bargain collectively to raise themselves to a position of rough equality relative to the employer and gain a share of the surplus. Second, in examining the problem of dividing the cooperative surplus, I assume that the parties bargain in a Coasean fashion to achieve a Pareto optimal solution that maximizes the value of the cooperative surplus to the parties. If one assumes such optimal bargaining, then one can show that the parties will agree to a contract that specifies a level of employment exceeding that given by the employer's labor demand curve. Combining this assumption of optimal bargaining with my previous assumption concerning the primary sources of union wage increases, I argue that employees' gains from organization come largely at the expense of their employers, rather than other employees or consumers, and that the productivity gains associated with unionism may outweigh any attendant inefficiency. It is therefore equitable, and perhaps wealth maximizing, for the government to encourage employee organization. Finally, I argue that in conflicts over the division of the cooperative surplus, including organizing, collective negotiations, and enforcement of the collective agreement, both sides have incentives to act strategically, wasting a portion of the cooperative surplus in hopes of capturing a larger share of the surplus for themselves. Such strategic activities include discriminatory discharges, recognition strikes, intransigence in bargaining, and strikes or lockouts to enforce a given interpretation of the collective agreement. Moreover, because parties are often rewarded in these activities based on their recalcitrance relative to the other party, the costs of these conflicts are positional externalities that tend to escalate in the absence of government regulation. To illustrate these arguments, I present a simple game representing collective negotiations, which demonstrates that strategic behavior may be individually rational for each party to undertake, but collectively irrational, because it results in strikes that waste the cooperative surplus. Thus, it makes sense for the government to structure the conduct of organizing, collective negotiations, and enforcement of the collective agreement to prohibit or discourage strategic behavior and minimize waste of the cooperative surplus.


Affiliation is a relevant response to ordinary troubles talk but in complaint calls to an independent dispute resolution service it is a restricted activity. This research asks about the practices conciliator call-takers use to maintain a neutral stance towards callers' problems. Observable responsive practices that avoid stance alignment include okay and so prefaced turns that receipt and propose closure on the prior sequence and launch an institutionally relevant activity.  It was also found that the required description of the service as independent was occasioned by callers' pursuit of affiliation. This chapter contributes to an understanding of how, in institutional talk, restricted activities can influence and shape the trajectory of interactions.


Applying the findings of qualitative research to practice is far from straightforward. This difficulty is often overlooked in the literature on the role of qualitative research in evidence-based practice. In this EBN notebook, we argue that current attempts to provide guidance for clinicians do not accurately capture the specific and unique contribution of qualitative approaches. We will clarify the type of clinical questions for which qualitative research may provide appropriate answers and consider what the application of qualitative research findings to practice might mean. This analysis will result in guidance on the application of qualitative research findings to practice.

Qualitative research is one of many forms of research that may be useful to practitioners,1–,5 and the integration of qualitative research into practice has been described as one of the major challenges in evidence-based health care.6,7 It is not entirely clear what the challenges are, as there are many and varied claims made about the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. The terms qualitative and quantitative emerged from attempts to establish clear ground between different philosophical positions about the nature of reality (philosophically termed ontology) and how we can come to know it (philosophically termed epistemology) rather than any practical grouping of research designs and types.8,9 There are far fewer differences between qualitative and quantitative research than is often claimed.8,10 Both are processes of systematic inquiry rooted firmly in the tradition of empiricism (ie, knowledge should be based on observation of the world).11 In both qualitative and quantitative research, data provide the basis for reasoning. In quantitative approaches, data take the form of numbers, whereas in qualitative approaches, data usually take the form of text (ie, observation is transformed into text for the purpose of analysis). In qualitative approaches, reasoning is …


This research estimates the incremental effect of mathematical ability on student performance in principles of accounting, holding constant other determinants of performance such as Grade Point Average. A 24-question mathematics pre-test was given to several hundred students enrolled in principles of accounting at a regional Midwestern university. One categorization of the test items was according to questions primarily pertaining to arithmetical computation (8 items), questions primarily pertaining to proportions and percentages (8 items), and questions primarily pertaining to algebraic manipulation (8 items). A second categorization was according to questions containing substantial word exposition (9 items), and questions not containing substantial word exposition (15 items). It is found that while each one of the score variables is highly significant according to the standard t-statistic test, the overall explanatory power of the regression equation, as measured by its R-squared, is not increased very much in a numerical sense by the addition of any one of them. In a relative sense, however, the highest incremental explanatory power is associated with the score for word exposition items, while the lowest is associated with the score for algebraic manipulation items.


