To assess the impact of different future developments of spacefaring, long-term projections of the space debris environment are performed. In these projections, all major source and sink mechanisms that impact its evolution are considered. They include launches of new objects, propagation of their orbital states, collision rate analysis and performing of fragmentation events (collisions and explosions). Based on these capabilities, different scenarios are simulated and their results are compared. These scenarios consider assumptions for the future launch traffic, solar-activity variations and the implementation of debris mitigation, such as post-mission disposal strategies, and remediation measures, such as active debris removal. LUCA (Long Term Utility for Collision Analysis) is a software tool developed at the Institute of Space Systems (IRAS) of the Technische Universitaet Braunschweig to perform such simulations. It has been used in several ESA contracts, IADC studies and studies supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The development of this tool started in the late 1990ies. In recent year, the historic implementation of LUCA faced several challenges. A combination of enhanced computational power and the demand for much more detailed simulations lead to the decision of a complete re-implementation of this tool, leading to its latest version, LUCA2. The main goals for this new implementation were to allow for maximum flexibility in the models used for single sinks and sources, the extension of its functionalities as well as the consideration of new standards in software engineering. In this paper, at first the overall software architecture of the new tool is described. For this, an object-oriented concept in Fortran 2008 has been developed, which allows easy exchange of different models by using plugins via a generic interface. Following, the single functionalities of the tool are introduced, including implemented methods for collision rate determination, propagation, solar cycle forecasting, break-up modeling and the determination of post-mission disposal orbits. Exemplary results of these core functionalities are presented. Lastly, results of long-term projections of the space debris environment used for the validation of LUCA2 are shown. These results furthermore contain a sensitivity analysis of the new tool to user-defined input parameters, such as different solar cycles or launch traffic assumptions, but also to different physical models, for instance using different collision rate determination algorithms.


Conferences are gatherings that attract attendants from various places and serve both academic and social purposes. Organizing an international conference is, accordingly, a very challenging, demanding and time-consuming task. In order for the conference organizers to hold a successful conference, there is a need for a comprehensive guide to use as a departure and reference point. No academic paper seems to have attended to do's and don'ts of organizing a successful conference in ELT/Applied linguistics. Drawing on the very positive evaluation of a recent international ELT conference held in Urmia, Iran, in May 2013, the authors (as the academic and executive organizers of this conference) share, in this paper, their experiences in holding what was viewed as a 'mammoth success' and a 'magnificent conference' by the attendants (http://www.urmia.ac.ir/elt2013/doclib/testimonials.aspx). The paper discusses conference organizing tasks in terms of two major categories: academic and executive, each with different phases and sub-activities. The paper is hoped to provide a resourceful piece of first-hand information to conference, especially first-time, organizers in the field of ELT and related disciplines.


The present review identifies various constraints relating to poor adoption of ley-pastures in south-west Queensland, and suggests changes in research, development and extension efforts for improved adoption. The constraints include biophysical, economic and social constraints. In terms of biophysical constraints, first, shallower soil profiles with subsoil constraints (salt and sodicity), unpredictable rainfall, drier conditions with higher soil temperature and evaporative demand in summer, and frost and subzero temperature in winter, frequently result in a failure of established, or establishing, pastures. Second, there are limited options for legumes in a ley-pasture, with the legumes currently being mostly winter-active legumes such as lucerne and medics. Winter-active legumes are ineffective in improving soil conditions in a region with summer-dominant rainfall. Third, most grain growers are reluctant to include grasses in their ley-pasture mix, which can be uneconomical for various reasons, including nitrogen immobilisation, carryover of cereal diseases and depressed yields of the following cereal crops. Fourth, a severe depletion of soil water following perennial ley-pastures (grass + legumes or lucerne) can reduce the yields of subsequent crops for several seasons, and the practice of longer fallows to increase soil water storage may be uneconomical and damaging to the environment. Economic assessments of integrating medium- to long-term ley-pastures into cropping regions are generally less attractive because of reduced capital flow, increased capital investment, economic loss associated with establishment and termination phases of ley-pastures, and lost opportunities for cropping in a favourable season. Income from livestock on ley-pastures and soil productivity gains to subsequent crops in rotation may not be comparable to cropping when grain prices are high. However, the economic benefits of ley-pastures may be underestimated, because of unaccounted environmental benefits such as enhanced water use, and reduced soil erosion from summer-dominant rainfall, and therefore, this requires further investigation. In terms of social constraints, the risk of poor and unreliable establishment and persistence, uncertainties in economic and environmental benefits, the complicated process of changing from crop to ley-pastures and vice versa, and the additional labour and management requirements of livestock, present growers socially unattractive and complex decision-making processes for considering adoption of an existing medium- to long-term ley-pasture technology. It is essential that research, development and extension efforts should consider that new ley-pasture options, such as incorporation of a short-term summer forage legume, need to be less risky in establishment, productive in a region with prevailing biophysical constraints, economically viable, less complex and highly flexible in the change-over processes, and socially attractive to growers for adoption in south-west Queensland.


These poems in the voices of tuberculosis patients, nurses, doctors, and family members are part of a collection in progress based on research about a turn of the 20th century TB Sanatorium. The Crest Sanatorium is imaginary but, I hope to fairly and empathetically give voice to patients who might have sought treatment, or medical staff who may have given treatment at a sanatorium. I hope to also capture the stigma patients experienced and the difficulty in treating the disease medical staff faced, yet also the continued human capacity to heal and survive.


EMERGING IN THE IMAGE OF GOD: FROM EVOLUTION TO ETHICS IN A SECOND NAIVETE UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY Jason P. Roberts, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2013 Through a careful integration of theological, philosophical, and the natural scientific sources, the biblical concepts of the image of God and the knowledge of good and evil have the potential to remain important and appropriate descriptors of the human condition, including the possibility and necessity of human morality. This study employs French philosopher Paul Ricoeur's notion of "second naivete" understanding to demonstrate the hermeneutical significance of contemporary biocultural evolutionary theory for reinterpreting and reappropriating these ancient symbols of Christian anthropology as terms equipped to encapsulate a morally fruitful and intellectually honest conceptual framework for constructing, conducting, and evaluating theological anthropology and ethics today. Forging and polishing this hermeneutical lens for the purpose of recasting a biblically-based picture of humanity involves alloying these ancient concepts with others from the interrelated fields of cognitive linguistics, evolutionary psychology, and emergence. Viewed through this lens, the opening chapters of Genesis describe human beings as creatures wrought of the creation and embedded within it to the same extent as all other creatures. Though ordinary in every other aspect, human creatures are unique in that they have emerged with an ambivalent condition of freedom through which they bear the vocation to re-present the creative beneficence of the God who shares power and does not create through violence. I defend this thesis in seven chapters. In the first chapter, I introduce the research topic, goals, and hermeneutical procedure for this study. Chapters 2 and 3 describe biocultural evolution and evolutionary psychology within a non-reductive emergentist perspective as sources and resources for contemporary theological anthropology. In chapter 4, I propose an articulation of the doctrine of the imago Dei within this evolutionary worldview. Chapter 5 situates the knowledge of good and evil vis-a-vis biocultural evolution and recent biblical studies. I then construct a proposal in chapter 6 for how this second naivete understanding of the image of God and the knowledge of good and evil opens up new frameworks and frontiers for fundamental theological ethics. Finally, chapter 7 offers a summative and prospective conclusion to this study and its likely impact on my future research.


The design and fabrication of advanced biocompatible and bioresorbable materials able to mimic the natural tissues present in the human body constitutes an important challenge in regenerative medicine. The size-dependent properties that materials exhibit at the nanoscale as a consequence of their higher surface-to-volume ratio have opened a wide range of opportunities for applications in almost every imaginable field. In this regard, the incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) into biocompatible scaffold formulations provides final materials with additional multifunctionality and reinforced mechanical properties for bone tissue engineering applications. In addition to the biological implications due to their magnetic character (i.e., magnetic stimuli that favor the cell adhesion/proliferation, guiding of growth factors loaded magnetic nanocarriers, etc.), the ability of superparamagnetic scaffolds to simultaneously show magnetic hyperthermia when a dynamic external magnetic field is applied become promising to treat critical bone defects caused by malignant bone cancer through a combined therapy consisting of on demand temperature increase and thermally activated drug delivery. In this paper, we will comment on several different approaches to construct magnetic scaffolds with hyperthermia properties for bone tissue engineering. Experimental details about the design, fabrication and physicochemical characterization of a representative set of magnetic scaffolds have been described, focusing on their hyperthermia properties. The following synthesis procedures to magnetize biocompatible scaffolds reported in this paper covers dip coating of biocompatible gelatin-based scaffolds in aqueous MNPs dispersions, iron doping of the hydroxyapatite (HA) crystal structure, and incorporation of magnetic bioresorbable HA nanoparticles into poly-ε-caprolactone-based polymeric matrices.


Vitamin D binding protein (VDBP), a multifunctional protein, has been found to be elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of neurodegenerative disorder cases, implicating it in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the contribution of VDBP to AD has not been fully explored. We used a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) approach to examine the relationship between serum VDBP levels and cognitive performance in a well characterized AD cohort, the Texas Alzheimer's Research and Care Consortium (TARCC). Instead of categorical diagnoses, we used a latent dementia phenotype (d), which has been validated in several prior studies using this dataset. We found that serum VDBP levels are significantly positively associated with d scores, which in turn are inversely related to cognitive performance. This suggests that d mediates the adverse effects of serum VDB on cognition and therefore that its effects are specifically dementing. d scores are also specifically related to default mode network (DMN) structure. VDBP acts as an amyloid-β (Aβ) scavenger, and Aβ deposition in the DMN is seen in the pre-clinical stages of AD. We speculate then that serum effects of VDBP are mediated through changes in DMN structure or function, most probably via Aβ. Aβ affects the DMN early in the course of AD. Therefore, raised serum VDBP levels may be a useful indicator of future dementia and/or dementia conversion. This might be confirmed through longitudinal analysis of TARCC data.


