The purpose for conducting this qualitative study was to explore best practices of exemplary standards-based science programs and instructional leadership practices in a charter high school and in a traditional high school. The focus of this study included how twelve participants aligned practices to National Science Education Standards to describe their science programs and science instructional practices. This study used a multi-site case study qualitative design. Data were obtained through a review of literature, interviews, observations, review of educational documents, and researcher's notes collected in a field log. The methodology used was a multi-site case study because of the potential, through cross analysis, for providing greater explanation of the findings in the study (Merriam, 1988). This study discovered six characteristics about the two high school's science programs that enhance the literature found in the National Science Education Standards; (a) Culture of expectations for learning-In exemplary science programs teachers are familiar with a wide range of curricula. They have the ability to examine critically and select activities to use with their students to promote the understanding of science; (b) Culture of varied experiences-In exemplary science programs students are provided different paths to learning, which help students, take in information and make sense of concepts and skills that are set forth by the standards; (c) Culture of continuous feedback-In exemplary science programs teachers and students work together to engage students in ongoing assessments of their work and that of others as prescribed in the standards; (d) Culture of Observations-In exemplary science programs students, teachers, and principals reflect on classroom instructional practices; teachers receive ongoing evaluations about their teaching and apply feedback towards improving practices as outlined in the standards; (e) Culture of continuous learning-In exemplary science programs teachers value continuous personal development, teachers are provided on-going science professional development opportunities to improve instructional practices, teachers reflect and share professional practices, and teachers establish professional learning communities within their classrooms; and (f) Culture of shared leadership-In exemplary science programs instructional leadership purposes and values are consistently shared among all stakeholders which are outlined in the standards. These results are potentially useful for understanding exemplary standards-based science programs and science instructional leadership practices as a model for science programs trying to improve science education so that all students can have a true scientific learning experience.


The paper analyses different forms of region bound innovation and cooperation amongst small and medium sized firms of the German craft sector, mainly engaged in ?traditional? branches. The analysis is based on a recent questionnaire survey covering all trade groups of the craft sector and a comparison group of competitors in the industrial sector. Further data are generated through case studies in selected trades as well as through the analyses of published statistics and results of former research. The focus is on different strategies to cope with the challenges of present structural change: Which type of innovation are dominant in different craft trades, in firms of different size and in different places? To what an extent and in which way do the craft firms organise their innovation processes in collaboration with other firms? Which cooperation strategies do they follow in order to manage the trade-off between access to greater resources and loss of information to (regional) competitors? Which role do intermediary organisations play in the innovation process? The German craft sector (?Handwerk?) is defined by law as encompassing certain categorised occupations and currently includes 94 trades (?Gewerbe?) in 7 trade groups. Traditionally craft firms are SME and they are closely attached to intermediary organisations such as district based guilds, region based chambers, national professional associations. The sector provides facilities for vocational training for about one third of all German apprentices. Craft activity includes artistically creative trades as well as the mass production of goods, construction work and the provision of a wide range of services. Most of the trades serve the local and regional markets. A remarkable number of specialised firms ? in some trades strongly clustered - also serve the national and partly the international market. Between 1994/95 and 2002 the sector as a whole faced a remarkable loss. Its share in the gross added value diminished from 10,7 % to 8 %. The annual turnover went down from 409 to 370 billion ?. The number of employees was reduced by 1,5 million. At present, about 4,5 million people are employed in nearly 562.000 firms. Surely the actual economic depression contributes to the decline, e.g. in the construction industries. However, other factors also seem to determine the structural changes such as the massive introduction of IT and the linked facilities for the industry ? the strongest competitor of the craft sector in most of the branches - to realize very flexible the production of small series at moderate costs. The process of European integration, the changing demographical structure and newly emerging consumption patterns are other important determinants. The background for the paper is an explorative study conducted in 2002/2003 by the Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Economic Research (RWI). It aims to describe the character of the structural changes faced by the German craft sector and to identify strategies of firms to enhance their competitiveness in regional, national and international markets. The outcome shall contribute to appropriate policy measures, considering also the effects of the sectors development on the spatial economic structure.


ABSTRACT Immediately after birth, skeletal muscle must undergo an enormous period of growth and differentiation that is coordinated by several intertwined growth signaling pathways. How these pathways are integrated remains unclear but is likely to involve skeletal muscle contractile activity and calcium (Ca2+) signaling. Here, we show that Ca2+ signaling governed by stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) plays a central role in the integration of signaling and, therefore, muscle growth and differentiation. Conditional deletion of STIM1 from the skeletal muscle of mice (mSTIM1−/− mice) leads to profound growth delay, reduced myonuclear proliferation, and perinatal lethality. We show that muscle fibers of neonatal mSTIM1−/− mice cannot support the activity-dependent Ca2+ transients evoked by tonic neurostimulation, even though excitation contraction coupling (ECC) remains unperturbed. In addition, disruption of tonic Ca2+ signaling in muscle fibers attenuates downstream muscle growth signaling, such as that of calcineurin, mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), and AKT. Based on our findings, we propose a model wherein STIM1-mediated store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) governs the Ca2+ signaling required for cellular processes that are necessary for neonatal muscle growth and differentiation.


The need to replan arises in many applications. However, in the context of planning as heuristic search, it raises an annoying problem: if the previous plan is still executing, what should the new plan search take as its initial state? If it were possible to accurately predict how long replanning would take, it would be easy to find the appropriate state at which control will transfer from the previous plan to the new one. But as planning problems can vary enormously in their difficulty, this prediction can be difficult. Many current systems merely use a manually chosen constant duration. In this paper, we show how such ad hoc solutions can be avoided by integrating the choice of the appropriate initial state into the search process itself. The search is initialized with multiple candidate initial states and a time-aware evaluation function is used to prefer plans whose total goal achievement time is minimal. Experimental results show that this approach yields better behavior than either guessing a constant or trying to predict replanning time in advance. By making replanning more effective and easier to implement, this work aids in creating planning systems that can better handle the inevitable exigencies of real-world execution.


Conservatives say they are for small government and individual liberty, but a content analysis of leading conservative magazines shows that most have preponderantly failed to take pro-liberty positions on sex, gambling, and drugs. Besides many anti-liberty commissions, the magazines may be criticized for anti-liberty omission—that is, failing to oppose anti-liberty policies. Magazines investigated include National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Enterprise, and The American Spectator. We find that National Review has had the strongest record on liberty on the issues treated, while the others have preponderantly failed to be pro-liberty or have even been anti-liberty.


We consider the problem of allocating a set of indivisible goods among a group of homogeneous agents under matroid constraints and additive valuations, in a fair manner. We propose a novel algorithm that computes a fair allocation for instances with additive and identical valuations, even under matroid constraints. Our result provides a computational anchor to the existential result of the fairness notion, called EF1 (envy-free up to one good) by Biswas and Barman in this setting. We further provide examples to show that the fairness notions stronger than EF1 does not always exist in this setting.


Web service composition allows a fast and modular creation of applications by orchestrating several Web services. Such applications are frequently faced to performance and availability problems which may affect the partner Web services or the orchestration process itself. This requires mechanisms for adapting the architecture and the behaviour to this variable context. In this paper, we deal with strong mobility of orchestration processes as a mechanism for adaptation. We provide a solution that relies on checkpoint/rollback mechanisms. It is also based on source code transformation of the orchestration process. We apply our approach on WS-BPEL based orchestration processes. Hence, we establish a set of rules which transform WS-BEPL processes to equivalent mobile ones. When an adaptation is to be performed,the execution of some or all instances of a mobile process will be interrupted, and then they will be migrated to another node. After migration, the interrupted instances will resume starting from the last checkpoint. Experimentation results show the the efficiency of our approach and the low overhead it introduces.


The harbor porpoise is considered a threatened species in Swedish waters. A full understanding of its ecology and relationship to other species is important when designing effective conservation plans. This thesis aims to investigate the relationships between harbor porpoises and their prey by comparing the acoustic activity patterns of harbor porpoises and the movement patterns of some of their prey species available at Kullaberg, Sweden. For this purpose, the scientific literature of porpoise and fish activity patterns has been reviewed. Results show that harbor porpoises may follow vertically migrating herring, but further studies are needed to confirm this. It is also possible that the activity pattern of porpoises does not follow exactly the movements of a certain species of prey, but that they rather feed upon several species, and therefore change their behavior accordingly throughout the diurnal cycle.


Jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) are sympatric over much of their geographic range in Mexico and South and Central America. We investigated diets of these felids in and around the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve in western Jalisco, Mexico. Diets were determined from scat analyses and documentation of prey cadavers. Relative biomass of each prey species consumed by pumas and jaguars was estimated from analysing 65 puma and 50 jaguar scats collected from 1995 to 1998. Both jaguars and pumas fed mainly on mammals, with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) dominating the biomass of the diet of each species (54% and 66% respectively). There was a high degree of overlap between jaguar and puma diets, but pumas had a broader food niche than jaguars, and their ability to exploit smaller prey may give them an advantage over jaguars when faced with human-induced habitat changes.