This paper proposes a model that aims to illustrate how different human music cultures intersect and "dock in" to a set of music features that are universally perceived, while also displaying culture-specific features that must be learned. The model emphasizes that over historic time the music in a given culture can "dock into" and "dock out of" cues that are universally perceived, shifting its potential for cross-cultural perception and interaction. While this model accounts for music ethnological evidence reviewed here, it also explains why universals of music perception cannot simply be determined by specifying the common denominator between the formal music features of all cultures. This report suggests that the Dock-in Model can be generalized to account for cross-cultural perception more generally.


BACKGROUND At the onset of exercise, the speed at which phosphocreatine (PCr) decreases toward a new steady state (PCr on-kinetics) reflects the readiness to activate mitochondrial ATP synthesis, which is secondary to Acetyl-CoA availability in skeletal muscle. We hypothesized that PCr on-kinetics are slower in metabolically compromised and older individuals and are associated with low carnitine acetyltransferase (CrAT) protein activity and compromised physical function. METHODS We applied 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) to assess PCr on-kinetics in 2 cohorts of volunteers. Cohort 1 included patients who had type 2 diabetes, were obese, were lean trained (VO2max > 55 mL/kg/min), and were lean untrained (VO2max < 45 mL/kg/min). Cohort 2 included young (20–30 years) and older (65–80 years) individuals with normal physical activity and older, trained individuals. Previous results of CrAT protein activity and acetylcarnitine content in muscle tissue were used to explore the underlying mechanisms of PCr on-kinetics, along with various markers of physical function. RESULTS PCr on-kinetics were significantly slower in metabolically compromised and older individuals (indicating mitochondrial inertia) as compared with young and older trained volunteers, regardless of in vivo skeletal muscle oxidative capacity (P < 0.001). Mitochondrial inertia correlated with reduced CrAT protein activity, low acetylcarnitine content, and functional outcomes (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION PCr on-kinetics are significantly slower in metabolically compromised and older individuals with normal physical activity compared with young and older trained individuals, regardless of in vivo skeletal muscle oxidative capacity, indicating greater mitochondrial inertia. Thus, PCr on-kinetics are a currently unexplored signature of skeletal muscle mitochondrial metabolism, tightly linked to functional outcomes. Skeletal muscle mitochondrial inertia might emerge as a target of intervention to improve physical function. TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT01298375 and NCT03666013 (clinicaltrials.gov). FUNDING RM and MH received an EFSD/Lilly grant from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD). VS was supported by an ERC starting grant (grant 759161) "MRS in Diabetes."


Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is one of the major autoimmune diseases affecting children and young adults worldwide. To date, the different immunotherapies tested have achieved insulin independence in <5% of treated individuals. Recently, a novel hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)–based strategy has been tested in individuals with new-onset T1D. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of autologous nonmyeloablative HSC transplantation in 65 individuals with new-onset T1D who were enrolled in two Chinese centers and one Polish center, pooled, and followed up for 48 months. A total of 59% of individuals with T1D achieved insulin independence within the first 6 months after receiving conditioning immunosuppression therapy (with antithymocyte globulin and cyclophosphamide) and a single infusion of autologous HSCs, and 32% remained insulin independent at the last time point of their follow-up. All treated subjects showed a decrease in HbA1c levels and an increase in C-peptide levels compared with pretreatment. Despite a complete immune system recovery (i.e., leukocyte count) after treatment, 52% of treated individuals experienced adverse effects. Our study suggests the following: 1) that remission of T1D is possible by combining HSC transplantation and immunosuppression; 2) that autologous nonmyeloablative HSC transplantation represents an effective treatment for selected individuals with T1D; and 3) that safer HSC-based therapeutic options are required.


What is the essence of martial arts? What is their place in or relationship with culture and society? Deconstructing Martial Arts analyses familiar issues and debates that arise in scholarly, practitioner and popular cultural discussions and treatments of martial arts and argues that martial arts are dynamic and variable constructs whose meanings and values regularly shift, mutate and transform, depending on the context. It argues that deconstructing martial arts is an invaluable approach to both the scholarly study of martial arts in culture and society and also to wider understandings of what and why martial arts are. Placing martial arts in relation to core questions and concerns of media and cultural studies around identity, value, orientalism, and embodiment, Deconstructing Martial Arts introduces and elaborates deconstruction as a rewarding method of cultural studies.


Global challenges and recent changes in conflict areas in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are reasons for the contemporary forced migration into European countries, which have become places of destination or transit posts for a great number of refugees. Cities have become the focus of the socio-spatial debate, as the main units for receiving refugees, either in state camps or in social housing in city centres. In this article, the focus is on the social-spatial configuration of refugee accommodation in local communities and the way these formations generate urban and school segregation. We argue that the placement of urban refugees in large, camp-like structures with low housing standards, mainly in areas outside cities or in rural areas, provides ground not only for social exclusion and 'territorial stigmatisation' but also for de facto school segregation. Furthermore, the attempts to house refugees in small cities, through United Nations and NGO-supplied houses, may also raise concerns about the way dispersal policies are implemented, with the distribution of refugee children in specific schools as a result of territorial social-spatial segregation. In both cases, the school segregation of refugees is connected not only with the implications of immigration and education policies but also with the social practices of local communities and the social-spatial characteristics that determine school education. The empirical material of this study is based on information on the socio-economic profiles of neighbourhoods at the census tract level and on qualitative research, through in-depth semi-structured interviews in two different cities in Greece.


