BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Identifying the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity requires understanding of how evolutionary processes interact with abiotic conditions to structure communities. Edaphic gradients are strongly associated with floristic patterns but, compared with climatic gradients, have received relatively little attention. We asked (1) How does the phylogenetic composition of palm communities vary along edaphic gradients within major habitat types? and (2) To what extent are phylogenetic patterns determined by (a) habitat specialists, (b) small versus large palms, and (c) hyperdiverse genera?

METHODS
We paired data on palm community composition from 501 transects of 0.25 ha located in two main habitat types (non-inundated uplands and seasonally inundated floodplains) in western Amazonian rain forests with information on soil chemistry, climate, phylogeny and metrics of plant size. We focused on exchangeable base concentration (cmol+ kg-1) as a metric of soil fertility and a floristic index of inundation intensity. We used a null model approach to quantify the standard effect size of mean phylogenetic distance for each transect (a metric of phylogenetic community composition) and related this value to edaphic variables using generalized linear mixed models, including a term for spatial autocorrelation.

KEY RESULTS
Overall, we recorded 112 008 individuals belonging to 110 species. Palm communities in non-inundated upland transects (but not floodplain transects) were more phylogenetically clustered in areas of low soil fertility, measured as exchangeable base concentration. In contrast, floodplain transects with more severe flood regimes (as inferred from floristic structure) tended to be phylogenetically clustered. Nearly half of the species recorded (44 %) were upland specialists while 18 % were floodplain specialists. In both habitat types, phylogenetic clustering was largely due to the co-occurrence of small-sized habitat specialists belonging to two hyperdiverse genera (Bactris and Geonoma).

CONCLUSIONS
Edaphic conditions are associated with the phylogenetic community structure of palms across western Amazonia, and different factors (specifically, soil fertility and inundation intensity) appear to underlie diversity patterns in non-inundated upland versus floodplain habitats. By linking edaphic gradients with palm community phylogenetic structure, our study reinforces the need to integrate edaphic conditions in eco-evolutionary studies in order to better understand the processes that generate and maintain tropical forest diversity. Our results suggest a role for edaphic niche conservatism in the evolution and distribution of Amazonian palms, a finding with potential relevance for other clades.


For this report, we studied the conventional karyotype and the NOR-bearing chromosomes in the toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus . We found a karyotype of 46 chromosomes made up of 8 metacentric, 12 submetacentric, and 26 acrocentric elements (FN = 66). No heteromorphic sex chromosomes were observed in the species. Metacentric chromosomes were easily classified as homologous pairs according to their morphology and L/S ratio. The rest of the chromosomes could not be accurately classified as homologous pairs because differences in chromosome size and L/S ratio were too slight between adjacent pairs within a size-ranged series. A single pair of NOR-bearing chromosomes was found. Active NORs were terminally located in a submetacentric pair of chromosomes.


Glass is a brittle material and any damage or modification of its surface may have a profound impact on the strength. To modify the glass surface, the precision of the instrument is determining for achieving the most reliable results. Nowadays, laser technology as a non-contact tool is employed as a glass cutting, drilling and holing tool in many applications such as sensors and optical communications. Along with high speed, flexibility, and scalability, lasers with short pulse duration can break the interatomic bonds before perturbing the lattice. Among lasers, excimer micromachining lasers have some advantages in terms of surface morphology, including depth control, edge quality, and minimizing peripheral thermal damage as the ablation process is more likely to be material-removing instead of heating. This article aims to examine the interaction of krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser with the soda-lime silica (SLS) glass by fabricating grooves and microholes.


This chapter examines the key features of modern democracy, as well as its origins. It first explains what democracy means in the field of comparative politics, before discussing different models of democracy, including presidential democracy, parliamentary democracy, and democracies oriented towards consensus or majoritarian rule. It then describes the conditions—economic and political, domestic, and international—that allow some countries to become democratic but preserve others under the rule of dictatorships. In particular, it analyses the variables that facilitate the democratization of dictatorships and the factors that place democracies at risk of becoming authoritarian regimes. Finally, it reflects on the future of democracy and looks at the challenges that lie ahead for new generations of citizens.


A variety of frameworks to analyse gender relations are used in development work. They can be helpful tools in planning gender-sensitive research projects, or in designing development interventions which address gender inequalities. Drawing on the experience of trainers and practitioners, this book contains step-by-step instructions for using different gender-analysis frameworks, and summaries of their advantages and disadvantages in particular situations. An introductory section explains the importance of gender analysis, and the role of the frameworks in development initiatives and research.


Elizabeth Bishop is one of the greatest and most influential American poets of the 20th century. First published in hardback in 1998, "Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop" is a highly illuminating reader's guide written by another leading poet, which makes full use of the letters Elizabeth Bishop wrote to Anne Stevenson from Brazil in the 1960s. Anne Stevenson is a major American and British poet who has published many books of poetry, including her "Poems 1955-2005" in 2005. Her other books include "Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath" (1989), the first critical study of "Elizabeth Bishop" (1966), and a book of essays, "Between the Iceberg and the Ship" (1998). Each of her five chapters looks at a different aspect of Bishop's art. "In the Waiting Room" links her life-long search for self-placement to her unsettled childhood. "Time's Andromeda" shows how a youthful fascination with 17th-century baroque art ripened, in the 1930s, into a unique brand of metaphysical surrealism. "Living with the Animals" considers ways in which Bishop, like Walt Whitman, deserted the literary mode of the fable to give autonomy and authority to natural creatures. Two final chapters focus on the poet's Darwinian acceptance of evolutionary change and her steady look at the 'geographical mirror' that in her later work replaced the figure of the looking-glass as an emblem of imagination. "Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop" represents a view of her work Bishop herself would have recognised and approved. A chronology and a set of maps serve as practical guides to the poet's life and travels. 'A compelling book; patiently and intelligently, Stevenson elucidates and illuminates her subject, relating work and life with exemplary tact. I read it with mounting excitement and, ultimately, gratitude. In a healthy culture, it would be a bestseller' - Lachlan Mackinnon, "Thumbscrew". 'Biography and close reading of Bishop's poems and prose...complement each other in [this study] which must surely be the best available introduction to that marvellous poet' - John Mole, "TLS".


The all-distances sketch (ADS) has recently emerged as a promising paradigm of graph neighborhood sketching. An ADS is a probabilistic data structure that is defined for each vertex of a graph. ADSs facilitate accurate estimation of many useful indicators for network analysis with the guarantee of accuracy, and the ADSs for all the vertices in a graph can be computed in near-linear time. Because of these useful properties, ADS has attracted considerable attention. However, a critical drawback of ADS is its space requirement, which tends to be much larger than that of the graph itself. In the present study, we address this issue by designing a new graph sketching scheme, namely, sketch retrieval shortcuts (SRS). Although SRSs are more space-efficient than ADSs by an order of magnitude, an ADS of any vertex can be quickly retrieved from the SRSs. The retrieved ADSs can be used to estimate the aforementioned indicators in exactly the same manner as with plain ADSs, inheriting the same accuracy guarantee. Our experiments on real-world networks demonstrate the usefulness of SRSs as a practical back-end of large-scale graph data mining.