For expanding and managing agricultural sources, satellite data have a key role in determining required information about different factors in plants Including Leaf Area Index (LAI).This paper has studied the potential of spectral indices in estimating rice canopy LAI in Amol city as one of the main sources of rice production in Iran. Due to its importance in provision of food and calorie of a major portion of population, rice product was chosen for study. A field campaign was conducted when rice was in the max growth stage (late of June). Also, two satellite images from ALOS-AVNIR-2 were used (simultaneous with conducted field works) to extract and determine vegetation indices. Then the Regression between measured data and vegetation indices, derived from combination of different bands, was evaluated and after that suitable vegetation indices were realized. Finally, statistics and calculations for introduction of a suitable model were presented. After examination of models, the results showed that RDVI and SAVI2, by determination coefficient and RMSE of 0.12–0.59 and 0.24–0.62, have more accuracy in LAI estimation. Results of present study demonstrated the potential of ALOS images, for LAI estimation and their significant role in monitoring and managing the rice plant.


Based on the complex grid infrastructure of the Ilmenau Interactive Hybrid Online Lab various possibilities of occurrence of malfunctions as well as mechanisms to avoid them will be discussed. This will be demonstrated by different examples. One implementation challenge is to protect the physical systems in the lab against wrong control algorithms or malicious trying to sabotage or to destroy the system - without defining too many design constraints. Therefore, a high level of safety must be guaranteed for such an autonomous working system. Therefore the first step is the verification of sensor and actuator constellations to guarantee safety in online labs. Based upon this an efficient possibility for a validation of the student's design will be shown as subsequent step.


In cold regions, snow and ice during winter can pose serious risks to road surfaces and driving conditions. Icing always occurs on roads during winter. Heavy snow and freezing temperatures result in slippery road pavements. Driving on these surfaces is difficult and may cause heavy traffic and vehicular traffic accidents. Under such conditions, drivers should drive slowly and be prepared for delays. Icing reduces the friction between tires and the pavement surface, which increases the risk of accidents. Winter maintenance is highly important for icy pavement surfaces. Winter maintenance practices include plowing, sanding to improve traction, and applying winter anti-icing liquids that melt snow and ice on a road surface to prevent them from sticking. The combinations of practices used at each site may vary according to climate, traffic, and storm conditions. Road salt can melt snow and ice effectively, but it causes severe rust damage to vehicles, degrades road surfaces, corrodes bridges, and harms roadside vegetation. Therefore, the application of an abrasive granular material is important for preventing snow and ice from sticking to a road surface. However, sand, which is the most commonly used abrasive material, tends to be easily removed from the road surface by traffic. This study introduces new low-cost testing equipment, namely, the Ice Melter Experiment Mechanism (IMEM), which is used to evaluate abrasive materials for snowy or icy pavement surfaces and a new abrasive material that cannot be easily removed from road surfaces. In this study we tested the performance of IMEM and analyzed the results. The operational process of IMEM is also elaborated.


Abstract
 A succinct reference for those assessing and managing the reproductive functionality of male animals, this practical manual contains both generic and species-specific information suitable for widespread worldwide application. Chapters 1 to 5 covers all relevant aspects such as handling and restraint, physical examination, reproductive examination, important reproductive diseases, biosecurity, semen collection and its assessment, mating behaviour, and the fundamentals of semen handling and preservation for artificial breeding. A simple, concise 'go-to' for the useful techniques and procedures of animal andrology, this book also covers a wide range of species, including cattle (chapter 6), pigs (chapter 7), sheep and goats (chapter 8), camelids (chapter 9), horses (chpater 10), and dogs (chpater 11); provides normal values and ranges for important male reproductive traits, as well as guidelines for breeding soundness evaluations; includes extra supplementary illustrations, protocols and resources through accompanying website to enable further learning. With information presented in a manner that will remain useful for years to come, Manual of Animal Andrology is an essential resource for veterinarians, theriogenologists, animal breeders, and students of veterinary and animal sciences.


Research suggests that speech-accompanying gestures influence cognitive processes, but it is not clear whether the gestural benefit is specific to the gesturing hand. Two experiments tested the "(right/left) hand-specificity" hypothesis for self-oriented functions of gestures: gestures with a particular hand enhance cognitive processes involving the hemisphere contralateral to the gesturing hand. Specifically, we tested whether left-hand gestures enhance metaphor explanation, which involves right-hemispheric processing. In Experiment 1, right-handers explained metaphorical phrases (e.g., "to spill the beans," beans represent pieces of information). Participants kept the one hand (right, left) still while they were allowed to spontaneously gesture (or not) with their other free hand (left, right). Metaphor explanations were better when participants chose to gesture when their left hand was free than when they did not. An analogous effect of gesturing was not found when their right hand was free. In Experiment 2, different right-handers performed the same metaphor explanation task but, unlike Experiment 1, they were encouraged to gesture with their left or right hand or to not gesture at all. Metaphor explanations were better when participants gestured with their left hand than when they did not gesture, but the right hand gesture condition did not significantly differ from the no-gesture condition. Furthermore, we measured participants' mouth asymmetry during additional verbal tasks to determine individual differences in the degree of right-hemispheric involvement in speech production. The left-over-right-side mouth dominance, indicating stronger right-hemispheric involvement, positively correlated with the left-over-right-hand gestural benefit on metaphor explanation. These converging findings supported the "hand-specificity" hypothesis.


Genetic science has provided new knowledge that has the potential to reduce 'race' discrimination. This includes findings that around 95% of human genetic variability is present within any population; and that most human traits are influenced by a complex combination of many genetic and environmental factors. Despite this knowledge, racially discriminatory practices persist internationally, including segregation; unfair sentencing; state surveillance of children; and involuntary sterilisation. Moreover, there is an emerging risk that DNA may be used to propel harmful discriminatory practices. For example, new 'DNA-based' groups may emerge in the context of polygenic prediction – aggregating multiple genetic risks into individuals' combined risk indexes. Such DNA-based groups could be viewed as 'new races' - adding yet another category to the already heterogenous definition of 'race'. This paper reviews the genetic advances directly relevant to, and their impact on, 'race' and other group discrimination; and assesses current UK and international discrimination practices and effectiveness of the laws in place prior to and in the genomic era. The paper concludes that current laws provide insufficient protection from 'race' and other group discrimination and still reflect people's beliefs in entrenched differences between 'races'. The paper asserts that the very use of the term 'race' in equality legislation is problematic due to inconsistencies in definition across key legislations; and history of its association with domination. Justice systems must update laws to reflect current genetic knowledge and to address existing and emerging risks of discrimination.


This essential resource on neuroimaging provides an accessible and user-friendly introduction to the field written by leading researchers. The book describes theoretical and methodological developments in the use of functional neuroimaging techniques to study the neural basis of cognition, from early scientific efforts to link brain and behavior to the latest applications of fMRI and PET methods. The core of the book covers fMRI and PET studies in specific domains: attention, skill learning, semantic memory, language, episodic memory, working memory, and executive functions. By introducing a technique within the description of a domain, the book offers a clear explanation of the process while highlighting its biological context. The emphasis on readability makes Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition ideal for classroom use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in cognitive neuroscience. This second edition has been completely updated to reflect new developments in the field, with existing chapters rewritten and new chapters added to each section. The section on history and methods now includes a chapter on the crucial topic of the physics of functional neuroimaging; the chapters on skill learning and executive functions are new to the domain section; and chapters on childhood development and emotion and social cognition have been added to the section on developmental, social, and clinical applications. The color insert has been increased in size, enhancing the visual display of representative findings. ContributorsTodd S. Braver, Jeffrey Browndyke, Roberto Cabeza, B.J. Casey, Jody Culham, Clayton E. Curtis, Mark D'Esposito, Sander Daselaar, Lila Davachi, Ian Dobbins, Karl J. Friston, Barry Giesbrecht, Todd C. Handy, Joseph B. Hopfinger, Scott A. Huettel, Irene P. Kan, Alan Kingstone, Eleni Kotsoni, Kevin S. LaBar, George R. Mangun, Gregory McCarthy, Uta Noppeney, Robyn T. Oliver, Elizabeth A. Phelps, Russel A. Poldrack, Cathy J. Price, Marcus E. Raichle, Hannes Ruge, Gaia Scerif, Allen W. Song, Sharon L. Thompson-Schill, Daniel T. Willingham, Richard J.S. Wise


Based on a diverse and complementary set of theoretical and empirical findings, we describe an approach to phonology in which sound patterns are shaped by the trade-off between biases supporting message transmission accuracy and resource cost. We refer to this approach as Message-Oriented Phonology. The evidence suggests that these biases influence the form of messages, defined with reference to a language's morphemes, words or higher levels of meaning, rather than influencing phonological categories directly. Integrating concepts from information theory and Bayesian inference with the existing body of phonological research, we propose a testable model of phonology that makes quantitative predictions. Moreover, we show that approaching language as a system of message transfer provides greater explanatory coverage of a diverse range of sound patterns.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of two personality traits (i.e. food neophobia (FN) and domain-specific innovativeness (DSI)) on revisit intentions of consumers in the food festival context.,The study adopted a FN scale, DSI scale and food festival revisit intention scale to capture the study constructs. Furthermore, data were collected from 265 food festival attendees in the town of Udupi (State of Karnataka, India). Furthermore, the study adopted structural equating modeling to investigate the relationship between the three study constructs.,The findings of this study reveals that DSI seems to exercise significant positive influence on consumers revisit intentions for the food festival. On the contrary, FN seems to exercise a negative influence on consumers revisit intentions. This relation, however, is found to be non-significant.,The findings of this study are expected to help food festival event managers, organizers and practitioners outline and delineate marketing strategies so as to increase the revisit intentions of consumers for the food festivals.,FN and DSI have been extensively studied in the context of consumers' food consumption and related behaviors. On the contrary, majority of the studies that relate to festival revisit intentions situate consumers' experiential values and satisfaction with attributes of the festival itself (e.g. location, affordability, quality of food, infrastructure, venue ambiance, service quality, entertainment avenues, timing and duration and size of the festival) as key precursors to their revisit propensity. This research endeavor, however, attempts to investigate whether, notwithstanding other food festival attributes, personality traits of individuals (i.e. FN and DSI) exercise any influence on food festival revisit intentions.


