When a solid object is stretched, in general, it shrinks transversely. However, the abnormal ones are auxetic, which exhibit lateral expansion, or negative Poisson ratio. While graphene is a paradigm 2D material, surprisingly, graphene converts from normal to auxetic at certain strains. Here, we show via molecular dynamics simulations that the normal-auxeticity mechanical phase transition only occurs in uniaxial tension along the armchair direction or the nearest neighbor direction. Such a characteristic persists at temperatures up to 2400 K. Besides monolayer, bilayer and multi-layer graphene also possess such a normal-auxeticity transition. This unique property could extend the applications of graphene to new horizons.


The Key to Effective Communication Communication is essential in a healthy organization. But all too often when we interact with people especially those who report to us we simply tell them what we think they need to know. This shuts them down. To generate bold new ideas, to avoid disastrous mistakes, to develop agility and flexibility, we need to practice Humble Inquiry. Ed Schein defines Humble Inquiry as the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person. In this seminal work, Schein contrasts Humble Inquiry with other kinds of inquiry, shows the benefits Humble Inquiry provides in many different settings, and offers advice on overcoming the cultural, organizational, and psychological barriers that keep us from practicing it.


Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is a multisystem autosomal dominant genetic disorder resulting from mutations in one of two genes, TSC1 and TSC2. Pathologically TSC is characterized by abnormal cellular differentiation and proliferation, as well as abnormal neuronal migration. The majority of patients with TSC have epilepsy, although the mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis remain unknown. Seizures onset is frequently during the first year of life, and in a sizable proportion of individuals tend to be refractory to antiepileptic drug treatment. This article reviews the progress in understanding drug resistant seizures in TSC, from molecular pathogenesis to the pathophysiological mechanisms of epileptogenesis, and the rationale for appropriate medical and surgical treatment.


The Bakhtiyari are one of the most important nomadic societies in the Middle East but although this tribe has many powerful romantic associations it has also been the subject of much misunderstanding, even today. This penetrating examination of the Bakhtiyari in Iran explores their powerful political and economic role in Iranian society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and provides a key to understanding how political power is created, maintained and lost in a tribal society. Based on an extraordinary archive of documents now lost as a result of the upheavals of the Iranian Revolution, "Khans and Shahs" offers a complete picture of the tribe, placing it in the context of its full history from the 14th century to the present day. Among much else Gene Garthwaite examines the role of the Bakhtiyari in the exploration and development of Iranian oil, which was first discovered on their tribal lands by the British entrepreneur William Knox D'Arcy. This ground-breaking study explores the Bakhtiyari's interaction with the State and the effects of the wider world on their social and political structure and offers unique insights into a complex but important aspect of Iran's history.


Long-duration space missions require high-quality, nutritious foods, which will need reheating to serving temperature, or sterilization on an evolved planetary base. The package is generally considered to pose a disposal problem after use. We are in the process of development of a dual-use package wherein the food may be rapidly reheated in Situ using the technology of ohmic heating. We plan to make the container reusable, so that after food consumption, the package is reused to contain and sterilize waste. This approach will reduce Equivalent System Mass (ESM) by using a compact heating technology, and reducing mass requirements for waste storage. Preliminary tests of the package within a specially-designed ohmic heating enclosure show that ISS menu item could easily be heated using ohmic heating technology. Mathematical models for heat transfer were used to optimize the layout of electrodes to ensure uniform heating of the material within the package. Our next step will involve the development of the reusability feature, and to study the treatment of waste within these containers.


We study the problem of finding strain-minimising stream surfaces in a divergence-free vector field. These surfaces are generated by motions of seed curves that propagate through the field in a strain minimising manner, i.e., they move without stretching or shrinking, preserving the length of their arbitrary arc. In general fields, such curves do not exist. However, the divergence-free constraint gives rise to these 'strain-free' curves that are locally arc-length preserving when infinitesimally propagated. Several families of strain-free curves are identified and used as initial guesses for stream surface generation. These surfaces are subsequently globally optimised to obtain the best strain-minimising stream surfaces in a given divergence-free vector field.
Our algorithm was tested on benchmark datasets, proving its applicability to incompressible fluid flow simulations, where our strain-minimising stream surfaces realistically reflect the flow of a flexible univariate object.


With the economic relevance of the relationships among emerging and frontier equity markets becoming increasingly significant, this paper investigates co-movement among returns from six Latin-American stock markets [Mexico (BMV), Brazil (BOVESPA), Chile (IPSA), Peru
(IGBVL), Argentina (MERVAL), Venezuela (IBVC)] and also with the U.S. S&P 500
Composite index. In part, we employ Principal Component Analyses, to account for the maximum portion of the variance present in the returns by examining rolling windows with 8,6,4,3,2, and 1-year periods. We also investigate the incidence of structural breaks and comovement,
aiming to uncover the dynamics in co-movements among these markets. We find
evidence of high co-movement among the Latin-American markets, and also with the U.S. markets. Venezuela and Mexico's equity markets are at the extremes. However, our results do not corroborate findings of clear evidence, reported in previous studies, of the U.S. having a
leading role in the region.


Real components always deviate from their ideal dimensions. This makes every component, even a serial production, unique. Although they look the same, differences can always be observed due to different scattering factors and variations in the manufacturing process. All these factors inevitably lead to parts that deviate from their ideal shape and, therefore, have different properties than the ideal component. Changing properties can lead to major problems or even failure during operation. It is necessary to specify the permitted deviations to ensure that every single product nevertheless meets its technical requirements. Furthermore, it is necessary to estimate the consequences of the permitted deviations, which is done via tolerance analysis. During this process, components are assembled virtually and varied with the uncertainties specified by the tolerances. A variation simulation is one opportunity to calculate these effects for geometric deviations. Since tolerance analysis enables engineers to identify weak points in an early design stage, it is important to know the contribution that every single tolerance has on a certain quality-relevant characteristic, to restrict or increase the correct tolerances. In this paper, a fuzzy-based method to calculate the sensitivity is introduced and compared with the commonly used extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test (EFAST) method. Special focus of this work is the differentiation of the sensitivity for the total system and the sensitivities for the subsystems defined by the α-cuts of the fuzzy numbers. It discusses the impact of the number of evaluations and nonlinearity on sensitivity for EFAST and the fuzzy-based method.


Although each of the four isoforms--p110α, p110β, p110δ, and p110γ--of the catalytic subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) has been implicated in cancer, the gene encoding p110α is the only one for which oncogenic mutations have been reported. Kang et al. explored the transformation ability of the p110 isoforms and found that forced expression of the human β, γ, or δ isoforms in chicken embryo fibroblasts induced the cellular transformation. Addition of a myristoylation signal to the proteins greatly enhanced the transformation efficiency of the β isoform and had a lesser effect on the γ or δ isoforms, which were already potent transforming agents. Transformation required the lipid kinase activity of the enzymes, but not the protein kinase activity, based on analysis of the transformation ability of mutant forms of the enzymes. The p110δ isoform stimulated the Akt pathway (measured as phosphorylation of Akt and p70 S6 kinase) even in the absence of serum, whereas serum was required for activation of Akt in cells expressing the β or γ isoforms. Mutations that disrupt the interaction with Ras, which connects p110 activity to growth factor stimulation, inhibited the transformation ability of the β and γ isoforms but did not inhibit the oncogenic potential of p110δ. Common to the oncogenicity of all isoforms was the activation of the Akt to TOR (target of rapamycin) pathway, because rapamycin, which inhibits TOR activity, blocked transformation. Thus, differences in the β, γ, and δ isoforms' oncogenicity may derive from differences in upstream activation, such as misexpression in an inappropriate cell, or at an inappropriate time, or overexpression, because these isoforms possess transformation potential in the absence of activating mutations. S. Kang, A. Denley, B. Vanhaesebroeck, P. K. Vogt, Oncogenic transformation induced by the p110β, -γ, and -δ isoforms of class I phosphoinositide 3-kinase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 1289-1294 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


An improved method of angle measurement is proposed based on a parallel plate interferometer. A position detection system is incorporated into a parallel plate interferometer in order to realize large deflection angle measurement. A reflecting mirror is introduced for increasing the measurement resolution. In experiments, a deflection angle of a measured target was measured within about 3 deg. with high accuracy. And as a phase modulating interferometer, it was used to measure a small angular displacement with a repeatability of 5.5*10^(-8) rad.


The primary purpose of this study was to investigate differences in the use of hedges employed by Malaysian writers across three rhetorical sections (abstract, introduction and discussion) of the research article. Hedges are commonly found in research articles because they are among the most important features used in academic writing to help writers qualify their statements. Despite
its major role in academic discourse, much lesser attention has been given to the study of gender variations in the use of hedges in academic discourse. The data that formed the corpus of this study was extracted from 30 research articles from the discipline of Education and English Language Teaching (ELT) written by
Malaysian authors. The findings indicate that female authors use almost as much hedging devices as their male counterparts. The rhetorical section found to be most hedged is the discussion, followed by the introduction, while the abstract was found to be the least hedged. This corroborates findings from previous
studies which point out that most hedges do occur in the discussion and introduction sections of research articles. Exploring further, the independent samples t-test indicated no significant difference in the occurrence of hedging devices across the three rhetorical sections. The findings of the study further reveal that there is no significant difference in the frequency and distribution of hedges used by female and male authors. Interestingly, frequency counts of the top 15 hedge words indicate little variation of hedges used by either gender implying the lack of adequate repertoire of hedging devices. This calls for a more concerted effort in explicitly teaching the poly-pragmatic functions of hedges
considered crucial in EAP. Further explorations on cross disciplinary as well as, cross-cultural dimensions in the usage of hedges should be looked into in understanding the writing practices of members of our academic community.