At first sight, biological organisms appear as harmonious entities, armed with features exquisitely fine-tuned to its survival and reproduction. This is no accident: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection entails that genes spread through populations, exactly because they contribute to organismal fitness. However, biologists are uncovering ever more cases of genetic entities, so called drive genes, that are at odds with the notion of the organism as the (sole) fitness-maximising agent. By violating the Mendelian rules of inheritance, drive genes successfully spread through populations, often despite detrimental consequences for their carriers. The t haplotype in house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) is the paradigm example of a drive element. This cluster of genes, occupying about one third of mouse chromosome 17, is fatal to the fitness of its hosts: t/t homozygotes die from recessive lethal mutations during embryogenesis. On its own, this would predict immediate extinction of the t haplotype. Yet, t haplotypes systematically manipulate gametogenesis in their favour. As a result +/t heterozygous males transmit the t haplotype, instead of the usual 50%, to up to 90% of their progeny. This selfish disruption of the fair Mendelian ratios has allowed t haplotypes to spread through house mouse populations around the world in spite of the harm they incur to the individuals and populations harbouring them. The stable presence of a drive gene has profound evolutionary consequences. Once the 'fair' rules of meiosis have failed at maintaining the integrity and function of the organism, we expect selection on the organism to evolve other measures to suppress drive element's selfish acts. For example, it has been suggested that females may avoid fertilisation by t haplotype carrying sperm, because such avoidance will protect her offspring form the t related fitness costs. Two mechanisms of sexual selection against drive genes have received particular attention in the literature. First, females could avoid t fertilisation by avoiding t-haplotype-carrying males prior to mating. Second, females could avoid t fertilisation by systematically mating with several males (termed polyandry). This second hypothesis is based on the premise that drive-carrying males are compromised in their sperm competitive ability. In this thesis, I have investigated the joint evolution of a gene drive and the female mating behaviour. Using a variety of methodological approaches, ranging from theoretical modelling to laboratory experiments to data analysis from a natural population, I have addressed the following two questions. (1) How does female mating behaviour affect the frequency dynamics of a drive gene? Understanding the evolutionary forces that determine the frequency of drive genes in natural populations is a long-standing focus of evolutionary biology. In the case of the t haplotype, naturally observed frequencies are typically much lower than expected based on drive and homozygote lethality alone (this discrepancy between the standard model and data has been termed 'the t frequency paradox'). In this dissertation, I show that the inclusion of female mating behaviour to the standard model, polyandry in particular, greatly improves our t frequency predictions and can largely explain the low t frequencies observed in nature. In a mate choice experiment, we show that females are indeed able to avoid fertilisation by drive-carrying males. The absence of clear social preferences during the choice test suggested that this fertilisation bias is largely driven by polyandry and subsequent sperm competitive effects. The importance of sperm competitive effects was corroborated in a second study. Here, we provide direct evidence that t carrying males are heavily compromised in their sperm competitive ability. Accordingly, t-carrying males only sired 19% of offspring when competing fertilisation with a wild-type male. We further show that this disadvantage has direct implications on population t frequencies. We found that in a selection experiment, where mice were kept under strictly monogamous or polyandrous conditions over the course of 20 generations, t frequencies have significantly decreased in the polyandrous selection lines, while remaining constant and high in the monogamous lines. For the first time in any drive system, we provide evidence that such sperm competitive effects are directly relevant under natural conditions. In an intensively monitored house mouse population outside Zurich, we found that the reproductive success of t males was particularly strongly affected by sperm competition. Moreover, females are highly polyandrous: over 47% of litters born during the 4.5 year observation period were sired by more than one father. In line with the 'polyandry hypothesis', we observe a decline in population t frequencies during the investigation period. (2) How does the presence of drive gene affect the evolution of female mating behaviour? Understanding the evolutionary forces that drive the evolution of female mating behaviour (such as mate choice and polyandry) is a highly debated topic in evolutionary research. It has been hypothesised that mate choice and/or polyandry is beneficial to females because they will result in fertilisation by males of a high genetic quality ('good genes' or 'good sperm' hypotheses). Yet conventional genetic mechanisms are usually insufficient to maintain variation in male genetic quality, thereby rendering any form of choice obsolete (this problem is generally known as the 'lek paradox'). Using a theoretical model, we show here that the presence of a drive gene can greatly facilitate the evolution of female choice, even in circumstances where such a choice is associated with direct fitness costs. First, costly drive-male avoidance is beneficial to females because it helps them avoid drive related fitness costs. Second, costly drive-male avoidance is evolutionarily stable, because gene drive maintains variation in male genetic quality at equilibrium. As a result, the lek paradox is largely avoided. Despite this compelling theoretical argument, we have found little evidence that the presence of the t haplotype has triggered the evolution of female drive avoidance in the circumstances considered here. While polyandry helped females avoid t related litter losses in the laboratory, we find no signs of selection on polyandry rates under natural conditions. Moreover, we find little evidence that polyandry is heritable. Thus, even in the case of drive-triggered selection on polyandry, it is unlikely that the trait would respond to selection.


In this paper, we propose an Autocorrelation method for measuring the angle of arrival (AoA) of a weak LoRa signal. A weak LoRa signal has a negative SNR down to −20 dB. The objective is to detect a LoRa signal that operates at low transmission power (TX). Operating at low transmission power (TX) reduces power consumption and extends the battery life of LoRa devices. Besides, the transmission of weak signals strengthens the radio communication protocol, preventing an enemy device from accessing the location coordinates. The detecting algorithm consists of finding Autocorrelation peaks of the LoRa signal. We show that Autocorrelation peaks decrease when the signal is buried in the noise. However, using a large number of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) will increase the Autocorrelation peaks and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Once the peak of the LoRa signal is detected under the noise, the algorithm will calculate the AoA. All of the proposed algorithms are implemented using a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), Software Defined Radio (SDR) receiver with the help of GNU Radio software. We, therefore, believe that our Autocorrelation method can detect the LoRa signal accurately and measure the AoA at very low SNR in real_ time being usable for indoor positionning.


Maternal satisfaction is a means of evaluating quality of maternal health care given in health facilities. The objective  was to assess the level of maternal  satisfaction and associated factors  at  Asrade Zewude Memorial Primary Hospital. Cross-sectional study was conducted on 420 clients by systematic sampling method from February 8, 2017 to September 25, 2017. Structured questionnaire that was prepared by Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health was used. Pre-testing was done prior to the actual data collection process on a sample of 20 respondents and modified accordingly. The study was approved by Asrade Zewude Memorial Primary Hospital Senior Management Committee. The collected data were checked for completeness and consistency before being coded, entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Logistic regression was used to assess the presence of association between dependent and independent variables using SPSS at 95% confidence interval (CI) and 5% margin of error. The study revealed that level of satisfaction among delivering mothers was 88%. Educational level (AOR=2.15, 95% CI=[1.02-3.71]), access to ambulance service (AOR=3.15, 95% CI=[1.02-3.78]), respectful delivery service (AOR=6.85, 95% CI=[4.35-6.95]), welcoming hospital environment (AOR=3.09, 95%CI=[2.30-2.69]), proper labor pain management (AOR=4.51, 95% CI=[3.12-5.01]) and listening to their questions (AOR=3.95, 95% CI=[2.35-4.36]) were independent predictors for maternal satisfaction. Even though most of the participants were satisfied, they still had unmet needs and expectations in the delivery service provider. The identified main determinants were level of education, access to ambulance service, welcoming hospital environment, proper pain management and listening to their questions. Therefore, there is need to improve the care given to maternity and appropriate strategy should be designed to address the unmet  needs of  mothers delivered  in the hospital.

 Key words: Maternal satisfaction, associated factors, delivery, West  Gojjam Zone, Ethiopia.


The selective use of chemical products plays an important role in increasing production, improving the quality of Queensland's agricultural produce and enabling producers to earn reasonable returns on their investments. Effective pest management, therefore, helps deliver high quality, healthy and affordable food for all consumers. The efficiency of policy tools such as chemical use licensing hinges critically on supply-side knowledge levels. Although licence applications are available online, information can be difficult to find and often businesses need to contact the state authority to seek further assistance in completing their licence applications. The aim of this study is therefore to identify the benefits for the users of agricultural chemicals from improvements in licensing application process. Based on a rigorous literature review and statistical analysis of available data, this study modelled the per day/per application value of the use of crop protection products in Queensland. Results indicate a potential saving by farmers due to a faster process for chemical licence applications. Extreme values of these savings range from $87 thousand to $52 million per annum, with actual ones falling in between depending on the coincidence and level of individual risk factors. Since the chemicals subject to licensing are used beyond agriculture and are utilised not only for crop protection, the results of this analysis are thus underestimated, which implies even greater benefits for the economy. It therefore seems important to update the current licence application platform so that applicants can lodge their application in a more user-friendly and synchronised manner.


A digital picture frame has a frame bounding a touch screen that presents a user interface having first and second arcs of selector elements. The first are of selector elements is manipulable to establish an input genre root, and the second arc is manipulable to select an input branching from a genre root selected using an element in the first group. The arcs are rotatable to reveal previously unpresented selector elements when a person moves a hand along the respective arc.


Purpose. The task of the operational distribution of train traffic volume on the sections of operating domain is the optimization one. It is solved in the operational conditions by the dispatch station. The article sets the problem of formalizing and finding the new ways to solve this urgent problem. Methodology. A new approach to solving the problem of operational distribution of train traffic volume on the sections of the rail network with a choice of routes for all train traffics was proposed. Findings. A study of possible routes for the train traffic handle on the operating domain used for mass freight transportations between Krivyi Rih and Donbas was carried out. The use of the proposed method allowed us to obtain a rational distribution of trains on the rail network sections. Originality. The method of train traffic volume distribution in the network under operational conditions was improved. The method, as opposed to the current one allows one to select the route of separate units handle (according to the criteria of the weighted average cost for 1 ton of cargo). Practical value. The use of the proposed technology of the operational distribution of train traffic volume will increase the efficiency of the railways in general and ensure the competitiveness of rail transportations. The methodology implementation involves the use of railway dispatch station for the automated workplaces with appropriate informational support.


Riparian invertebrate communities occupy a dynamic ecotone where hydrogeomorphological (e.g. river flows) and ecological (e.g. succession) processes may govern assemblage structure by filtering species according to their traits (e.g. dispersal capacity, niche). We surveyed terrestrial invertebrate assemblages (millipedes, carabid beetles, spiders) in 28 river islands across four river catchments over 2 years. We predicted that distinct ecological niches would produce taxon‐specific responses of abundance and species richness to: (i) disturbance from episodic floods, (ii) island area, (iii) island vegetation structure, and (iv) landscape structure. We also predicted that responses would differ according to species' dispersal ability (aerial vs. terrestrial only), indicating migration was sustaining community structure. Invertebrate abundance and richness was affected by different combinations of vegetation structure, island area, and flood disturbance according to species' dispersal capacity. Carabid abundance related negatively to episodic floods, particularly for flightless species, but the other taxa were insensitive to this disturbance. Larger islands supported greater abundance of carabids and all invertebrates able to disperse aerially. Vegetation structure, particularly tree canopy density and plant richness, related positively to invertebrate abundance across all taxa and aerial dispersers, whereas terrestrial disperser richness related positively to tree cover. Landscape structure did not influence richness or abundance. Multiple ecological processes govern riparian invertebrate assemblages. Overall insensitivity to flood disturbance and responses contingent on dispersal mode imply that spatial dynamics subsidise the communities through immigration. Particular habitat features (e.g. trees, speciose vegetation) may provide refuges from disturbance and concentration of niches and food resources.