The Kennicutt–Schmidt (KS) relation between the gas mass and star formation rate (SFR) describes the star formation regulation in disk galaxies. It is a function of gas metallicity, but the low-metallicity regime of the KS diagram is poorly sampled. We have analyzed data for a representative set of extremely metal-poor galaxies (XMPs), as well as auxiliary data, and compared these to empirical and theoretical predictions. The majority of the XMPs possess high specific SFRs, similar to high-redshift star-forming galaxies. On the KS plot, the XMP H i data occupy the same region as dwarfs and extend the relation for low surface brightness galaxies. Considering the H i gas alone, a considerable fraction of the XMPs already fall off the KS law. Significant quantities of "dark" H2 mass (i.e., not traced by CO) would imply that XMPs possess low star formation efficiencies (SFEgas). Low SFEgas in XMPs may be the result of the metal-poor nature of the H i gas. Alternatively, the H i reservoir may be largely inert, the star formation being dominated by cosmological accretion. Time lags between gas accretion and star formation may also reduce the apparent SFEgas, as may galaxy winds, which can expel most of the gas into the intergalactic medium. Hence, on global scales, XMPs could be H i-dominated, high-specific-SFR (≳10−10 yr−1), low-SFEgas (≲10−9 yr−1) systems, in which the total H i mass is likely not a good predictor of the total H2 mass, nor of the SFR.


A total of 297 bacterial strains were isolated from five Antarctic sponge species and tested by agarose gel electrophoresis for the presence of plasmid molecules. At least one kind of plasmid was carried by 69 isolates (about 23%). The disc diffusion susceptibility test was used to assay the resistance of plasmid-harbouring bacteria towards 11 antibiotics. A multiple resistance was observed for the 72% of strains, among which the 33% were resistant to only two antibiotics. Bacteria showed a high degree of resistance towards O/129 (71%), tetracycline (42%) and nalidixic acid (25%), whereas any isolate showed resistance to gentamicin. The 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that plasmid-harbouring strains were mainly affiliated to the Gammaproteobacteria (81%), whereas the other detected phylogenetic groups (i.e. Firmicutes, Alphaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria and CFB group of Bacteroidetes) were less abundant, each representing between 1% and 6% of the total isolates. The present study will contribute to the poor and fragmentary knowledge on plasmid incidence in natural microbial populations. In addition, monitoring antibiotic resistance in bacteria from remote areas, such as Antarctica, could also be a useful tool to evaluate the impact of anthropic pressure.


This work deals with zero-error subspaces of quantum channels and their intimate connection with quantum and classical codes. We give operator algebraic characterizations of such subspaces and give some upper and lower bounds on their maximum dimension. Classical and quantum codes and (quantum) noiseless subsystems may be considered as special cases of zero-error subspaces. We explore several consequences of this fact.


Total and static pressure measurements in visco-elastic fluids are subject to considerable interference. Measured dynamic pressures differ by up to 70 per cent from similar data for Newtonian fluids, due to such factors as flow velocity V0 outside probe diameter D0, viscosity μ, specific gravity Q and shear modulus of elasticity for the fluid G. It is found that there are two characteristic non-dimensional factors for the problem, one being the Reynolds number referred to D0 and the other the Deborah number relating characteristic flow to flow time. Tests have been carried out to establish the effect of the characteristic parameters, using a probe mounted on a rotating arm and moving at an exactly known rate in a circular tank and transmitting the pressure data to an external receiver. The tests were carried out in a solution of polyethylene and water over a range of concentrations. The pressure difference Dp was found to vary as the reciprocal of D, and it was seen that, depending on probe tip geometry, it either passed through a maximum or reached a step as V0 increased. The static pressure measurements were carried out in with the same equipment and the same fluids. Circular cylinders of varying outside diameter and with varying pressure tapping orifice angular position θ on a generatrix were tested at Reynolds numbers ranging from 1.52 X 101 to 6.0 X 101. The results differed from Newtonian fluid data, for which mainly D0, V0 and θ are significant. From the analysis of the results it was suspected that the difference might be due to the elastic fluid properties. The main differences were lower measured pressures in the neighbourhood of the stagnation point and a downstream shift of the separation point. The measured pressures in the intermediate zone and in the wake of the measured pressures were very close to those associated with the flow of a Newtonian fluid around a similar cylinder with delayed separation.


Abstract Large optical chirality in the vicinity of achiral high-index dielectric nanostructures has been recently demonstrated as useful means of enhancing molecular circular dichroism. We theoretically study the spatial dependence of optical chirality enhancement in the vicinity of high-index dielectric nanodisks and highlight its importance for the design of nanophotonic platforms for circular dichroism enhancement. Using a T-matrix framework, we demonstrate that, depending on the disk aspect ratio, chirality is enhanced preferentially along different directions. We employ various statistical procedures, including surface, volume and orientation averaging, to predict enhancement of chiroptical effects and show that optimal properties of a nanostructure depend substantially on whether spatial maximum or average chirality enhancement is sought after. The results indicate that at times it is beneficial to sacrifice helicity preservation for a larger field enhancement. Similarly, the optimal choice of the nanostructure is influenced by presence of a substrate, which limits the space available to be occupied by analyte molecules and impacts the optical chirality in the vicinity of the nanostructure.


We identify a new natural coalescent structure, the seed-bank coalescent, which describes the gene genealogy of populations under the influence of a strong seedbank effect, where 'dormant forms' of individuals (such as seeds or spores) may jump a significant number of generations before joining the 'active' population. Mathematically, our seed-bank coalescent appears as scaling limit in a WrightFisher model with geometric seed-bank age structure if the average time of seed dormancy scales with the order of the total population size N . This extends earlier results of Kaj, Krone and Lascaux (2001) who show that the genealogy of a Wright-Fisher model in the presence of a 'weak' seed-bank effect is given by a suitably time-changed Kingman coalescent. The qualitatively new feature of the seed-bank coalescent is that ancestral lineages are independently blocked at a certain rate from taking part in coalescence events, thus strongly altering the predictions of classical coalescent models. In particular, the seed-bank coalescent 'does not come down from infinity', and the time to the most recent common ancestor of a sample of size n grows like log log n, which is the order also observed for the Bolthausen-Sznitman coalescent. This is in line with the empirical observation that seed-banks drastically increase genetic variability in a population and indicates how they may serve as a buffer against other evolutionary forces such as genetic drift and selection. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 60K35, Secondary 92D10.


This paper introduces a new scheme, which uses a multifunctional superconducting device that can be used as an energy storage and as a fault current limiter. It is denoted as a superconducting magnetic energy storage—fault current limiter (SMES-FCL) and is modeled as a number of pancakes. It is connected to a wind turbine power system via tertiary transformer and power converters. A complete control scheme is built to achieve effective power transfer between the superconducting coil and the power system during normal operation to smooth the wind turbine output power. The fault current limiting function is implemented using a new technique that inserts a few pancakes from the whole SMES coil into the main electrical system during the fault and isolates the remaining pancakes. The number of pancakes used to limit the fault is quenched and operates as a resistive fault current limiter. The whole system including the wind turbine, the SMES-FCL model, and the interface circuit are implemented using PSCAD/EMTDC computer package. Also, the control scheme of SMES-FCL is built based on a feedback current signal to enable its operation into the two modes.


Background. Mobilization of bone marrow-origin CD34+ cells was investigated 3 days (3d) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with/without ischemic preconditioning (IP) in relation to stromal-derived factor-1 (SDF-1α)/ chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) axis, to search for possible mechanisms behind insufficient cardiac repair in the first days post-AMI.  Methods. Closed-chest reperfused AMI was performed by percutaneous balloon occlusion of the mid-left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery for 90min, followed by reperfusion in pigs. Animals were randomized to receive either IP initiated by 3x5min cycles of re-occlusion/re-flow prior to AMI (n=6) or control AMI (n=12). Blood samples were collected at baseline, 3d post-AMI, and at 1-month follow-up to analyse chemokines and mobilized CD34+ cells. To investigate the effect of acute hypoxia, SDF-1α and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 in vitro were assessed, and a migration assay of CD34+ cells toward cardiomyocytes was performed.  Results. Reperfused AMI induced significant mobilisation of CD34+ cells (baseline: 260±75 vs. 3d: 668±180; P<0.001) and secretion of MMP-2 (baseline: 291.83±53.40 vs. 3d: 369.64±72.89; P=0.011) into plasma, without affecting the SDF-1α concentration. IP led to the inhibition of MMP-2 (IP: 165.67±47.99 vs. AMI: 369.64±72.89; P=0.004) 3d post-AMI, accompanied by increased release of SDF-1α (baseline: 23.80±12.36 vs. 3d: 45.29±11.31; P=0.05) and CXCR4 (baseline: 0.59±0.16 vs. 3d: 2.06±1.42; P=0.034), with a parallel higher level of mobilisation of CD34+ cells (IP: 881±126 vs. AMI: 668±180; P=0.026), compared to non-conditioned AMI. In vitro, CD34+ cell migration toward cardiomyocytes was enhanced by SDF-1α, which was completely abolished by 90min hypoxia and co-incubation with MMP-2.  Conclusions. Non-conditioned AMI induces MMP-2 release, hampering the ischemia-induced increase in SDF-1α and CXCR4 by cleaving the SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis, with diminished mobilization of the angiogenic CD34+ cells. IP might influence CD34+ cell mobilization via inhibition of MMP-2.