Particle size analysis and scanning electron microscopy have been used with some success to differentiate sediments sampled from varying geomorphological environments. In the paraglacial environment, however, discrimination of paraglacially reworked deposits from in situ glacigenic deposits has proven to be problematic. We consider till sediments that have been reworked by paraglacial debris flows and in situ, unreworked parent material, and apply a series of quantitative techniques in an attempt to discriminate samples from each environment. Initial analysis of particle size suggests some eluviation of fines from the debris‐flow‐reworked deposits but is of insufficient significance to allow reliable differentiation of geomorphological environment. Similarly, although slight differences are identified in terms of quartz grain surface microtextures and quartz grain outline shape, subsequent PCA, cluster and Fourier analyses fail to reliably differentiate quartz grains from each geomorphological environment, owing to high levels of intra‐sample heterogeneity. This lack of apparent difference may arise from a lack of paraglacial process operation of significant magnitude or duration for a characteristic process imprint to emerge at this scale of observation. Accordingly, further assessment of particle‐size and microtextural characteristics of glacial and paraglacial sediments may be most fruitful where sediments have been reworked over long distances. Moreover, differentiating glacial from paraglacial deposits is likely to yield the most reliable results where rigorous statistical analyses are combined with a wide range of sedimentological and geomorphological techniques. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.


When opposing parties compete for a prize, the sunk effort players exert during the conflict can affect the value of the winner's reward. These spillovers can have substantial influence on the equilibrium behavior of participants in applications such as lobbying, warfare, labor tournaments, marketing, and R&D races. To understand this influence, we study a general class of asymmetric, two-player all-pay contests where we allow for spillovers in each player's reward. The link between participants' efforts and rewards yields novel effects – in particular, players with higher costs and lower values than their opponent sometimes extract larger payoffs.


Introduction: Anually, 585000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth in the world. Using postpartum contraceptive methods helps to prevent repeated pregnancies. Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study that has been performed among women who refered to health centers of Kermanshah city in 2002 to evaluate contraceptive use during two years postpartum and attitude toward it. In this study, some of health centers of Kermanshah city had been selected with cluster sampling and then 260 married women in fertility ages attending these health centers who had delivered during previous two years were selected, using stratified random sampling. Data collecting was performed by interview using a questionnaire that was consisted of 5 parts the data were analyzed using (cid:3) 2 and Fisher exact test, student T-test, Pearson and Logistic regression. Standard deviation (Sd) was reported for mean values. Results: The findings of this research indicated that 50.4% of women had a positive attitude toward using contraceptive methods during two years postpartum and 79.2% were using some contraceptive method. Husband education ( p =0.036), having sexual activity ( p =0.001), the time that has been elapsed from the last delivery ( p =0.001), number of pregnancies ( p =0.013), tendency to have more children ( p =0.037), attitude toward contraceptive use ( p =0.001), the type of breast feeding (exclusive or partial) ( p =0.001), and quality of menstural cycles ( p =0.001) were in relation to use of contraceptive methods during two years postpartum. Conclusion: According to these findings, attitudes and believes, breast feeding status and quality of menstural cycles play an essential role in postpartum contraception. Therefore, key steps to better family planning services at this time include effective counseling and starting training programs.


[1] A global database of approximately 1.7 million observations of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in surface ocean waters (pCO2) collected between 1970 and 2003 is used to estimate its spatial autocorrelation structure. The patterns of the lag distance where the autocorrelation exceeds 0.8 is similar to patterns in the spatial distribution of the first baroclinic Rossby radius of deformation indicating that ocean circulation processes play a significant role in determining the spatial variability of pCO2. Separate calculations for times when the Sun is north and south of the equator revealed no obvious seasonal dependence of the spatial autocorrelation scales. The pCO2 measurements at Ocean Weather Station (OWS) "P" in the eastern subarctic Pacific (50°N, 145°W) is the only fixed location where an uninterrupted time series of sufficient length exists to calculate a meaningful temporal autocorrelation function for lags greater than a few days. The estimated temporal autocorrelation function at OWS "P" is highly variable. A spectral analysis of the longest four pCO2 time series indicates a high level of variability occurring over periods from the atmospheric synoptic to the maximum length of the time series, in this case 42 days. It is likely that a relative peak in variability with a period of 3–6 days is related to atmospheric synoptic period variability and ocean mixing events due to wind stirring. However, the short length of available time series makes identifying temporal relationships between pCO2 and atmospheric or ocean processes problematic.


loss of capital gains and stock options revenue during the recent economic downturn was one of the worst in the nation, and the resulting fiscal crisis led to reductions in State appropriations to the University of 15% over the past four years, while enrollments grew by 19%. This article examines the effects of this reduction in State funding and outlines the actions taken by the University of California to minimize the impact of these reductions in State funding. Despite sharp increases, student tuition and fee increases offset less than one-third of the total cut. Those additional tuition and fee revenues were, however, targeted and offset much of the impact on instructional programs, though there were large cuts in other areas. The University took steps to streamline administrative processes and to make better use of limited State funds by utilizing technology and leveraging the power of a multi-campus system to minimize the impact on academic support budgets. Nevertheless, the quality of the educational program has been affected, graduate student support levels are below those of the University's competitors, and salaries for both faculty and staff are well below market. In the short run, the University of California seems to have avoided some of the more serious effects of the loss of State funds on the academic program; the long term prospects, however, are less clear.


The paper proposes a neural network based approach to predict secondary structure of protein. It uses Multilayer Feed Forward Network (MLFN) with resilient back propagation as the learning algorithm. Point Accepted Mutation (PAM) is adopted as the encoding scheme and CB396 data set is used for the training and testing of the network. Overall accuracy of the network has been experimentally calculated with different window sizes for the sliding window scheme and by varying the number of units in the hidden layer. The best results were obtained with eleven as the window size and seven as the number of units in the hidden layer.


of Capstone presentation March 7, 2016 Purpose: To describe the experiences and attitudes of Albanian immigrants toward health care in Albania versus the United Stated (USA). Method: A cross-sectional descriptive survey using venue sampling was administered at the Albanian Festival in Worcester on June 5-7, 2015. The data was entered and analyzed using SPSS. Results: There were a total of 146 subjects eligible for analysis. Most subjects were female (52.7%) and the mean subject age was 41.6 with a range of 18-77 years old. Subjects moved to the USA at a mean age of 28.8 years with a range of 1-66 years old. Subjects have lived in the USA for a mean of 12.9 years, with a range of 3 months to 28 years. Categorical response items comparing health care in Albania versus the USA were statistically significant in favor of the USA health care system regarding comfort seeking care, care worth money, receiving preventative care, and having good communication with the doctor. Subgroup analysis of males vs. females showed a significant finding only on females receiving more preventative care. Continuous response items comparing health care in Albania versus the USA were statistically significant in favor of the USA health care system regarding the patient liking care received and trusting the doctors. Content analysis of the open-ended comments showed positive and negative perceptions of both health care systems. Conclusions: Our results show that Albanian Immigrants have an overwhelming positive experience and attitude toward the USA health care system in all categories including comfort seeking care, care being worth the money, having good communication with the doctor, trusting the doctors, receiving preventative care, and liking care received. These finding are important because they show that even though Albanian immigrants are exposed to under-funded and corrupt medical care in Albania, the majority does not allow this experience to influence the interaction with USA health care professionals. The findings from this study are applicable to the clinical setting in the USA and some recommendations can be made to USA health care providers about how to best approach Albanian immigrant patients.


Jean-Bertrand Aristide was re-elected president of Haiti in 2000, with a massive parliamentary majority. My book Damming the Flood (2007) tried to explain how and why his government overthrown, several years later, in an internationally-sponsored coup-d'état. Novelist Lyonel Trouillot helped prepare the ground for this coup by deriding Aristide as a corrupt and brutal dictator with no popular support, and in his contribution to this Small Axe forum he dismisses Damming the Flood as racist and dishonest propaganda. My response to Trouillot aims to refute these accusations, and to demonstrate that Trouillot's apparent commitment to 'formal democracy' is a contradiction in terms.


In the banking sector good corporate governance practices are regarded as important in reducing risk for investors, attracting investment capital and improving the performance of companies. This paper examines the Issues and challenges around Corporate Governance in the Nigerian Banking Industry. Data were sourced from survey questionnaire. We found that lack of presentation of information is common banks in pre- consolidation than post-consolidation era, frauds, override of internal control and non- adherence to limit of authority in a bid to meet set targets and recapitalization of bank play a vital role in promoting effective corporate governance. In addition, lack of effective corporate governance results to the failure of banks in Nigeria. The study recommends that promoting the culture of whistle blowing, promoting business ethics through moral education, strengthen the financial system to encourage compliance with the code of corporate governance as well as establishing strong anti-fraud controls that would serve as deterrents to fraudsters at every level within the deposit money banks. On the whole, this paper makes a contribution to the existing literature on the state of corporate governance development in the Nigerian banking sector, the impacts of the banking regulations and the efforts put in place at ensuring that the banks are well governed.