ABSTRACT In England and Wales, the 'war on terror' has been argued to impact adversely on existing race relations policies. New legislation (such as wide discretionary powers of stop and search and arrest under the Terrorism Act (TA) 2000, the extension of pre-charge detention of 28 days (TA 2006), and the use of control orders to detain without trial), policing, and counter-terrorism measures may cast Muslims as the 'enemy within'. The current research concerns real-life Asian Muslim suspects' perceptions and experiences of police interviewing practices in England. This study involves semi-structured interviews with 22 people who had previously been interviewed as suspects throughout England. Around two-thirds of participants reported perceiving the demonstration of various stereotyping by police officers during interviews, half of whom indicated that the interviewers demonstrated racial/religious stereotypes via discriminatory behaviour. Given the potential and serious consequences of such racial/religious stereotypes and discriminatory behaviour, further training of police officers seems necessary to improve both interviewing performance and community cohesion.


Isolated nuclei can directly sense mechanical force and stimulate the phosphorylation of a nuclear membrane protein. Mechanical forces—such as compression, shearing, or cell-cell contact—induce intracellular changes that affect motility, polarity, and survival. Cell surface tension signals are transduced to the nucleus through the cytoskeleton and the LINC complex, a nuclear transmembrane protein network that anchors the nuclear envelope and the nuclear lamina to the actin cytoskeleton. The RhoA pathway mediates cytoskeletal actin remodeling in response to mechanical force sensed by integrins at the cell surface, and RhoA can localize to the nucleus to regulate nuclear actin. Guilluy et al. found that the nucleus itself stiffens in response to mechanical stress. The authors used magnetic tweezers to apply a force to isolated nuclei (from HeLa cells, human umbilical vein endothelial cells, or MRC5 fibroblast cells) bound to magnetic beads coated in an antibody against nesprin-1, a component of the LINC complex. Application of successive magnetic pulses progressively decreased displacement of the beads from the nuclei, which suggested that the nuclei were stiffer, whereas no changes in displacement were observed when beads were coated in poly–lysine or antibody against a nuclear pore protein. Additionally, the nuclei subjected to the magnetic pulses exhibited activated RhoA and the tyrosine kinase Src and had phosphorylated emerin, an inner nuclear membrane protein. However, the addition of agents that inhibit RhoA, the Rho-associated kinase (ROCK), or the formation of actin filaments to isolated nuclei did not prevent nuclear stiffening, whereas depletion of emerin in cells before isolating the nuclei did. Isolation of nuclei from cells in which various tyrosine kinases were pharmacologically inhibited or cells expressing phosphorylation-resistant tyrosine-to-phenylalanine emerin mutants indicated that exposure of these nuclei to force and the induction of nuclear stiffening required Src-dependent phosphorylation of emerin at Tyr74 and Tyr95. Expression of phosphorylation-resistant emerin decreased the induction of mechanosensitive gene expression, the formation of cytosolic stress fibers, and the aspect ratio (the cells were rounder, which indicates a change in cell polarity) of MRC5 fibroblasts and impaired migration in HeLa cells. These findings identify a mechanism of mechanotransduction in the nucleus and suggest that this nuclear response is crucial for the cellular response to mechanical force. C. Guilluy, L. D. Osborne, L. Van Landeghem, L. Sharek, R. Superfine, R. Garcia-Mata, K. Burridge, Isolated nuclei adapt to force and reveal a mechanotransduction pathway in the nucleus. Nat. Cell Biol. 16, 376-381 (2014). [PubMed]


The objective of this study is to predict groundwater levels (GWLs) under different impact factors using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for a case study in Tra Noc Industrial Zone, Can Tho City, Vietnam. This can be achieved by evaluating the current state of groundwater resources (GWR) exploitation, use and dynamics; setting-up, calibrating and validating the ANN; and then predicting GWLs at different lead times. The results show that GWLs in the study area have been found to reduce rapidly from 2000 to 2015, especially in the Middle-upper Pleistocene (qp2-3) and upper Pleistocene (qp3) due to the over-withdrawals from the enterprises for production purposes. Concerning this problem, an Official Letter of the People's Committee of Can Tho City was issued and taken into enforcement in 2012 resulting in the reduction of exploitation. The calibrated ANN structures have successfully demonstrated that the GWLs can be predicted considering different impact factors. The predicted results will help to raise awareness and to draw an attention of the local/central government for a clear GWR management policy for the Mekong delta, especially the industrial zones in the urban areas such as Can Tho city.


As smartphones become more popular, applications are being developed with new and innovative ways to solve problems in the day-to-day lives of users. One area of smartphone technology that has been developed in recent years is human activity recognition (HAR). This technology uses various sensors that are built into the smartphone to sense a person's activity in real time. Applications that incorporate HAR can be used to track a person's movements and are very useful in areas such as health care. We use this type of motion sensing technology, specifically, using data collected from the accelerometer sensor. The purpose of this study is to study and estimate the person who may become lost in a crowded area. The application is capable of estimating the movements of people in a crowded area, and whether or not the person is lost in a crowded area based on his/her movements as detected by the smartphone. This will be a great benefit to anyone interested in crowd management strategies. In this paper, we review related literature and research that has given us the basis for our own research. We also detail research on lost person behavior. We looked at the typical movements a person will likely make when he/she is lost and used these movements to indicate lost person behavior. We then evaluate and describe the creation of the application, all of its components, and the testing process.


Arabidopsis thaliana INNER NO OUTER (INO) is a YABBY protein that is essential for the initiation and development of the outer integument of ovules. Other YABBY proteins have been shown to be involved in both negative and positive regulation of expression of putative target genes. YABBY proteins have also been shown to interact with the corepressor LEUNIG (LUG) in several systems. In support of a repressive role for INO, we confirm that INO interacts with LUG and also find that INO directly interacts with SEUSS (SEU), a known corepressive partner of LUG. Further, we find that INO can directly interact with ADA2b/PROPORZ1 (PRZ1), a transcriptional coactivator that is known to interact with the histone acetyltransferase GENERAL CONTROL NONREPRESSIBLE PROTEIN 5 (GCN5, also known as HAG1). Mutations in LUG, SEU, and ADA2b/PRZ1 all lead to pleiotropic effects including a deficiency in the extension of the outer integument. Additive and synergistic effects of ada2b/prz1 and lug mutations on outer integument formation indicate that these two genes function independently to promote outer integument growth. The ino mutation is epistatic to both lug and ada2b/prz1 in the outer integument, and all three proteins are present in the nuclei of a common set of outer integument cells. This is consistent with a model where INO utilizes these coregulator proteins to activate and repress separate sets of target genes. Other Arabidopsis YABBY proteins were shown to also form complexes with ADA2b/PRZ1, and have been previously shown to interact with SEU and LUG. Thus, interaction with these corepressors and coactivator may represent a general mechanism to explain the positive and negative activities of YABBY proteins in transcriptional regulation. The LUG, SEU, and ADA2b/PRZ1 proteins would also separately be recruited to targets of other transcription factors, consistent with their roles as general coregulators, explaining the pleiotropic effects not associated with YABBY function.


Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a Gammaherpesvirus that causes acute infection and establishes life-long latency. KSHV causes several human cancers, including Kaposi's sarcoma, an acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Genipin, an aglycone derived from geniposide found in Gardenia jasminoides, is known to be an excellent natural cross-linker, strong apoptosis inducer, and antiviral agent. Although evidence suggests antiviral activity of genipin in several in vitro viral infection systems, no inhibitory effect of genipin on KSHV infection has been reported. Thus, our aim was to determine, using the iSLK-BAC16 KSHV infection system, whether genipin has inhibitory effects on KSHV infection. For this purpose, we evaluated biological effects of genipin on KSHV infection and finally determined the underlying mechanisms responsible for the bioactive effects of genipin. A cytotoxicity assay revealed that genipin caused 50% cytotoxicity at 49.5 μM in iSLK-puro (KSHV-negative) cells and at 72.5 μM in iSLK-BAC16 (KSHV-positive) cells. Caspase 3/7 activities were slightly suppressed by genipin treatment in iSLK-BAC16 cells while significantly induced in iSLK-puro cells. Production of the KSHV latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), but not that of the R-transactivator (RTA) protein, was significantly induced by genipin treatment at lower concentration. Consistent with the LANA upregulation, KSHV LANA transcripts, but not RTA transcripts, were expressed at a higher level. Furthermore, KSHV intracellular copy numbers were slightly increased at lower concentration of genipin, while KSHV extracellular copy numbers were significantly increased at higher concentration of genipin. Interestingly, genipin treatment at a lower concentration did induce the expression of DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1); however, a co-immunoprecipitation assay showed that the DNMT1 and LANA induced by genipin did not co-precipitate from iSLK-BAC16 cells. Moreover, a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated that genipin treatment enhanced the binding of CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) to the CTCF-binding site in the KSHV latency control region but suppressed the binding of structural maintenance of chromosomes protein 3 (SMC3) to this site. Genipin treatment also led to the recruitment of additional RNA polymerase to the majority of binding sites of some interesting proteins in the KSHV latency control region, which might be related to the extension of S phase in iSLK-BAC16 cells by genipin treatment. Finally, genipin treatment at lower concentration could promote the KSHV latent replication. In contrast, the treatment at higher concentration could induce the KSHV lytic replication. In conclusion, genipin was shown to be an interesting reagent, which we used to manipulate KSHV life cycle in KSHV latently infected cells.