Objective: Nasality is one of the important parameters in pathology of voice resonance. Voice of normal adults has nasality to some extent. It appears that nasality, like other parameters of voice, can be affected by loudness which can be measured in experimental evaluations. This study was conducted to determine the effect of vocal loudness on nasalance of vowels in normal adults and to identify the relationship between these two factors in 18-28 year-old normal Persian-speaking adults. Material and Methods: In this descriptive-analytic and cross sectional study, sample voices of sixty-five randomly selected male and female 18 to 28 year-old normal Persian-speaking students of Rehabilitation Faculty in Tehran University of Medical sciences were studied. Mean of Nasalance in Persian vowels was computed with Nasal View software. The findings were analyzed with descriptive statistical analysis and one-way ANOVA. Results: Maximum nasalance was in low voice and minimum nasalance was in loud voice in both men and women subjects. The statistical results show that nasalance in 3 levels of low, normal and loud voices have significant differences (p < 0.05). Conclusion: In normal adults, vowel nasalance is decreased with increase in vocal loudness. This is an aspect of normal speech mechanism. The findings can be explained considering function of velopharengeal port, raise in subglottal air pressure in loud voice, and increased muscle contraction of pharynx and palate.


One of the aims of every linguistic theory is to provide an exact and systematic description of the meaning of any sentence. The notion of "valence" is widely used in West- and East-European linguistics (Tesniere, Helbig/Schenkel, Apresjan, Mel'cuk, etc.) in order to account for the connection between syntactic structures and word meanings. So, in John saw the children it is due to the inherent valences of SEE that John is under-stood as 'seeing' and the children as 'seen': the referents of these two sentence elements carry specific meaning aspects of the verb. They only function in this way if they meet the formal characteristics set by the verb.In this paper I furnish a definition of "valence" and a corresponding discovery procedure. This procedure yields an explicit set of valences of any particular word. Valences are considered aspects of the meaning of a (set of) word(s) X, carried by the referent of a (set of) word(s) Y; as a corrolary, the meaning of this Y cannot be completely understood without taking into account the functioning of its referent as the carrier of the valence meaning. The discovery procedure does not assign a specific valence meaning to a verb if the functioning of the corresponding sentence element can be (completely) accounted for on the grounds of its own form. To illustrate this point, a valence labelled "price" which is claimed by Apresjan for the Russian verb ARENDOVAT' (='to lease'), would be rejected by the procedure because the corresponding sentence element has a form and a meaning which are not in function of its being dependent to ARENDOVAT', but would have the same form and meaning in other contexts.An analysis of the syntax and semantics of the Dutch verb WACHTEN (='to wait') illustrates the procedure. A short contrastive analysis of Russian and Dutch 'wait' shows some interesting differences in their comparable valences and in the syntactic peculiarities of adjuncts to these verbs.


Neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neuroaesthetics, and neurotheology are just a few of the novel disciplines that have been inspired by a combination of ancient knowledge together with recent discoveries about how the human brain works. The mass media are full of news items featuring colour photos of the brain, that show us the precise location in which a certain thought or emotion, or even love occurs, hence leading us to believe that we can directly observe, with no mediation, the brain at work. But is this really so? Even throughout the developed world, the general public has been seduced into believing that any study, research article, or news report, accompanied by a brain image or two is more reliable and more scientific, than one featuring more mundane illustrations. This fascinating, accessible, and thought provoking new book questions our obsession with brain imaging. Written by two highly experienced psychologists, it discusses some of the familiar ideas usually associated wtih mind-body, brain-psyche, and nature-culture relationships, showing how the biased and unquestioning use of brain imaging technology could have significant cultural effects for all of us.


Although the history of Virtual Reality (VR) is only
about half a century old, all kinds of technologies in the VR field are developing rapidly. VR is a computer generated simulation that replaces or augments the real world by various media. In a VR environment, participants have a perception of "presence", which
can be described by the sense of immersion and intuitive interaction. One of the major VR applications is in the field of sports, in which a life-like sports environment is simulated, and the body actions of players can be tracked and represented by using VR tracking and visualisation technology. In the entertainment field, exergaming that merges video game with physical exercise activities by employing tracking or even 3D display technology can be considered as a small scale VR.