Abstract The Geological Survey of Portugal (Comissão dos Serviços Geológicos), was created in 1857, as a section of the Geodesic Division of the Ministry of Public Works, Trade and Industry. It benefited greatly from the workings of the ministry, which in trying to modernize the country was concerned to keep up with the latest technical and scientific developments occurring elsewhere in Europe. Since its foundation, the Geological Survey of Portugal showed a clear drive towards its participation in an international scientific dialogue and cooperation. This strategy encompassed subscription to specialized foreign books and journals; intense correspondence with foreign specialists; the regular publication of monographs and memoirs in French; occasional or permanent collaboration with foreign experts; and travelling. The main outcome of the 'travel of negotiation' undertaken in 1878 to Spain by the Portuguese geologist J. F. Nery Delgado, then adjunct to the Director of the Portuguese Geological Survey, in addition to improving relationships with the geologists of the neighbouring country, was the collection of field data that was useful for the geological characterization of the southern Portuguese regions. He was also able to negotiate and look for data which could persuade his Spanish colleagues to subscribe to interpretations consistent with the Portuguese geological map, published in 1876.


Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) has previously been shown to decrease lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity and mRNA levels in 3T3-L1 cells and in adipose tissue from rats and guinea pigs when injected in vivo, but not to alter LPL activity in human adipocytes incubated in vitro. The effect of recombinant human TNF on LPL activity and mRNA levels in rat epididymal adipose tissue incubated in vitro was examined. LPL activity and mRNA levels fell in adipose tissue taken from fed rats and incubated in Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate medium with glucose. The addition of insulin and dexamethasone prevented these falls. TNF (400 ng/ml) produced a fall of approx. 50% in LPL activity after 2 h of incubation and of approx. 30% in LPL mRNA levels after 3 h. TNF did not decrease LPL activity in isolated adipocytes. These results demonstrate that rat adipose tissue incubated in vitro is responsive to TNF whereas isolated adipocytes are not.


Conventional classifiers often regard input samples as identically and independently distributed (i.i.d.). This is however not true in many real applications, especially when patterns occur as groups (where each group shares a homogeneous style). Such tasks are also called field classification. By breaking the i.i.d. assumption, one novel framework called Field Support Vector Machine (F-SVM) is proposed in this paper. The distinction lies that it is capable of training and predicting a group of patterns (i.e., a field pattern) simultaneously. Specifically, the proposed F-SVM classifier is investigated by learning simultaneously both the classifier and the Style Normalization Transformation for each group of data (called field). Such joint learning proves even feasible in the high-dimensional kernel space. An efficient optimization algorithm is further developed with the convergence guaranteed. More importantly, by appropriately exploring the style consistency in each field, the F-SVM is able to significantly improve the classification accuracy. A series of experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the F-SVM model. Empirical results show that the proposed F-SVM achieves in three different benchmark data sets the best performance so far, significantly better than those state-of-the-art classifiers.


A novel integrated TM-pass waveguide polarizer with a subwavelength-wide slot is introduced and theoretically analyzed. With a proper design of the slot, the waveguide can be used as a single polarization waveguide to guide only TM polarization modes of the light signal. With 26 microm length of this TM-pass polarizer, our computer simulations predict the insertion loss of 0.54 dB for the TM polarization mode with the extinction ratio of 20.3 dB at the wavelength of 1.55 microm.


The vertical transport of tracers by a cumulus ensemble at the TOGA-COARE site is modelled during a 7 day episode using 2-D and 3-D cloud-resolving setups of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. Lateral boundary conditions (LBC) for tracers, water vapour, and wind are specified and the horizontal advection of trace gases across the lateral domain boundaries is considered. Furthermore, the vertical advection of trace gases by the large-scale motion (short: vertical large-scale advection of tracers, VLSAT) is considered. It is shown that including VLSAT partially compensates the calculated net downward transport from the middle and upper troposphere (UT) due to the mass balancing mesoscale subsidence induced by deep convection. Depending on whether the VLSAT term is added or not, modelled domain averaged vertical tracer profiles can differ significantly. Differences between a 2-D and a 3-D model run were mainly attributed to an increase in horizontal advection across the lateral domain boundaries due to the meridional wind component not considered in the 2-D setup.


Title: Controlled Electrochemical Synthesis of Conductive Polymer Nanostructures and Electrochromism Property Study Rui Xiao, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Professor Sang Bok Lee Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Conductive polymers have attracted the attention of many scientists in the whole world since Australians DE Weiss and coworkers reported high conductivity in oxidized iodinedoped polypyrrole, a polyacetylene derivative. In recent years, conductive polymers have served as the basis for many different new technologies such as electrochemical power sources, electrochromic display devices, photovoltaic devices and biosensors. For all of these applications, it is necessary to maintain ultra-fast charge and discharge rates in the conductive polymer layers in order to obtain high energy capacity, fast sensing speed or color change rate. For conductive polymer films there is always a problem for the slow charge/discharge ratio due to the diffusion of counter-ions into and out of the conductive polymer layers. To solve this problem, one-dimensional conductive polymers are ideal choices. We have investigated the electrochemical synthetic mechanism for conductive polymer nanotubes in a porous alumina template using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) as a model compound. As a function of monomer concentration and potential, electropolymerization leads either to solid nanowires or hollow nanotubes and it is the purpose of these investigations to uncover the detailed mechanism underlying this morphological transition between nanowire and nanotube. Electrochemically-synthesized PEDOT nanostructures were characterized using transmission electron microscopy to measure the extent of nanotubular portion in the PEDOT nanostructure. The study on potential dependency of nanotubular portion shows that nanotubes are grown at a low oxidation potential (< 1.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl) regardless of monomer concentration. This phenomenon is explained by the annular base electrode shape at the pore bottom of a template and further supported by an electrochemical study on a flat-top electrode. We investigate the mechanism by taking into account the effect of electrolyte concentration, temperature, and template pore diameter on PEDOT nanostructures. This mechanism is additionally used to control the nanotube dimensions of other conductive polymers such as polypyrrole and poly(3-hexylthiophene). The electrochromic properties and applications of PEDOT nanostructures are also addressed. Controlled Electrochemical Synthesis of Conductive Polymer Nanostructures and Electrochromism Property Study


The study's purpose was to describe a handball ATDE (Athletic Talent Development Environment) in the south of Sweden and to examine and derive the success factors of the ATDE, and within this context explore the motivational climate and autonomy support as perceived by members of the ATDE. The study is based on three theories: the Holistic ecological approach, Self Determination theory and Achievement Goal theory. The study's participants all represented a club in the south of Sweden and consisted of players in the age of 15-19, the club manager, coaches and parents. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of documents surrounding the club's vision and training/match policies. A total of seven interviews with four players, two coaches and the manager were conducted. Five observations at a minimum of 90 minutes gave the authors a broader view of the ATDE. An analysis of content and a triangulation with the supervisor were conducted in order to interpret the empirical data.The study revealed that the club is under re-organization, and its enthusiasm to evolve and become even better. The study found the ATDE to have a mastery oriented and autonomy supportive climate which in many ways contributed to the successful features of the ATDE. The study confirms earlier research regarding ATDE success factors as well as connections between SDT and AGT. The results also provide a deeper understanding of how successful factors, relationships, motivational climate and the autonomy support in an ATDE, affects young handball player's motivation to evolve and reach their full potential. Implications with a basis in the theories used are presented.


We investigate the possibility of probing dark energy by measuring the isotropy of the galaxy cluster autocorrelation function (an Alcock-Paczynski test). The correlation function is distorted in redshift space because of the cluster peculiar velocities, but if these are known and can be subtracted, the correlation function measurement becomes in principle a pure test of cosmic geometry. Galaxy cluster peculiar velocities can be measured using the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect. Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys, for example, Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), South Pole Telescope (SPT), Planck, are expected to do this with varying levels of accuracy, dependent on systematic errors due to cluster temperature measurements, radio point sources, and the primary CMB anisotropy. We use the Hubble volume N-body simulation and the hydrodynamic simulation results of Nagai, Kravtsov & Kosowsky to simulate various kSZ surveys. We find by model fitting that a measurement of the correlation function distortion can be used to recover the cosmological parameters that have been used to generate the simulation. However, the low space density of galaxy clusters requires larger surveys than are taking place at present to place tight constraints on cosmology. For example, with the SPT and ACT surveys, Ω Λ could be measured to within 0.1 and 0.2, respectively, at la, but only upper limits on the equation of state parameter ω will be possible. Nevertheless, with accurate measurements of the kSZ effect, this test can eventually be used to probe the dark energy equation of state and its evolution with redshift, with different systematic errors than other methods.