Contentious risks demand a new approach Two critical, recurring questions can arise in many areas of research with human subjects but are poorly addressed in much existing research regulation and ethics oversight: How should research risks to "bystanders" be addressed? And how should research be evaluated when risks are substantial but not offset by direct benefit to participants, and the benefit to society ("social value") is context-dependent? We encountered these issues while serving on a multidisciplinary, independent expert panel charged with addressing whether human challenge trials (HCTs) in which healthy volunteers would be deliberately infected with Zika virus could be ethically justified (1). Based on our experience on that panel, which concluded that there was insufficient value to justify a Zika HCT at the time of our report, we propose a new review mechanism to preemptively address issues of bystander risk and contingent social value.


Viewed narrowly, there is little connection between antitrust policy and the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Nonetheless, the severe crisis has prompted debate on a basic antitrust policy question: whether antitrust enforcement is a luxury that the country can ill afford during periods of deep economic recession. The origins of the crisis have also exposed serious regulatory and market failures that have touched off debate on several broader issues. For example, have these failures called into question popular assumptions underlying modern antitrust policy – that markets are robust, self-correcting and can adequately protect consumers with minimal government intervention? And, to the extent that the assumptions have been undermined, what effect would (or should) it have on antitrust policy? Should there be less reliance on microeconomics in contemporary antitrust analysis? Should antitrust policy become more regulatory? The authors in this Symposium provide diverse analyses of some of the antitrust issues that are implicated. This Editor's Note introduces the Articles and also independently touches on some of the issues.


Hypothermia has been proven as an effective rescue therapy for infants with moderate or severe neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Hypoxia-ischemia alters the electrical impedance characteristics of the brain in neonates; therefore, spectroscopic analysis of the cerebral bioimpedance of the neonate may be useful for the detection of candidate neonates eligible for hypothermia treatment. Currently, in addition to the lack of reference bioimpedance data obtained from healthy neonates, there is no standardized approach established for bioimpedance spectroscopy data analysis. In this work, cerebral bioimpedance measurements (12 h postpartum) in a cross-section of 84 term and near-term healthy neonates were performed at the bedside in the post-natal ward. To characterize the impedance spectra, Cole parameters (R0, R∞, fC and α) were extracted from the obtained measurements using an analysis process based on a best measurement and highest likelihood selection process. The results obtained in this study complement previously reported work and provide a standardized criterion-based method for data analysis. The availability of electrical bioimpedance spectroscopy reference data and the automatic criterion-based analysis method might support the development of a non-invasive method for prompt selection of neonates eligible for cerebral hypothermic rescue therapy.


Abstract: Bibliometrics can be defined as the statistical analysis of publications. Bibliometrics has focused on the quantitative analysis of citations and citation counts which is complex. It is so complex and specialized that personal knowledge and experience are insufficient for understanding trends and then making decisions. We need tools for analysis of bibliometrics information to recognize the research trends and evaluate scientific/institution/country's research productivity. This presentation will provide procedure to write a Bibliometrics paper. Bibliometrics can be defined as the statistical analysis of publications. Bibliometrics has focused on the quantitative analysis of citations and citation counts which is complex. It is so complex and specialized that personal knowledge and experience are insufficient for understanding trends and then making decisions. We need tools for analysis of bibliometrics information to recognize the research trends and evaluate scientific/institution/country's research productivity. This presentation will provide procedure to write a Bibliometrics paper.


Purpose: Based on the framework of interest, studies have shown that teachers can enhance students' situational interest (SI) by manipulating the components of learning tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of learning task design on students' SI in physical education (PE). Method: The participants were 167 secondary school students (Mage = 13.21, SD = 2.24, 59% boys, range 12–16) who evaluated the SI of two learning tasks in badminton, designed to promote either instant enjoyment and exploration intention, or novelty and challenge. Students responded to the French 19-item SI scale immediately after completing the two learning tasks, with a 3-week interval between the tasks. Results: The results showed that students were receptive to the SI dimensions on which each task was designed. According to the total interest scores, they also perceived significant differences between both tasks. Moreover, the cluster analysis revealed three different students' profiles based on their SI scores ...


We should rethink two sets of beliefs that support the current top-down model of education, Ms. Noddings suggests - one, a set of faulty notions about equal opportunity, sameness, and the inherent worth of the college-bound curriculum; the other, an equally faulty set of beliefs about the dangers of specialization and the benefits of breadth. Deborah Meier and Susan Ohanian invite us to think about how secondary schools and colleges might approach education if they were modeled on the early elementary grades and the needs of students instead of on the images and demands of the elite colleges and universities. They claim that such education might be characterized by greater freedom, sustained activity, playfulness, sense of purpose, and a healthy skepticism born of genuine curiosity. The elite colleges and universities do in fact exercise more control than they should over a vast number of students who will never enter their doors. Can anything be done to change this? I will argue that we should rethink two sets of beliefs that support the current topdown model: one, a set of faulty notions about equal opportunity, sameness, and the inherent worth of the college-bound curriculum; the other, an equally faulty set of beliefs about the dangers of specialization and the benefits of breadth. Rethinking these matters may weaken the rationale for our current mode of operation. Faulty Notions About Equality and Sameness Advocates of the standard precollege curriculum usually offer one or both of two arguments for requiting students to take college-preparatory mathematics, science, English, history, and foreign language. One argument seeks to persuade us that all children should have the opportunity to qualify for an elite education. The second maintains that a curriculum designed as preparation for Harvard or Stanford is, inherently, the best education for everyone. It seems to me that both of these arguments are wrong and, in some forms, actually harmful. Let's consider the first argument - that all children should be given an opportunity to qualify for the best colleges. The first thing to notice is that opportunities might be provided without coercion. Too often those who insist on equal opportunity want to force students into the curriculum that will "give" them the desired opportunity. They argue that high school students are simply not mature enough to make important curriculum choices; for their own good, then, the school must make these choices for them. Mortimer Adler, for example, has insisted that, left to their own choices, some students will "downgrade" their own education; therefore, adults should control these crucial choices so that such downgrading does not occur.(1) But there are two powerful responses to Adler's concerns. First, it should not be possible for students to downgrade their education no matter what choices they make. Why should responsible educators allow schools to offer a set of "good" courses and a set of "bad" courses? As John Dewey pointed out years ago, a course in cooking, well planned and well executed, can induce critical thinking, increase cultural literacy, and provide valuable skills - it can be a "good" course. In contrast, a course in algebra may discourage critical thinking, add nothing to cultural literacy, and lead students to despair of acquiring useful skills - it can be a "bad" course. Thus, before we abandon the variety of courses typical of the "shopping mall" high school, we should ask genuine and penetrating questions about the value of these courses. I've already offered three criteria for judging courses good or bad. I'd also ask, Are they interesting? Are they challenging? Do the teachers treat the students with respect? Are the students likely to grow as whole persons - in other words, is it reasonable to predict that the students will grow socially, morally, and intellectually? When I say that these questions should be asked genuinely, I mean that we should not decide a priori that the conventional academic subjects are superior to others. …


Background Despite apparent unmet needs, people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) rarely ask for help. We explored the concept of need from the perspective of patients, their family carers and professionals. Methods We recruited inpatients at two National Health Service (NHS) Lothian hospitals to a structured, holistic review of care needs delivered at home by a respiratory nurse 4 weeks postdischarge. Using semistructured interviews and group discussions, review notes and field-notes we explored the views of patients, carers and professionals on perceptions of need and the actions requested. Data were analysed thematically using Bradshaw's classification of need. Results 14 patients, 3 carers, 28 professionals provided 36 interviews and 2 discussion groups. Few needs were identified by our intervention and few actions planned. Professionals identified 'normative' needs some of which had been addressed during routine discharge planning. Other needs (physical/psychological limitations, social/financial concerns, existential issues) were 'felt' by patients and carers but articulated in response to the researcher's questions rather than actively 'expressed'. Patients often did not wish any action to address the problems, preferring care from family members rather than formal agencies. Many spoke of the over-arching importance of retaining a sense of independence and autonomy, considering themselves as ageing rather than ill. Conclusions In contrast to professionally-defined 'normative' needs, patients rarely perceived themselves as needy, accepting their 'felt' needs as the result of a disability to which they had now adapted. Sensitive approaches that foster independence may enable patients to 'express' needs that are amenable to help without disturbing the adaptive equilibrium they have achieved. Trial registration number NCT01650480.