For the research presented in this thesis, a novel realistic real-time table tennis game combining immersive, interactive and competitive features is developed. The implemented system integrates the InterSense tracking system, SwissRanger 3D camera and a three-wall rear projection stereoscopic screen. The Intersense tracking system is based on ultrasonic and inertia sensing techniques which provide fast and accurate 6-DOF (i.e. six degrees of freedom) tracking information of four trackers. Two trackers are placed on the two players' heads to provide the players' viewing positions. The other two trackers are held by players as the racquets. The SwissRanger 3D camera is mounted on top of the screen to capture the player's


In this monograph, the nature of processing strategies is explored in some detail, with an attempt to cut through the maze of often contradictory and confused proposals concerning the nature and form of various strategies. Once a preliminary conception of the nature of cognitive strategies and a hypothesis of how they interact with linguistic structures has been reached, it will be explored how such strategies are employed by examining experiments which address the role played by certain of these strategies in the comprehension and production of sentences. The authors draw a distinction between a strategy on the one hand and a grammatical structure on the other. They argued that, in principle, strategies ought to be formulated as language-independent, cognitively based operations which are involved in cognitive domains other than language, but which, in language processing, interact with language-specific structures to facilitate processing. Moreover, strategies are not linguistic rules, since, unlike rules, they permit exceptions and express tendencies rather than firm yes-no choices.


We show that the decision function of a radial basis function (RBF) classifier is equivalent in form to the Bayes-optimal discriminant associated with a special kind of mixture-based statistical model. The relevant mixture model is a type of mixture-of-experts model for which class labels, like continuous-valued features, are assumed to have been generated randomly, conditional on the mixture component of origin. The new interpretation shows that RBF classifiers effectively assume a probability model, which, moreover, is easily determined given the designed RBF. This interpretation also suggests a statistical learning objective as an alternative to standard methods for designing the RBF-equivalent models. The statistical objective is especially useful for incorporating unlabeled data to enhance learning. Finally, it is observed that any new data to classify are simply additional unlabeled data. Thus, we suggest a combined learning and use paradigm, to be invoked whenever there are new data to classify.


Mitochondria are at the crossroads of energy metabolism, and they play a major role in the regulation of cell life and death. Mitochondrial oxidation of fat and glucose substrates generates a transmembrane electrochemical gradient, and this is used to synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the chemical fuel for cell and tissue functions. In the process, electron transfer through the mitochondrial respiratory chain is inevitably associated with production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Several physiological roles have been described for ROS (1), but ROS generation in excess of antioxidant defenses is harmful and may cause oxidative stress with damage to DNA, lipids, proteins, and organelles (1,2). Hyperglycemia is a strong inducer of oxidative stress through enhanced ROS generation at mitochondrial as well as nonmitochondrial levels (2–4), and pathways activated by oxidative stress have a major role in the pathogenesis of diabetes complications (2,5). In addition, oxidative stress may contribute to hyperglycemia-induced impairment of β-cell insulin secretion (2), and excess mitochondrial ROS production has been shown to acutely and chronically cause muscle insulin resistance in some (6–8) but not all reports (9). Lowering oxidative stress in diabetes could therefore beneficially modulate pathogenic disease mechanisms, and it could potentially reduce morbidity and mortality by limiting tissue and cardiovascular complications.

Understanding and modulating the pathways that regulate mitochondrial ROS production is particularly relevant, and novel approaches involving mitochondrial dynamics have been …


Red betel leaf contains flavonoids, alkaloids and essential oils that are suspected able to inhibit the growth of microbes. This study aims to analyze antimicrobial activity of ethanol extract of red betel leaf agains to Staphylococcus aureus, Eschericia coli and Candida albicans. Subjects were red betel leaf ethanol extract at concentration of 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 80% and 100%. As a positive control used amoxycilin, chloramphenicol and ketoconazole. The study showed that concentration 10 % - 100 % inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. In Escherichia coli all the data obtained, having an average which is not much different from the mean of the negative control. While on Candida albicans average diameter of inhibition zone of extract concentration 40% p = 0.197 concluded that statistically has significant antifungal power compared with ketokonazole. Keywords: Ethanol extract, Piper Ruiz & Pav crocatum, Antimicrobial, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida albican


Apropos of the title, this essay traces the surprising connections between the eighteenth-century pornographer and the contemporary Latina superstar's portrayals of eroticized torture, as well as elucidates the cultural significance of what I am calling a legacy of tortured sensibility. By illuminating how the gendered spectatorial politics of sensibility—particularly in its fetishization of the (female/feminized) body in pain—continues to inform the numerous interlocking discourses of race, gender, and sexuality we have inherited from Sade's Europe, and especially from the early sentimental novel, this paper demonstrates how the transnational artist taps into a Sadean resistance to figurations of distressed hearts and flayed skin as sites of geopolitical and individual transcendence. Finally, examining 120 Days of Sodom and "La Tortura" side by side revitalizes attention to the ethical crisis surrounding aesthetic voyeurism: where does the anguish of reading Sade—with his relentless scenes of corporeal torment—go?