Fluid-structure interaction is studied numerically in academics and the industry. Shear computational power alone is insufficient to accurately resolve the complex dynamics of high Reynolds number fluid flow. Therefore the development of more efficient and applicable computational algorithms is important. This dissertation focuses on the use of vortex particle methods and computational efficiency. The work is divided into three parts. A novel method for the simulation of the aerodynamic admittance in bluff body aerodynamics is presented. The method involves a model for describing oncoming turbulence in two-dimensional discrete vortex method simulations by seeding the upstream flow with vortex particles. The turbulence is generated prior to the simulations and is based on analytic spectral densities of the atmospheric turbulence and a coherence function defining the spatial correlation of the flow. The method is validated by simulating the turbulent flow past a flat plate and past the Great Belt East bridge, the Øresund bridge and the Busan-Geoje bridge. The dissertation introduces a novel multiresolution vortex-in-cell algorithm using patches of varying resolution. The Poisson equation relating the fluid vorticity and velocity is solved using fast Fourier transforms subject to free-space boundary conditions. Solid boundaries are implemented using the semi-implicit formulation of Brinkman penalization and it is shown that the penalization can be carried out as a simple interpolation. The implementation is two-dimensional and sequential. The implementation is validated against the analytic solution to the Perlman test case and by free-space simulations of the onset flow around fixed and rotating circular cylinders and bluff body flows around bridge sections. Finally a three-dimensional vortex-in-cell algorithm is implemented into an existing open source library that enables large scale, three-dimensional particle-vortex simulations. A high order Fourier based Poisson solver is presented using novel use of regularization in the vortex-in-cell algorithm which formally enables arbitrarily high order convergence. The implementation is prepared for multiresolution though it is currently not supported by the parallel framework. The simulation of deformable and moving objects is demonstrated using Brinkman penalization and the vortex-in-cell algorithm. The model is applied to flow around spheres, a bridge section during the construction phase and the swimming motion of the medusa Aurelia aurita.


| Decades of research have resulted in a remarkably detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of bacterial DNA replication, transcription and translation. Our understanding of the kinetics and physical mechanisms that drive these processes forward has been expanded by the ability of single-molecule in vitro techniques, such as force spectroscopy and single-molecule Förster (fluorescence) resonance energy transfer (smFRET), to capture short-lived intermediate states in complex pathways. Furthermore, these technologies have revealed novel mechanisms that support enzyme processivity and govern the assembly of large multicomponent complexes. Here, we summarize the application of in vitro single-molecule studies to the analysis of fundamental bacterial processes, with a focus on the most recent functional insights that have been gained from fluorescence-based methods. Zernike Institute for


Between the years 1989 and 1992, severe drought conditions occurred in the Thames estuary catchment, significantly reducing freshwater flows into the estuary and affecting estuarine water quality. Long-term data assembled for water quality between 1977 and 1992 were combined with invertebrate abundance data obtained from the intake screens of West Thurrock power station over the same period. This allowed an examination of the influence of drought-induced changes in water-quality parameters on the populations of the most abundant mobile estuarine invertebrates. For 8 invertebrate species, seasonal and monthly means for pre-drought (1977 to 1988) and drought (1989 to 1992) abundances were calculated and tested for significant differences. Time-series data were used to estimate regression models explaining observed variations in populations of Carcinus maenas, Crangon crangon and Gammarus spp. during both periods. Stability tests were used to establish significant differences in pre-drought and drought models. Significant mean seasonal and monthly differences were found for C. maenas and Gammarus spp. in both winter and summer, with significant summer differences being apparent for C. crangon and Palaemon longirostris. Regression analyses confirmed these results for the modelled species and highlighted the significance of drought-related changes in temperature for all 3 crustaceans, with dissolved oxygen being an addi- tional significant variable for C. crangon. The reported significant changes in abundance of the stud- ied species during drought conditions have important implications for the structure and dynamics of estuarine food webs, as C. maenas, Gammarus spp., and particularly C. crangon, are either important predators on invertebrates and juvenile fish or major food items for estuarine fish species.


This research examined whether self-fulfilling prophecies and perceptual confirmation effects accumulated across people. Trios of same-sex participants, each consisting of two interviewers and one target, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions that served to manipulate interviewers' expectations (i.e., non-hostile vs. hostile) and the similarity of their expectations (i.e., similar vs. dissimilar) for targets. Each trio participated in an interaction in which interviewers asked targets questions. Targets' hostility during the interaction and interviewers' impressions of targets' hostility following the interaction served as the primary dependent variables. Results indicated that perceptual confirmation effects accumulated across interviewers. Even though targets' behavior during the interaction did not differ across conditions, interviewers nonetheless judged targets as more hostile when both interviewers expected targets to be hostile than when only one did. The authors discuss these findings in terms of the potential implications for those who have multiple inaccurate and unfavorable expectations held about them. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the most widely used transport protocol in the Internet. TCP is a reliable transport protocol that is tuned to perform well in wired networks where packet losses are mainly due to congestion. Wireless channels are characterized by losses due to transmission errors and handoffs. TCP interprets these losses as congestion and invokes congestion control mechanisms resulting in degradation of performance. TCP is usually layered over the Internet protocol (lP) at the network layer. JP is not reliable and does not provide for any Quality of Service (QoS). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has provided two techniques for providing QoS in the Internet. These include Integrated Services (lntServ) and Differentiated Services (DiffServ) . IntServ provides flow based quality of service and thus it is not scalable on connections with large flows. DiffServ has grown in popularity since it is scalable. A packet in a DiffServ domain is classified into a class of service according to its contract profile and treated differently by its class. To provide end-to-end QoS there is a strong interaction between the transport protocol and the network protocol. In this dissertation we consider the performance of the TCP over a wireless channel. We study whether the current TCP protocols can deliver the desired quality of service faced with the challenges they have on wireless channel. The dissertation discusses the methods of providing for QoS in the Internet. We derive an analytical model for TCP protocol. It is extended to cater for the wireless channel and then further differentiated services. The model is shown to be accurate when compared to simulation . We then conclude by deducing to what degree you can provide the desired QoS with TCP on a wireless channel.


Abstract. The incidence of wildfires in the Arctic and subarctic is increasing; in boreal North America, for example, the burned area is expected to increase by 200–300 % over the next 50–100 years, which previous studies suggest could have a large effect on cloud microphysics, lifetime, albedo, and precipitation. However, the interactions between smoke particles and clouds remain poorly quantified due to confounding meteorological influences and remote sensing limitations. Here, we use data from several aircraft campaigns in the Arctic and subarctic to explore cloud microphysics in liquid-phase clouds influenced by biomass burning. Median cloud droplet radii in smoky clouds were  ∼  40–60 % smaller than in background clouds. Based on the relationship between cloud droplet number (Nliq) and various biomass burning tracers (BBt) across the multi-campaign data set, we calculated the magnitude of subarctic and Arctic smoke aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs, where ACI  =  (1∕3) × dln(Nliq)∕dln(BBt)) to be  ∼  0.16 out of a maximum possible value of 0.33 that would be obtained if all aerosols were to nucleate cloud droplets. Interestingly, in a separate subarctic case study with low liquid water content ( ∼  0.02 g m−3) and very high aerosol concentrations (2000–3000 cm−3) in the most polluted clouds, the estimated ACI value was only 0.05. In this case, competition for water vapor by the high concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) strongly limited the formation of droplets and reduced the cloud albedo effect, which highlights the importance of cloud feedbacks across scales. Using our calculated ACI values, we estimate that the smoke-driven cloud albedo effect may decrease local summertime short-wave radiative flux by between 2 and 4 W m−2 or more under some low and homogeneous cloud cover conditions in the subarctic, although the changes should be smaller in high surface albedo regions of the Arctic. We lastly explore evidence suggesting that numerous northern-latitude background Aitken particles can interact with combustion particles, perhaps impacting their properties as cloud condensation and ice nuclei.


This paper uses a unique dataset of both public and private sector primary school teachers and their students to present among the first estimates in a low-income country of (a) teacher effectiveness; (b) teacher value added (TVA) and its correlates; and (c) the link between TVA and teacher wages. Teachers are highly effective in our setting: Moving a student from the 5th to the 95th percentile in the public school TVA distribution would increase mean student test scores by 0.54 standard deviations. Although the first two years of experience, as well as content knowledge, are associated with TVA, all observed teacher characteristics explain no more than 5 percent of the variation in TVA. Finally, there is no correlation between TVA and wages in the public sector (although there is in the private sector), and a policy change that shifted public hiring from permanent to temporary contracts, reducing wages by 35 percent, had no adverse impact on TVA, either immediately or after 4 years. The study confirms the importance of teachers in low income countries, extends previous experimental results on teacher contracts to a large-scale policy change, and provides striking evidence of significant misallocation between pay and productivity in the public sector.


The global shift towards diets high in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is linked to higher prevalence of obesity, diabetes and most other non-communicable diseases. In Colombia, one out of every two people was overweight or obese by 2010. This study estimates price-elasticities from a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System model, using the 2006–2007 Colombian Income and Expenditure survey. The food groups that were jointly considered were: unsweetened unflavored milks; coffee and tea; sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs); sweets and candies (including sugar); dairy products; meats and animal-based products; grains based staples; fruits and vegetables; and condiments and snacks. We take into account the high proportion of households not purchasing specific food and beverage groups (censored data) and endogeneity on both prices (as unit values) and total expenditure. Unhealthy beverages are price-elastic (-1.61 for SSBs) meaning that the change in consumption is proportionally larger with respect to a change in price. Also, there is a high complementarity among SSBs and major food groups (grains, meats and fruits and vegetables). In Colombia, the design of a meaningful tax to influence healthier diets is a next critical step. This study also shows that a tax of 20% on SSBs should prove to be effective, and can yield revenues of about 1% of the Colombian government's total annual fiscal revenue, which can potentially be directed towards public health promotion and investments.


This paper describes score creating software implemented in the visual programming language MaxMSP, the Lyrebird: Environment Player. Lyrebird analyses and visualises significant features of a sonic environment as a graphic score, that is scrolled from right to left across the computer screen. The aim of the software is to create scores from field recordings with enough semantic detail to allow performer(s) to interact with the sounds of the environment. The form of interaction is open to the performer, but is envisaged to include precise emulation of the auditory features of the recording, improvisation informed by them or a combination of both. The software was specifically designed to partially remove the composer from the loop by not requiring any further specification or intervention in any performance than the generation of the score itself. It was also designed as a near-realtime tool, in which the environment of place and time of the performance could be reflected contemporaneously. It is part of a project to construct processes allowing for data interchange between visual and sonic media: to create a continuum in which sound could be visualized and then resonified by both live performers and digital means (Vickery 2014b, 2015).