Host-specific race formation has been suggested for mistletoe species using cross-dispersal experiments. Here, we tested the effects of host provenance, bird gut passage, and host fate on Psittacanthus schiedeanus seed either manually extracted or bird gut-passed on four host species in Veracruz, Mexico: Acacia pennatula, Liquidambar styraciflua, Platanus mexicana, and Quercus germana. Both groups of seed were placed on the branches of host trees in a full factorial design of cross-inoculation. Bird gut passage had no effect on seed germination, and the only factor having a significant effect on seed germination was host provenance. Results of seedling establishment were similar to those of seed germination, where mistletoe seed inoculated on P. mexicana were more likely to germinate and seedlings to establish than seed inoculated on the other hosts. The significant host provenance-fruit treatment interaction was largely due to a lower seedling establishment of gut-passed seed from P. mexicana to P. mexicana and the other hosts. Although host provenance of mistletoe seed was a significant predictor in germination and seedling establishment, the host provenance-host fate interaction was the only significant predictor for seedling survival. The significant host provenance-host fate interaction was largely due to higher survival success of mistletoe seed from L. styraciflua to L. styraciflua and P. mexicana and from P. mexicana to P. mexicana and a lower success from Q. germana to Q. germana and from A. pennatula to A. pennatula.


From the Publisher:
Learn how to create the basic, dynamic, and advanced ASP.NET pages in C#

Packed with tips, tricks, and workarounds, this book covers every aspect of developing a Web application for the enterprise using ASP.NET and C#. Written by Microsoft insiders, it shows readers how to create the basic, dynamic, and advanced ASP.NET pages in Microsoft's new C# programming language, and explains how to interact with the database using ADO.NET.
The authors review how to transport and display data on the Internet or an Intranet using XML, objects, and Web services. They also explain how to implement security with authentication, integrate important e-commerce issues, and optimize the ASP.NET Web application for optimal performance.
Companion Web site features complete source code samples for the applications developed and explained in the book.
Microsoft Technologies

.NET Platform: The next big overhaul to Microsoft's technologies that will bring enterprise distributed computing to the next level by fully integrating the Internet into the development platform. This will allow interaction between any machine, on any platform, and on any device.

Visual Basic.NET: The update to this popular visual programming language will offer greater Web functionality, more sophisticated object-oriented language features, links to Microsoft's new common runtime, and a new interface.

ASP.NET: A programming framework (formerly known as Active Server Pages) for building powerful Web-based enterprise applications; can be programmed using VB.NET or C#.

C#: Microsoft's new truly object-oriented programming language that builds on the strengths of C++ and the ease of Visual Basic; promises to give Sun's Java a run for its money.


To understand why internet users spread fake news online, many studies have focused on individual drivers, such as cognitive skills, media literacy, or demographics. Recent findings have also shown the role of complex socio-political dynamics, highlighting that political polarization and ideologies are closely linked to a propensity to participate in the dissemination of fake news. Most of the existing empirical studies have focused on the US example by exploiting the self-reported or solicited positioning of users on a dichotomous scale opposing liberals with conservatives. Yet, left-right polarization alone is insufficient to study socio-political dynamics when considering non binary and multi-dimensional party systems, in which relevant ideological stances must be characterized in additional dimensions, relating for example to opposition to elites, government, political parties or mainstream media. In this article we leverage ideological embeddings of Twitter networks in France in multi-dimensional opinions spaces, where dimensions stand for attitudes towards different issues, and we trace the positions of users who shared articles that were rated as misinformation by fact-checkers. In multi-dimensional settings, and in contrast with the US, opinion dimensions capturing attitudes towards elites are more predictive of whether a user shares misinformation. Most users sharing misinformation hold salient anti-elite sentiments and, among them, more so those with radical left- and right-leaning stances. Our results reinforce the importance of enriching one-dimensional left-right analyses, showing that other ideological dimensions, such as anti-elite sentiment, are critical when characterizing users who spread fake news. This lends support to emerging accounts of social drivers of misinformation through political polarization, but also stresses the role of the entanglement between fake news, anti-elite polarization, and the role of scientific authorities in public debate.


Individual differences play a significant role in the outcomes experienced by adolescent athletes, in what is a highly stressful period of their development. Stress reactivity is a stable individual difference underlying the broad variability in responses to stress, which has received very little attention within sporting contexts. Therefore, this PhD aims to establish stress reactivity as a critical individual difference influencing the outcomes experienced by adolescent athletes. A systematic review of the literature was firstly conducted in order to assess how individual differences in stress reactivity are measured in adolescents, and the long-term outcomes associated with stress reactivity. Hyper-reactivity was associated with internalising symptoms, negative emotionality, depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal during adolescence and in later life. However, what was lacking in the literature were ecologically valid measures of stress reactivity that capture responses to multiple real-world stressors. This was of importance for the aim of assessing stress reactivity specifically within sporting contexts. Therefore, study one adapted the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale (Schlotz, Yim, Zoccola, Jansen, & Schulz, 2011) to measure individual differences in perceived stress reactivity in adolescent athletes, testing model fit, internal consistency, criterion validity, and test re-test reliability. 243 adolescent athletes completed the adapted scale, plus measures of the Big 5 personality traits, perceived stress, and life satisfaction. The Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale for Adolescent Athletes (PSRS-AA) produced adequate model fit from a confirmatory factor analysis, and good internal consistency and test re-test reliability for the scale's aggregate score of total reactivity. Perceived stress reactivity was associated with higher neuroticism and introversion, less openness, greater perceived stress, and lower life satisfaction. In study 2, a path analysis was conducted to investigate the direct and indirect effects of perceived stress reactivity on the stress and coping process. 229 adolescent athletes completed the PSRS-AA and a measure of stress appraisal prior to competition, followed by measures of emotion, coping, and performance satisfaction after competing. Perceived stress reactivity had direct effects on the appraisal of stress intensity, perceived control, and threat prior to competition, and on negative emotions reported post-competition. Indirect effects were also observed on perceived challenge, and disengagement and distraction-orientated coping. However, no effects were observed on subsequent performance satisfaction. Study 3 (a two-part study) tested the validity of the scale further, and its relationships with measures of emotion regulation. Firstly, 216 adolescent athletes completed the PSRS-AA and measures of trait reinvestment and trait emotion regulation. Confirmatory factor analysis again provided adequate model fit, while perceived stress reactivity was associated with trait movement self-consciousness, and partially associated with trait emotional suppression and cognitive re-appraisal. Thirty student athletes and thirty one student non-athletes then completed either the PSRS-AA or the original PSRS and took part in a socially evaluated cold pressor test while their heart rate variability (HRV; a psychophysiological measure of emotion regulation) was recorded. Controlling for gender and athleticism, the PSRS-AA showed no associations with tonic or phasic levels of HRV. However, the perceived stress reactivity did predict levels of perceived stress and pain experienced during the cold pressor test. This thesis makes a number of novel contributions to both theory, methodology, and applied practice. The PSRS-AA provides a valid and reliable measure of adolescent athletes' individual differences in perceived stress reactivity and is associated with a number of adverse psychological processes and outcomes. The PSRS-AA could be used as a screening tool to identify adolescent athletes with high levels of stress reactivity, and thus those who may be at the greatest risk of the adverse outcomes identified in this thesis. However, further research is required to confirm the scale's association with physiological processes and measures of stress reactivity. Further research is also required to establish the relationship between stress reactivity and emotion regulation in adolescent athletes. Future research should also look to examine the factors which contribute to the development of stress reactivity before and during adolescence in athletes, given the large number of stressors they experience, in order to understand how such individual differences may lead to talented athletes failing to fulfil their potential.


Web-based social networks typically use public trust systems to facilitate interactions between strangers. These systems can be corrupted by misleading information spread under the cover of anonymity, or exhibit a strong bias towards positive feedback, originating from the fear of reciprocity. Trust propagation algorithms seek to overcome these shortcomings by inferring trust ratings between strangers from trust ratings between acquaintances and the structure of the network that connects them. We investigate a trust propagation algorithm that is based on user triads where the trust one user has in another is predicted based on an intermediary user. The propagation function can be applied iteratively to propagate trust along paths between a source user and a target user. We evaluate this approach using the trust network of the CouchSurfing community, which consists of 7.6M trust-valued edges between 1.1M users. We show that our model out-performs one that relies only on the trustworthiness of the target user (a kind of public trust system). In addition, we show that performance is significantly improved by bringing in user-level variability using mixed-effects regression models.