A standard single-mode optical fiber, coated with low-index polymer (Cytop), then a thin Au sheath, immersed in fluid, is proposed as a structure for optical (bio)chemical sensing. The highest-order EH1m cladding modes are found to couple strongly to long- or short-range surface plasmons on the Au sheath, forming coupled modes that are sensitive to the refractive index of the fluid or to a biochemical adlayer formed on the outer surface of the Au sheath. Interrogation of the modes can be achieved with the help of a tilted grating photoinduced into the core of the fiber. We demonstrate experimentally, in this manner, the excitation of these modes, and their use for bulk sensing. Furthermore, negative bulk sensitivity was observed for some leaky modes beyond cutoff.


Is Clathrin Involved in Internalization of The Small Molecule Berberine by Primary Mouse Mast Cells? 6 (2022): 141-148. Abstract The internalization and endocytosis of small molecules is a process that relies on either passive diffusion across the cell membrane or active transport through complex endocytic pathways such as pinocytosis. Using the fluorescent benzylisoquinoline compound berberine (BBR) as a tool, we analyzed the internalization of this small molecule by differentiated mouse bone marrow-derived mast cells. Our recent data showed that internalization of this compound was energy-and time-dependent and was increased when cells were treated with the differentiation cytokine, interleukin-3 (IL-3). In this commentary, we examine some of the possible mechanisms of internalization and provide further data to show that this process is partially dependent on clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Our hypothesis is that BBR internalization may utilize several pathways of internalization depending upon cell activation and proliferation.


Multicomponent contaminant transport models in groundwater are typically based on assumptions of local geochemical equilibrium on the grid scale. However, in heterogenous systems there may be significant coupling between transport processes and geochemical equilibrium at smaller than grid block scale. Here various pore‐ and field‐scale examples are considered to illustrate the impact of transport processes on assumptions of geochemical equilibrium. In each example the flow length scales required to reach equilibrium are calculated. It is shown that these can be as large as many meters at the pore scale and kilometers at field scales. The influence of heterogeneity in the distribution of the reactive zones is assessed for the pore‐scale example, and it is shown that patchiness of reactive zones within a pore increases equilibration length, with the length and density of reactive zones, pore radius, and diffusion coefficient all playing a role in the equilibration length. When constructing models of field‐scale problems it may not be reasonable to apply geochemical equilibrium, and it may be necessary to explicitly couple pore‐scale and field‐scale models in a multiscale simulation. A field‐scale example is also shown to illustrate that the upscaling of geochemical equilibrium poses a significant practical problem because we usually do not know the spatial location and distribution of geochemically active sites, and this information is essential input to geochemical transport models.


Since December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 infection has been still rapidly spreading, resulting in a pandemic, followed by an increasing number of cases in countries throughout the world. The severity of the disease depends on the patient's overall medical condition but no appropriate markers are available to establish the prognosis of the patients. We performed a 16S rRNA gene sequencing, revealing an altered composition of the nasal/oropharyngeal (NOP) microbiota in 21 patients affected by COVID-19, paucisymptomatic or in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), as compared to 10 controls negative for COVID-19 or eight affected by a different Human Coronavirus (HKU, NL63 and OC43). A significant decrease in Chao1 index was observed when patients affected by COVID-19 (in ICU) were compared to paucisymptomatic. Furthermore, patients who were in ICU, paucisymptomatic or affected by other Coronaviruses all displayed a decrease in the Chao1 index when compared to controls, while Shannon index significantly decreased only in patients under ICU as compared to controls and paucisymptomatic patients. At the phylum level, Deinococcus-Thermus was present only in controls as compared to SARS-CoV-2 patients admitted to ICU, paucisymptomatic or affected by other coronaviruses. Candidatus Saccharibacteria (formerly known as TM7) was strongly increased in negative controls and SARS-CoV-2 paucisymptomatic patients as compared to SARS-CoV-2 ICU patients. Other modifications were observed at a lower taxonomy level. Complete depletion of Bifidobacterium and Clostridium was exclusively observed in ICU SARS-CoV-2 patients, which was the only group characterized by the presence of Salmonella, Scardovia, Serratia and Pectobacteriaceae. In conclusion, our preliminary results showed that nasal/oropharyngeal microbiota profiles of patients affected with SARS-CoV-2 may provide valuable information in order to facilitate the stratification of patients and may open the way to new interventional strategies in order to ameliorate the outcome of the patients.