In his paper, "Human Dignity, Personal Liberty," Michael Novak has clearly pointed out the contribution of a rejuvenated economic science (in the properly understood sense of the term), founded on the person and placed in the historical context of old-world statism, burgeoning socialism, and a relatively sterile economic science modeled on mathematics. While it is true that Leo XIII did point out the major flaws of both socialism and the older authoritarian system, as Schumpeter discussed, there really is no thorough defense of capitalism as a moral economic system. The result has been that discussion of the free market, even by Christians, has been mostly ideological. Novak's works are a major contribution to the clarification of the truth of the market economy and its compatibility to man's God-given nature and to Catholic teaching. William R. Luckey, "Catholic Reflections on the Basis of the Pluralist Structure of Society," Journal of Markets & Morality 5, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 95-111


The direct α-arylation of unactivated carbonyl compounds using aryl halides represents a powerful method to synthesize criti-cal building blocks for diverse useful compounds. Numerous synthetic methods exist to forge C(sp2)-C(sp3) bonds, albeit metal free direct α-arylation of unactivated cyclic ketones has long been an elusive transformation. Herein, we report a green-light-mediated α-arylation of unactivated ketones from readily available aryl halides via activation of a C(sp2)-X bond (X=I, Br, Cl) and an α-carbonyl C(sp3)-H bond in a single photocatalytic cycle. This approach is characterized by its mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity, and wide functional group tolerance. Importantly, the impressive outcome from multi-gram photocatalytic reaction underpins the strength of this method as a potentially practical and attractive approach for scale-up industrial purposes. The utility and scope of this reaction were further demonstrated by new syntheses of several feedstock chemicals that are commercially expensive but critical for synthesizing numerous pharmaceutical agents.


Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the optimal effect-site concentration (Ce) of sufentanil for satisfactory insertion of laryngeal mask airway (LMA) when administered with a target-controlled infusion (TCI) of propofol at 4.0 μg/mL. Materials and Methods: A total of 25 adult patients scheduled for minor elective surgery were enrolled in this study. All patients received induction with a combination of propofol and sufentanil TCI. The TCI of sufentanil was started at a target Ce of 0.1 ng/mL. After equilibrium with the plasma concentration, the TCI of propofol was initiated, targeting a preset Ce of 4.0 μg/mL. After the loss of consciousness, LMA was inserted and assessed by an experienced Anesthesiologist. The Ce of sufentanil for the next patient was guided by modified Dixon's up-and-down method using 0.05 ng/mL as a step size. The Ce of sufentanil required for successful LMA insertion in 50% of adults (EC50) was determined by calculating the midpoint concentration of all independent pairs of patients after at least seven crossover points. Results: The optimal Ce (EC50) of sufentanil for LMA insertion during propofol induction using target Ce of 4 μg/mL was 0.16 ng/mL (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.12-0.20). There was a significant reduction in propofol induced pain score P = 0.0275 and insignificant hemodynamic changes. Conclusion: Ce of sufentanil required for successful LMA insertion in 50% of patients (EC50) using propofol target Ce of 4.0 μg/mL was 0.16 ng/mL (95% CI = 0.12-0.20) with a significant reduction in the propofol induced pain and hemodynamic stability.


Canadians have enjoyed a long history of encounters with Shakespeare, from the visual arts to creative new adaptations, from traditional and nontraditional interpretations to distinguished critical scholarship. We have in over two centuries remade Shakespeare in ways that are distinctly Canadian. The Oxford Shakespeare Made in Canada series offers a unique vantage on these histories of production and encounter with attention to accessibility and presentation. These editions explore how a given country can inform the interpretation and pedagogy associated with individual plays. Canadians, or more properly British North Americans from both Upper and Lower Canada, have been interacting with Shakespeare since no less than the 1760s in a tradition that is at once rich and robust, indigenous and international. The Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare project at the University of Guelph has created a multimedia database of hundreds of adaptations, developed from Guelph's world-class theatre archives and a host of independent sources that reflect on a long tradition - from pre-Confederation times and heading vibrantly into the future - of playing Shakespeare in Canada.These are the first editions of the plays of William Shakespeare to place key insights from the world's best scholarship alongside the specific contexts associated with a dynamic Canadian tradition of productions and adaptations. Specially research images, never printed before, from a range of Canadian productions of Shakespeare will be featured in every play In additional to a scholarly edition of the playtext complete with original new annotation, these books will include both short introductions by noted scholars and prefaces by well-known Canadians who have experience with Shakespeare. In addition, each play will include act and scene summaries, dramatis personal, and recommended reading/resources.


PCR Guru: An Ultimate Benchtop Reference for Molecular Biologists is provides researchers in molecular biology with a handy reference for approaching and solving challenging problems associated with PCR setup and optimization. As a laboratory guide, it emphasizes the technical aspects of employing PCR as a tool in molecular biology laboratories. The book covers the history of PCR and the basic science underlying it. It then discusses PCR at the bench level, starting with detailed description and tips on primer design, and continuing with the standard protocols used to perform PCR.Provides troubleshooting tips for various types of modifications of standard protocolsContains unique ?Good Practices and Tips" that are indispensable for the beginner and expert alikeFeatures ?Special Cases" with applications of PCR, optimization, and troubleshootingIncludes detailed appendices with tables, figures, and key protocolsOrganized as a systematic, concentrated resource to save time when addressing a PCR problem


Summary The breeding programme for the improvement of eucalypts for pulpwood production in France is described. The programme, run by Association Foret-Cellulose (AFOCEL), is based on the propagation of selected clones by hardwood cuttings from juvenile shoots, although techniques of micropropagation also have a role. Genetic manipulation through artificial hybridisation is seen as an adjunct to the exploitation of natural gene resources for the development of material for clonal selection. Cold temperatures are the main factor limiting the eucalypt programme in France as evidenced by the effects of the extreme frost during the 1984–85 winter.


As part of the new Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct that became effective on July 1, 2005, the Iowa Supreme Court adopted language in Rules 1.6 and 3.3 that enlarged the circumstances for permissive disclosure by lawyers of attorney-client confidential information, but also established a mandatory requirement of disclosure in three contexts. First, under Rule 1.6, lawyers have been granted expanded discretion to disclose confidential information for the purpose of preventing, mitigating, or rectifying financial or property harm caused by a client's commission of a crime or fraud when the lawyer's services were used in furtherance of that conduct. Second, a lawyer is required to reveal information if the lawyer believes it reasonably necessary to prevent imminent death or substantial bodily harm. Third, Rule 4.1(b), which forbids a lawyer from knowingly "fail[ing] to disclose a material fact to a third person when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by a client," when read together with the exceptions in Rule 1.6(b)(2) and (3) permitting disclosure to prevent or rectify substantial financial harm caused by client criminal or fraudulent behavior, effectively requires disclosure of confidential information in certain circumstances. Fourth, under Rule 3.3, a lawyer who discovers that a client has committed fraud upon a tribunal in a proceeding that is not yet concluded is obliged to take reasonable remedial measures, including disclosure to the tribunal if necessary. Unlike the standard under the prior Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility, the fact that the lawyer's knowledge of the client's perjury or other fraud on the court was obtained through a confidential communication does not excuse nondisclosure of the information. While the changes in the ethics rules are meaningful, and in certain respects strike a different balance than under previous ethical standards between upholding confidentiality and affirming other professional or public-regarding obligations, the effect of these changes should not be overstated nor should the extent of the change be exaggerated. Rule 1.6 provides more in the way of continuity, than an introduction of change, in attorney-client confidentiality in Iowa. The core of attorney-client confidentiality remains undisturbed. The lawyer's discretion or obligation to disclose ordinarily is limited to extraordinary circumstances in which serious harm is reasonably certain to occur or has resulted. The exceptions to confidentiality remain few and continue to be narrowly drawn. In sum, the promise of confidentiality offered by the lawyer to the client continues to be as good as gold, excepting only those rare circumstances where the client's own persistence along a wrongful path or other disturbing potential for great harm tarnishes that expectation of confidentiality. This Article is designed to assist Iowa lawyers in becoming more informed about confidentiality and familiar with the new rules, while placing the subject within the context of Iowa history and expectations. Moreover, because Iowa's new rules closely follow the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including the changes made during and following the Ethics 2000 revisions, Iowa should be a good case study for the new standards as they affect confidentiality. As with any set of rules, their effectiveness and integrity depend not only upon what the text says but also upon the informed discretion of lawyers in applying those rules and the wise judgment of the courts in interpreting those rules in the context of each case.


The Gradient of Texture (GoT) can detect subtle changes in the texture of the seismic data along the boundary of salt domes even in the absence of strong reflections, whereas Phase Congruency (PC) can highlight small changes in images of varying illumination and contrast using congruency of phase in Fourier components. In this paper, we propose a hybrid feature, which combines the advantages of both GoT and PC and leads to improved subsurface structures delineation in migrated seismic volumes. This paper outlines the work flow for salt domes delineation which can be modified to capture other geological structures in Earth's subsurface as well. The subjective and objective evaluation of the experimental results on the real seismic dataset from the North Sea, F3 block show that the proposed method outperforms the state of the art methods for salt dome delineation.