Abstract Minimizing risk of predation from multiple predators can be difficult, particularly when the risk effects of one predator species may influence vulnerability to a second predator species. We decomposed spatial risk of predation in a 2-predator, 2-prey system into relative risk of encounter and, given an encounter, conditional relative risk of being killed. Then, we generated spatially explicit functions of total risk of predation for each prey species (elk [Cervus elaphus] and mule deer [Odocoileus hemionus]) by combining risks of encounter and kill. For both mule deer and elk, topographic and vegetation type effects, along with resource selection by their primary predator (cougars [Puma concolor] and wolves [Canis lupus], respectively), strongly influenced risk of encounter. Following an encounter, topographic and vegetation type effects altered the risk of predation for both ungulates. For mule deer, risk of direct predation was largely a function of cougar resource selection. However, for elk, risk of direct predation was not only a function of wolf occurrence, but also of habitat attributes that increased elk vulnerability to predation following an encounter. Our analysis of stage-based (i.e., encounter and kill) predation indicates that the risk effect of elk shifting to structurally complex habitat may ameliorate risk of direct predation by wolves but exacerbate risk of direct predation by cougars. Information on spatiotemporal patterns of predation will be become increasingly important as state agencies in the western United States face pressure to integrate predator and prey management.


A new method for measuring the refractive index is presented. First, the phase difference between s and p polarizations that is due to the total internal reflection is measured by heterodyne interferometry. Then, substituting this phase difference into the Fresnel equations, we can obtain the refractive index of the test medium.


Wired for Sound is the first anthology to address the role of sound engineering technologies in the shaping of contemporary global music. Wired sound is at the basis of digital audio editing, multi-track recording, and other studio practices that have powerfully impacted the world's music. Distinctions between musicians and engineers increasingly blur, making it possible for people around the globe to imagine new sounds and construct new musical aesthetics. This collection of 11 essays employs primarily ethnographical, but also historical and psychological, approaches to examine a range of new, technology-intensive musics and musical practices such as: fusions of Indian film-song rhythms, heavy metal, and gamelan in Jakarta; urban Nepali pop which juxtaposes heavy metal, Tibetan Buddhist ritual chant, rap, and Himalayan folksongs; collaborations between Australian aboriginals and sound engineers; the production of "heaviness" in heavy metal music; and the production of the "Austin sound." This anthology is must reading for anyone interested in the global character of contemporary music technology.


Shakespearean tragedy and "Dracula," Sherlock Holmes and "Ulysses," "Frankenstei "and "The Waste Land"--all are celebrated "wonders" of modern literature, whether in its mandarin or popular form. However, it is the fact that these texts are so central to our contemporary notion of literature that sometimes hinders our ability to understand them. Franco Moretti applies himself to this problem by""drawing skillfully on structuralist, sociological and psycho-analytic modes of enquity in order to read these texts as literary systems which are tokens of wider cultural and political realities. In the process, Moretti offers us compelling accounts of various literary genres, explores the relationships between high and mass culture in this century, and considers the relevance of tragic, Romantic and Darwinian views of the world.


We seek to understand how pre-service and novice teachers view the importance of STEM education in the elementary grades. A sample of prospective and early career elementary teachers was surveyed using an anonymous online questionnaire. The questionnaire asked for demographic information and this prompt: "Is STEM education important at the elementary level? Why or why not?" A constant comparative approach was used to analyze responses to provide insights about respondents' beliefs. We found that all participants responded that yes, STEM education was important at the elementary years, but that several themes emerged when considering reasons given, and that the types of responses given varied in terms of subject and complexity when comparing responses by respondents' second major. These findings paint an initial picture of what future elementary STEM instruction might look like, insofar as teachers' beliefs can influence instructional choices. Additionally, these findings may have implications for teacher educators and for pre- and in-service teacher education.


Bushmeat consumption is affected by household wealth. However, how household wealth impacts bushmeat eaten in different environmental and social settings (i.e. whether urban, rural, coastal or forest) is poorly understood. In this study, we sampled households in six contrasting localities in Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea, in coastal (Bata, Cogo), central (Niefang, Evinayong) and eastern parts of the territory (Ebebiyin, Nsork). On average, 32.3 g of bushmeat per adult male equivalent per day were consumed, though this varied widely between sites and most households ate no bushmeat on the survey day. Fish was the most frequently recorded source of protein and in a coastal site, Cogo, significantly more fish was consumed than in the other localities. Overall, average protein consumption was correlated with household wealth, but the strength of this effect varied among sites. At the site where average wealth was highest (Bata, the most urban site), bushmeat was more expensive, and wealthier households ate more of it. Elsewhere bushmeat consumption was not associated with wealth, and the cost of bushmeat was a higher proportion of household wealth. In Bata, wealthier households reported consumption of more than one meat type (most frequently bushmeat and either domestic meat or fish), and diversity of dietary items also increased with wealth. In all sites, wealthier households ate less fish. We demonstrate distinct differences in relationships between urban versus rural areas, and between coastal versus inland sites. We therefore caution that general patterns of wealth–wild meat consumption must be evaluated taking account the circumstances of wild meat consumers.


A striking new feature of the welfare systems in many Western countries is the extent to which market relations have permeated social services. Conceptions of 'risk management' now dominate the way parents and children are responded to, while new technologies aim to 'measure' their relationship with state service providers. Bureaucratic control is increasing, while resources are reduced. These factors have led to the demise of the traditional role of the social worker as one who engages with the client in a supportive encounter. Professional competence within social work is increasingly tied to 'mastering' scientific knowledge and new technical skills.

The result of collaboration between authors from Canada, Britain and Australia, Social Work in a Corporate Era offers a critical overview of these developments and their implications. It provides a re-evaluation of the assumptions and practices of the critical social work tradition and explores the possibility of rebuilding an 'emancipatory' social work. The authors aim to disentangle the debate between Marxism, feminism and anti-racism, in the context of both postmodern challenges and the corporate restructuring of the welfare state. Calling for the development of a new politics of social work practice, this book addresses many of the urgent issues facing welfare state practitioners in health and social services today.


Media effects research has documented the prevalence of different ideals in media content, and their effects on media users. We developed a framework for the representation of such ideals, and that may increase our understanding of the effects media have on users' well-being. Drawing on cultural sociology, communication theory, and psychological literature, we introduce the malleability narrative of mediated ideals, described as "a collection of media representations of a variety of ideals that tend to be portrayed as within reach for anyone who is committed to pursuing his/her own self-interest." The aim of the framework is to foster content analytical research on the occurrence of the malleability narrative in popular media and to stimulate audience research on interactions between media users and the malleability narrative in media, while taking account of different explanatory routes and the heterogeneity of the audience.


While estimates of genetic divergence are increasingly used in molecular taxonomy, hybrid zone analyses can provide decisive evidence for evaluating candidate species. Applying a population genomic approach (RAD-sequencing) to a fine-scale transect sampling, we analyzed the transition between two Iberian subspecies of the common midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans almogavarii and A. o. pertinax) in Catalonia (northeastern Spain), which putatively diverged since the Plio-Pleistocene. Their hybrid zone was remarkably narrow, with extensive admixture restricted to a single locality (close to Tarragona), and congruent allele frequency clines for the mitochondrial (13 km wide) and the average nuclear genomes (16 km wide). We also fitted clines independently for 89 taxon-diagnostic SNPs: most of them behave like the nuclear background, but a subset (13%) is completely impermeable to gene flow and might be linked to barrier loci involved in hybrid incompatibilities. Assuming that midwife toads are able to disperse in the area of contact, we conclude that these taxa experience partial reproductive isolation and represent incipient species, i.e. Alytes almogavarii and Alytes obstetricans. Interestingly, their evolutionary age and mitochondrial divergence fall below the thresholds proposed in molecular systematics studies, emphasizing the difficulty of predicting the outcome of secondary contacts between young lineages entering the grey zone of speciation.


Many artists livestream their creative process, allowing viewers to learn and be inspired from the decisions -- and mistakes -- they make along the way. This paper presents the first broad look at the range of creative activities people stream. Through content analysis of livestream archives, interviews with 8 streamers, and online surveys with 165 viewers, we study current practices and challenges in creative livestream communities and compare them with prior observations of livestreaming in other domains. We observed four common types of creative livestreams: teaching, making, socializing, and performing. We identify three open questions for the research community around how to better support the goals of creative streamers and viewers: how to support richer audience interactions at scale, how to support all parts of the creative process, and how to support watching livestream archives.


The Mozambique Ridge off East Africa is a large oceanic plateau with a north-south length of more than 800 km and an east-west extend between 200-400 km. The top of the plateau emerges up to 3000 m from the surrounding ocean floor of the Mozambique Basin to the east and the southern Natal Valley to the west. However, due to a lack of extensive refraction seismic profiles the internal structure and origin of the ridge is still a matter of controversial debate. The existence of a continental plateau (as proposed by many authors) east of Africa which was possibly once attached to the African continent has far reaching consequences for the opening between Africa and East Antarctica and the development of ocean currents between the Indian and South Atlantic Ocean. However, until now, plate tectonic reconstructions for the breakup of Gondwana between Africa and East Antarctica cannot integrate this continental fragment in a satisfactory way.Precise age information from the ocean floor south of the ridge and the identification of characteristic magnetic anomaly lineations on the ridge can significantly contribute to this debate. This was one of the objectives of the AISTEK-II expedition carried out from Mai to July 2005 with the German research vessel SONNE off southeast Africa and Madagascar. During this cruise, for the first time, systematic high resolution magnetic measurements were carried out in the area of the Mozambique Ridge and in the Mozambique Basin. Precise identifications of magnetic seafloor spreading anomalies could be made in the Mozambique Basin. In general, existing interpretations from various French expeditions could be confirmed, albeit the new data can extend the interpretations further west and enhance the precision of the existing anomaly picks. Thus, with the new data the seafloor spreading history between Africa and East Antarctica can be better constrained using high resolution age information for the ocean floor in the Mozambique Basin and the Riiser-Larsen Sea, Antarctica.The magnetic anomaly data from the Mozambique Ridge have large amplitudes with values of up to 800 nT. Good correlations between the lines are mainly possible at the position of the high amplitude anomalies. Although no unique identification of seafloor spreading anomalies can be made on the ridge several arguments exist in favor of an oceanic origin of this plateau.


