This study investigated the attitude toward physical education of 1107 high school students from four countries, Czech Republic, Austria, England, and the United States. Survey data were gathered and measured using the Adams Scale survey instrument (Adams, 1963). While the data revealed individual differences, the overall sample indicated a decidedly positive attitude toward physical education. Students from the Czech Republic had significantly higher attitude scores than both U.S. and English respondents (p ********** The harmful consequences of the sedentary lifestyle adopted by a rapidly increasing segment of our population are apparent to even the casual observer. As Thompson (1998) made patently clear: Humans are designed and constructed for one thing--movement. Yet our society does everything it can to prevent movement. Our children have access to every "labor-saving" device that exists. They are not being saved at all, however, but rather being exposed to potential overweight, illness, and physiological deterioration (Thompson, 1998, p. 69-70). In 1987, Siedentop cautioned that high school physical education was an endangered species; a subject matter that might gradually become extinct in secondary curricula. He argued that an increasing lack of expectations for significant outcomes in high school physical education and, even more alarming, concern that students have stopped caring about physical education would bring about its demise. Physical educators have a duty to alter the expectations of high school students, but the best curricula and most heroic expectations will be ineffective if negative attitudes toward the course lead students to ignore its value. Attitude, then, is the agent that can change perceptions and the catalyst that can make physical education a positive educational experience. Although some of the researchers questioned the correlation between attitudes and actual behavior (LaPiere, 1934; Wicker, 1971) most researchers suggested that attitude and the individual's underlying belief system are considered the best indicators of the decisions people will make throughout their lives (Bandura, 1986; Dewey, 1933; and Pajares, 1992). According to Nunnally (1978), "attitude" refers to a state of mind or feelings about particular social or physical objects such as significant people, social institutions, or physical activity. Identifying attitude as an important variable in the role and perceived importance of physical education dates to Alden's (1932) research into the attitudes of female university students and various aspects of their physical experiences. Later research efforts in the 1950's and 1960's determined that students generally had positive attitudes toward physical education (Broer, Fox, & Way, 1955; Brumback & Cross, 1965; Kappes, 1954). More recently, Greenockle, Lee, and Lomax (1991) identified student attitudes at the middle school level as being strongly influenced by their peers and less positive than those of past students. Eighth grade students (13-14 years of age) were seen to be at the crucial incipient stage of dissatisfaction with physical education programs. The researchers catalogued a variety of negative student comments evidencing this growing dissatisfaction such as the "discomforts of exercise," "lack of choice of sports," the inconvenience of clothing changes, "getting sweaty," "messing up make-up," and getting "messed-up hair." Other research efforts suggest that as middle-school students matriculate to high school, these attitudes tend to become more negative and participation in physical activity declines. For example, Tannehill and Zakrajsek (1993) investigated middle school and high school students' attitudes toward physical education and found that while students imply that physical education was important to their overall education, they participated in competitive sports less frequently in high school than in middle school. …


The peptide hormone ghrelin is released from a distinct group of gastrointestinal cells in response to caloric restriction, whereas its levels fall after eating. The mechanisms by which ghrelin secretion is regulated remain largely unknown. Here, we have used primary cultures of mouse gastric mucosal cells to investigate ghrelin secretion, with an emphasis on the role of glucose. Ghrelin secretion from these cells upon exposure to different d-glucose concentrations, the glucose antimetabolite 2-deoxy-d-glucose, and other potential secretagogues was assessed. The expression profile of proteins involved in glucose transport, metabolism, and utilization within highly enriched pools of mouse ghrelin cells and within cultured ghrelinoma cells was also determined. Ghrelin release negatively correlated with d-glucose concentration. Insulin blocked ghrelin release, but only in a low d-glucose environment. 2-Deoxy-d-glucose prevented the inhibitory effect of high d-glucose exposure on ghrelin release. mRNAs encoding several facilitative glucose transporters, hexokinases, the ATP-sensitive potassium channel subunit Kir6.2, and sulfonylurea type 1 receptor were expressed highly within ghrelin cells, although neither tolbutamide nor diazoxide exerted direct effects on ghrelin secretion. These findings suggest that direct exposure of ghrelin cells to low ambient d-glucose stimulates ghrelin release, whereas high d-glucose and glucose metabolism within ghrelin cells block ghrelin release. Also, low d-glucose sensitizes ghrelin cells to insulin. Various glucose transporters, channels, and enzymes that mediate glucose responsiveness in other cell types may contribute to the ghrelin cell machinery involved in regulating ghrelin secretion under these different glucose environments, although their exact roles in ghrelin release remain uncertain.