A 9-year-old Hispanic boy, previously in good health, was admitted for evaluation of chronic right cervical adenopathy. The node had been present for about 6 weeks. The patient was initially taken to his primary medical doctor and given dicloxacillin, but there was no improvement. The patient reported no fever, sore throat, travel history, or animal exposure. He and his parents denied contact with any persons with tuberculosis. During the past year, the patient had undergone extensive dental work for excessive caries.


Abstract The synthesis of optically pure (1S,4S)-2,5-diazabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-1-carboxylic acid starting from easily available 'chiral pool' l-4-hydroxyproline is reported. A tandem Strecker reaction–intramolecular nucleophilic cyclization (STRINC) sequence was used as the key synthetic step for the first time to prepare a diamino acid. Careful examination of the side products obtained in the STRINC step allowed the suggestion of a mechanistic explanation for the observed facts and optimization the yield of the aminonitrile precursor. The reported scalable synthesis opens the way to use the diamino acid as a branch point in peptides and as a building block in drug discovery.


These volumes provide a selection of seventy-six essays, pamphlets, speeches, and letters to newspapers written between 1760 and 1805 by American political and religious leaders. Many are obscure pieces that were previously available only in larger research libraries. But all illuminate the founding of the American republic and are essential reading for students and teachers of American political thought. The second volume includes an annotated bibliography of five hundred additional items for future reference.


Porous graphitic carbon nitride/carbon composite spheres were synthesized using melamine and cyanuric acid, and glucose as the carbon nitride and carbon precursor, respectively. The 3D hierarchical composites efficiently catalyzed the oxygen reduction reaction with an onset potential of 0.90 V and a kinetic current density of 23.92 mA cm(-2). These merit their promising applications in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.


It has long been suspected that cortical interhemispheric asymmetries may underlie hemispheric language dominance (HLD). To test this hypothesis, we determined interhemispheric asymmetries using stereology and MRI of three cortical regions hypothesized to be related to HLD (Broca's area, planum temporale, and insula) in healthy adults in whom HLD was determined using functional transcranial Doppler sonography and functional MRI (15 left HLD, 10 right HLD). We observed no relationship between volume asymmetry of the gyral correlates of Broca's area or planum temporale and HLD. However, we observed a robust relationship between volume asymmetry of the insula and HLD (p = .008), which predicted unilateral HLD in 88% individuals (86.7% left HDL and 90% right HLD). There was also a subtle but significant positive correlation between the extent of HLD and insula volume asymmetry (p = .02), indicating that a larger insula predicted functional lateralization to the same hemispheric side for the majority of subjects. We found no visual evidence of basic anatomical markers of HLD other than that the termination of the right posterior sylvian fissure was more likely to be vertical than horizontal in right HLD subjects (p = .02). Predicting HLD by virtue of gross brain anatomy is complicated by interindividual variability in sulcal contours, and the possibility remains that morphological and cytoarchitectural organization of the classical language regions may underlie HLD when analyses are not constrained by the natural limits imposed by measurement of gyral volume. Although the anatomical correlates of HLD will most likely be found to include complex intra- and interhemispheric connections, there is the possibility that such connectivity may correlate with gray matter morphology. We suggest that the potential significance of insular morphology should be considered in future studies addressing the anatomical correlates of human language lateralization.


This article explores what it is that managers actually do to successfully lead IT-enabled change. It is based on a three-year case study of the practice of leading IT-enabled change inside the global telecommunications company Ericsson. This organization managed to successfully change their finance and accounting department from an independent structure of numerous local finance and accounting organizations with their own information systems and their own way of doing things into one interdependent global network of shared service centers enabled by a single information system. Based on this and other studies, this article develops a commonality framework for IT-enabled change, which offers important guidelines to improve managerial practice.


A standard membrane model, based on the continuous deterministic Hodgkin-Huxley equations, is compared to an alternative membrane model, based on discrete stochastic ion channel populations represented through Markov processes. Simulations explore the relationship between these two levels of description: the behavior predicted by the macroscopic membrane currents versus the behavior predicted by their microscopic ion channels. Discussion considers the extent to which these random events underlying neural signals mediate random events in neural computation.


The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is composed by four chapters and reconstructs the philosophical system build by Avenarius in his main works – Die Kritik der reinen Erfahrung and Der Menschliche Weltbegriff – focusing on the topic of language and its role. Moving on from the "naive" perspective, consisting in the mere look around, Avenarius describes the relationships among the main contents of each experience: me, surroundings and other men. A further analysis of these relationships leads to Avenarius' theory of psychophysical connection, seen as the dependence of other men's assertions on their brain. Once stated how the psychic contents depend on the cerebral activity, Avenarius can move his attention to two related problems: the development of knowledge in general and the development of that knowledge whose object is the totality of the existence, the world. This path leads Avenarius to reconstruct the evolution of human thought and the history of philosophy, identifying their basis with the psychophysical mechanisms of brain adaptation to environment.
The second part of the thesis traces Avenarius' philosophy back to its origin. I analyse his early works, as well as his unpublished manuscripts held in his Nachlass, with the aim to show both the influence of Heymann Steinthal on Avenarius' early conceptions and the evolution of these conceptions during the years.


To predict sensory inputs or control motor trajectories, the brain must constantly learn temporal dynamics based on error feedback. However, it remains unclear how such supervised learning is implemented in biological neural networks. Learning in recurrent spiking networks is notoriously difficult because local changes in connectivity may have an unpredictable effect on the global dynamics. The most commonly used learning rules, such as temporal back-propagation, are not local and thus not biologically plausible. Furthermore, reproducing the Poisson-like statistics of neural responses requires the use of networks with balanced excitation and inhibition. Such balance is easily destroyed during learning. Using a top-down approach, we show how networks of integrate-and-fire neurons can learn arbitrary linear dynamical systems by feeding back their error as a feed-forward input. The network uses two types of recurrent connections: fast and slow. The fast connections learn to balance excitation and inhibition using a voltage-based plasticity rule. The slow connections are trained to minimize the error feedback using a current-based Hebbian learning rule. Importantly, the balance maintained by fast connections is crucial to ensure that global error signals are available locally in each neuron, in turn resulting in a local learning rule for the slow connections. This demonstrates that spiking networks can learn complex dynamics using purely local learning rules, using E/I balance as the key rather than an additional constraint. The resulting network implements a given function within the predictive coding scheme, with minimal dimensions and activity.


Dynamic thermal management (DTM) techniques to manage the load on a system to avoid thermal hazards are soon becoming mainstream in today's systems. With the increasing percentage of leakage power, switching off the processors is becoming a viable alternative technique to speed scaling. For real-time applications, it is crucial that under such techniques the system still meets the performance constraints. In this paper we study stop-go scheduling to minimize peak temperature when scheduling an application, modeled as a task-graph, within a given makespan constraint. For a given static-ordering of execution of the tasks, we derive the optimal schedule referred to as the JUST schedule. We prove that for periodic task-graphs, the optimal temperature is independent of the chosen static-ordering when following the proposed JUST schedule. Simulation experiments validate the theoretical results.


On a hot sleepy summer day an old truck rattles along a dusty road. A turnip falls off the truck, the truck does not stop. Perhaps the old man who drives the truck does not know that the turnip fell off, or perhaps he does not care. He values his time or his ease more than he values the I turnip. We, who know not only that turnips are nourishing but that many people go hungry, may say that the man ought to have stopped to pick up the turnip.


The physical properties of medium- and long-chain triacylglycerol (MLCT) blends were characterized in this study. Blending MLCT oil with either palm olein or soybean oil changed the distribution of fatty acid groups, the crystallization and melting behavior of oil samples, and oil cloudiness. The crystallization and melting curves of both palm olein- and soybean-based MLCT blends showed that the peaks shift to different transition temperatures depending on the percent of MLCT oil added. Viscosity analysis revealed that the oil viscosity was dependent on the temperature and triacylglycerol composition of the oil samples. Blending MLCT oil with either 50% palm olein or 50% soybean oil could assist in preventing crystal growth for the firs t8ho f storage at 5 and 0C, respectively.


Article 50TEU acknowledges the right of Member States to withdraw from the EU, and contains a specific procedure. It also constitutes the legal basis of an exceptional EU competence whose purpose is to ensure that a Member's departure is "orderly". This qualification entails the conclusion of an agreement between the parties on the terms of the withdrawal, but also presupposes that the withdrawal does not undermine the integrity of the EU legal order, while contributing to the fulfilment of the Union's integration objective. The unprecedented exercise of that competence has enriched the law of European integration: core components of the constitutional identity of the EU have been (re)affirmed, the role of its institutions bolstered, and Union membership law further articulated. Paradoxically, withdrawal may therefore be envisaged as an integration-friendly process.


Whether we realize it or not, we are all brands. We all have qualities that shape and influence how the people in our lives see us—and how we see ourselves. Nationally respected brand experts Jerry Wilson and Ira Blumenthal have helped some of the most exceptional companies and individuals in the world perfect their images. Now, in Managing Brand You, they reveal their proven seven-step process for personal brand building. Using illuminating examples from successful corporations like Coca-Cola and Starbucks as well as high-profile celebrities like Bono and Oprah, Managing Brand You gives readers a step-by-step guide for conducting a self analysis, creating a unique identity, defining their objectives, discovering their passions, creating a plan, putting that plan into action, and monitoring their progress. Wise and insightful, this book will help readers identify what it is that makes them unique and communicate it in a way that guarantees them success.