This paper offers a theoretical 'action research spiral' model to guide reflection on the dual client focus of action research. While theoretically exploring and highlighting the tensions and dilemmas created by this dual client focus, this paper will argue for a greater degree of reflection on action research practice and utilize vignettes from action research cases to illustrate those reflective processes. It is concluded that further discussion and reflection on the process of action research is an important component of social science's contribution to phronetic knowledge. I saw the University as helping us to reflect on what we are doing—they are the expert reflectors. This is particularly what I saw as X's role. Sometimes his interjections go above their heads and his 'nine words or less' statements need to have some explanation, and I should feed this back to him. I also see the University as playing a visionary role, helping to show us new things about what is possible. I don't see the University as helping to pull the team together—that is when it gets confusing. They are observing us, they are looking at us as the rats, and when they see something that they think needs to be addressed, they can feed this back to us—and this is where teaching and formal learning comes in. This is a difficult role for the University. I can see some of the University people just squirming—you can see it in their face that they want to intervene. They know something about what we are doing but are not imparting the knowledge. This can piss people off. They are withholding what they know and not helping. But it can also piss people off if they come in too early and tell us what is going on and what to do and not let us wallow around for a while, and learn. This is what I see as a major problem for the University. As you observe us, at what point do you reflect the learning and feedback, and yet not prostitute the learning or dirty the data. …We are the rats, the factory is your laboratory. But when we are looking at the role of the University, you are the rats. (Plant Manager and Industry Sponsor of an Action Research Project, 2000)


Effect of surface irregularities on defect nucleation and development in thick epitaxial layers of 4H-SiC has been investigated. It has been shown that during growth extended defects may undergo transformation and thus stacking faults can be formed, which is favored in thicker layers (e.g. 50mum). Network of misfit dislocations appears if the initial surface has a certain critical roughness and a lower surface energy. Evidence has been presented that well ordered graphite layer might form on the substrates during the preheating stage prior to growth via sublimation.


Rosalind P. Gray. Russian Genre Painting in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford Historical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. xx, 216 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Cloth.The visual arts of nineteenth-century Russia have attracted, and it must be admitted have deserved, far less international recognition than its literature or music, and this is particularly true of the painting that preceded the dramatic emergence of the Peredvizhniki in the 1860s and 1870s. Since this study, despite its title, covers only the first three quarters of the century, and excludes the Peredvizhniki, the author is necessarily dealing with a mass of unfamiliar facts and relatively obscure personalities. It is something of a triumph therefore that she succeeds in making her material both accessible and engaging.One of the keys to this success, certainly, is the clear and effective organization that characterizes both individual chapters-most of which begin with a preview and end with a summary of the often rather dense content-and also the work as a whole. The book opens with an introduction that sets painting, and specifically genre painting, in the context of Russian cultural and social life and also establishes the two related polarities that run through subsequent chapters like a leitmotif: Western versus Slavophile orientation on the one hand, and Academic idealization versus contemporary, often socially critical realism on the other. The author emphasizes, however, that these are often not clear cut opposites but rather distinct, though constantly interwoven threads.The first chapter traces the history of collecting in Russia. Imperial and aristocratic patronage favored Western art, including, a substantial component of seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting, and was centered in St. Petersburg. Muscovite collectors generally started later, came from the merchant and industrial class and preferred native talent. The presence of an artwork in Russia did not, of course, necessarily make it available to the public. A visit to the Hermitage, for instance, required a black frock coat and white gloves.As the first chapter surveys the visual resources available to Russian artists, the second explores the intellectual currents that influenced them. Discussion of the arts in the periodical press became increasingly lively as the century progressed, and major Russian writers, such as Aleksandr Herzen, Vissarion Belinsky, Nikolai Chernyshevksy and Nikolai Dobrolyubov, advocated for a culture that would be both national and socially relevant. …


Background: Being world's largest outreach program targeting infants & children below six years of age, expectants & nursing mothers, ICDS has generated interest worldwide amongst academician, planners, policy makers, administrators & those responsible for implementation. Consequently, many research studies have been conducted to evaluate & assess impact of program. The need for revitalization of ICDS has already been recommended toward better maternal and child health especially in rural areas. Inspite of repeated measures to enhance effectivity of ICDS program, impact is not observed as desired by policy makers or administrators. And hence knowledge of AWWs regarding ICDS program can be assessed & evaluated so that some of attributable reasons may be pointed out. Hence present study was undertaken to find out knowledge of AWW. Aim & Objectives: The AIM is to find out knowledge of Anganwadi Workers under ICDS with regards to ECD. Materials and Methods: This was a community based Cross-Sectional study, carried out at Seloo block of Wardha district, having total under five population approx. 7634. Study participants included 167 AWWs were included in the study. The study period was one year. Data were double entered and analysed in Microsoft excel (2007). The quantitative data was presented as proportion or mean with SD. Chi square test of significance was used wherever appropriate. Results: Shows that maximum no. of AWW (37.72%) were non matriculate. AWW with SSC and HSC qualification were 22.76% & 29.34% respectively. 64% AWW were Trained workers, 19% AWW received revised training while 17% were untrained workers. Conclusions: AWWs are actually the main resource person of the program and whose knowledge and skills do have a direct impact on the implementation of the programme. As the Anganwadi Workers play an important role due to their close and continuous contact with the people of community, especially the children and women, so there is an utmost need to assess their knowledge and the level of awareness regarding services provided by them in Anganwadi Centres.


We present simulations of binary black-hole mergers in which, after the common outer horizon has formed, the marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs) corresponding to the individual black holes continue to approach and eventually penetrate each other. This has very interesting consequences according to recent results in the theory of MOTSs. Uniqueness and stability theorems imply that two MOTSs which touch with a common outer normal must be identical. This suggests a possible dramatic consequence of the collision between a small and large black hole. If the penetration were to continue to completion, then the two MOTSs would have to coalesce, by some combination of the small one growing and the big one shrinking. Here we explore the relationship between theory and numerical simulations, in which a small black hole has halfway penetrated a large one.


A broadband (5-500 Hz) all-fiber-optic accelerometer was developed on the basis of Michelson interferometry, which is realized by a 3-dB single-mode fiber-optic beam splitter. On the distal endface of both interferometric arms of the splitter high-reflectance aluminum films were directly deposited to act as reflecting mirrors. The performance of a prototype of the accelerometer is examined. The results reveal that external stimuli can be truly sensed by the accelerometer, and the constraint level on lateral movement of the acceleration-sensitive mass is an important factor in determining the useful frequency bandwidth. The experimental results are compared with theoretical predictions.


Technological change is one of the key driving forces behind economic growth. In this process, the diffusion of new technologies plays a vital role. In particular, the early stages of diffusion, in which knowledge is created and transferred for wider industrial use, are seen as crucial to the broader societal impact of technologies. Therefore, it is essential to understand how technologies diffuse from academia to industry, and to highlight different factors that facilitate or hinder the diffusion process. This thesis addresses the diffusion of nanotechnology and biotechnology in four articles, each highlighting a specific and critical part of the early-stage diffusion process. The first article focuses on the variety of outcomes that university researchers achieve when interacting with companies. It identifies whether a researchers boundary-spanning position in research collaboration networks is connected with these outcomes. The results suggest that university-industry interaction leads to both tangible and intangible outcomes and that boundary-spanning plays a role in achieving them. The second article highlights the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of the transferred technology. It compares the specificities of nanotechnology to other science-based technologies such as biotechnology. The empirical results indicate that nanotechnology differs from other science-based technologies in only a few dimensions of technology transfer related to the basic research orientation of nanotechnology. The third article emphasises the role of smaller technology-dedicated companies in the diffusion process. The paper highlights the importance of understanding the economic value of the patent portfolio of biotechnology-dedicated companies with respect to the companies future growth expectations. The results indicate that there exists a positive connection between growth expectations and the value of patent portfolios; this value could be signalled to external financiers. The fourth article identifies links between smaller technology-dedicated companies and larger established companies. The latter may act as industrialists when introducing new science-based products and processes to the market. The results of this paper identify several potential diffusion channels for nanotechnology in both traditional and high-tech industries. The articles provide implications for research, policy and practice. The key implications relate to the role of interdisciplinarity as an important ingredient in producing more industry related knowledge, the technology specificity of the technology transfer process and the different roles smaller and larger companies have in technology diffusion.