Abstract Relations between multiple dimensions of family involvement in early childhood education and classroom outcomes were examined. Participants included 144 urban, Head Start children. Parental report of family involvement was gathered in late fall using a multidimensional assessment. Relations between family involvement dimensions and end of the year outcomes of approaches to learning, conduct problems, and receptive vocabulary were investigated. Results revealed that Home-Based family involvement emerged as the strongest predictor of child outcomes. This dimension associated significantly with children's motivation to learn, attention, task persistence, receptive vocabulary skills, and low conduct problems. The School-Based Involvement dimension was significantly related to low conduct problems in the classroom when combined with the influence of Home-Based Involvement. The School-Based Involvement and Home-School Conferencing dimensions did not predict later child outcomes when considered simultaneously with Home-Based Involvement.


A total artificial heart (TAH) is typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation. A device designed by Robert Jarvik has been improved through the years and under the name of Syncardia™ this has been the most successful commercially available TAH so far. Since 2008 the Carmat™ heart has been under development in Europe. The Scandinavian Real Heart™ is based on a unique physiological concept where the atrio-ventricular valve plane is of utmost importance in the pumping function of the heart. It consists of two identical parts driven separately by independent motors and in this first animal study we have used one part as a left ventricular assist device. This new concept makes the device flexible as it may be used not only as a TAH but also as a separate pump for left or right ventricular assist.


Mental internalists hold that an individual's mental features at a given time supervene upon what is in that individual's head at that time. While many people reject mental internalism about content and justification, mental internalism is commonly accepted regarding such other mental features as rationality, emotion-types, propositional-attitude-types, moral character, and phenomenology. I construct a counter-example to mental internalism regarding all these features. My counter-example involves two creatures: a human and an alien from 'Pulse World'. These creatures' environments, behavioral dispositions and histories are such that it is intuitively clear that they are mentally quite different, even while they are, for a moment, exactly alike with respect to what's in their heads. I offer positive reasons for thinking that the case I describe is indeed possible. I then consider ways in which mental internalists might attempt to account for this case, but conclude that the only plausible option is to reject mental internalism and to adopt a particular externalist alternative – a history-oriented version of teleo-functionalism.


Deep neural networks are known to have security issues. One particular threat is the Trojan attack. It occurs when the attackers stealthily manipulate the model's behavior through Trojaned training samples, which can later be exploited. Guided by basic neuroscientific principles we discover subtle -- yet critical -- structural deviation characterizing Trojaned models. In our analysis we use topological tools. They allow us to model high-order dependencies in the networks, robustly compare different networks, and localize structural abnormalities. One interesting observation is that Trojaned models develop short-cuts from input to output layers. Inspired by these observations, we devise a strategy for robust detection of Trojaned models. Compared to standard baselines it displays better performance on multiple benchmarks.