We report a measurement of D-0-(D) over bar(0) mixing parameters and a search for indirect CP violation through a time-dependent amplitude analysis of D-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) decays. The results are based on 921 fb(-1) of data accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider. Assuming CP conservation, we measure the mixing parameters x = (0.56 +/- 0.19(-0.09-0.09)(+0.03+0.06))% and y = (0.30 +/- 0.15(-0.05-0.06)(+0.04+0.03))%, where the errors are statistical, experimental systematic, and systematic due to the amplitude model, respectively. With CP violation allowed, the parameters vertical bar q/p vertical bar = 0.90(-0.15-0.04-0.05)(+0.16+0.05+0.06) and arg(q/p) = (- 6 +/- 11 +/- 3(-4)(+3))degrees are found to be consistent with conservation of CP symmetry in mixing and in the interference between mixing and decay, respectively.


There is growing interest in understanding of how User-Generated Content (UGC) empowers online consumer behavior. In this paper, we explore the relationships between Consumer Empowerment and Perceived Control (mediated by Self-Efficacy) over the decision making process using UGC. The results of this study reveal that Perceived Control has an influence on intention to use UGC. The findings also suggest that Consumer Empowerment has the capacity to influence Perceived Control, both directly (primarily via Content Empowerment), and indirectly (via Social Empowerment and Process Empowerment, mediated by SelfEfficacy, which in turn influences Perceived Control).


A deep-ultraviolet photodetector (DUV PD) which can function independently of an external power supply is urgently desired for the next-generation photodetection applications from the viewpoint of being diminutive, convenient, and power saving. In this work, by introducing a lattice compatible semiconductor Ga:ZnO, a high quality β-Ga2O3/Ga:ZnO heterojunction based DUV PD is achieved using laser molecular beam epitaxy. The obtained device could operate in a self-powered mode with an excellent wavelength selectivity, a high ON/OFF ratio, a high DUV/visible rejection ratio, and a high stability under 254 nm light illumination. The physical mechanism responsible for the observation is discussed based on the photogenerated electron–hole pairs separated in the depletion region under the built-in electric field. Our work may provide a new insight into further high performance self-sufficient DUV PD applications.


Everything in our body is under control of central and peripheral pacemak-ers that regulate all the processes and functions according to the day-night and sleep-wake cycles. Cardiovascular system is not an exception. Blood pressure, heart rate, and even vascular resistance have circadian patterns. Nowadays new diagnostic devices provide all necessary data on 24-h variation of the hemodynamic parameters in patients of all ages. Due to the complex regulation mechanisms which underline this variation, circadian patterns are not the same in different people. Why do we need to assess these rhythms? First of all, it is a key to the early diagnosis of different cardiovascular diseases and their complications. When the circadian rhythm is impaired, for example, the level of blood pressure is within the normal ranges, but it does not decline at night or even is higher than at daytime, there is an increased risk of the development of arterial hypertension and target organ dam-age. There is a large amount of studies on 24-h rhythm of blood pressure in adults. On the contrary, in children there is still a lack of data on this topic.


Numerical simulations of a high Reynolds number flow field of wind tunnel models of a generic rocket configuration were performed for transonic freestream conditions to improve the understanding of the highly intricate flow structures. The simulations demonstrate the applicability of the zonal RANS/LES approach for the rocket base flow. The configuration features a cylindrical sting support, thus representing a nozzle and allowing for investigations of a less disturbed wake flow. Since the Ma = 0.7 flow is the most critical regime as far as fluid structure interactions are concerned the paper concentrates on the transonic configuration. This wake flow is characterized by an expanding separated shear layer, the impact of which on the support leads to an increase in pressure, while the enclosed region, which determines the base drag, possesses a pressure minimum.


ABSTRACT CRISPR type III systems, which are abundantly found in archaea, recognize and degrade RNA in their specific response to invading nucleic acids. Therefore, these systems can be harnessed for gene knockdown technologies even in hyperthermophilic archaea to study essential genes. We show here the broader usability of this posttranscriptional silencing technology by expanding the application to further essential genes and systematically analysing and comparing silencing thresholds and escape mutants. Synthetic guide RNAs expressed from miniCRISPR cassettes were used to silence genes involved in cell division (cdvA), transcription (rpo8), and RNA metabolism (smAP2) of the two crenarchaeal model organisms Saccharolobus solfataricus and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. Results were systematically analysed together with those obtained from earlier experiments of cell wall biogenesis (slaB) and translation (aif5A). Comparison of over 100 individual transformants revealed gene-specific silencing maxima ranging between 40 and 75%, which induced specific knockdown phenotypes leading to growth retardation. Exceedance of this threshold by strong miniCRISPR constructs was not tolerated and led to specific mutation of the silencing miniCRISPR array and phenotypical reversion of cultures. In two thirds of sequenced reverted cultures, the targeting spacers were found to be precisely excised from the miniCRISPR array, indicating a still hypothetical, but highly active recombination system acting on the dynamics of CRISPR spacer arrays. Our results indicate that CRISPR type III – based silencing is a broadly applicable tool to study in vivo functions of essential genes in Sulfolobales which underlies a specific mechanism to avoid malignant silencing overdose.


The human prefrontal cortex has been considered different in several aspects and relatively enlarged compared to the rest of the cortical areas. Here we determine whether the white and gray matter of the prefrontal portion of the human cerebral cortex have similar or different cellular compositions relative to the rest of the cortical regions by applying the Isotropic Fractionator to analyze the distribution of neurons along the entire anteroposterior axis of the cortex, and its relationship with the degree of gyrification, number of neurons under the cortical surface, and other parameters. The prefrontal region shares with the remainder of the cerebral cortex (except for occipital cortex) the same relationship between cortical volume and number of neurons. In contrast, both occipital and prefrontal areas vary from other cortical areas in their connectivity through the white matter, with a systematic reduction of cortical connectivity through the white matter and an increase of the mean axon caliber along the anteroposterior axis. These two parameters explain local differences in the distribution of neurons underneath the cortical surface. We also show that local variations in cortical folding are neither a function of local numbers of neurons nor of cortical thickness, but correlate with properties of the white matter, and are best explained by the folding of the white matter surface. Our results suggest that the human cerebral cortex is divided in two zones (occipital and non-occipital) that differ in how neurons are distributed across their gray matter volume and in three zones (prefrontal, occipital, and non-occipital) that differ in how neurons are connected through the white matter. Thus, the human prefrontal cortex has the largest fraction of neuronal connectivity through the white matter and the smallest average axonal caliber in the white matter within the cortex, although its neuronal composition fits the pattern found for other, non-occipital areas.


This paper studies a model of the distribution of income under bounded needs. Utility derived from any given good reaches a bliss point at a finite consumption level of that good. On the other hand, introducing new varieties always increases utility. It is assumed that each variety is owned by a monopoly. Workers can specialize in material goods production or in the knowledge sector, which designs new varieties. It is shown that if the elasticity of labor supply to the knowledge sector is bounded, as productivity increases, the economy moves from a "Solovian zone" where wages increase with productivity, to a "Marxian" zone where the paradoxically decline with productivity. This is because as consumption of a given good increases, the price elasticity of demand falls, and markups increase to infinity as consumption reaches the unit elasticity point. Such a point typically exists because of the finiteness of needs. It is also shown that if individual creativity is more unevenly distributed then productivity, technical progress always increases inequality. Redistribution from profits to workers in the production sector always benefits arbitrarily poor workers regardless of their distortionary effect on the number of varieties, because diversity is not valued by very poor agents. In contrast, rich agents close enough to their bliss point can only be made better-off by an increase in diversity. If wages are set by monopoly unions rather than set competitively, they are proportional to productivity and the Marxian zone no longer exists. But technical progress always reduces employment in the material goods sector. International trade may reduce wages in poor countries and increase them in rich countries if under autarky the former consume less of each good that the latter.


Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a known risk factor for the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), with no satisfactory strategy to prevent the progression of AKI to CKD. Damage to the renal vascular system and subsequent hypoxia are common contributors to both AKI and CKD. Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) is reported to protect the kidney from acute ischemic damage and a novel HIF stabilizer, FG4592 (Roxadustat), has become available in the clinic as an anti-anemia drug. However, the role of FG4592 in the AKI-to-CKD transition remains elusive. In the present study, we investigated the role of FG4592 in the AKI-to-CKD transition induced by unilateral kidney ischemia-reperfusion (UIR). The results showed that FG4592, given to mice 3 days after UIR, markedly alleviated kidney fibrosis and enhanced renal vascular regeneration, possibly via activating the HIF-1α/vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA)/VEGF receptor 1 (VEGFR1) signaling pathway and driving the expression of the endogenous antioxidant superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2). In accordance with the improved renal vascular regeneration and redox balance, the metabolic disorders of the UIR mice kidneys were also attenuated by treatment with FG4592. However, the inflammatory response in the UIR kidneys was not affected significantly by FG-4592. Importantly, in the kidneys of CKD patients, we also observed enhanced HIF-1α expression which was positively correlated with the renal levels of VEGFA and SOD2. Together, these findings demonstrated the therapeutic effect of the anti-anemia drug FG-4592 in preventing the AKI-to-CKD transition related to ischemia and the redox imbalance.


Despite the rapid expansion of citizen-based monitoring, data from these programs remain underutilized by natural resource managers, perhaps due to quality and comparability issues. We present the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program as a case study of an initiative successfully meeting long-term monitoring needs of federal, state, tribal, and local natural resource managers, and informing public policy. To maximize potential for partnerships with managers, we recommend the creation of a five-year plan including scientific goals and financial solvency strategies prior to establishing a citizen science program, and offering multiple platforms for data-sharing and dialogue. Abstract


Using comprehensive data for German establishments (1999-2008), we estimate plant-level production functions to analyze if "cultural diversity" affects total factor productivity. We distinguish diversity in the establishment's workforce and in the aggregate regional labor force where the plant is located. We find that a larger share of foreign workers – either in the establishment or in the region – does not affect productivity. However, there are strong spillovers associated with the degree of cultural heterogeneity. The aggregate level is, quantitatively, at least as important as the workforce composition inside the establishment. Diversity thus seems to induce externalities beyond the boundaries of a single firm; it improves local business environments.


French philosopher H. Bergson criticizes general philosophy insofar as it neglects or
even ignores the temporality of time. Concerning general philosophy, Bergson's remarks
are probably outdated, whereas contemporary philosophy of science does continue to encounter
analogous problems.
For essentially group-theoretic reasons, physics, despite the presence of a temporal dimension in
physical spaces, describes atemporal systems. These group-theoretic reasons being at the origin
of physical atemporality also ensure the extraordinary epistemic power of physics based
on the possibility of distortion-free partial approaches, symmetry in prediction and retro-diction,
experimentation to be repeated under identical conditions, idealization, renormalization, and so on.
But the investigation field of physics allowing such group-theoretically founded approaches
represents a highly improbable exception. So any tentative to transpose physics beyond the
boundaries of its group-theoretically delimited investigation field unavoidably leads to the problem
raised by Bergson: a time reduced to something without temporality. This point undermines certain
contemporary speculations advanced in the name of physics, such as "chaosogenesis" and, above all,
linkages between multiverse approaches based on eternal inflation and the so-called "weak anthropic
principle."


In this paper we provide generalization bounds for semiparametric regression with the so-called partially linear models where the regression function is written as the sum of a linear parametric and a nonlinear, nonparametric function, the latter taken from a some set H with finite entropy-integral. The problem is technically challenging because the parametric part is unconstrained and the model is underdetermined, while the response is allowed to be unbounded with subgaussian tails. Under natural regularity conditions, we bound the generalization error as a function of the metric entropy of H and the dimension of the linear model. Our main tool is a ratio-type concentration inequality for increments of empirical processes, based on which we are able to give an exponential tail bound on the size of the parametric component. We also provide a comparison to alternatives of this technique and discuss why and when the unconstrained parametric part in the model may cause a problem in terms of the expected risk. We also explain by means of a specific example why this problem cannot be detected using the results of classical asymptotic analysis often seen in the statistics literature.


Many different actors, including government, academy and industry, are engaged in school- and recruitment-STEM-initiatives. The aim of this article is to shed light on industrial initiatives, what actors are involved and what different repertoires are being used when industrial actors describe the initiatives and their engagement in them. The data collected consists of web-materials where industrial actors describe their engagement in STEM-initiatives and provide reasons for their engagement. The method for analysis is discursive psychology. The results show that a variety of constellations of industrial actors are engaged in STEM-initiatives and that the initiatives draw on a variety of discursive resources, e.g. competition resources, 'fun' teaching resources, role-model resources, industrial owned upper secondary schools, and industrial visits for school classes. In our analysis we identify the following interpretative repertoires which are used when the industrial actors describe the reasons for their engagement in the initiatives: 1) The securing competent labor repertoire, 2) The bright future for the world repertoire, 3) The Securing economic growth for the country or region (e.g. in competition with others) repertoire, 4) The increasing knowledge of the importance of science repertoire, 5) The general increase interest in science repertoire, and 6) The increasing knowledge in science repertoire. The use of these repertoires, and the fact that they work in relation to schools/teachers, are in the article discussed with a starting point in a combination of two prevailing discourses in the society – the "STEM-crisis"-discourse and the "Science as a savior" discourse.


Antioxidants containing polymerisable vinyl groups have been successfully bound to natural rubber in the presence of suitable free radical generators. Reaction parameters such as the mode of initiation, initiator system, reaction time, pH of the reaction medium, swelling time have been investigated in natural rubber latex. Of the free radical generating systems examined the redox system consisted of tertiary butyl hydroperoxide and tetra ethylene pentamine (TBHP/TEP) appeared to be most effective in natural rubber latex. Infra-red spectroscopy has been used to estimate the concentration of the bound anlioxidants and ageing behaviour was assessed by oxygen absorption and continuous stress relaxation. The curing characteristics of the grafted rubber samples were studied in detai1 using the Monsanto rheometer. It was found that antioxidants which do not contain vinyl groups also react under the same conditions with natural rubber latex. Some of these appeared to be marginally more effective than the corresponding vinyl antioxidants. It was observed that in the case of the vinyl antioxidants only a part of the added antioxidant grafted into the rubber and the rest remained unchanged or was oxidised to coloured products. The by-products formed during the process of grafting were identified and analysed. A masterbatch technique has been developed to produce concentrates of bound antioxidants in rubber latex and these have been used as additives to untreated latex to obtain grafted rubber latices with a known level of oxidative stability. It was found that irrespective of the presence or absence of vinyl group in the antioxidants phenols containing one tertiary butyl and one methyl group in ortho position were most effective. Followed by phenols with two tertiary butyl groups. This is the order of activity previously observed for rubber antioxidants. The effectiveness of these antioxidant structures appears to be similar when present in a rubber bound form to that of Lhe free antioxidant.


Background The concept of resilience is multi-dimensional and cross-disciplinary, which has resulted in different conceptualisations and ways of measuring it. The exposure to environmental and health risks is unequally distributed according to age, gender, education, income, amongst others. Risks and impacts are more extensive for individuals with low resilience, and resilient individuals are better able to deal with threats. The aim of this study was to develop a Mixed Methods Individual Resilience Measure (MMIRM) and explore the sources of resilience. Methods A mixed methods approach was used to develop a new measure of resilience which includes both general and specified resilience. The MMIRM was established through a process of transforming the Sense Of Coherence scale (SOC-13) into a quantitative general resilience index (GRI) and into a qualitative data collection tool to assess specified resilience to environmental and health risks (i.e. extreme temperatures). Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect primary data at the individual level. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed separately using SPSS and NVivo 9, respectively, and combined using triangulation. The quantitative scores of the SOC-13 scale and its dimensions were calculated and used to develop the GRI using a series of equations. The qualitative data on specified resilience were analysed using an iterative and systematic coding process. We then assessed the relationship between general and specified resilience, and the relationship between resilience and the wider determinants of health to understand the sources of resilience. Results The GRI Cronbach's alpha was 0.741 and the sample's overall GRI had a value of 0.647, ranging from 0 (less resilient) to 1 (more resilient), indicating that overall participants had high general resilience. The indicator values for the three components of resilience, comprehensibility (0.740), manageability (0.602) and meaningfulness (0.647) also revealed high resilience of participants. Male, older and married participants, with higher education levels and income had higher general resilience. Specified resilience was mainly influenced by: (i) perceived ability to deal with the threat (comprehensibility); (ii) the availability of resources (e.g. money) (manageability), and; (iii) the perceived ability to act. Levels of resilience were varied and diverse within and between participants, with some individuals showing high general resilience but low specified resilience and vice-versa. Conclusion The MMIRM captures the different dimensions of resilience and its connexions with the wider determinants of health and, health, social and gender inequalities. These findings highlight the need to develop and implement a person-centred approach with tailored actions for building individual general and specified resilience to environmental and health risks.