Although securities fraud class actions are a well-established legal institution, few (if any) such actions in fact meet the requirements of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for certification as a class action. Among other things, Rule 23 requires the court to find that the representative plaintiff will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class and that a class action is superior to other means of resolving the dispute.In the typical securities fraud case, the plaintiff class consists of investors who buy the subject stock at a time when the defendant corporation has negative material information that should be publicly disclosed. When the truth comes out, stock price declines, and those who bought during the fraud period sue the corporation for damages equal to the difference between the price they paid and the price at which the stock finally settles. Only buyers have standing to sue in such circumstances. Mere holders have no claim.The problem is that most buyers are also holders. Most investors are well diversified. More than two-thirds of all stock is held through mutual funds, pension plans, and other institutional investors, who trade mostly for purposes of portfolio balancing. As a result, most of the buyers in the plaintiff class will also be holders as to more shares than the number of shares bought during the fraud period. Because the defendant corporation pays any settlement – further reducing the value of the corporation and its stock price through what I call feedback damages – most of the plaintiff class will lose more as holders than they gain as buyers. Thus, many members of the plaintiff class would prefer that the action be dismissed. It is therefore impossible for anyone to be an adequate representative of a class composed of both members who support the action and members who oppose the action. Even if a court would permit a plaintiff class to be gerrymandered to include only those buyers who would gain more than they lose, there is no practical way to identify such investors.In addition, it is likely that in most meritorious securities fraud actions, part of the decrease in stock price will come from expenses associated with defending and settling the securities fraud claim and from harm to the reputation of the defendant company resulting in an increase in its cost of capital. But these claims are derivative rather than direct. Accordingly, it is the corporation – and not individual buyers – who should recover for this portion of the damages. Aside from the fact that such claims are derivative in nature and presumably must be litigated as such, a derivative action is clearly superior to a class action because recovery by the corporation from individual wrongdoers – rather than payment by the corporation to buyers – eliminates feedback damages and thus reduces the size of the aggregate claim. Moreover, a derivative action is much more efficient in that there is a single plaintiff – the corporation – rather than hundreds or thousands of individual buyers. Finally, policy considerations also militate against certification. Diversified investors are hedged against securities fraud by virtue of being diversified and have no need for a remedy. A diversified investor is just as likely to sell a fraud-affected stock as to buy one. It all comes out in the wash. Thus, the expenses associated with securities fraud class actions are a deadweight loss that serves only to reduce investor return. Because the vast majority of investors are diversified – and because it is irrational for most investors not to diversify – the interests of diversified investors should trump those of any undiversified investors who would favor a class action remedy. Moreover, class actions constitute excessive deterrence, whereas derivative actions provide a response that is proportional to the true harm suffered by investors. Diversified investors are completely protected against any true loss by the prospect of derivative litigation, which also provides an effective deterrent against securities fraud.In short, when faced with a motion to certify a securities fraud action as a class action, a court should ordinarily treat the action as derivative and proceed accordingly. To be clear, this approach would effectively abolish securities fraud class actions and replace them with derivative actions. But as demonstrated here, investors would be better off as a result.


We formulate a set of linear equations that describe the behaviour of small eccentricities in a protoplanetary system consisting of a gaseous disc and a planet. Eccentricity propagates through the disc by means of pressure and self-gravity, and is exchanged with the planet via secular interactions. Excitation and damping of eccentricity can occur through Lindblad and corotation resonances, as well as viscosity. We compute normal modes of the coupled disc-planet system in the case of short-period giant planets orbiting inside an inner cavity, possibly carved by the stellar magnetosphere. Three-dimensional effects allow for a mode to be trapped in the inner parts of the disc. This mode can easily grow within the disc's lifetime. An eccentric mode dominated by the planet can also grow, although less rapidly. We compute the structure and growth rates of these modes and their dependence on the assumed properties of the disc.


Oral tolerance is a major immunological property of the gastrointestinal mucosa. It plays a critical role in immune defence by preventing inflammatory and allergic responses to dietary and non pathogenic microbial antigens. The interest in oral tolerance has been renewed in the recent years, due to novel insights on its cellular mechanisms and potential clinical applications in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Oral Tolerance: Cellular and Molecular Basis, Clinical Aspects, and Therapeutic Potential, has been designed as a concise yet comprehensive overview of the newest fundamental and clinical advances in the field. Based on the outstanding contribution of world experts, this book will be helpful to students, clinicians, and researchers working in mucosal immunology and gastroenterology. The first part of this volume describes the structure and functions of the gastrointestinal mucosa and the fundamental features and mechanisms of oral tolerance, including the role of T cells, cytokines, IgA antibodies, and bacterial antigens. The second part explores the clinical implications of the disruption of oral tolerance in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, food and milk allergies, and coeliac disease in particular. The final chapter focuses on the clinical potential of oral tolerance as a promising therapeutic tool.


Abstract. Chemistry-transport models involve considerable computational expense. Fine temporal resolution offers accuracy at the expense of computation time. Assessment is needed of the sensitivity of simulation accuracy to the duration of chemical and transport operators. We conduct a series of simulations with the GEOS-Chem chemistry-transport model at different temporal and spatial resolutions to examine the sensitivity of simulated atmospheric composition to operator duration. Subsequently, we compare the species simulated with operator durations from 10 to 60 min as typically used by global chemistry-transport models, and identify the operator durations that optimize both computational expense and simulation accuracy. We find that longer continuous transport operator duration increases concentrations of emitted species such as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide since a more homogeneous distribution reduces loss through chemical reactions and dry deposition. The increased concentrations of ozone precursors increase ozone production with longer transport operator duration. Longer chemical operator duration decreases sulfate and ammonium but increases nitrate due to feedbacks with in-cloud sulfur dioxide oxidation and aerosol thermodynamics. The simulation duration decreases by up to a factor of 5 from fine (5 min) to coarse (60 min) operator duration. We assess the change in simulation accuracy with resolution by comparing the root mean square difference in ground-level concentrations of nitrogen oxides, secondary inorganic aerosols, ozone and carbon monoxide with a finer temporal or spatial resolution taken as "truth". Relative simulation error for these species increases by more than a factor of 5 from the shortest (5 min) to longest (60 min) operator duration. Chemical operator duration twice that of the transport operator duration offers more simulation accuracy per unit computation. However, the relative simulation error from coarser spatial resolution generally exceeds that from longer operator duration; e.g., degrading from 2°  ×  2.5° to 4°  ×  5° increases error by an order of magnitude. We recommend prioritizing fine spatial resolution before considering different operator durations in offline chemistry-transport models. We encourage chemistry-transport model users to specify in publications the durations of operators due to their effects on simulation accuracy.


Abstract Although direct predator-prey interactions are unobservable in the fossil record, predation has been used to explain many evolutionary trends. Evidence of predation supporting such hypotheses is often presented as isolated instances of preserved sublethal damage, and less commonly, as the frequency of such injuries. For instance, numerous morphological and ecological trends and innovations observed in Phanerozoic crinoids have been causally linked to predation, and whereas the high frequency of arm regeneration in living crinoids is generally assumed to represent intense predation, attempts to assess regeneration frequency and patterns in paleontological samples are few. Can the frequency of fossil injuries be assessed to test hypothesized predation-driven trends, or are such data unavailable? To address this question, we analyzed regeneration in crinoids from the lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian) Maynes Creek Formation near Le Grand, Iowa, a locality renowned for the preservation of thousands of crinoids in tangled masses of crowns, stalks, and holdfasts. Nine percent of the specimens that we examined contained at least one regenerating arm; however, whereas some species lacked evidence of regeneration, others preserved up to 27% arm regeneration. Furthermore, we observed specimens with all arms regenerating, multiple adjacent arms regenerating from the same place along the arm, and a specimen with a damaged and regenerated primaxil and anal sac. The highest regeneration frequency was observed in the most abundant species, Rhodocrinites kirbyi, a significantly higher value than expected under a model of no taxonomic selectivity (binomial: p < 0.05). Furthermore, bootstrapped simulations of the probable number of regenerated individuals suggest that the number of regenerated arms observed in our sample is two to three times less than what existed in the living population. Rhodocrinites kirbyi constituted over 40% of the individuals in the Le Grand crinoid fauna and had the longest stalk of the studied species. In addition, regeneration in R. kirbyi is size related, with individuals above median dorsal cup height (7 mm) displaying nearly 50% regeneration, and smaller individuals only 2% (a statistically significant difference; χ2 test: p < 0.001). The regeneration patterns in R. kirbyi are consistent with predatory attacks that target the most apparent prey. Moreover, this study suggests that predation is the most likely explanation for the regeneration patterns observed in Le Grand crinoids, and that the fossil record potentially provides a valuable, yet overlooked, data source for testing hypotheses pertinent to the role of predation in the evolution of Phanerozoic marine life.


Boscan before Petrarch. The project of an impossible canzoniere In this article we analyse Boscan's poems contained in «Libro II» (Second Book) of the Obras de Boscan y algunas de Garcilaso de la Vega (Barcelona, Carles Amoros, 1543) throughout an ethical and spiritual point of view, as well as it stands out in Petrarch's Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta. In this part of his cancionero, Boscan imitates the italian Poet, but his poems in their combination are far enough from Petrarch's spiritual perspective. In particular, imitatio styli doesn't match with imitatio vitae, and the spanish poet only reproduces formal and stylistic features as well as some literary motives of petrarchan Can zoniere, without really endorsing RVF moral structure, that culminates with the christian conversion of the poet and the abandonment of secular love.