Complex nanostructured self-assemblies such as colloidal suspensions, micelles, immiscible mixtures, microemulsions, etc., represent a challenge for conventional methods of simulation due to the presence of different time scales in their dynamics. In this work the novel computer simulations technique, Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) has been applied to model the self-aggregation of amphiphiles in aqueous systems, microemulsions and at the water-air interface. The DPD parameters have been calculated by Monte-Carlo Simulations and this work showed that the parameter calculation used is suitable for complicated systems. The application of Dissipative Particle Dynamics studies of amphiphilic surfactants in aqueous solution has been successfully extended to the complicated poly (ethylene oxide) -block- poly (propylene oxide) -block- poly (ethylene oxide) triblock copolymers. The computationally achieved phase diagram of EO13PO30EO13 in water at 300K was in remarkable agreement with the experimental phase diagram and showed the micellar, hexagonal, lamellar and inverse micellar phase.
The less complicated surfactants C10E4, C12E5 and C12E6 have been investigated with DPD to yield structural data of the observed phases. I have successfully applied Dissipative Particles Dynamics to simulate the self-assembly of C10E4 and C12E5 in water. It was possible to distinguish between the isotropic L1 and L2 phases as well as the lamellar Lα phase. The simulated bilayer thickness of C10E4 was esim=4.9nm which is in good agreement with the experimental value of eexp=5.0nm±0.5nm. The micellar aggregation number for C10E4 was calculated to 53±10 molecules. The bilayer thickness and aggregation number for C12E5 and C12E6 were calculated as well. C12E5 gave a simulated bilayer thickness of esim=6.3nm in comparison to an experimental value of eexp=6.0nm and a micellar aggregation number of 98±14. The simulated bilayer thickness of C12E6 was esim=7.7nm and the simulated micellar aggregation number was 79±16 which is very close to the experimental value of 87. This structural investigation proved that the DPD method is not just suitable to reproduce the phase behavior of amphiphilic surfactants and polymers qualitatively but also quantitatively.
The DPD simulation of microemulsion systems has not been compared in the literature with experimental results but was applied on model surfactants. The Dissipative Particles Dynamics method to simulate the self-assembly of C10E4 in water has been successfully used. It was possible to distinguish between the w/o, o/w and bicontinuous microemulsions as well as the lamellar Lα. The simulation results of C10E4 in water and n-decane are in good agreement with the experimental phase diagram.
The X-point shift has been found at a concentration very close the experimental value. The simulation of the quaternary system C10E4/PEP5-PEO5/water/n-decande did also match the experimental results very well and the boosting-effect was found computationally with DPD. The possibility to easily modify the polymer as well as the surfactant to observe the influence of these changes to the so-called X-point opens up a great opportunity to many industrial applications. The X-point characterizes the efficiency of a surfactant in washing processes. The simulation results of the X-point shift from g=15% (d=0%) to g=10% (d=5%) are in remarkable agreement with the experimental values. The boosting–effect could not be observed by adding a PPO5-PEO5 diblock copolymer which agrees with the experimental results where these systems also did not show an X-point shift.
It was now possible to get a detailed insight into the mechanism of the boosting–effect with this novel computer simulation technique. Experiments suggested that the mechanism of the boosting-effect is more likely based on the modification of the structure of the bicontinuous microemulsion phase by smoothing the interface caused by the polymer. The replacement of surfactant molecules by the bigger polymer molecules which would not depend significantly on the kind of polymer is not important. The computer simulations support the assumption that the change of the bicontinuous microemulsion structure caused by the polymer molecules play the major role in the mechanism and that the replacement of surfactant molecules by the polymer is not as important.
It was also possible to calculate the experimentally unknown phase behavior of poly (ethylene butylene)-block-poly (ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer in water and methyl cyclohexane. The three different phases found like oil-in-water, water-in-oil droplets and a bicontinuous microemulsion phase, as well as the character of the thermodynamic model, indicate the formation of a microemulsion in this polymer/water/oil system. The DPD method has been applied to an experimentally uninvestigated system for the first time and produced interesting results. With these new insights in the phase behavior of the polymer – water – oil system many new applications are possible.
The introduction of the air beads into the DPD methods opens up a wide range of new applications. For the first time the surface tension has been calculated with Dissipative Particle Dynamics while the systems published in the literature just dealt with interfacial tension between two condensed phases. The shape of the experimental surface tension diagram of C10E4, C12E5 and C12E6 at the water – air interface has been reproduced with DPD. In the simulated as well as in the experimental graphs C10E4 has a clearly higher cmc with a lower surface tension than C12E5 and C12E6 which have very similar cmc and surface tension. The conversion of the DPD surface tension to physical units shows an acceptable agreement. Together with the qualitative agreement of experiments and simulations the quantitative comparison makes predictions of surface tension of unknown surfactants and polymers possible.
All calculation results are in remarkable agreement with the experimental data. In the present work the applications of the method have been extended significantly. The simulation of simple surfactant-water systems has been used to obtain structural information. Oil has been added and even microemulsion formations of ternary and quaternary systems have been observed. A completely new field – the DPD calculation of the surface tension – has been opened by the introduction of air beads.
The DPD method proved to be a reliable tool to get a better understanding of the nanostructure of self-assemblies and structural information. It was even possible to investigate an experimentally unknown system and the method is therefore applicable to support the often complicated experiments or even to obtain experimentally unavailable data. With this method it is easily possible to predict the properties of compounds and in this way to avoid expensive experiments by suggesting promising candidates for certain industrial applications. To our knowledge DPD is a unique method to simulate mesoscopic structures on a relatively long time scale based on an intermolecular interaction level.