Currently, HCI researchers and HCI practitioners work in relatively separate spheres of influence. Practitioners often question the value of academic HCI research and desire more practical directions. HCI researchers often wonder if their research findings are communicated via the optimal channels for influencing practitioners' process and direction, or whether their results generalize to the real workaday world of HCI. This panel attempts to outline what practitioners need from their academic partners, and how they think these needs can be addressed by academic research. Academics on the panel will state what they see as interesting future research challenges, and whether or how they think they can address the practitioner community's interests. The practitioners on the panel will then state their opinions about the opportunities for technology transfer from academia to practice.


The aluminum metal matrix composites (Al MMCs) reinforced by SiC particles with different sizes (25 nm, 150 nm and 3.5 m) were fabricated by powder metallurgy technique, and the microstructure and tensile properties of the Al MMCs were investigated. When the volume fraction of SiC particles is fixed to be 5 %, the Al MMCs reinforced by nanosized and submicron particles exhibit much higher ultimate tensile strength and yield strength, and much lower ductility compared with those of the non-reinforced aluminum. However, for the MMC reinforced by 3.5 m SiC particles, almost no strengthening effect is found. The strengthening effect of the Al MMCs is analyzed in terms of dislocation mechanism. Moreover, the tensile fracture surface shows that the damage mechanism of the Al MMCs can be changed as the size of SiC particles is changed.


Purpose: The article aims to present and discuss the results of environmental and economic analysis of the activities of the main production types of farms in Poland. Approach/Methodology/Design: The theoretical assumptions of the article concern environmental protection and the problem of shaping a low-carbon economy in the EU. In this context, it is presented how the production effects in the agricultural sector influence various types of environmental risks. The methodology of product life cycle analysis (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) were proposed for a comprehensive analysis of the impact of agricultural production on the environment and for the diagnosis of farm functioning according to sustainable development criteria. Findings: Based on the analyses carried out, differences in the environmental impact of different types of agricultural activities were found. The negative influence of farms with animal production was higher than that of farms with field crops type. In farms with animal production, different environmental impact areas were found between dairy farming and pig farming. The dairy farming had the strongest environmental impact through production processes. The acidification category turned out to be an important environmental problem in farms with livestock production. Practical Implications: The article brings a number of valuable information that can be a base material and a reference for further research, programs and studies for professionals - practitioners and scientists dealing with the environmental impact of agricultural production, its eco-efficiency, or more broadly ecology and sustainability. Originality/Value: The results of the analysis and theoretical considerations contained in this article complement existing research in the field of agricultural sustainability.


Between 1993 and 2003 per capita city and county spending for streets and roads in Minnesota increased by about 0.9 percent per year after adjusting for inflation. Local expenditures for the construction of new roads and the expansion of existing roads increased by 17 percent during that period. But, local operating spending on roads, which includes expenditures for road maintenance, fell by 3 percent. Per capita county and city receipts from state highway aid declined 5 percent during that 10-year period on an inflation adjusted basis. Although the ratio of local government spending to personal income fell by 0.5 percentage point between 1993 and 2004, the proportion of Minnesota personal income going for local streets and roads fell by less than 0.1 percentage point.


Programmers frequently use the Web while writing code: they search for libraries, code examples, tutorials, and documentation. This link between code and visited Web pages remains implicit today. Connecting source code and browsing histories might help programmers maintain con-text, reduce the cost of Web page re-retrieval, and enhance understanding when code is shared. This note introduces HyperSource, an IDE augmentation that associates browsing histories with source code edits. HyperSource comprises a browser extension that logs visited pages; an IDE that tracks user activity and maps pages to code edits; a source document model that tracks visited pages at a character level; and a user interface that enables interaction with these histories. We discuss relevance heuristics and privacy issues inherent in this approach. Informal log analyses and user feedback suggest that our annotation model is promising for code editing and might also apply to other document authoring tasks after refinement.


Since oxidative stress has been implicated in amyloid diseases, a study of scavenger treatment of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis was undertaken on 23 familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP) patients. Nine patients had undergone a liver transplantation for the disease. Twenty patients completed the 6-month study period of scavenger treatment (vitamin C, 1 g, three times daily, vitamin E, 0.1 g, three times daily and acetylcysteine, 0.2 g three times daily). They were evaluated clinically and by immunohistochemical measurement of hydroxynonenal (HNE), a product of lipid peroxidation, in biopsy specimens. For non-transplanted patients, no improvement was found for HNE in relation to the amyloid content in biopsy specimens, whereas a tendency to a decreased amount was noted for transplanted patients. Clinically, no differences were found for non-transplanted patients, but an increased nutritional status, measured by a modified body mass index (mBMI) was noted for transplanted patients. In summary, scavenger treatment with the drugs and doses used in the present study appears to be unable to decrease lipid peroxidation in amyloid-rich tissue in non-transplanted FAP patients. For transplanted patients, lipid peroxidation tended to decrease, and the nutritional status measured by mBMI improved, even though the findings may be explained by liver transplantation alone, scavenger treatment may facilitate recovery after transplantation.


Electroantenographical (EAG) response to allyl cinnamate were assessed on virgin and mated Cydia pomonella and Lobesia botrana adults to determine whether this compound could be used within integrated management programs (IMP). Adult behavioral reaction was later assessed in a wind tunnel, with and without the main compound of the corresponding female sex pheromone. Allyl cinnamate elicited antennae responses of C. pomonella and L. botrana, both males and females. Allyl cinnamate EAG response was as high as pheromone response, and it was not reduced after mating. In wind tunnel assays, allyl ester itself was not attractive to C. pomonella males, but its presence did not interfere with the pheromonal action when the number of contacts was compared. For females, a higher proportion of codling moths moved towards the source when allyl cinnamate was in the wind-tunnel plume. No differences were recorded depending on the mating status of codling moth adults. The same trend was observed in L. botrana males and females.
Results suggest that allyl cinnamate acts as a female behavioral modifier, but more assays are required to
determine its role in insect communication in field conditions before inclusion in integrated pest management.


Terrestrial xanthophycean and chlorophyte algae have been studied at widespread Antarctic localities. All published literature (1847 to 1998) are reviewed on chlorophyte and xanthophycean algae from terrestrial and non-marine aquatic habitats of Maritime and Continental Antarctica. A checklist of all terrestrial and freshwater algae has been compiled from all literature from 1847 to 1998. This has shown that their diversity is not fully known because of inadequacy of collections and analyses of samples. We still have insufficient base-line information about the morphological diversity of algae in Antarctica, and particularly Ross Sea regions. By detailed examination of cultured strains from the Ross Sea regions, the present study aims to contribute to the resolution of the following hypothesis: "The terrestrial algal flora of Antarctica does not comprise cosmopolitan species". The goals of the study were to: 1) provide detailed descriptions of the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of unknown, or previously poorly known, unicellular xanthophycean, and unicellular and filamentous chlorophyte algae using light and electron microscopy, 2) use isozymes to compare the genotypes of Antarctic Botrydiopsis and Chlorellidium strains with similar strains isolated from New Zealand and those in culture collections from Europe, and 3) investigate carotenoid pigments as taxonomic characters within Botrydiopsis and Chlorellidium. Each of 39 species (7 species in 3 genera from Xanthophyceae and 32 species in 14 genera from Chlorophyta) have been described and illustrated with camera lucida drawings and photomicrographs. There are 25 new records of chlorophyte and four new records of xanthophycean species for Antarctica. In addition, TEM has been used for the first time for 14 species. In three genera ofXanthophyceae and in Stichococcus TEM has revealed characteristics which are impossible to observe in sufficient detail by LM. The phenetic analysis on morphological data shows that Botrydiopsis and Chlorellidium exhibit wide morphological heterogeneity. Isozymes have not distinguished Botrydiopsis, Botryochloris and Chlorellidium. Pigment analysis has not revealed diversity at species level. Phenetic analysis of morphological data is not congruent with isozyme data and neither analysis is in agreement with the traditional system of classification. It is suggested that different techniques, e.g.18S rRNA gene sequencing should be used to examine present species concepts.


This study was designed to investigate how young children perceive the processes of drawing and writing, to determine the characteristics of the drawing and writing samples and episodes, and to determine what relationships exist among the processes, products, and perceptions. Ten nursery school children were interviewed to investigate young children's perce~tions and abilities within the drawing and writing processes. The children were asked to produce one drawing and one writing sample and to res,pond to six interview questions. Responses to interview questions were categorized and then descriptively analyzed. Drawing and writing episodes were classified and described according to the characteristics of the episodes and the samples that were produced. The following results emerged from the descriptive analysis. The young children in this study draw and write mainly for personal enjoyment and have a limited perspective of the other functions that drawing and writing serve. Sixty per cent said that drawing is not hard for them, whereas 30% said that writing is not hard. Analysis of the samples revealed that children preferred to use capital rather than lower-case letters. Analysis of the drawing and writing episodes suggested that oral language plays a critical role in facilitating children's written language learning. This study's findings yield insight into how drawing provides children with a transition to writing, as well as how children use the medias of drawing and writing interchangeably as they learn to communicate symbolically. Implications for research included conducting similar studies using larger samples of children from a variety of environments over a longer period of time and investigating the role of the teacher and the family in children's literacy learning. Classroom recommendations included using the design of this study to develop a tool for ongoing assessment of children's writing development, helping children to become more aware of the various functions of drawing and writing through modeling, and encouraging oral communication about the child's drawing and writing.