The study considers the topic of linguistic register by examining how schoolchildren, adolescents, and adults vary the texts that they construct across the dimensions of modality (spoken/written discourse) and genre (narrative/expository discourse). Although register variation is presumably universal, it is realized in language-specific ways, and so our analysis focuses on Israeli Hebrew, a language that evolved under peculiar socio-historical circumstances. An original procedure for characterizing register — as low, neutral, or high — was applied to four text types produced by the same speaker-writers. We found that across all age groups, "neutral" items constituted the bulk of the material, and that the lexicon accounted for some 80% of variation. Developmentally, we found that acquisition of fully flexible register variation continues beyond adolescence. Finally, we observed that text types range on a cline from everyday colloquial usage in oral narratives to more formal, high-level language in written expository essays. These results are discussed in light of their implications for the nature of register variation, later language development, and the sociolinguistics of contemporary Hebrew.


Coronary artery bypass graft surgery remains the procedure of choice to revas-cularize patients with complex multivessel coronary artery disease. The left internal thoracic artery and saphenous vein are the most commonly utilized conduits in coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The left internal thoracic artery is widely accepted as the conduit of choice for coronary artery bypass grafting. Accumulated evidence in recent years has demonstrated the superiority of bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting over single internal thoracic artery grafting in terms of event-free survival, freedom from reintervention and survival. The survival benefit seen with bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting has been associated particularly with grafting the myocardium supplied by the left coronary artery system. Many surgical strategies have been tested in order to achieve left-sided myocardial revascularization with bilateral internal thoracic artery grafting. These include directing the right internal thoracic artery through the transverse sinus in a retroaortic course, free graft connected proximally either to the left internal thoracic artery (composite grafting) or to the ascending aorta. Another technical option is in situ right internal thoracic artery to the left anterior descending and left internal thoracic artery to circumflex marginal branches; in this chapter we will comment on this technique.


For much of our nation's history, the poor have faced pervasive discrimination in the exercise of fundamental rights. Nowhere has the impairment been more severe than in the area of privacy. This Article considers the enduring legacy of this tradition with respect to the Fourth Amendment right to domestic privacy. Far from a matter of receding historical interest, the diminution of the poor's right to privacy has accelerated in recent years and now represents a powerful theme within the jurisprudence of poverty. Triggering this development has been a series of challenges to aggressive administrative practices adopted by localities in the wake of federal welfare-reform legislation. As a precondition to public assistance, some jurisdictions now require that all applicants submit to a suspicionless home search by law-enforcement investigators seeking evidence of welfare fraud. In turning back challenges to these intrusions, contemporary courts have significantly curtailed the protections of the Fourth Amendment as applied to the poor.While the courts that sanction these practices disclaim any sort of poverty-based classification underlying their analysis, no other rationale withstands scrutiny. Neither precedent nor the principled extension of existing doctrine justifies recent outcomes or explains why the holdings should not be applied to authorize a vast - and, thus, unacceptable - expansion of suspicionless search practices directed at the homes of the less destitute. The developing jurisprudence accordingly represents an implicit concession that the poor constitute a subconstitutional class for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Framed most charitably, the decisions understand poverty as a condition of moral culpability and thus accept it as a surrogate for the individualized suspicion that otherwise would be required to justify the intrusions at issue. The premise of the dissolute poor, tracing back centuries, remains alive and well in American law, and we have a bifurcated Fourth Amendment to prove its enduring vitality.


We present new non-LTE modelling of the helium spectrum emitted by quiescent solar prominences. The calculations are made in the frame of a one-dimensional plane-parallel slab. The physical parameters of our models are the electron temperature, the gas pressure, the slab width, the microturbulent velocity and the height above the solar surface. In this paper, we present isothermal isobaric models for a large range of temperature and pressure values. This work brings considerable improvements over the calculations of Heasley and co-workers (Heasley et al. 1974; Heasley & Milkey 1976, 1978, 1983) with the inclusion in our calculations of partial redistribution eects in the formation of the H i Ly ,L y ,H ei 584 Aa nd Heii 304 A lines. In addition we consider detailed incident proles for the principal transitions. The statistical equilibrium equations are solved for a 33 bound levels (He i and He ii) plus continuum atom, and the radiative transfer equations are solved by the Feautrier method with variable Eddington factors. In this way we obtain the helium level populations and the emergent line proles. We discuss the influence of the physical parameters on the helium level populations and on the main helium spectral lines. The eect of helium abundance in the prominence plasma is also studied. Some relations between singlet and triplet lines are given, as well as between optically thin or thick lines, He i and He ii lines, and between the He i 5876 Aa nd Hi 4863 A lines. In a future work this numerical code will be used for the diagnostic of the prominence plasma by comparing the results with SUMER observations.


Purpose: Little is known about the framing that decision-makers use to generate commitment from all engaged with vaccinating programs or their effects and limitations in different contexts. This preliminary study addresses this research gap through an empirical study of the Polish national vaccination program against COVID-19. Approach/Methodology/Design: This paper's insights have emerged iteratively by considering both theory and the empirical case based on vaccination against COVID-19 program analysis. This approach is consistent with an abductive approach. Findings: A study revealed a need to use framing in developing and implementing vaccination strategies. Lack of framing in strategic communication of vaccination leads to the potentially radical suggestion that government should change their current vaccination information policy if they want to avoid poor outcomes. The findings make three contributions. First, they illustrate how framing can influence engagement to multiple goals; Second, they contribute to grounding framing theory within public management by showing how framing may use across contexts; Third, they elaborate the importance of framing in strategic programs. Practical Implications: The article brings several valuable pieces of information that can be the base material and reference to further research. It provides practical tips. Originality/Value: There are several studies on strategy or framing; however, the research question – whether the government's vaccination strategy against COVID-19 uses framing to shape the right message to increase public confidence in the vaccination program was without an answer. It is the first such research in the World.


The first collection of critical essays on May Swenson and her literary universe, Body My House initiates an academic conversation about an unquestionably major poet of the middle and late twentienth century. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, May Swenson produced eleven volumes of poetry, received many major awards, was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and was acclaimed by writers in virtually every school of American poetry. Essays here address the breadth of Swenson's literary corpus and offer varied scholarly approaches to it. They reference Swenson manuscripts---poems, letters, diaries, and other prose---some of which have not been widely available before. Chapters focus on Swenson's work as a nature writer; the literary and social contexts of her writing; her national and international acclaim; her work as a translator; associations with other poets and writers (Bishop, Moore, and others); her creative process; and her profound explorations of gender and sexuality. The first full volume of scholarship on May Swenson, Body My House suggest an ambitious agenda for further work. Contributors include Mark Doty, Gudrun Grabher, Cynthia Hogue, Suzann Juhasz, R.R. Knudson, Alicia Ostriker, Martha Nell Smith, Michael Spooner, Paul Swenson, and Kirstin Hotelling Zona.


Earlier work by Fowler, Davaney, and Hagedorn showed that the morphology of an anode streamer could be modeled as stochastic growth of a branching fractal tree in point-plane geometry. This investigation reproduces the results of that earlier study. Because one of the concerns about the earlier work is that the electric field dependence appeared to be unphysical, the model was modified to operate under assumptions that are consistent with those that have proven useful in earlier investigations. Specifically, linear electric field dependence was assumed and there is an assumed variability in the number density of available electrons. Computations using this assumption also produce the same range of morphologies that has been measured in experiments. In addition, some assessments of sensitivity to other possible variables are made. First, the sharp cutoff in the electric field strength is replaced with a presumably more realistic exponential dependence on energy. Under this assumption, it is also possible to simulate the experimentally observed behavior of anode streamers. It is shown that three possible refinements to the model have small, and likely negligible, effects. The first is using variable streamer step lengths in the calculation rather than the fixed step length used in the earlier work. The second is to assume growth at one point in the streamer makes growth in other parts somewhat less likely. The third is the assumption that the probability of a streamer making the next step in growth is influenced by the distance of the inter-electrode gap that has already been traversed.