Real coastal waves measured at 4 different locations in the world were analyzed in detail. Long travelled swell measured in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, wind swell from the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, short period wind waves from the Ebro Delta in Mediterranean coast of Spain, and waves measured during the passing of Hurricane Wilma near Cancun, Mexico were analyzed. A total of 5795 wave records from the sites above were analyzed. A statistical stability analysis of the wave data was done. The measured wave height distribution was compared with the Raleigh distribution. The corresponding significant wave height and period distribution based on the zero down crossing method was obtained for all the records. The joint individual wave height-period distribution was obtained and the characteristic statistic wave heights and periods were obtained. The time variation of these parameters, including the skewness and kurtosis of the time series were obtained to determine the statistical stability of the data. A detailed spectral analysis using the Fourier transform was done on all the records. The whole record for each location was represented as time variant frequency energy spectrogram. The highest measured record's spectra for each site were examined in detail. The peakedness, band width, grouping, regularity spectral parameters, and the six principal moments of all the wave records were obtained. The spectra were then compared to the JONSWAP spectrum. Special attention was taken into the non-linear components present in the spectra. Temporal and energetic wave grouping parameters were analyzed using the run length theory. Low frequency modulation was examined against grouping observation. The capability of the variance spectra based on the Fourier transform to describe the measured wave grouping was analyzed and confirmed through the spectral grouping parameter Ka. The long waves present in the records were analyzed using a low pass filter. Spectral analysis was carried out on the filtered time series. The results between the different sites were compared and Longuet-Higgins set down equation under wave groups was calibrated and validated to predict the long wave spectral significant wave height, given the wave spectral significant height, the peak spectral period and the water depth outside the breaker zone. A spectral analysis using the Hilbert Huang method was done to the most energetic measured events of each record. A detail comparison was done between the result of the Fourier transform variance spectral analysis and the Hilbert Huang method. The limitations of the Fourier based spectra and the new Hilbert Huang transform spectra were examined in detail.


Objectives: Minimally-Invasive Parathyroidectomy (MIP) is the gold standard treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism in single-gland disease with adequate pre-operative localization. The study aim was to evaluate the effect of concomitant thyroid pathology on the accuracy of pre-operative localization for primary hyperparathyroidism and impact on the surgical approach.
Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis of patients undergoing surgical intervention for parathyroid disease in a tertiary referral center from 1999 to June 2014 was conducted.
Results: Of 429 parathyroidectomies performed on 424 patients, coexistent thyroid pathology was identified in 68 patients (16%). The sensitivity of pre-operative localization of parathyroid pathology in these patients was considerably lower than in patients without concurrent thyroid disease: ultrasonography 55% vs 63%, 99mTc-sestamibi scintigraphy 50% vs 60% and CT 47% vs 49%. Single-gland disease was present in 58 patients (85%), but correctly identified on pre-operative imaging in only 43%. Of these 58 patients, 45 (66%) required Bilateral Neck Exploration (BNE), with MIP in 23 (34%) with a conversion rate of 13%. All conversions resulted from intra-operative identification of thyroid disease. Of the remaining open procedures, 40 (88%) were conducted with simultaneous thyroid lobectomy/total thyroidectomy, 2 (4%) due to multi-nodular goitre, and 3 to thyroiditis and thyroid nodules/cysts. The biochemical cure rate was 100%. In 84 months median follow-up, no patient experienced persistent or recurrent hypercalcemia, or required re-intervention.
Conclusion: Concurrent thyroid pathology reduces the sensitivity of pre-operative localization of parathyroid pathology and results in higher rates of open parathyroidectomy in single-gland disease.


Many ignimbrite flow units show a reverse grading of large pumice clasts and a normal grading of large lithic clasts. Each ignimbrite flow unit has a basal layer finer grained than the body of the ignimbrite, with a ground surge deposit commonly underlying the ignimbrite, and a fine ash-fall deposit commonly overlying it. These two types of deposit, although not an integral part of the ignimbrite, are produced by the same eruptive act, and they and the ignimbrite constitute the several and varied products of a Pelean-phase eruption. Volcanic eruptions in which ignimbrite is generated show the following sequence of events so often that it may be regarded as the normal one: (1) a highly explosive, often Plinian, phase, producing a pumice-fall deposit; (2) a Pelean phase; and (3) an effusive phase, producing a lava flow. This sequence is believed to represent the tapping of progressively deeper levels in the magma chamber and the escape during the eruption of magma of progressively lower gas content.