(max. 2000 char.) : Concern over climate change has stimulated interest in estimating the total amount of greenhouse gasses produced during the life-cycle of goods and services - i.e. during their production, transportation, sale, use and disposal. The outcome of these calculations is referred to as "product carbon footprints" (PCFs). The paper reviews the rationale, context, coverage and characteristics of emerging standards and certification schemes that estimate and designate PCFs, and discusses the possible impacts on trade, particularly exports from distant and developing countries. It draws on a survey of PCF certification schemes carried out during 2009, on a review of evolving international and national standards, and on a review of consumer surveys. Since 2007 one public standard, and two public and 14 private certification schemes referring to standards for calculating and communicating PCFs have become operational. Two new international standards and several new schemes, including three public ones, are due to become operational by 2011 or earlier. The private schemes are owned by a mixture of voluntary bodies and private companies, including some large retailers. Many provide assistance for reducing carbon footprints or procedures for certification or labelling. Nonetheless, to date only a few thousand products have been footprinted. As PCFs are already becoming market access requirements for bio-fuels imported to the EU, and may also become EU market access requirements for all mass-produced goods within 10-15 years, there is a danger that developing country exporters will lose out as a result. This is because: they are less likely to have the resources necessary for calculating and verifying PCFs; publicly available datasets are less likely to include processes carried out mainly in developing countries; and some existing standards do not currently include production of capital goods in their definition of product life cycles, which imparts a bias against labour-intensive production methods and hence against typical developing country exports. In contrast, PCF standards and schemes did not discriminate against products from distant countries, since emissions from long-distance transport were not treated differently from those generated by other activities in the product life cycle.


In power system reliability evaluation, alternating renewal process is generally used to model the failure and repair cycle of a component. This means that after repair, the component is assumed to be restored to as good as new condition from the reliability perspective. However, in practice, there may exist an aging trend in some components as they grow old. This paper describes how aging characteristics of components may impact the calculation of commonly used reliability indices such as loss of load expectation (LOLE). In order to construct the system failure and repair history of components, sequential Monte Carlo simulation method using stochastic point process modeling is introduced. Three methods are described for this purpose and this methodology is applied to the single area IEEE reliability test system. The results are analyzed and compared.


This paper studies the mechanisms of dispersion in the laminar flow through the pore space of a three-dimensional porous medium. We focus on preasymptotic transport prior to the asymptotic hydrodynamic dispersion regime, in which solute motion may be described by the average flow velocity and a hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient. High-performance numerical flow and transport simulations of solute breakthrough at the outlet of a sand-like porous medium evidence marked deviations from the hydrodynamic dispersion paradigm and identify two distinct regimes. The first regime is characterised by a broad distribution of advective residence times in single pores. The second regime is characterised by diffusive mass transfer into low-velocity regions in the wake of solid grains. These mechanisms are quantified systematically in the framework of a time-domain random walk for the motion of marked elements (particles) of the transported material quantity. Particle transitions occur over the length scale imprinted in the pore structure at random times given by heterogeneous advection and diffusion. Under globally advection-dominated conditions, i.e., Péclet numbers larger than 1, particles sample the intrapore velocities by diffusion and the interpore velocities through advection. Thus, for a single transition, particle velocities are approximated by the mean pore velocity. In order to quantify this advection mechanism, we develop a model for the statistics of the Eulerian velocity magnitude based on Poiseuille's law for flow through a single pore and for the distribution of mean pore velocities, both of which are linked to the distribution of pore diameters. Diffusion across streamlines through immobile zones in the wake of solid grains gives rise to exponentially distributed residence times that decay on the diffusion time over the pore length. The trapping rate is determined by the inverse diffusion time. This trapping mechanism is represented by a compound Poisson process conditioned on the advective residence time in the proposed time-domain random walk approach. The model is parameterised with the characteristics of the porous medium under consideration and captures both preasymptotic regimes. Macroscale transport is described by an integro-differential equation for solute concentration, whose memory kernels are given in terms of the distribution of mean pore velocities and trapping times. This approach quantifies the physical non-equilibrium caused by a broad distribution of mass transfer time scales, both advective and diffusive, on the representative elementary volume (REV). Thus, while the REV indicates the scale at which medium properties like porosity can be uniquely defined, this does not imply that transport can be characterised by hydrodynamic dispersion.


This article addresses the issue of underrepresentation or avoidance of colloquial words in a cross-sectional corpus of advanced French interlanguage (IL) of 29 Dutch L1 speakers and in a longitudinal corpus of 6 Hiberno-Irish English L1 speakers compared with a control group of 6 native speakers of French. The main independent variable analysed in the longitudinal corpus is the effect of spending a year in a francophone environment. This analysis is supplemented by a separate study of sociobiographical and psychological factors that affect the use of colloquial vocabulary in the cross-sectional corpus. Colloquial words are not exceptionally complex morphologically and present no specific grammatical difficulties, yet they are very rare in our data. Multivariate regression analyses suggest that only active authentic communication in the target language (TL) predicts the use of colloquial lexemes in the cross-sectional corpus. This result was confirmed in the longitudinal corpus where a t-test showed that the proportion of colloquial lexemes increased significantly after a year abroad.


Why do voters support executive aggrandizement? One possible answer is that they do so because they think this will ease their preferred leader's hand in putting their partisan vision into action, provided that the leader will continue winning elections. We study this phenomenon through a survey experiment in Turkey, by manipulating voters' perceptions about the potential results of the first presidential election after a constitutional referendum of executive aggrandizement. We find that voters from both sides display what we call "elastic support" for executive aggrandizement; that is, they change previously revealed constitutional preferences in response to varying winning chances. This elasticity increases not only when citizens feel greater social distance to perceived political "others" (i.e., affective polarization) but also when voters are concerned about economic management in a potential post-incumbent era. Our findings contribute to the literature on how polarization and economic anxiety contribute to executive aggrandizement and democratic backsliding. 1


FRANK L. MOTT The Ohio State University LORI KOWALESKI-JONES Northwestern University* ELIZABETH G. MENAGHAN The Ohio State University* This research uses data from the 1979-1990 rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and its complementary child assessment data to explore the shorter and longer implications of a father's absence from the home for the behavior of a national sample of 482 White children who were 9-11 years old in 1990. A particular focus of the research was to explore gender variations in these longer and shorter term effects. More modest effects of a father's absence are generally found for girls than for boys, although the gender differences typically are not statistically significant. This modest behavioral gender distinction appears for both externalization and internalization subscores. The latter finding was contrary to expectations. Additionally, boys and girls appear to respond similarly and negatively to the presence of a new man in the home. Key Words: child behavior problems, father absence, gender differences. In recent decades there has been a substantial decline in the proportion of children who can expect to reach adulthood with both biological parents in residence (Cherlin, 1992; Sweet & Bumpass, 1987). This family situation often has major economic implications for the well-being of the family unit (e.g., Saluter, 1994, Table 6; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992, Figure 23). There also is a substantial body of research suggesting a traumatic short-term impact for mother and child when a partner or father departs from the home (e.g., Amato & Keith, 1991; Hess & Camara, 1979; Hetherington, 1989). Part of this short-term trauma may reflect the fact that the home environment before separation often is less than harmonious (Demo & Acock, 1988; Hetherington, Stanley-Hagen, & Anderson, 1989). However, the longer term psychological implications for the child whose father is absent are somewhat more ambiguous, and the extent to which boys and girls may differ in their responses to having an absent father are uncertain (e.g., Demo & Acock, 1988; Kinard & Reinherz, 1986). Although there is some large sample research on these topics, much of the literature that explores longer versus shorter term effects and gender differences is based on small, nonrepresentative samples. Our research utilizes data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to explore these issues for a sample of 9 to 11 year olds in 1990. These children were born to a relatively youthful sample of mothers who were mostly between the ages of 17 and 22 when the child was born. The longitudinal dimensions of the data set and the rich body of family and maternal background information available permit a more comprehensive exploration of shorter and relatively longer term effects of a father's absence on a child's behavior than is typically possible. GENDER DISTINCTIONS IN EFFECTS OF FATHER ABSENCE There is substantial evidence suggesting that boys and girls respond differently to a father's departure from the home (Biller, 1981; Blanchard & Biller, 1971; Camara & Resnick, 1988; Guidibaldi & Perry, 1985). In the short run, perhaps for as long as 2 years following a father's leaving, the home environment often can be stressful, and boys, in particular, may act out a variety of interpersonal behaviors both inside and outside the home (e.g., Demo & Acock, 1988; Hetherington, 1987; Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1985). Boys are generally more aggressive in their disruptive behaviors and more frequently follow noncompliant behavior paths (e.g., Allison & Furstenberg, 1989; Hetherington, Cox, & Cox, 1985; Hetherington et al., 1982). The greater behavioral difficulty expressed by boys may partly reflect a stronger father-son bonding prior to the disruption, a bonding that has been interrupted. Finally, there is some suggestion from research on White children that mother-son acrimony increases after a divorce (Hetherington et al. …