The early Paleozoic climate has been described as warm and equable. However, recent data based on conodont oxygen isotopic composition reveal a large, long, cooling trend through the Ordovician, followed by an abrupt cooling during the Late Ordovician glaciation. This long-term climate change is associated with a major radiation in the Earth life history. Nonetheless, the driving mechanisms for this cooling trend remain unknown. Carbon dioxide consumption by the weathering of fresh rocks from volcanic arcs has recently been suggested as a possible driver for this climate change. However, the impact of the plate motion context has not been explored yet, although it might have a major impact on atmospheric CO 2 levels. Simulations with a climate model coupled to a biogeochemical model (GEOCLIM) show that the atmospheric CO 2 decreased from more than 20 PAL (∼5600 ppmv) in the Furongian down to approximately 10 PAL (∼2800 ppmv) in the Llandovery before rising again in the Early Devonian. We suggest that changes in geography and exposure of fresh volcanic rocks on continents are required to explain the large CO 2 drawdown that led to the onset of cooler to glacial conditions from the Middle Ordovician to the Llandovery. The weathering of fresh volcanic rocks is itself responsible for 33% of the Late Ordovician atmospheric CO 2 decrease; the rest being related to the continent motion through the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Mean annual continental temperature falls by 3°C in the Early Ordovician, reaching 13.5°C during the glacial interval, and rises to 16°C in the Early Devonian.


Background. The infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) is currently resected in approximately 88% of Total Knee Arthroplasties (TKAs). We hypothesised that an intact IPFP would improve outcomes after TKA. Methods. Patients with an intact IPFP participated in this cross-sectional study by completing two surveys, at 6 and 12 months after TKA. Both surveys included questions regarding kneeling, with the Oxford Knee Score also included at 12 months. Results. Sixty patients participated in this study. At 6 and 12 months, a similar number of patients were able to kneel, 40 (66.7%) and 43 (71.7%), respectively. Fifteen (25.0%) patients were unable to kneel due to knee pain at 6 months; of these, nine (15%) were unable to kneel at 12 months. Moreover, at 12 months, 90.0% of the patients reported minimal or no knee pain. There was no correlation between the inability to kneel and knee pain (). There was a significant correlation between the inability to kneel and reduced overall standardised knee function scores (). Conclusions. This was the first study to demonstrate improved kneeling and descending of stairs after TKA with IPFP preservation. These results in the context of current literature show that IPFP preservation reduces the incidence of knee pain 12 months after TKA.


This paper generalizes a result of Gerdemann to show (with slight variations in some special cases) that, for any real number m and Horadam function Hn(A, B, P,Q), mHn(A, B, P, Q) = i=h k∑(t,Hn+i(A, B, P, Q)), for two consecutive values of n, if and only if, m= i=h k∑ (tiai)= i=h k∑ (t ibi) where a =(P+(P2-4Q) 1/2)/2 and b = (P-(P2-4Q) 1/2)/2. (Horadam functions are defined by: H 0(A, B, P, Q) = A, H1(A,B,P,Q) = B, Hn+1(A, B, P,Q) = PHn(A,B, P,Q)-QHn-1(A, B, P,Q).) Further generalizations to the solutions of arbitrary linear recurrence relations are also considered.


We study the complexity of equilibrium computation in discrete preference games. These games were introduced by Chierichetti, Kleinberg, and Oren (EC '13, JCSS '18) to model decision-making by agents in a social network that choose a strategy from a finite, discrete set, balancing between their intrinsic preferences for the strategies and their desire to choose a strategy that is `similar' to their neighbours. There are thus two components: a social network with the agents as vertices, and a metric space of strategies. These games are potential games, and hence pure Nash equilibria exist. Since their introduction, a number of papers have studied various aspects of this model, including the social cost at equilibria, and arrival at a consensus. We show that in general, equilibrium computation in discrete preference games is PLS-complete, even in the simple case where each agent has a constant number of neighbours. If the edges in the social network are weighted, then the problem is PLS-complete even if each agent has a constant number of neighbours, the metric space has constant size, and every pair of strategies is at distance 1 or 2. Further, if the social network is directed, modelling asymmetric influence, an equilibrium may not even exist. On the positive side, we show that if the metric space is a tree metric, or is the product of path metrics, then the equilibrium can be computed in polynomial time.


This thesis examines how the cultural, social and economic characteristics of the African-Caribbean community shape the type of policing problems experienced, and its response to these issues. Central to the problems encountered by this community is the historic role played by racism in shaping important aspects of its ethnic group behaviour. In order to elucidate these issues, a comparison of Jews and Hindu communities was undertaken. Drawing from cultural history, sociologies of race and ethnicity, organisational theory and criminology, the research highlights how the African-Caribbean community has evolved a particular tendency towards specific models of organisations and leadership strategies, premised on notions of group identity. The Jewish and Hindu communities also have developed preferred ways of approaching issues, which are examined in turn. Each approach seeks to address complex problems which leaders are called to tackle and have important implications for the strategies adopted. The second part of the study presents evidence collected between 1993-1995 in a North West borough of London, and highlights the similarity of concerns between particular ethnic communities and the role played by the African-Caribbean community as a source of much of these problems, as well as being a victim of a range of difficult policing problems of its own. The research found that while particular ethnic groups were able effectively to address specific policing concerns, the African-Caribbean had some unique constraints limiting its effectiveness. The principal set of constraints affecting them was found to be the greater number of structural problems it faced, and highlights the intrinsic relationship between the problems experienced by this ethnic community and how this is determined by broader political considerations. These difficulties were exacerbated by the group's own internal differences creating ongoing communal and organisational instability.


Humanity faces immense hurdles as it struggles to define the path toward a sustainable future. The multiple components of sustainability, all of which demand attention, make understanding the very concept of sustainability itself a challenge. Information about whether global agriculture can be made sustainable, for example, or calculations of the global need for water are useless unless we understand how these issues connect to each other and to other components of sustainability. In this book, experts engage in an extended dialogue concerning these linkages, arguing for a comprehensive view of sustainability. They emphasize the constraints imposed by the relationships among the components -- for example, how the need for clean, easily accessible water intersects with the need for the energy required to provide it -- and distinguish those constraints that may pose severe limitations on humanity's future from those of less concern. The book also highlights areas for future research and debate. Linkages of Sustainability urges a transformation in the way we view sustainability -- a transformation that is necessary if we are to plan responsibly for a more sustainable world.


Concern for crack initiation and growth under cyclic loading as well as unstable crack propagation and tearing in the ship and offshore structures. Due attention shall be paid to the suitability and uncertainty of physical models and testing. Consideration is to be given to practical application, statistical description and fracture control methods in design, fabrication and service.


Forty-four cases of botulism occurred in infants in Southeastern Pennsylvania between 1976 and 1983. Forty-three were caused by Clostridium botulinum type B. Progressive weakness necessitated ventilatory support in 39 infants. Complications during hospitalization included otitis media in 13 patients and aspiration pneumonia in 11. Eight infants developed the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone and two developed adult respiratory distress syndrome. One infant died of progressive bradycardia despite adequate control of ventilation. Manifestations of autonomic nervous system dysfunction recognized on admission to the hospital were constipation, distention of the urinary bladder, and decreased salivation and tearing. During hospitalization, some infants had unexpected fluctuations of skin color, blood pressure, and heart rate. Infants' strength improved despite persistent intestinal elaboration of toxin. C botulinum was isolated from seven of nine home or work environments sampled. All 44 infants were white and were receiving breast milk at the time of onset of symptoms. The majority had first feedings of nonhuman food substances within 4 weeks prior to onset of symptoms. Delineation of fecal flora in seven infants revealed predominance of enterobacteriaceae. Perturbations of intestinal flora during infancy, especially at weaning, may cause transient permissiveness to colonization by C botulinum.


5‐Methylcytosine (5mC) in genomic DNA has important epigenetic functions in embryonic development and tumor biology. 5‐Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is generated from 5mC by the action of the TET (Ten‐Eleven‐Translocation) enzymes and may be an intermediate to further oxidation and finally demethylation of 5mC. We have used immunohistochemistry (IHC) and isotope‐based liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC‐MS) to investigate the presence and distribution of 5hmC in human brain and brain tumors. In the normal adult brain, IHC identified 61.5% 5hmC positive cells in the cortex and 32.4% 5hmC in white matter (WM) areas. In tumors, positive staining of cells ranged from 1.1% in glioblastomas (GBMs) (WHO Grade IV) to 8.9% in Grade I gliomas (pilocytic astrocytomas). In the normal adult human brain, LC‐MS also showed highest values in cortical areas (1.17% 5hmC/dG [deoxyguanosine]), in the cerebral WM we measured around 0.70% 5hmC/dG. 5hmC levels were related to tumor differentiation, ranging from lowest values of 0.078% 5hmC/dG in GBMs (WHO Grade IV) to 0.24% 5hmC/dG in WHO Grade II diffuse astrocytomas. 5hmC measurements were unrelated to 5mC values. We find that the number of 5hmC positive cells and the amount of 5hmC/dG in the genome that has been proposed to be related to pluripotency and lineage commitment in embryonic stem cells is also associated with brain tumor differentiation and anaplasia.


This commentary considers the implications of the Court of Appeal's decision in its judicial review of Denbigh High School's refusal to allow a female pupils to attend school wearing the jilbab. It analyses the legal basis of the decision and highlights the legal complexities that have arisen at the borders of Human Rights law and discrimination law. The decision is important in recognizing the child's right to manifest her religion or belief at school and in emphasizing the importance of following statutory exclusion procedures. The commentary argues that, nevertheless, many important questions remain unanswered and that the reform to extend discrimination law protection based on religion or belief to pupils, and/or to update education law opt-out provisions to cover religious dress requirements is overdue. However it also recognizes that this process is far from simple and will need to acknowledge not only conflicting views on the place of religious expression in schools, but also the potential for adverse impact on female pupils and their educational rights.