Much research focuses on the causes of weight gain, but few studies examine the perspectives of those who have been categorized as "severely obese." This paper discusses the findings of 54 interviews with weight loss surgery candidates in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. We explore participants' perspectives on their histories of weight gain, focusing on their explanations for weight gain as well as the emotions surrounding their weight gain experiences. We find that the dominant individualized, medicalized construction of obesity both (1) adds to the burden of blame for weight loss surgery candidates, with potential emotional health implications, and (2) overlooks key social determinants of health.


The present study examines the explanatory power of one value based performance measure (Economic Value Added) and three other traditional accounting measures (Earnings Per Share, Return On Investment, Return On Equity) in explaining stock market returns in the framework of Athens Stock Exchange for the period 1996-2005. Methodology is based on studies performed for the same capital market by Maditinos, Theriou and Sevic (2005; 2006), Maditinos, Sevic and Theriou G (2007), Maditinos, Sevic, Chatzoglou and Theriou (2007) and Maditinos, Sevic, Theriou and Demetriadis (2007). Results show EPS to provide the greatest value relevance in explaining stock market returns consistent with that of previous studies. Moreover, the explanatory power of the pair wise combinations of EVA with each traditional accounting performance measure is also examined. The pair wise combination of EVA with EPS grants for a significant increase of the explanatory power, compared to EPS explanatory power examined alone (from 2.9 to 7.6 per cent), in explaining stock market returns, consistent again with the previous findings.


Incorporation of diverse data sources adds value to genomic studies, especially for annotation and categorization of personal genome variants. The database for Association-Adjusted Consensus Deleterious Scheme (AACDS) and its web application deliver a novel approach to assess genetic variations based on their putative functionality. The database is built upon integrated knowledge of variant data, with the aim of relating clinical phenotypes to predictions of variant deleteriousness. The simple but interrelated queries classify each variant into an 8-level category. The categories can be ranked, enabling straight-forward interpretation of relative likelihood of functionality. The ranking thus facilitates improved efficiency in prioritizing further detailed evaluation of key variants within a personal genome. The AACDS database covers over 68 million missense variants in approximately 18,000 human genes. Given a list of genetic variants, the retrieval of the AACDS category, along with known clinical data can be performed through an intuitive search platform. Availability: The AACDS web application is publicly available at http://cig.gatech.edu/tools .


Actor-critic algorithms for reinforcement learning are achieving renewed popularity due to their good convergence properties in situations where other approaches often fail (e.g., when function approximation is involved). Interestingly, there is growing evidence that actor-critic approaches based on phasic dopamine signals play a key role in biological learning through cortical and basal ganglia loops. We derive a temporal difference based actor critic learning algorithm, for which convergence can be proved without assuming widely separated time scales for the actor and the critic. The approach is demonstrated by applying it to networks of spiking neurons. The established relation between phasic dopamine and the temporal difference signal lends support to the biological relevance of such algorithms.


A novel fiber-laser-based strain sensor is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The laser cavity is composed of a high-birefringence Sagnac fiber loop mirror (HiBi-SFLM) and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) which also acts as a strain-sensing element. In the linear region of the HiBi-SFLM reflection spectrum, when the strain applied on the FBG makes the Bragg grating wavelength shift, the laser output power changes due to reflectivity variation of the HiBi-SFLM. Experimental results show that the laser output power varies almost linearly with the applied strain. The measurement of the output power can be performed by a conventional photo-detector.


The history of fair trade is the matter of a heated debate wrapped up in differences regarding the ideals, goals and allies of a movement which has achieved highly visible successes in recent years. The emerging historiography challenges the common narrative of recent and sudden success. It draws attention to fair trade's relation to a broader tradition of consumer activism, to the diverse means and ends employed by the movement, and to the networks of people and ideas in which it operated. A review of recent historiography reveals that by a shift in emphasis away from the purported revamp of the movement in the late 1980s to a more sober and nuanced picture, the history of fair trade yields valuable insight into the postcolonial aspect of postwar globalization. Regarded as an attempt to arrive at a postcolonial world order, the history of fair trade activism provides a unique window on how 'postcolonial globalization' took shape.