This paper briefly introduces applications of FT-IR hyperspectral imaging to laboratory analyses and focuses on application of FT-IR/ATR imaging to crop protection products on test and plant surfaces. Results from univariate and multivariate analyses of the hyperspectral images are shown and advantages of the multivariate approach demonstrated.


There is a popular view that land use planning regulations ('planning') is hostile to both development and the development industry. Part of the reason for the prominence of this view is the homogenising of the notion of 'planning' and its reduction to development control. This paper argues that panning controls in the UK are far more sophisticated and, drawing upon empirical evidence of key property interests proposes a more complex and nuanced view of planning controls that, in large part, has the support of the developers and others.


The effects of solar radiation, both visible and ultraviolet (UV-R, 290 to 400 nm), on the kelp Laminaria saccharina (L.) Lamour were examined in relation to depth distribution and tidal height in the Gulf of Maine. Despite the high attenuation of visible and UV-R, shallow subtidal L. sac- charina exhibited significant decreases in midday measurements of steady-state quantum yields of Photosystem II (PSII) fluorescence compared to deeper conspecifics. Decreases in PSII quantum yields under low-tide conditions at midday were more pronounced and associated with higher coef- ficients of non-photochemical quenching than yields of the same algae measured at midday under high-tide conditions. Steady-state quantum yields in shallow algal populations had not recovered by early morning of the following day. Laboratory experiments were conducted to partition out the effects of high visible radiation versus UV-R effects on steady-state quantum yields observed in the field. Algae exposed to solar visible PAR (photosynthetically active radiation; 400 to 700 nm), PAR + UV-A (ultraviolet-A radiation; 320 to 400 nm), and PAR+UV-A+UV-B (ultraviolet-B radiation; 290 to 320 nm) treatments exhibited daily midday depressions in steady-state quantum yields, similar to those observed in field samples at low tide. The PAR+UV-A+UV-B treatment showed a significantly greater depression in PSII quantum yields than field samples at low tide, and took longer to recover at night. Algae exposed to the UV-R component of the spectrum also showed a significant decrease in gross primary production and contained less areal chlorophyll a than field samples, while non- photochemical quenching (a measurement of the dissipation of excess excitation energy) was signif- icantly higher during midday exposures to UV-B. Significantly greater concentrations of the UV-B- absorbing compound mycosporine-glycine, a mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA), were present in the shallow field and experimental PAR +UV-A +UV-B-treated algae. Our results suggest that expo- sure to midday visible irradiances resulted in dynamic photoinhibition, while exposure to visible and UV-R irradiance in the Gulf of Maine results in both dynamic and chronic photoinhibition that causes a decrease in gross primary production of L. saccharina in shallow waters or under low-tide conditions.


The Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) is one of the components of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) used to close the fuel cycle. ABR is a sodium-cooled fast reactor that is used to consume transuranic elements resulting from the reprocessing of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel. ABR-1000 [1000 MW(thermal)] is a fast reactor concept created at Argonne National Laboratory to be used as a reference concept for various future trade-offs. ABR-1000 meets the GNEP goals although it uses what is considered base sodium fast reactor technology for its systems and components. One of the considerations of any fast reactor plant concept is the ability to perform fuel-handling operations with new and spent fast reactor fuel. The transmutation fuel proposed as the ABR fuel has a very little experience base, and thus, this paper investigates a fuel-handling concept and potential issues of handling fast reactor fuel containing minor actinides. In this study, two thermal analyses supporting a conceptual design study on the ABR-1000 fuel-handling system were carried out. One analysis investigated passive dry spent fuel storage, and the other analysis investigated a fresh fuel shipping cask. Passive dry storage can be made suitable for the ABR-1000 spent fuel storage withmore » sodium-bonded metal fuel. The thermal analysis shows that spent fast reactor fuel with a decay heat of 2 kW or less can be stored passively in a helium atmosphere. The 2-kW value seems to be a reasonable and practical level, and a combination of reasonably-sized in-sodium storage followed by passive dry storage could be a candidate for spent fuel storage for the next-generation sodium-cooled reactor with sodium-bonded metal fuel. Requirements for the shipping casks for minor actinide-bearing fuel with a high decay heat level are also discussed in this paper. The shipping cask for fresh sodium-cooled-reactor fuel should be a dry type to reduce the reaction between residual moisture on fresh fuel and the sodium coolant. The cladding temperature requirement is maintained below the creep temperature limit to avoid any damage before core installation. The thermal analysis shows that a helium gas-filled cask can accommodate ABR-1000 fresh minor actinide-bearing fuel with 700-W decay heat. The above analysis results revealed the overall requirement for minor actinide-bearing metal fuel handling. The information is thought to be helpful in the design of the ABR-1000 and future sodium-cooled-reactor fuel-handling system.« less


Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder. Chronic complications include cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure and diabetic retinopathy.Diabetic retinopathy is one of the major complication of diabetes that affects the blood vessels by causing damage to the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye i.e., retina. At first, diabetic retinopathy may cause no symptoms or only mild vision problems. Eventually, diabetic retinopathy can result in blindness. The diabetic retinopathy can be broadly characterized into three stages: early non-proliferative, pre-proliferative and finally proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The chance of getting diabetic retinopathy is when the person has diabetes for a long time and it is poorly controlled. Other complications that may develop mainly include: cataracts, glaucoma, macular edema and retinal detachment. Surgeries are the main treatment for diabetic retinopathy. If it is neglected it may lead to complete blindness. Diabetic retinopathy can be prevented by monitoring blood glucose level periodically. The person with diabetes need to check and record their blood glucose level and make sure that the blood glucose level remains within the target range. Prevention is better than cure, it is better to prevent it than going for treatment once after facing the problem. So, the awareness of diabetic retinopathy is needed.


Sonification is still a relatively young research field and many terms such as sonification, auditory display, auralization, audification have been used without a precise definition. Recent developments such as the introduction of Model-Based Sonification, the establishment of interactive sonification and the increased interest in sonification from arts have raised the need to revisit the definitions in order to move towards a clearer terminology. This paper introduces a new definition for sonification and auditory display that emphasizes the necessary and sufficient conditions for organized sound to be called sonification. It furthermore suggests a taxonomy, and discusses the relation between visualization and sonification. A hierarchy of closed-loop interactions is furthermore introduced. This paper aims to initiate vivid discussion towards the establishment of a deeper theory of sonification and auditory display.


Kim Jong-un showcased a series of summit meetings throughout 2018, including the first-ever meeting of a North Korean leader with a sitting US president. North Korea improved its strained relations with China and South Korea. The country's denuclearization has yet to be seen, but these events sparked considerable debate about the future.


The paper investigates the influence of relative bend curvature on secondary flow, energy losses, and turbulence in sharp open-channel bends. These processes are important in natural streams with respect to sediment transport, the bathymetry and planimetry, mixing and spreading of pollutants, heat, oxygen, nutrients and biological species, and the conveyance capacity. Laboratory experiments were carried out in a configuration with rectangular cross section, consisting of a 193° bend of constant radius of curvature, preceded and followed by straight reaches. This somewhat unnatural configuration allows investigating the adaptation of mean flow and turbulence to curvature changes in open-channel bends, without contamination by other effects such as a mobile bed topography. Experiments were carried out for three different values of the curvature ratio, defined as the ratio of centerline radius of curvature over flow depth, which is the principal curvature parameter for hydrodynamic processes. Commonly used so-called linear models predict secondary flow to increase linearly with the curvature ratio. The reported experiments show that the secondary flow hardly increases in the investigated very sharp bends when the curvature ratio is further increased. This phenomenon is called saturation. Similar saturation is observed for the energy losses and the turbulence. This paper focuses on the analysis and modeling of the saturation of energy losses and turbulence. Secondary flow is found to be the dominant contribution to the curvature-induced increase in turbulence production, which leads to increased energy losses. The curvature-induced turbulence is explained by the fact that the turbulence dissipation lags behind the turbulence production, in agreement with the concept of the turbulence energy cascade. A 1-D model is proposed for the curvature-induced energy losses and turbulence. It could extend 1-D or depth-averaged 2-D models that are commonly used in long-term (scale of a flood event to geological scales) or large-scale (scale of a river basin) investigations on flood propagation, hazard mapping, water quality modeling, and planimetric river evolution.