Theropoda was one of the most successful dinosaurian clades during the Mesozoic and has remained a dominant component of faunas throughout the Cenozoic, with nearly 10,000 extant representatives. The discovery of Archaeopteryx provides evidence that avian theropods evolved at least 155 million years ago and that more than half of the tenure of avian theropods on Earth was during the Mesozoic. Considering the major changes in niche occupation for theropods resulting from the evolution of arboreal and flight capabilities, we have analyzed forelimb and hindlimb proportions among nonmaniraptoriform theropods, nonavian maniraptoriforms, and basal avialans using reduced major axis regressions, principal components analysis, canonical variates analysis, and discriminant function analysis. Our study is the first analysis on theropod limb proportions to apply phylogenetic independent contrasts and size corrections to the data to ensure that all the data are statistically independent and amenable to statistical analyses. The three ordination analyses we performed did not show any significant groupings or deviations between nonavian theropods and Mesozoic avian forms when including all limb elements. However, the bivariate regression analyses did show some significant trends between individual elements that suggested evolutionary trends of increased forelimb length relative to hindlimb length from nonmaniraptoriform theropods to nonavian maniraptoriforms to basal avialans. The increase in disparity and divergence away from the nonavian theropod body plan is well documented within Cenozoic forms. The lack of significant groupings among Mesozoic forms when examining the entire theropod body plan concurrently suggests that nonavian theropods and avian theropods did not substantially diverge in limb proportions until the Cenozoic. J. Morphol. 276:152–166, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Strengthening executive constraints is one of the key means of improving political governance. This paper argues that resilient leaders who face a lower probability of being replaced are less likely to reform institutions in the direction of constraining executive power. We test this idea empirically using data on leaders since 1875 using two proxies of resilience: whether a leader survives long enough to die in office, and whether recent natural disasters occur during the leader's tenure. We show that both are associated with lower rates of leader turnover and a lower probability of a transition to strong executive constraints. This effect is robust across a wide range of specifications. Moreover, in line with the theory, it is specific to strengthening executive constraints rather than generalized political reform.


Purpose: Daily setup variations may compromise the precision of dose delivery, tumorcontrol and normal tissue avoidance. This study analyzed the setup variations predicted by kilo‐voltage Cone Beam CT(CBCT) combined with 3D Ultrasoundimage guidance. The overall integrity of prostate dose distribution was considered to define an offset threshold above which image guidance becomes crucial for dose delivery. Method and Materials: Initial immobilization was performed using three‐point in‐room lasers. The residual positional errors were assessed using CBCT from Varian Trilogy™ and Ultrasound guidance by Sonarray™ system. Superposition of offset vectors on the initial prostate plans enabled detailed evaluation of resultant changes in dosimetric and biological aspects for target and organs at risk. On‐line CBCTimages were used for calculation. Dose volume histograms (DVH), Gamma Index (GI), equivalent uniform dose (EUD) and tumorcontrol probability (TCP) were calculated. Other indices such as mean total dose (mTd) and maximal total dose (MTD) for normal structures were also considered in defining the threshold. Results and Conclusion: After initial laser alignment, the mean vector of residual displacements over all prostate patients is 6.2mm with a 5.0mm standard deviation. The decrease in EUD for defined tumor volumes was up to 66% when the largest offset was applied and 10% in the composite plan which incorporated overall offset histories. Results show that if patient's offsets were smaller than the applied PTV margin (5mm), unappreciable changes in dose coverage and tumorcontrol were revealed. However, if offsets were larger than the PTV margin, tumorcontrol and normal tissue sparing can be significantly compromised if proper couch shifts are not made under the imaging guidance system. In this situation, special attention is needed especially on organs at risk and even the adaptive radiotherapy might be necessary.


Although translation process research (TPR) has become one of the most active fields in Translation Studies in the last 20 years, the process of subtitle creation has received little attention. This subtitling process research study adopts TPR methods to explore the production of interlingual subtitles. We conducted two experiments: Experiment 1 comparing professional subtitlers and subtitling trainees using the same subtitling tool, and Experiment 2 comparing two groups of professional subtitlers, each using a different subtitling programme. We collected data from eye tracking, screen recording, mouse clicks and keystroke logging, and post-experiment interviews. In Experiment 1, professionals and trainees exhibited different subtitling processes, with trainees following a highly structured sequence of viewing, spotting, translation and revision stages. Professionals were slightly faster, but text condensation levels were similar for both groups. In Experiment 2, the options offered by the subtitling tool significantly affected the process. Additionally, the age and experience were suggested as relevant factors influencing the task. Our findings confirm the suitability of using TPR methods to study the production of subtitles and set the grounds for further studies in the field of subtitling process research.


This paper begins with an overview of the Indian insurance market in Section II, which highlights the phenomenal growth experienced recently, in line with the country's improving economic fundamentals. Section III benchmarks the Indian insurance market against other regional counterparts. By comparing growth, penetration, density and other insurance variables, it can be shown that, whilst India is still an underdeveloped insurance market, it has a huge catch-up potential. Section IV presents a necessary overview of the historical development of the sector, but the relevance to the current marketplace is not lost, as the original 1938 Insurance Act still forms the backbone of present insurance regulation. A more detailed dissection of current regulatory issues is offered in Section V. Sections VI and VII discuss issues in the life and non-life insurance sectors respectively. Developments with far-reaching implications, like the proliferation of bancassurance as an alternative distribution channel and the move to allow non-life insurance companies greater freedom in pricing their products, are looked at in detail. Finally, Section VIII summarises the potential and pitfalls of rural insurance in India. Even though there is strong potential for expansion of insurance into rural areas, growth has so far remained slow. Considering that the bulk of the Indian population still resides in rural areas, it is imperative that the insurance industry's development should not miss this vast sector of the population.


Objectives Animal studies suggest that exposure to pesticides may alter thyroid function; however, few epidemiologic studies have examined this association. We evaluated the relationship between individual pesticides and thyroid function in 679 men enrolled in a substudy of the Agricultural Health Study, a cohort of licensed pesticide applicators. Methods Self-reported lifetime pesticide use was obtained at cohort enrolment (1993-1997). Intensity-weighted lifetime days were computed for 33 pesticides, which adjusts cumulative days of pesticide use for factors that modify exposure (eg, use of personal protective equipment). Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3) and antithyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) autoantibodies were measured in serum collected in 2010-2013. We used multivariate logistic regression to estimate ORs and 95% CIs for subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH >4.5 mIU/L) compared with normal TSH (0.4-<4.5 mIU/L) and for anti-TPO positivity. We also examined pesticide associations with TSH, T4 and T3 in multivariate linear regression models. Results Higher exposure to the insecticide aldrin (third and fourth quartiles of intensity-weighted days vs no exposure) was positively associated with subclinical hypothyroidism (ORQ3=4.15, 95% CI 1.56 to 11.01, ORQ4=4.76, 95% CI 1.53 to 14.82, ptrend <0.01), higher TSH (ptrend=0.01) and lower T4 (ptrend=0.04). Higher exposure to the herbicide pendimethalin was associated with subclinical hypothyroidism (fourth quartile vs no exposure: ORQ4=2.78, 95% CI 1.30 to 5.95, ptrend=0.02), higher TSH (ptrend=0.04) and anti-TPO positivity (ptrend=0.01). The fumigant methyl bromide was inversely associated with TSH (ptrend=0.02) and positively associated with T4 (ptrend=0.01). Conclusions Our results suggest that long-term exposure to aldrin, pendimethalin and methyl bromide may alter thyroid function among male pesticide applicators.


The global ocean state for the modern age and for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was dynamically reconstructed with a sophisticated data assimilation technique. A substantial amount of data including global seawater temperature, salinity (only for the modern estimate), and the isotopic composition of oxygen and carbon (only in the Atlantic for the LGM) were integrated into an ocean general circulation model with the help of the adjoint method, thereby the model was optimized to reconstruct plausible continuous fields of tracers, overturning circulation and water mass distribution. The adjoint-based LGM state estimation of this study represents the state of the art in terms of the length of forward model runs, the number of observations assimilated, and the model domain. Compared to the modern state, the reconstructed continuous sea-surface temperature field for the LGM shows a global-mean cooling of 2.2 K, and the reconstructed LGM ocean has a more vigorous Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, shallower North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) equivalent, stronger stratification, and more saline deep water.


Circuit quantum electrodynamics studies the interaction of artificial atoms and electromagnetic modes constructed from superconducting circuitry. While the theory of an atom coupled to one mode of a resonator is well studied, considering multiple modes leads to divergences which are not well understood. Here, we introduce a full quantum model of a multi-mode resonator coupled to a Josephson junction atom. Using circuit quantization, we find a Hamiltonian in which parameters of the atom are naturally renormalized as additional modes are considered. In our model, we circumvent the divergence problem, and its formulation reveals a physical understanding of the mechanisms of convergence in ubiquitous models in circuit quantum electrodynamics.


Although the number of studies of new political parties is gradually increasing, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of when new parties manage to enter national parliaments. The objective of this article is to explain the circumstances under which new parties enter national parliaments for the first time. Unlike earlier research, this study does not focus on individual party families. Instead, generally applicable explanations are sought. This is achieved through an examination of the importance of the political opportunity structure, that is, the external environment new parties face in their quest for parliamentary representation. Using data collected for 18 Western European countries for the period 1960-2010, the analysis shows that institutional factors are important to understand new party parliamentary entry. The sociological factors analysed in the study, however, do not seem to be of equal importance.