Introduction Although religious congregations in the United States constitute a significant part of the nation's social safety net (Cnaan, Boddie, and Wineburg 1999), questions still remain: are religious congregations in the United States unique in their involvement in social service provision? To answer this question, we need to compare them with congregations in countries similar to the United States. Congregational social and community involvement in the United States is attributed to several factors: the unique separation of state and church, a pluralistic ethnic society, and the market economy of religion in the United States. If these factors explain the impressive involvement of local religious congregations in helping people in need and in enhancing quality of life in the community, then we should expect similar findings regarding congregations in other countries with similar characteristics. Our country of choice to carry out such a comparison is Canada, specifically the province of Ontario. Although the provincial government of Ontario fully supports parochial Catholic schools, it does not favor any particular religious group with public support. Furthermore, unlike Europe but similar to the United States, the government provides no public support for clergy or congregations. However, unlike the United States, which does not require congregations to register or file income tax, Ontario requires congregations to register with Revenue Canada. In both countries congregations receive no support from the public sector but are eligible for certain exemptions and reductions from taxation. Furthermore, both the United States and Canada have a pluralistic society, composed of numerous ethnic, cultural, and religious groups. In a cross-national comparison of congregational involvement in social and community services, it is important to remember that the needs of people in one country may differ from those in the other. In Canada, for example, every citizen is eligible for government health insurance whereas, in the United States, in 1997, the number of people without health insurance was 43.4 million (Carrasquillo, Himmelstein, Woolhandler, and Bor 1999). Canada, which experiences severe winter weather in all cities, provides greater public assistance in housing than the United States, a country where homeless people can drift to the sunny south. As a result, homelessness is less of a problem in Canada than it is in the United States. However, under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, who was the prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993, Canadian national policy began to emulate Reaganism while, more recently, Premier Mike Harris and his Conservative Party in Ontario, have moved the province rapidly into devolution and retrench ment (Ontario Social Safety Network 1996). As a result, Ontario provides fewer social services now than in 1990, and the needs of urban residents in the province are slowly becoming more like their those of their counterparts in the U.S. It is also important to note that, in Canada, income tax and many other taxes are much higher than in the U.S. This is an important factor for two reasons: first, this leads to disposable income being lower, on average, in Canada than the U.S. and, second, people expect the government to provide more public goods and services than they do in the U.S. Canada also has one important cultural and political distinction: a strong collectivist identity and orientation. The United States is distinguished by individual rights, economic individualism, and fewer collectivist arrangements. In contrast, Canadian history and politics are replete with struggles and attempts to achieve unity by balancing competing claims of different groups such as the Francophones, the Inuit, and other indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the government in Canada is more trusted to solve social problems on behalf of residents than in the United States. However, given that Ontario in particular, and possibly Canada as a whole (excluding Quebec) , manifests many characteristics similar to those of the U. …


In the paper "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" Donald Davidson argues that we cannot make sense of the claim that there could be conceptual schemes which are different from our own. He argues that conceptual schemes different to our own must be untranslatable into our own language, and further that the idea of untranslatable languages does not make sense. By considering three variants of conceptual relativism which can be developed using the work of Kant, Quine, and Kuhn I aim to make three criticisms of Davidson's arguments: firstly I will argue that Davidson is unable to respond to the claim that the reality which schemes must fit is unknowable; secondly I will argue that Davidson is wrong to represent his opponents as all claiming that distinct conceptual schemes must be untranslatable, and that in fact we can make sense of the idea of distinct conceptual schemes which can be translated; finally, I will argue that Davidson fails to acknowledge the central role interpretivism plays in his arguments, and that this hidden interpretivism both makes much of his argument redundant, and robs them of any power to convince someone who rejects the controversial thesis of interpretivism


The muscle-tendon system built during the development of an animal is essential to allow the body to move, breath or keep the heart beating for a lifetime. The muscle is the most important force producing tissue in an animal and, at the same time, it is also dependent on forces built up in the muscle-tendon tissue, especially during its development. Using the Drosophila musculature as a model system, it had been shown that tension is built up in the muscle-tendon tissue during development and that this tension is required for myofibrillogenesis, the process of building myofibrils, which are long chains of the contractile units of muscles called sarcomeres.

The main focus of this thesis was to analyze how tension in tissues is transmitted across proteins at the molecular level to understand how proteins sense and respond to mechanical forces in vivo. As a model system, the developing Drosophila flight muscles were used that form in the pupal stage of the Drosophila life cycle. During development, these muscles attach to tendon cells and the connections between these two cells, called muscle attachment sites, need to bear the forces built up in the tissue. Muscle attachments are cell-extracellular matrix (ECM)-cell contacts that require receptor molecules in the cell membrane called integrins to connect the ECM between the cells with the contractile actin cytoskeleton inside the cells. Since integrins cannot directly connect to actin themselves, they require an adaptor protein called Talin that can bind to both integrin and actin filaments. Thus, Talin is in the ideal position to transmit and sense forces at muscle attachments.

Previous studies on Talin force transduction demonstrated that Talin indeed bears forces in the piconewton (pN) range using Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based molecular tension sensors. However, these studies were based on analyzing Talin in focal adhesions in cells cultured in vitro in an artificial environment. Therefore, we aimed to analyze Talin force transmission for the first time in vivo in the natural mechanical environment in the intact organism.

In a first step, different FRET-based tension sensor modules and various control constructs were inserted in Drosophila into the endogenous talin (rhea) gene, taking advantage of the newly established clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system to achieve precise modification of the genome. After demonstrating that the Talin protein is still fully functional after insertion of the tension sensor modules, forces across Talin were first quantified—as a proof of concept—in primary muscle fibers in vitro using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to measure FRET.

In a second step, forces transmitted by Talin at muscle attachments during flight muscle development were analyzed in detail in living pupae. We discovered that a surprisingly small proportion of Talin molecules at developing muscle attachments transmit forces at the same time (Paper I). Nevertheless, a large pool of Talin molecules need to be recruited to muscle attachment sites during development, as quantified by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), to prepare for the forces generated by active muscle contractions in the adult fly. If the accumulation of Talin at flight muscle attachments is reduced during development by RNA interference (RNAi), the muscle attachments rupture in young adults, likely during the first flight attempts. In conclusion, recruitment of a high number of Talin molecules during development is physiologically relevant to enable the muscle to adapt to sudden changes in tissue forces, likely by dynamically sharing the load among the Talin molecules. This mechanical adaptation concept is important to ensure that the muscle-tendon connections are stable and last for a lifetime.

During the course of the thesis, I also discovered that flight muscles contract spontaneously during development. Characterization of these contractions in wild-type animals compared to a knockdown condition provided a functional readout for myofibrillogenesis during development (Paper IV). Furthermore, a review article on the role of mechanical forces during muscle development (Paper II) and a video article explaining how to perform in vivo imaging in Drosophila pupae (Paper III) were published.


The growth of Yarrowia lipolytica yeast as well the biosynthesis of citric acid on rapeseed oil were studied. It was indicated that the initial step of assimilation of rapeseed oil in the yeast Y. lipolytica is their hydrolysis by extracellular lipases with the formation of glycerol and fatty acids, which appear in the medium in the phase of active growth. The concentrations of these metabolites change insignificantly upon further cultivation. Lipase and the key enzymes of glycerol metabolism (glycerol kinase) and the glyoxylate cycle responsible for the metabolism of fatty acids (isocitrate lyase and malate synthase) are induced just at the beginning of the growth phase and remain active in the course of further cultivation. These results, taken together, suggest that glycerol and fatty acids according in the medium do not suppress the metabolism of each other. The fact that glycerol and fatty acids can be consumed simultaneously is of special importance for the development of the efficient regime of oil feeding, Y. lipolytica produced citric acid (175 g/L) with a yield of 150%. It should be noted that the simultaneous utilization of two different substrates is not typical of micro-organisms, which first assimilate one of the two available substrates (commonly, a carbohydrate), whereas the assimilation of the other substrate starts only after the first substrate is fully consumed from the medium. Indeed, upon the cultivation of Y. lipolytica on the mixture of glucose and oleic acid, the latter substrate began to be utilized only when the concentration of glucose decreased. The glycolytic enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase was induced from the first hours of cultivation and remained at high levels until the exhaustion of glucose in the medium. At the same time, the activities of isocitrate lyase and malate synthase were very low during the metabolism of glucose, but were rapidly induced (approximately in 10 times) after the exhaustion of glucose in the medium. When Y. lipolytica was grown on the mixture of glucose and hexadecane, the dynamics of growth and substrate consumption was typical of the diauxie phenomenon: the utilization of hexadecane began only in several hours after the time when glucose was completely exhausted in the cultivation medium. In this case, the exhaustion of glucose arrested growth and the culture resumed growth only after a lag period. The assay of enzymes showed that the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase was active during the phase of growth on glucose, whereas the enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle, isocitrate lyase and malate synthase were active during the phase of growth on hexadecane. In recent years in the literature, there are data that the different sugars produce signals which modify the conformation of certain proteins that, in turn, directly or through a regulatory cascade affect the expression of the genes subject to catabolite repression. These genes are not all controlled by a single set of regulatory proteins (Cho et al. 2009), but there are different circuits of repression for different groups of genes (Gancedo 1990). We will discuss the possible metabolic regulation in the case of Y. lipolytica.


A freshman student in economics or a Nobel prize-winning macroeconomist who has lately stumbled across a journal or two in industrial organization economics may be somewhat perplexed or confused by many references to two-sided markets. Surely, is it not the case that all markets have two sides, namely buyers and sellers? Consequently, to the uninitiated, the concept of a two-sided market offers little, if any, additional analytical insight. Some of that confusion is perhaps dispelled by a more informative description, namely: markets with two-sided platforms. So for the rest of this paper, we shall forget about two-sided markets and speak of two-sided platforms (2SP) and of markets in which these 2SPs compete. Professors David Evans and Richard Schmalensee (hereinafter E&S), who have done more than most of the thinking about the economics of 2SPs and advocating the importance of the idea to other academics, lawyers, policymakers, and business people, offer a highly accessible survey of the state of play in their excellent contribution to this volume. It is important to recognize that, perhaps without knowing so, economists have studied 2SPs for quite some time (i.e., way before the term was invented) as have competition authorities and the courts. And, of course, business people, who generally are ahead of theoreticians in such matters, have also intuitively understood the specific pricing and marketing challenges that have to be solved in order to launch a 2SP and make it prosper. These challenges arise because (by definition) a 2SP links two (or more) distinct groups of consumers whose demands are interrelated in that each group confers (perhaps up to a point) a positive external benefit on the other. These effects are generally referred to as indirect network effects, in distinction to more standard network effects that realize themselves among the same customer group. When there are indirect network effects, a business strategy that stimulates demand on side A of the platform will, when properly implemented, stimulate demand on side B of the platform, which in turn creates a positive feedback to side A, and so on. Because of this interdependence, a 2SP entrepreneur must solve two problems: first, how to get both sides on board and second, how to structure prices to the two sides.