Landscapes are the legacy of past environmental processes. The understanding of current environmental problems such as land degradation is strongly enhanced when trajectories of pastlandscape development are taken into account. In the Pare Mountains of north-eastern Tanzania widespread exposure of subsoil and saprolite indicates large-scale land degradation, which was advanced in the mid-19th century when the first European travellers reported widespread deforestation. The present study explores the timing, causes and consequences of past soil erosion to assess whether the spread of agriculture, large-scale iron working, or agricultural intensification during the 19th-century caravan trade were the main drivers of present day land degradation.
Geoarchaeological investigations drawing on a multi-proxy approach including pedological investigations of slope deposits and palaeoecological analysis of swamp sediments, suggest that enhanced soil erosion and corresponding accumulation of slope deposits started about 2000 years ago,
roughly contemporaneous with the arrival of new subsistence strategies like agriculture and the spread of iron working. Three distinct periods of soil erosion characterised by an increasing intensity of land use have been distinguished by macroscopic soil features and analytical measurements: Slow topsoil erosion from about 300 BC on, accelerated runoff-based erosion of subsoils since the 15th century and
ongoing land degradation under intensive agricultural land use since the 19th century. Progressive land clearance and continuous soil erosion depleted topsoil and later subsoil resources progressively, but resulted in rapid changes of environmental processes when internal thresholds were crossed. Topsoil exhaustion in the 15th century caused a shift from slow aggregate-based to accelerated runoff-based
erosion, whereas localised colluviation is identified as having dammed the Lomwe swamp in the 6th century.
This research highlights the importance of cumulative impacts of prolonged human land use, whether forest clearing or cultivation, for landscape development. Rather than abrupt climate change, the impact of slow but continuous anthropogenic degradation processes is critical when assessing longterm stability of environment systems or the sustainability of land use practices. The investigation of past soil erosion based on its corresponding terrestrial archives produces detailed, site-specific reconstructions of past environments and their dominant processes and allows conclusions about human land use practices and settlement history. This is particularly important where the
archaeological record is restricted due to anthropogenic erosion of past land surfaces.


OBJECTIVE The redox-sensitive transcription factor nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) is believed to contribute to late diabetic complications. It is unknown whether NF-kB is influenced by glycemic control. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS To determine whether NF-kB is activated in patients with insufficient glycemic control (HbA1c > 10%), we developed a tissue culture-independent electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA)-based semiquantitative detection system that allowed us to determine NF-kB activation in ex vivo-isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). We included 43 patients with type 1 diabetes in this cross-sectional study. 10 of those received the antioxidant thioctic acid (600 mg/day p.o.) for 2 weeks. RESULTS Monocytes of patients with HbA1c levels > 10% demonstrated significantly higher NF-kB binding activity in an EMSA and a stronger NF-kB staining in immunohistochemistry than monocytes of patients with HbA1c levels of 6–8%. The increase in NF-kB activation correlated with an increase in plasmatic markers of lipid peroxidation. Treatment with the antioxidant thioctic acid decreased NF-kB binding activity. CONCLUSIONS Hyperglycemia induces activation of the transcription factor NF-kB in ex vivo-isolated PBMCs of patients with type 1 diabetes. NF-kB activation is at least partially dependent on oxidative stress, since the antioxidant thioctic acid significantly lowered the extent of NF-kB binding activity.


There was a boom in the development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) after notion of sustainability became popular through Bruntland Commission's report. Since then numerous efforts have been made worldwide in constructing SDIs at global, national and local scales, but in India not a single city has registered any initiative for indicator development . Motivated by this dearth of studies added to the prevailing sustainability risks in million plus cities in India, a research is being undertaken at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India, to develop a set of sustainable indicators to study the resource dynamics of the city of Mumbai. As a first step in the process, the ground for development of SDIs is prepared through the development of a framework. A multi-view black box (MVBB) framework has been constructed by eliminating the system component from the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) and introducing three-dimensional views of economic efficiency (EE), social wellbeing (SW), and ecological acceptability (EA). Domain-based classification was adopted to facilitate a scientifically credible set of indicators. The important domain areas are identified and applying MVBB framework, a model has been developed for each domain.


Time-accurate calculations are used to investigate the three-dimensional flow structure and understand its influence on the heat transfer in a channel with concave indentations on one wall. A dimple depth to channel height ratio of 0.4 and dimple depth to imprint diameter ratio of 0.2 is used in the calculations. The Reynolds number (based on channel height) varies from Re = 280 in the laminar regime to Re = 2000 in the early turbulent regime. Fully developed flow and heat transfer conditions were assumed and a constant heat flux boundary condition was applied to the walls of the channel. In the laminar regime, the flow and heat transfer characteristics are dominated by the recirculation zones in the dimple with resulting augmentation ratios below unity. Flow transition is found to occur between Re = 1020 and 1130 after which both heat transfer and friction augmentation increase to values of 3.22 and 2.75, respectively, at Re = 2000. The presence of large scale vortical structures ejected from the dimple cavity dominate all aspects of the flow and heat transfer, not only on the dimpled surface but also on the smooth wall. In all cases the thermal efficiency using dimples was found to be significantly larger than other heat transfer augmentation techniques currently employed.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


This paper considers the selection of valid and relevant moments for the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation. For applications with many candidate moments, our asymptotic analysis ccommodates a diverging number of moments as the sample size increases. The proposed procedure achieves three objectives in one-step: (i) the valid and relevant moments are selected simultaneously rather than sequentially; (ii) all desired moments are selected together instead of in a stepwise manner; (iii) the parameter of interest is automatically estimated with all selected moments as opposed to a post-selection estimation. The new moment selection method is achieved via an information-based adaptive GMM shrinkage estimation, where an appropriate penalty is attached to the standard GMM criterion to link moment selection to shrinkage estimation. The penalty is designed to signal both moment validity and relevance for consistent moment selection and efficient estimation. The asymptotic analysis allows for non -smooth sample moments and weakly dependent observations, making it generally applicable. For practical implementation, this one-step procedure is computationally attractive.