Unpublished theses submitted for the Master's and Doctor's degrees and deposited in the Georgia Institute of Technology Library are open for inspection and consultation, but must be used with due regard for the rights of the authors ° Passages may be copied only with permission of the authors, and proper credit must be given in subsequent written or published work, Extensive copying or publication of the thesis in whole or in part requires the consent of the Dean of the Graduate Division of the Georgia Institute of Technology °


Action Science Explorer (ASE) is a tool designed to support users in rapidly generating readily consumable summaries of academic literature. It uses citation network visualization, ranking and filtering papers by network statistics, and automatic clustering and summarization techniques. We describe how early formative evaluations of ASE led to a mature system evaluation, consisting of an in-depth empirical evaluation with four domain experts. The evaluation tasks were of two types: predefined tasks to test system performance in common scenarios, and user-defined tasks to test the system's usefulness for custom exploration goals. The primary contribution of this paper is a validation of the ASE design and recommendations to provide: easy-to-understand metrics for ranking and filtering documents, user control over which document sets to explore, and overviews of the document set in coordinated views along with details-on-demand of specific papers. We contribute a taxonomy of features for literature search and exploration tools and describe exploration goals identified by our participants.


At off-design operations, flow instabilities such as vortex breakdown, reverse flows, and stagnant regions are observed in Francis turbines. The present work shows the numerical flow field investigations of a Francis turbine at two different part loads (PL) by employing a vortex identification algorithm. The analysis has been performed at various locations in the draft tube by extracting the velocity fields at different time steps of the simulation. The first operating point involves a fully developed rotating vortex rope (RVR) in the draft tube, which precesses at a frequency of 0.28 times of the runner rotation. The present algorithm is able to identify the regions along with the eccentric local rotation center. The second operating regime shows characteristics of deep part load with central solid body rotation in the draft tube flow field. The results show highly swirling flows with very low axial velocity. The flow is confined primarily near the walls. The analysis shows that the extent of stagnation region at deep part load is more and no inner shear layer is present as compared to the part-load operation. The spatial harmonic decomposition (SHD) of the pressure data is also performed to evaluate the synchronous and asynchronous components of pressure pulsations.


"Japan to 1600" traces Japanese historical development from the first evidence of human habitation in the archipelago to the consolidation of political power under the Tokugawa shogunate at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Unlike other introductory texts on early Japanese history, it views its subject from the perspective of developments that impacted all social classes rather than the privileged and powerful few. Economically, William Wayne Farris describes how the residents of the archipelago gradually moved from a forager mode of subsistence to a more predominantly agrarian base, supplemented by sophisticated industries and an advanced commercial economy. He reveals how the transition to farming took place over many centuries as people moved back and forth from settled agriculture to older forager-collector regimes in response to ecological, political, and personal factors. Although the book focuses on continuity and change in social and economic structures and experiences, it by no means ignores the political and cultural. Most chapters begin with an outline of political developments, and cultural phenomena, particularly religious beliefs, are also taken into account. Finally, "Japan to 1600" addresses the growing connectedness between residents of the archipelago and the rest of the world.


This paper presents an algorithm for automatically assigning phrase breaks to unrestricted text for use in a text-to-speech synthesizer. Text is first converted into a sequence of part-of-speech tags. Next a Markov model is used to give the most likely sequence of phrase breaks for the input part-of-speech tags. In the Markov model, states represent types of phrase break and the transitions between states represent the likelihoods of sequences of phrase types occurring. The paper reports a variety of experiments investigating part-of-speech tag-sets, Markov model structure and smoothing. The best setup correctly identifies 79% of breaks in the test corpus.


Democratic South Africa was born amidst high hopes for the reduction of income poverty and inequality from their high levels under apartheid. The reality has been disappointing: despite steady economic growth, income poverty probably rose in the late 1990s before a muted decline in the early 2000s, income inequality has probably grown, and life expectancy has declined. The proximate causes are clear: persistent unemployment and low demand for unskilled labour, strong demand for skilled labour, an unequal education system, and a social safety net that is unusually widespread but nonetheless has large holes. It is also clear that economic growth alone will not reduce poverty or inequality. Pro-poor social policies are important, but not as important as a pro-poor economic growth path. Unfortunately, there is little sign of the political conditions changing to push the state towards the promotion of a more pro-poor pattern of economic growth. There is some chance of parametric reforms of the welfare state. Overall, however, it is likely that, after another ten years of democracy, unemployment and poverty rates will remain high, despite significant redistribution through cash transfers, and incomes will continue to be distributed extremely unequally.


From the period before Malaysia's independence until now, there are two significant characteristics of the town formed in small town. Pedestrian behavior in the streets is affected by the connectivity existed from the pattern of the street network of a town. Thus, the existing of characteristics of new and old zone require pedestrian to travel differently in those environments. By considering a small town consists of the old and new zone and population between 30,000 to 100,000, street network of Bandar Teluk Intan, Perak was selected. Three sets of data were produced from the land use map and Google Map image, then analyzed it using UCL Depthmap 10. Firstly, solid and void data was used in Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) to measure street connectivity from pedestrian visualization. Second data which convex space data used in Convex Space Graph Analysis (CSGA) to measure street connectivity of spaces in street network that offer pedestrian interaction. Axial-line data is the third data was used in Axial-line Graph Analysis (AGA) to measure street connectivity from pedestrian movement in street network. Finding shows that in old zone, junctions act as a connector to other streets when pedestrian visualize during travel, space in square and market chosen as meeting place, and main road as a guide when pedestrian move. In new zone, main road is a connecting feature for pedestrian because it's easy to find, connect with most streets, and the possible space to meet people during travel.


Title of dissertation: ACTIVIST GLOBALIZATION: HOW MARKETS, SOCIETIES AND STATES EMPOWER CAUSEORIENTED ACTION IN TRANSNATIONAL RELATIONS Rodrigo G. Pinto, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Ken Conca Department of Government and Politics This study examines how transnational conditions of markets, societies and states empower civic groups, social movements, advocacy networks or resisters to participate in cause-oriented action that connects two or more polities. Preliminary theses infatuated with the latest and thickest wave of globalization have blown back into a solidified antithesis. Under this influential antithesis, international interactions between states create more opportunities for transnational activism than do global flows between societies or markets. The evidence analyzed here suggests a refutation of that prevalent antithesis. Instead, it supports the synthesizing hypothesis of this study: The more markets and societies globalize and the more states interact, the more transnational activism occurs. The research conducted here develops on a promising explanatory typology that is the best attempt to answer the main question about activism in international relations (IR) studies at present. This dissertation builds on such theory, moderating short-range and statist imbalances in conventional IR and cross-national (comparative) research on the consequences of interstate regimes and political opportunity structures, respectively. The study goes on to make this prior scholarship more accurate, comprehensive and reflective. First, tests of the prime theory over a longer history, which predates 1945, here elevate globalism toward a favorable condition that is as consequential as internationalism for activism across borders. Second, this study conceptualizes four explanatory processes—or chains of causal mechanisms—that link activism mainly to encouragement from globalization. These original models expose a grand, causal theory to have outpaced its necessary processual, mechanismic bases. Finally, the study addresses the spatial transnationality and transnationalization of activism. It extends the typology of explanatory processes to distinguish the primary scale of activist actions from the locus of activist causes, along a domestic-foreign frontier. The extension renders as unexamined a conventional assumption that activism transnationalizes through a onedimensional globalization from local toward global proportions. The dissertation uses qualitative, case-study and process-tracing, methods to compare and generalize beyond two transnational activist campaigns. These campaigns are situated temporally from the 1860s to the 1950s, geographically through inclusion of actors based in Brazil, and thematically via incorporation of biodiversity in activist deed or discourse. ACTIVIST GLOBALIZATION: HOW MARKETS, SOCIETIES AND STATES EMPOWER CAUSE-ORIENTED ACTION IN TRANSNATIONAL RELATIONS


The anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of aqueous extract of Aloe barbadensis was investigated in rats. Formalininduced hind paw oedema was used to assess the antiinflammatory activity of the extract while acetic acid-induced abdominal writhing was used for analgesic activity. The results of the anti-inflammatory study revealed that 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg of the extract reduced the formalin-induced oedema significantly (P<0.05) at the beginning of 3 hours when compared to the control group. In the analgesic study, 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg of extract significantly (P<0.5) reduced the number of writhes induced by a 0.6% Acetic acid solution with an approximately 66.49%, 57.59% and 68.06% inhibition respectively. The present study showed that the aqueous extract of Aloe barbadensis has anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities that could be mediated via modulators of pain and inflammation or through central activity.


The objectives of this research were to study antibacterial activities of syzgium polyanta (A¢â'¬A"SalamA¢â'¬Â) and Pandanus amaryllifolius (A¢â'¬A"PandanA¢â'¬Â) leaf extracts and the effect of wet heating (100 0 , up to 60 min) on their antibacterial activities against staphylococcus aureus, bacillus subtillis, pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. Salam and pandan leaves powder was extracted using hot water (70 0 C, 2 h), ethanol, ethanol/ethylacetate (1:1, v/v), and ethlacetate bt soxhlet (3x8 h) separately. Each residue was further extracted using the same solvent by shaker (250 rpm, 24 h). finally filtrates were mixed and evaporated to produce the extract. Salam leaf ethanol extract (yield 11.50%) showed highest antibacterial activity especially towards P. aeruginosa (diameter of inhibitor 6.5 mm/mg) and B. subtilis (6.3 mm/mg). Pandan leaf erhanol/ethylacetate extract (yield 15.61 %) also showed antibacterial activity towards P. aeruginosa (4.25 mm/mg) and B. subtilis (3.2 mm/mg). In general, salam leaf extracts showed higher antibacterial activity than pandan leaf extracts. Pandan and salam leaf water extracts had no antibacterial activity. Escerichia coli was more resistant to the extracts compared Staphylococcus aureus, bacillus subtilis, and pseudomonas aeruginosa. Antibacterial activity of salam leaf ethylacetate extract decreased 6.55%, lower than that of pandan leaf ethylacetate extract (18.48%) after heating 100 0 C for 10up to 60 min. Key words : salam, pandan, antibacterial activity.