The soft-bottom zoobenthic community structure of Izmir Bay was examined seasonally at eight stations (depth-range: 19–67 m) in 2009. A total of 427 species were found. Polychaeta had the highest number of species (50% of total species) and individuals (75%), whereas Echinodermata possessed the highest biomass (47%). The number of species varied from 3 to 79 (0.1 m−2), the density from 60 to 5360 ind.m−2, and the biomass from 1 to 530 g.m−2. The most numerically dominant species were the polychaetes Aricidea claudiae, Streblospio gynobranchiata, Levinsenia demiri and Sternaspis scutata. The distribution of zoobenthos was strongly related to spatial differences in total organic carbon, sediment texture and depth among different regions of the bay rather than temporal differences among seasons. However, significant seasonal variability in community structure (mainly differences in the relative abundance of species) was present. The inner region of the bay can be classified as 'poor' or 'bad' based on the results of biotic indices (H′, AMBI, m-AMBI and BENTIX). Among biotic indices, only H′ and m-AMBI appeared to be capable of explaining the bay's benthic quality status. Thirteen alien species were also found. Streblospio gynobranchiata, Prionospio pulchra, Pseudopolydora paucibranchiata and Polydora cornuta formed dense populations in the inner most polluted part of the bay and are considered to be new pollution indicator species in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.


Transfrontier conservation areas potentially play a key role in conserving biodiversity and promoting socioeconomic development. However, socio-political factors often affect their effectiveness in achieving biodiversity conservation and sustainable development objectives. Following a transdisciplinary approach, I assessed the challenges and opportunities in conserving and managing the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) population within the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (GMTFCA) in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, southern Africa. The results showed that the current rate of offtake of bull elephant in the GMTFCA is unsustainable. At current rates of hunting, in fact, trophy bulls were predicted to disappear from the population in less than 10 years. Elephant densities were higher in South Africa and Botswana where the gross domestic product is higher. In addition, elephant densities were higher at sites where the proportion of agricultural land around them was the lowest and where vegetation productivity was the highest. Trophy hunting, as well as other localised human activities, also affected the distribution of elephant within sites, forcing them to trade-off between disturbance avoidance and the availability of food and water. While at the international level, a significant body of law and policy relevant to elephant conservation exists, I found that there was little cooperation among Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and a lack of implementation of these provisions on a national and trilateral level. Overall, this study confirmed that poverty was an important factor affecting elephant abundance at the country level, but highlighted that, at the site level, anthropogenic disturbance played a crucial role. A revision of the current hunting quotas within each country and the establishment of a single multi-jurisdictional (cross-border) management authority regulating the hunting of elephant is needed. Further, to reduce the impact of increasing human populations and agricultural expansion, the development of coordinated legislation and policies to improve land use planning, and the development of conservation corridors to link current protected areas, is needed. The issues regarding the management of this elephant population illustrate the significant challenges involved in achieving a comprehensive, consistent and effective implementation of a transboundary population approach. Southern African countries make an important contribution to elephant conservation and could soon become the last stronghold of elephant conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, immediate actions are needed to reduce pressures from human activities in order to enhance the long-term persistence of the species.


Fossil tracks are a source of information about extinct animals that can supplement the osteological record, yet they are often overlooked in macroevolutionary studies. The substrates in which tracks are preserved are indicative of palaeoenvironment and habitat, and track morphology can be linked to the motion and loading of the limb. Sauropod dinosaurs represent the largest terrestrial animals ever to have existed, and the evolution of their body plan had direct consequences for their locomotion and subsequent morphology of their tracks. Here we show that the relative proportions of manus- and pes-dominated sauropod trackways appears to remain constant in the Jurassic and Cretaceous despite an apparent evolutionary anterior shift of centre of mass seen in the body fossil record. However, in Cretaceous rocks, manus-dominated tracks are most commonly recorded in cohesive substrates (e.g. mudstones), whereas pes-dominated tracks tend to be restricted to non-cohesive substrates (e.g. sandstones). This bias is not present in the Jurassic, and therefore may be the result of niche partitioning among sauropods associated with the Cretaceous diversification of the anatomically and environmentally specialized titanosaurs. In this respect, the ichnological record appears to provide complementary evidence to the osteological record and suggests a causative link between locomotion, ecology, and macroevolution in sauropod dinosaurs. Supplementary material: The complete dataset of occurrences of MDTs and PDTs is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18530.


Thinking Literature across Continents finds Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller—two thinkers from different continents, cultures, training, and critical perspectives—debating and reflecting upon what literature is and why it matters. Ghosh and Miller do not attempt to formulate a joint theory of literature; rather, they allow their different backgrounds and lively disagreements to stimulate generative dialogue on poetry, world literature, pedagogy, and the ethics of literature. Addressing a varied literary context ranging from Victorian literature, Chinese literary criticism and philosophy, and continental philosophy to Sanskrit poetics and modern European literature, Ghosh offers a transnational theory of literature while Miller emphasizes the need to account for what a text says and how it says it. Thinking Literature across Continents highlights two minds continually discovering new paths of communication and two literary and cultural traditions intersecting in productive and compelling ways.


Deposits and transport processes resulting from the resedimentation of cold, unconsolidated ignimbrite into water were simulated by flume experiments. The ignimbrite sample used was poorly sorted (σ = 2·4–3), fine ash‐rich (< 63 μm, 17–30 wt%) and included both dense lithic clasts (> 2000 kg m−3) and pumice (500 to ca 1300 kg m−3). As a result of the binding forces of the ash matrix, the experiments involved resedimentation from a steep front onto the floor (with or without an initial ramp) of the water‐filled tank under both still and wave‐generated conditions. Larger discrete collapse events were induced by oversteepening the sample front and by undercutting from wave action. The mass of the collapse and proportion of pore–space water strongly influenced the style of resedimentation and the deposits. Initial collapse events were from the top of the steep front and fell onto the floor. The largest, densest clasts were deposited as a lithic lag in a proximal sediment wedge or rolled down to a break‐in‐slope. Fine ash was transported in dilute turbidity currents, and coarse unsaturated pumice clasts floated off. Moderate collapse events generated high‐density turbidity currents, trapping pumice in the flow, causing them to saturate. These low‐density pumice clasts were easily remobilized by wave activity and passing currents and accumulated on the gentle slope at the bottom of the resedimented deposit. Large collapse events slumped, producing poorly sorted mounds similar in texture to the original starting material. As the matrix of the ignimbrite sample became saturated with water, moderate and large collapse events generated debrisflows and slurries that deposited massive, poorly sorted deposits. Furthermore, once more gentle slopes were established between the sample and deposit, small cascading grainflows deposited lithic clasts on the upper slopes and levees of pumice at the terminus of low‐relief, ash channels. The experiments show that, excluding large collapse events and debrisflows, resedimenting ignimbrite in water is effective at segregating low‐density pumice clasts from dense lithic clasts and fine ash. Experiments using fine‐ash poor ignimbrite and well‐sorted quartz sand for comparison formed an inherently unstable initial steep front that immediately collapsed by continuous grain avalanches. The grainflow deposits had textures similar to the fines‐poor starting material.


ABSTRACT This article analyses discourse on the DataLounge LGBT Internet forum that debates whether Jensen Ackles (star of The CW's Supernatural) is homophobic. Textual analysis is performed on five relevant threads created between 2007 and 2014, which have attracted in excess of 1150 responses. This discourse is considered in conjunction with existing scholarship on Supernatural as a cult phenomenon, in particular Ackles' portrayal of the character Dean Winchester, who has been read by scholars (and members of the DataLounge forum) in relation to a certain hegemonic view of masculinity and heterosexuality, often at odds with the popularity of the series among 'slash fans', who undertake homoerotic readings. In light of this, I argue that the defensive and offensive posturing of participants on DataLounge can be understood as a case study of what I term the 'politics of slash'. Such politics underscore some of the main pieces of presented 'evidence' for Ackles' homophobia, such as unwillingness to discuss subtext at fan conventions. While Ackles is the catalyst for the discourse created, I argue that what is most interesting is the insight offered into 'slash' as a fan practice, and the subcultural groups most affected and energised by this debate, namely male homosexuals and slash fans. The study brings to bear new insight into understandings of slash and subcultural celebrity by considering the practice as it is constructed through the debate of a TV star's supposed homophobia, a debate that is itself framed by certain 'politics' of representation, visibility, and identity.