Abstract. Cloud Fraction (CF) is the dominant modulator of radiative fluxes. In this study, we evaluate CF simulated in the IPCC AR4 GCMs against ARM long-term ground-based measurements, with a focus on the vertical structure, total amount of cloud and its effect on cloud shortwave transmissivity. Comparisons are performed for three climate regimes as represented by the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites: Southern Great Plains (SGP), Manus, Papua New Guinea and North Slope of Alaska (NSA). Our intercomparisons of three independent measurements of CF or sky-cover reveal that the relative differences are usually less than 10% (5%) for multi-year monthly (annual) mean values, while daily differences are quite significant. The total sky imager (TSI) produces smaller total cloud fraction (TCF) compared to a radar/lidar dataset for highly cloudy days (CF > 0.8), but produces a larger TCF value than the radar/lidar for less cloudy conditions (CF Both inter-model deviation and model bias against observation are investigated in this study. Another unique aspect of this study is that we use simultaneous measurements of CF and surface radiative fluxes to diagnose potential discrepancies among the GCMs in representing other cloud optical properties than TCF. The results show that the model-observation and inter-model deviations have similar magnitudes for the TCF and the normalized cloud effect, and these deviations are larger than those in surface downward solar radiation and cloud transmissivity. This implies that other dimensions of cloud in addition to cloud amount, such as cloud optical thickness and/or cloud height, have a similar magnitude of disparity as TCF within the GCMs, and suggests that the better agreement among GCMs in solar radiative fluxes could be a result of compensating effects from errors in cloud vertical structure, overlap assumption, cloud optical depth and/or cloud fraction. The internal variability of CF simulated in ensemble runs with the same model is minimal. Similar deviation patterns between inter-model and model-measurement comparisons suggest that the climate models tend to generate larger biases against observations for those variables with larger inter-model deviation. The GCM performance in simulating the probability distribution, transmissivity and vertical profiles of cloud are comprehensively evaluated over the three ARM sites. The GCMs perform better at SGP than at the other two sites in simulating the seasonal variation and probability distribution of TCF. However, the models remarkably underpredict the TCF at SGP and cloud transmissivity is less susceptible to the change of TCF than observed. In the tropics, most of the GCMs tend to underpredict CF and fail to capture the seasonal variation of CF at middle and low levels. The high-level CF is much larger in the GCMs than the observations and the inter-model variability of CF also reaches a maximum at high levels in the tropics, indicating discrepancies in the representation of ice cloud associated with convection in the models. While the GCMs generally capture the maximum CF in the boundary layer and vertical variability, the inter-model deviation is largest near the surface over the Arctic.


In an 8-year prospective study of 173 girls and their families, the authors tested predictions from J. Belsky, L. Steinberg, and P. Draper's (1991) evolutionary model of individual differences in pubertal timing. This model suggests that more negative-coercive (or less positive-harmonious) family relationships in early childhood provoke earlier reproductive development in adolescence. Consistent with the model, fathers' presence in the home, more time spent by fathers in child care, greater supportiveness in the parental dyad, more father-daughter affection, and more mother-daughter affection, as assessed prior to kindergarten, each predicted later pubertal timing by daughters in 7th grade. The positive dimension of family relationships, rather than the negative dimension, accounted for these relations. In total, the quality of fathers' investment in the family emerged as the most important feature of the proximal family environment relative to daughters' pubertal timing.


Populating a small town in the Pacific Northwest, the characters in Lucia Perillo's story collection all resist giving the world what it expects of them and are surprised when the world comes roaring back. An addict trapped in a country house becomes obsessed with vacuum cleaners and the people who sell them door-to-door. An abandoned woman seeks consolation in tales of armed robbery told by one of her fellow suburban housewives. An accidental mother struggles to answer her daughter's badgering about her paternity. And in three stories readers meet Louisa, a woman with Down syndrome who serves as an accomplice to her younger sister's sexual exploits and her aging mother's fantasies of revenge. Together, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain is a sharp-edged, witty testament to the ambivalence of emotions, the way they pull in directions that often cancel one another out or twist their subjects into knots. In lyrical prose, Perillo draws on her training as a naturalist and a poet to map the terrain of the comic and the tragic, asking how we draw the boundaries between these two zones. What's funny, what's heartbreaking, and who gets to decide?