Hedgehog signaling mediates nociceptive sensitization in flies and influences morphine analgesia in rats. Tissue damage is frequently associated with exaggerated responses to potentially damaging stimuli; for instance, normally nonnoxious stimuli may elicit pain, and thereby aversive withdrawal (allodynia), or sensitivity to pain may be heightened, so that a noxious stimulus elicits an exaggerated response (hyperalgesia). Such nociceptive sensitization can persist after the initiating damage has healed, leading to chronic pain. Noting that morphogens such as Hedgehog (Hh) can be released from damaged tissues, Babcock et al. explored Hh's role in mediating allodynia and hyperalgesia in a Drosophila model of nociceptive sensitization after ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Twenty-four hours after UV exposure, the normally nonnoxious stimulus of 38oC elicited a withdrawal response in both control larvae and larvae bearing a temperature-sensitive Hh allele (hhts2) when larvae were maintained at a permissive temperature (18oC). When larvae were maintained at a restrictive temperature (29oC), however, only the control larvae exhibited this thermal allodynia. Similar analyses implicated Hh in hyperalgesia to a noxious stimulus of 45oC. Overexpression of Patched (which Hh binds to and inhibits) in nociceptive neurons inhibited allodynia and hyperalgesia, as did tissue-specific inhibition of Hh signaling through RNA interference or expression of dominant-negative forms of Hh effectors. In contrast, constitutive activation of Hh signaling led to exaggerated nociceptive responses in the absence of tissue damage. The Drosophila ortholog of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) had previously been implicated in UV-induced thermal allodynia, and experiments in which one pathway was activated while the other was inhibited indicated that TNF and Hh acted in parallel to mediate Drosophila thermal allodynia. Knockdown analyses implicated two TRP (transient receptor potential)–family ion channels in UV-induced thermal nociception, Painless and dTRPA1, with analyses of the responses after genetic activation of Hh or TNF signaling leading to a model in which Painless mediates TNF- or Hh-induced thermal allodynia, whereas dTRPA1 mediates Hh-induced thermal hyperalgesia. Pharmacological analysis of the role of Hh in a rat model revealed that, although the Smoothened inhibitor cyclopamine had no independent analgesic effect, it blocked analgesic tolerance to morphine in inflammatory pain and enhanced the analgesic response to morphine in neuropathic pain. Thus, the authors conclude that Hh signaling plays an unexpected role in modulating nociception and that components of the Hh pathway could provide targets for pain therapy. D. T. Babcock, S. Shi, J. Jo, M. Shaw, H. B. Gutstein, M. J. Galko, Hedgehog signaling regulates nociceptive sensitization. Curr. Biol. 21, 1525–1533 (2011). [PubMed]


We present a video generation model that accurately reproduces object motion, changes in camera viewpoint, and new content that arises over time. Existing video generation methods often fail to produce new content as a function of time while maintaining consistencies expected in real environments, such as plausible dynamics and object persistence. A common failure case is for content to never change due to over-reliance on inductive biases to provide temporal consistency, such as a single latent code that dictates content for the entire video. On the other extreme, without long-term consistency, generated videos may morph unrealistically between different scenes. To address these limitations, we prioritize the time axis by redesigning the temporal latent representation and learning long-term consistency from data by training on longer videos. To this end, we leverage a two-phase training strategy, where we separately train using longer videos at a low resolution and shorter videos at a high resolution. To evaluate the capabilities of our model, we introduce two new benchmark datasets with explicit focus on long-term temporal dynamics.


#1 New York Times bestselling author and radio and tv host Glenn Beck's ultimate handbook for tackling and winning life's most important arguments. FUNNY. FRIGHTENING. TRUE. It happens to all of us: You're minding your own business, when some idiot informs you that guns are evil, the Prius will save the planet, or the rich have to finally start paying their fair share of taxes. Just go away! you think to yourself -- but they only become more obnoxious. Your heart rate quickens. You start to sweat. You can't get away. Your only hope is...this book. Glenn Beck, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers An Inconvenient Book and Glenn Beck's Common Sense, has stumbled upon the secret formula to winning arguments against people with big mouths but small minds: knowing the facts. And this book is full of them. The next time your Idiot Friends tell you how gun control prevents gun violence, you'll tell them all about England's handgun ban (see page 53). When they tell you that we should copy the UK's health-care system, you'll recount the horrifying facts you read on page 244. And the next time an idiot tells you that vegetable prices will skyrocket without illegal workers, you'll stop saying "no, they won't" and you'll start saying, "actually, eliminating all illegal labor will cause us to spend just $8 a year more on produce." (See page 139.) Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.


Topographic indices may be used to attempt to approximate the likely distribution of variable source areas within a catchment. One such index has been applied widely using the distribution function catchment model, TOPMODEL, of Beven and Kirkby (1979). Validation of the spatial predictions of TOPMODEL may be affected by the algorithm used to calculate the model's topographic index. A number of digital terrain analysis (DTA) methods are therefore described for use in calculating the TOPMODEL topographic index, ln(a/tan beta) (a = upslope contributing area per unit contour; tan beta = local slope angle). The spatial pattern and statistical distribution of the index is shown to be substantially different for different calculation procedures and differing pixel resolutions. It is shown that an interaction between hillslope contributing area accumulation and the analytical definition of the channel network has a major influence on calculated ln(a/tan beta) index patterns. A number of DTA tests were performed to explore this interaction. The tests suggested that an 'optimum' channel. initiation threshold (CIT) may be identified for positioning river headwaters in a raster digital terrain model (DTM). This threshold was found to be dependent on DTM grid resolution. Grid resolution is also suggested to have implications for the validation of spatial model predictions, implying that 'optimum' TOPMODEL parameter sets may be unique to the grid scale used in their derivation. Combining existing DTA procedures with an identified CIT, a procedure is described to vary the directional diffusion of contributing area accumulation with distance from the channel network.


The objective of this work was to explore the question of how the interactions between carbohydrate monomers and polymers affect near-infrared spectra and to evaluate the implications of such effects with respect to the development of near-infrared calibrations. The effects of the presence of amylopectin, amylose, cellulose, and starch during the drying of glucose and sucrose on the resulting spectra were investigated. Sugars in various molar ratios with polymers were dried in a rotating mixer and then reground, and spectra from 10,000 to 4000 cm−1 were taken. In addition, spectra of identical mixtures prepared by mixing previously ground sugars and polymers were taken for comparison. Results on samples prepared either by simple mixing of sugars and carbohydrate polymers or by grinding mixtures produced by drying sugars in the presence of polymers indicated that interactions occur between the substances in question. Although simple mixtures of sugars with cellulose, amylose, amylopectin, or starch showed some spectral changes in the spectra of the sugars, in general, the spectra obtained by spectral subtraction were considerably more similar to those of the pure sugars than were those obtained for materials dried together.


Until recently, breeding programs in Africa placed little emphasis on grain quality improvement. Consequently, some farmers have not adopted improved high yielding varieties because they lacked desired quality characteristics for processing and other end uses. We conducted this study to determine the effects of N application on some maize (Zea mays L.) grain quality parameters. In 1993 and 1994, five maize cultivars under four N levels (0, 30, 60, and 120 kg ha -1 ) were evaluated at Zaria (11° 11' N), northern Nigeria, on a Plinthustalf (fine-loamy isohyperthermic). Increasing N levels increased grain yield, kernel weight, and grain protein quadratically for all the cultivars. The hybrid 8644-27 had the highest grain yield and kernel weight of 5.3 Mg ha -1 and 26.62 mg kernel -1 , respectively. Average grain protein yield per unit area was not significantly different among cultivars in both years. At 30 to 60 kg N ha -1 , the cultivars 8644-27 and TZPB-SR had a greater percentage of floaters, than the other cultivars in both years, reflecting a greater proportion of floury endosperm, indicating that they would be best for traditional dry milling, where the whole grain is ground to produce flour. Also, at 30 to 60 kg N ha -1 , SPL and TZB-SR had a relatively low percentage of floaters and high test weights of over 811 kg m -3 in 1993 and 778 kg m -3 in 1994, and should give high yields of grits when processed. Thus, both cultivars have high value for industrial dry milling. Results showed that the choice of cultivar and N level may affect grain quality and they should be considered in producing maize for dry milling purposes.


This
 is a study of the relationship between teachers' views about
misconceptions in secondary physics learning and their classroom
teaching practices. An in-depth exploration of individual teacher
viewpoints was conducted using Q methodology. A 50-statement Q sample
was sorted by 23 physics teachers (14 experienced and 9 novices). Items
were obtained from the literature and were chosen after pilot testing
with a group of trainee graduate science teachers. Results showed three
distinct viewpoints that reflected the "conception of misconceptions" in
 physics learning of two thirds of the participant teachers. Factors
found were: tolerant/positive acceptance, confrontational/non-acceptant
or less aware/indifferent about the nature of misconceptions and how to
address them. Little difference was seen between the views of novice and
 experienced teachers. Implications for the next stage of research are
discussed.


The Evolving Pension System examines the foundations and the future of the private pension system. It provides a broad overview of the underlying assumptions, characteristics, and effects of existing pension policy, as well as alternative views on how public policy toward pensions should evolve in the future. Contributors include Robert Clark (North Carolina State University), Eric Engen (Federal Reserve Board), William G. Gale (Brookings Institution), Theodore Groom (Groom Law Group, Chartered), Daniel Halperin (Harvard), Alicia Munnell (Boston College), Leslie Papke (Michigan State University), Joseph Quinn (Boston College), Sylvester Schieber (Watson Wyatt), John B. Shoven (Stanford), and Jack Vanderhei (Temple University and EBRI). William G. Gale is the Joseph A. Pechman Fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. John B. Shoven is Charles R. Schwab Professor at Stanford University. Mark J. Warshawsky is director of research at the TIAA-CREF Institute.


The WTO inspired strengthening of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries remains highly controversial even 15 years after the 1994 TRIPs agreement. This paper employs both theory and empirics to assess how a strengthening of IPRs affects international technology diffusion by altering the volume of high-tech exports into developing countries. In the context of a North-South general equilibrium model,stronger IPRs encourage Northern firms to introduce new high-tech products in the South. High-tech exports to the South rise, while low-tech exports may fall. International technology diffusion does not necessarily fall. These theoretical predictions are examined empirically. On average,developing countries that strengthened their IPRs under the TRIPs agreement saw an increase of approximately $50 billion (1994 US dollars) in their high-tech imports. This amount is equivalent to a 13% increase in their annual value of high-tech imports.