The x-ray crystal structure of the thiostrepton resistance RNA methyltransferase (Tsr)·S-adenosyl-l-methionine (AdoMet) complex was determined at 2.45-Å resolution. Tsr is definitively confirmed as a Class IV methyltransferase of the SpoU family with an N-terminal "L30-like" putative target recognition domain. The structure and our in vitro analysis of the interaction of Tsr with its target domain from 23 S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) demonstrate that the active biological unit is a Tsr homodimer. In vitro methylation assays show that Tsr activity is optimal against a 29-nucleotide hairpin rRNA though the full 58-nucleotide L11-binding domain and intact 23 S rRNA are also effective substrates. Molecular docking experiments predict that Tsr·rRNA binding is dictated entirely by the sequence and structure of the rRNA hairpin containing the A1067 target nucleotide and is most likely driven primarily by large complementary electrostatic surfaces. One L30-like domain is predicted to bind the target loop and the other is near an internal loop more distant from the target site where a nucleotide change (U1061 to A) also decreases methylation by Tsr. Furthermore, a predicted interaction with this internal loop by Tsr amino acid Phe-88 was confirmed by mutagenesis and RNA binding experiments. We therefore propose that Tsr achieves its absolute target specificity using the N-terminal domains of each monomer in combination to recognize the two distinct structural elements of the target rRNA hairpin such that both Tsr subunits contribute directly to the positioning of the target nucleotide on the enzyme.


Research on cultural consumption and its social conditions mainly focuses on tastes and on products consumed rather than on modes of consumption. This article takes up this desideratum and studies the modes of listening to classical music in opera audiences based on a visitor survey. In contrast to the prevailing image of the silent and intellectual audience in high-brow institutions, the study shows there is a broad array of modes people use to listen to classical music. With respect to Bourdieu's theory of arts perception, in particular his notion of cultural capital, one can show empirically that the modes of cultural consumption in this case are determined by listeners' cultural capital.


In this paper we propose a complex system, involving two control algorithms, to provide a final estimation of Resort Management System (RMS). This distinct RMS quality value depends on some individual appreciations, assigned by customers to basic services. In order to improve the qualities of control actions, we intend to add parametric membership functions of fuzzy sets to the fuzzification part. Another modification considers the newly designed technique of determining some essential estimates in the processing part of control to employ all entry data in the result of final decision.


Abstract Paraptenodytes antarcticus is one of the best-known and most complete fossil penguins. This taxon is so distinctive that it has traditionally been classified in its own subfamily (Sphenisciformes: Paraptenodytinae) separate from all living penguins (Spheniscinae). The well-preserved partial skull of P. antarcticus is one of our richest sources of data on early penguin cranial morphology. We provide an updated description of the skull of P. antarcticus in a comparative context and use this information to explore the phylogenetic relationships of this taxon. Three cladistic analyses using an osteology dataset, a larger morphological dataset (including osteological, soft tissue, behavior, and oological characters) and a combined (morphological + molecular) dataset all recover Paraptenodytes as the sister taxon to a clade including all extant penguins. The placement of Paraptenodytes outside the crown clade of extant penguins reveals the order in which many spheniscid synapomorphies were acquired and lends support to the hypothesis that modern penguins had Subantarctic ancestors.


The June 2014 surveys of expectations conducted by Central Banks with inflation targeting regimes indicate that average growth expectations for 2014 have fallen from 3.6% to 3.4% while inflation expectations for 2014 have remained stable at 4.8%. In all but one of the countries studied (the exception being Colombia), expected 2014 growth decreased between the May and June surveys. Indeed, expected growth fell in Brazil (0.4%), Chile (0. 2%), Guatemala (0.1%), Mexico (0.1%), Paraguay (0.2%), Peru (0.2%) and Uruguay (0.2%). Expected growth now ranges between 5.0% (Peru) to 1.2% (Brazil). The GDP weighted average inflation expectation for the region for 2014 is 5.3% and the GDP weighted average growth expectation is 2.1%. Inflation expectations rose in Chile (0.1%), Colombia (0.2%), Paraguay (0.1%) and Peru (0.1%) and fell in Guatemala (0.1%).


The world is awash with digital data from social networks, blogs, business, science, and engineering. Data-intensive computing facilitates understanding of complex problems that must process massive amounts of data. Through the development of new classes of software, algorithms, and hardware, data-intensive applications can provide timely and meaningful analytical results in response to exponentially growing data complexity and associated analysis requirements. This emerging area brings many challenges that are different from traditional high-performance computing. This reference for computing professionals and researchers describes the dimensions of the field, the key challenges, the state of the art, and the characteristics of likely approaches that future data-intensive problems will require. Chapters cover general principles and methods for designing such systems and for managing and analyzing the big data sets of today that live in the cloud, and describe example applications in bioinformatics and cybersecurity that illustrate these principles in practice.


We have cloned a gene (BCY1) from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that encodes a regulatory subunit of the cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. The encoded protein has a structural organization similar to that of the RI and RII regulatory subunits of the mammalian cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. Strains of S. cerevisiae with disrupted BCY1 genes do not display a cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase in vitro, fail to grow on many carbon sources, and are exquisitely sensitive to heat shock and starvation.


The study investigates a systematic organisation and management of whole school inclusive processes in two mainstream secondary schools in Cameroon. These schools are implementing the official action plan of Education for all (EFA) and inclusion of 1998 alongside other inclusive legal and policy frameworks in response to the needs of student diversity with focus on those with Special Educational Needs/Disabilities, Difficulties in learning, Disadvantages in background (SEN/DDD) and special abilities. Using a diverse range of participants namely a pedagogic inspector, head teachers, teachers, students and parents (N=23) with a multi-method approach to data collection through semi-structured interviews, document review, observation and analysis, the qualitative research enquiry has a number of findings. On the one hand, it discovered that whole school inclusion is complex and incorporates a wide range of curricular (academic/linguistic) and extracurricular (social/intercultural) support services and benefits through grouped/individualised, in-/out-class and on/ off school ground activities (technology of inclusion) designed to equalise educational opportunities and to enhance the participation of all in learning. The results further indicated that whole school inclusion widens learning horizons and maximises possibilities for developing diverse potentials of student diversity. It also revealed that, in a subtractive bilingual education system with official/foreign language as media of instruction, the inclusion of students with SEN/DDD is more effective through bilingual special education services. This incorporates intercultural participation, curriculum/foreign language learning support and/or mother tongue-based mediated education to facilitate leaning, development and attainment. On the other hand, its results indicated that the bulk of barriers to whole school inclusion arise from the gap between the officially centralised policy / planning and practical inclusive schooling. The barriers include: centralised and prescriptive nature of educational services; partial or non-implementation of legal and policy frameworks; insufficient provision and management of human resources including staff pre-/ in-service training programmes, didactic materials and financial resources; lack of effective coordination, professionalism and accountability in service delivery that underlie the inadequate organisation and management of whole school inclusion development. Thus, support services are more charity driven (integration) than human rights-oriented (inclusion). The work suggested that in order to adequately accommodate students with SEN/DDD, the schools' organisational and management strategies need to be systematically reconceptualised, through a review of key issues: the macro system level support services; decentralisation of services; more autonomy with active cooperation between the schools and their stakeholders; restructuring of contextual factors like staff training programmes, curriculum and environment accessibility among others to improve all forms of support activities. The study also contributes to the understanding of inclusion in a global context through its combination of special educational needs, disability, bilingual and intercultural dimensions. In this way, conceptualisation of inclusion in countries of the North which is frequently limited to the provision for children with disabilities/special educational needs and the issue of location are insufficient in their application to certain countries of the South, especially in postcolonial societies where the linguistic and cultural dimensions are emphasised.


The charge carrier dynamics of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) organic bulk-heterojunction photovoltaics with and without TiO2 nanowires are studied. Using inorganic nanowires as electron transport pathways improves the charge transit time and electron diffusion coefficient, which is the origin of fill factor and power conversion efficiency improvement observed in these devices. Through further comparison of devices with surface-modified nanowires (PCB–TiO2-NW), it is found that under AM 1.5 light illumination, charge recombination is dominant in the organic layer rather than at the TiO2 nanowire surface.


Introduction: Social Support is defined as a mechanism of interpersonal communication that protects people from negative impact of stress. The high level of social support is attributed to the increase of academic self-efficacy and decrease of educational stress. Also, it A reverse relationship between social support and test anxiety has been found. The present study aimed to identify the meditating role of self-efficacy in relationship between perceived support and test anxiety simultaneously.
Methods: This study was carried out through descriptive-correlation research method using scurvy technique. Thus, the number of 370 undergraduate students of Shahid Bahonar University between 2012-2013 academic year were selected by cluster sampling. Data were collected through three questionnaires of test anxiety, self-efficacy and perceived social support and measured the study variables. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 21 and LISREL software.
Results:The structural equation model of effective factors on test anxiety selected appropriately which showed that test predicting factors and relationships among them entered into the model properly and credibly. The results of path analysis also showed that there was a negative significant relationship between social support and test anxiety while the relationship between social support and self-efficacy deemed significantly positive. The variable of self-efficacy as a meditating variable was positively affected by social support but had a negative impact on test anxiety.
Conclusion: The results of total impact of model revealed that Perceived Social Support had the greatest impact on decreasing students' test anxiety.