Governments around the world are increasingly recognizing the power of problem-oriented governance as a way to address complex public problems. As an approach to policy design and implementation, problem-oriented governance radically emphasizes the need for organizations to continuously learn and adapt. Scholars of public management, public administration, policy studies, international development, and political science have made important contributions to this problem-orientation turn; however, little systematic attention has been paid to the question of the state capabilities that underpin problem-oriented governance. In this article, we address this gap in the literature. We argue that three core capabilities are structurally conducive to problem-oriented governance: a reflective-improvement capability, a collaborative capability, and a data-analytic capability. The article presents a conceptual framework for understanding each of these capabilities, including their chief constituent elements. It ends with a discussion of how the framework can advance empirical research as well as public-sector reform.


Transparent Lives and the Surveillance State: Policing, New Visibility, and Information Policy Bryce Clayton Newell Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Adam D. Moore The Information School In this dissertation, I utilize conceptual and legal analyses to explore the tensions between personal information privacy and public access to information implicated by government surveillance and citizen-initiated inverse surveillance efforts designed to cast the gaze back at the government, and ask what implications these conclusions have for individual freedom (defined as the absence of domination). I focus on police use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) and automated license plate recognition (ALPR) technologies, on one hand, and citizen-initiated recordings of police officers and freedom of information (FOI) requests for data collected by police BWCs and ALPR systems, on the other. My analysis draws upon republican political theory, philosophical and legal theories of privacy and free speech, the concept of "policing's new visibility" (Goldsmith, 2010), and various other theories of surveillance and reciprocal/inverse surveillance within the surveillance studies literature. I conduct doctrinal and descriptive legal research into relevant privacy and disclosure laws applicable within Washington State (USA); utilize legal and philosophical theories of privacy, freedom, and free speech to conduct an analysis of the values and value tensions implicated in these situations; and apply elements of Value Sensitive Design for similar conceptual and analytic purposes. Ultimately, I develop a theory of information policy that that accounts for tensions between personal information privacy rights and government disclosure of personally-identifiable information under state FOI law in Washington State, and I propose normative recommendations for improving law, public policy, and police department surveillance and disclosure policies related to these privacy and access concerns.


The paper deals with the projected rainfall for eight rain gauge stations located in the upper Mahanadi catchment in Chhattisgarh state of India and corresponding changes on the water availability in few reservoirs of the catchment. Rescaled predictors obtained from NCEP were used and statistically tested for selection of best-fit set of predictors using percentage reduction methods. The calibrated and validated models were used to generate multiple series for early, mid and late century periods, i.e. for 2020–2035 (FP-1), 2046–2064 (FP-2) and 2081–2099 (FP-3) under CMIP5 climatic forcing conditions of RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 using predictors data of CanESM2, Canadian GCM. The comparisons of future predicted rainfall with the base period (1981–2003) showed mixed trends, viz. declining trend at five stations, both declining and increasing trend at two stations, and increasing trend at one station. The predicted reduced rainfall during August and September attribute to a significant impact on paddy cultivation and industrial development. The analysis of future catchment rainfall on five important reservoirs in this region indicated a reduction of 12–29% seasonal rainfall with respect to the base period rainfall; while for one reservoir not much variation (–7 to 5%) in the rainfall was noted, possibly due to the large catchment area.


Classical method of sample preparation for fatty acid analysis is a complicated, rigorous, multiple-step process that is often time-consuming. However, innovation has made it possible to obtain fatty acids esters in a single step without compromise of the quality and quantity of the products obtained. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were obtained from Sabal causiarum seed using direct trans-esterification method. The reaction was performed in a one necked glass reactor equipped with a reflux condenser. The composition of the FAMEs obtained was analyzed using GC-FID/GC-MS. The FAMEs was also evaluated for its antioxidant potential using DPPH assay while α- tocopherol served as a standard. From the Total ion chromatogram, a total of twelve fatty acids were identified with the dominant being linoleic acid (29.83%), an essential polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid. Other compounds obtained in significant yield include palmitic acid (20.75 %), dodecanoic acid (12.15 %), oleic acid, an omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acid (11.51%), 11-Octadecenoic acid (5.89 %), Ceric acid (4.97) and lignoceric acid (4.56 %). The oil had higher antioxidant potential (with IC50 value 0.19 ± 0.31 mg/mL) than the standard, alpha-tocopherol (with IC50 of 0.25 ± 0.4 (mg/mL). The direct trans-esterification method enables the quick determination of the fatty acid profile of Sabal causiarum seed. It is a viable method that saves time, limit use of solvents and reduce the possibility of contaminations that is associated with classical multistage procedure. The chemical composition and high antioxidant value of the oil is a strong indication of the future economical and biological relevance of the Sabal causiarum seed oil.


Due to the remote locations of mining projects and the need for long transmission lines to provide electrical power, mining sites often operate with poor network power quality and low short-circuit capacity. To cope with this situation, more and more mining operators are considering the installation of appropriately designed synchronous condensers together with power factor correction and harmonic filter systems (PFC & HFS). The installation of such power quality equipment is viewed as a technological advancement in the mining application. an adequate level of short-circuit power is essential and has to be ensured for the safe and reliable operation of especially large cycloconverter-driven gearless mill drive systems (GMDs) used for grinding. This paper explores the impact, technical advantage and reasoning for the selection of this advanced hybrid technology to cope with the power system challenges of future mining projects. It also delves into the potential problems and how to address them.


Teachers' backgrounds, knowledge, experiences and beliefs play a decisive role in what and how they teach, and research on teacher cognition indicates that teachers' knowledge plays an important part in guiding their classroom teaching (Basturkmen, 2012). At the same time, the inclusion of pragmatics in teacher development and training courses and the integration of language and culture in the foreign language learning curriculum have been seen as a necessity by a number of authors (e.g., Basturkmen & Nguyen, 2017; Byram, 2014; Ishihara, 2011, 2014). Yet, the knowledge and skills necessary to teach the L2 pragmatics and cultural awareness may not come automatically to all L2 teachers, and without adequate teacher education and/or sufficient exposure to the target L2 culture, it is not surprising that some language teachers feel uncomfortable about being a source for target language pragmatics (Cohen, 2016). Through the use of semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study aims to explore how Greek-speaking, non-native speaker teachers handle the teaching of target language pragmatics and culture, and, more specifically, to investigate their professional knowledge, beliefs, and reported practices in relation to the teaching of pragmatics and culture in their EFL classroom.


It is nowadays evident that the West's civilising, eugenic zeal have had a devastating impact on all aspects of the Indigenous-Australian community tissue, not least the lasting trauma of the Stolen Generations. The latter was the result of the institutionalisation, adoption, fostering, virtual slavery and sexual abuse of thousands of mixed-descent children, who were separated at great physical and emotional distances from their Indigenous kin, often never to see them again. The object of State and Federal policies of removal and mainstream absorption and assimilation between 1930 and 1970, these lost children only saw their plight officially recognised in 1997, when the Bringing Them Home report was published by the Federal government. The victims of forced separation and migration, they have suffered serious trans-generational problems of adaptation and alienation in Australian society, which have been not only documented from the outside in the aforementioned report but also given shape from the inside of and to Indigenous-Australian literature over the last three decades. The following addresses four Indigenous Western-Australian writers within the context of the Stolen Generations, and deals particularly with the semi-biographical fiction by the Nyoongar author Kim Scott, which shows how a very liminal hybrid identity can be firmly written in place yet. Un-writing past policies of physical and 'epistemic' violence on the Indigenous Australian population, his fiction addresses a way of approaching Australianness from an Indigenous perspective as inclusive, embracing transculturality within the nation-space.


: Latin jazz musician and band leader Machito, formally known as Francisco "Frank" Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, (circa 1908-1984) was active on the New York City jazz scene with his innovative band the Afro-Cubans from 1940 to the early 1980s, forming an influential legacy that includes salsa music and Afro-Cuban jazz. The collection contains approximately 150 manuscript and published compositions and arrangements performed by the ensemble, as well as clippings, papers, a concert poster, and maracas.


During the Middle Ages (ca. 529-1100), the rise of Christianity had a definite effect on the practice of medicine. Pope Gregory (ca. 540-604) stressed the importance of prayer over medicine, and over time that sentiment became pervasive. Each time a person was healed, it was considered a miracle. The church taught that since God sometimes sent illness as punishment, that prayer and repentance could lead to recovery. When Christians used herbal remedies, the church wanted the magic spells to be replaced with prayers of devotion. Eventually, as different schools of thought emerged, tension developed between church-related cures and folk medicine. "The Middle Ages" illuminates what occurred during medieval times that affected future developments in medicine. Featuring a chronology, a glossary, and an array of historical and current sources for further research, this insightful new volume provides readers with a better understanding of the accomplishments of the time, explaining how and why scientific understanding was poised for the breakthrough of the Renaissance period. "The Middle Ages" is especially helpful for readers who need additional information on specific terms, topics, and developments in medical science. The chapters include: Medical Beliefs in Medieval Times; Medieval Healers and Hospitals; Diagnosis and Treatment Methods; Surgery in the Middle Ages; Women Practitioners and What Was Known About Women's Health; Public Health in the Middle Ages; Terrifying Illnesses of Medieval Times; and, The Golden Age of Islamic Medicine.