We present a closed-form solution for the two-wave coupling process, resulting in a periodic solution with respect to time that describes a moving grating. In the photorefractive medium, it has been shown that a moving grating will produce in a phase shift in the coupling constant. To our knowledge, this has not been derived directly from the grating dynamic equations. We will also show that the temporal dynamics does not have any asymptotically stable equilibrium points of an exponential form. As an example, we have developed resonance conditions resulting in a new expression for the frequency detuning of a resonator with photorefractive gain medium.


While many of the published papers on nanofluids focus on measuring the increased thermal conductivity of the suspension under static conditions, the convective performance of these fluids has received relatively little attention. The present work measures the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids under developing convective boundary layer conditions in tubes of diameter 5 mm. The experiments use a hydrodynamically fully developed laminar tube flow in the range 500Re1600 with constant wall heat flux. The experiments were validated through measurements on pure de-ionized (DI) water, which results in a thermal conductivity value that agrees within 0.4% of handbook value. The increase in effective thermal conductivity for DI-water/Al2O3 nanofluids is 6% for 2% volume concentration of Al2O3, which is consistent with the previously reported conductivity values for this sample. For a suspension of multiwall carbon nanotubes in silicone oil, the thermal conductivity is increased by 10% over that of the base fluid for a concentration of 0.2% by volume. Scanning electron microscopy was utilized to examine the structure of the dry state of the nanotubes and elucidate the performance differences of carbon nanomaterials. DOI: 10.1115/1.3013831


Whilst online social networking has been used successfully for many years by all strata of the world's population, its use to ferment and prevent civil disturbances is a relatively new phenomenon. It is clear that the way in which online social networking sites are being used is evolving, and that changing user perceptions of online privacy may impact on the ability of the law enforcement community to adapt to new methods of monitoring and evidence gathering. This paper focuses primarily on the London riots of August 2011, and as such discusses legal issues from a UK perspective. However, the matters discussed are of relevance worldwide, with reference made to similar events outside the UK, to show that what occurred in London was not an isolated incident, or a quirk of the UK social networking scene. This paper explores what occurred, the platforms that were used and how they were used, and the legal framework in which investigations took place. It examines the use of social networking to organise rioters, support community defence, and shape the response of law enforcement agencies such as the police, government and the courts. It concludes that there is significant potential for problems of this type to occur in the future, which will require the evolution of law enforcement methods and procedures, and could change the way in which the law enforcement community utilise e-Government systems.


Tecer Fault is a N60˚-70˚E-trending, left-lateral, strike-slip fault to the south of the town of Sivas, Turkey. This fault is considered as the eastward continuation of Deliler Fault, which was classified as a probably active, left-lateral fault on the Active Fault Map of Turkey. We investigated the field characteristics and paleoseismic history of Tecer Fault in detail. After analyzing aerial photographs and satellite images, we mapped the exact fault trace on a 1/25,000 scale topographic map, between the towns of Deliilyas in southwest and Bogazdere in northeast. Tecer Fault is characterized by morphological features such as offset streams and gullies, linear depressions and scarps, and elongated hills. Four paleoseismological trenches were excavated on the northeastern extent of the fault. Two past earthquakes were identified in these trenches, and the dates of the collected charcoal samples suggested that the first of these earthquakes occurred about 8000 B.C. while the more recent event took place around 3500 B.C. Field observations and paleoseismic data indicate that Tecer Fault is an active, pure sinistral, strike-slip fault, and that there is about a 4500 years time span between the two earthquakes. It is also clear that there has not been any surface-ruptured faulting over the last 800 years. Compared with the earthquake characteristics of other strike-slip fault zones in Turkey in terms of time-slip relations, the slip rate can be estimated as about 1 mm/yr on Tecer Fault.


In recent years, one has witnessed a widespread attention on the way monetary policy is conducted and in particular on the role of the so-called monetary policy rules. The conventional approach in the literature consists in estimating reaction functions for a monetary authority (the Federal Reserve, in most cases) in which a nominal interest rate, directly or indirectly controlled by that monetary authority, is adjusted in response to deviations of inflation (current or expected) from target and of output from potential. These reaction functions, usually called Taylor rules, following John Taylor's seminal paper published in 1993, match a number of normative principles set forth in the literature for optimal monetary policy. This provides a good reason for the growing prominence of indications given by Taylor rule estimations in debates about current and prospective monetary policy stance. However, they are usually presented as point estimates for the interest rate, giving a sense of accuracy that can be misleading. Typically, no emphasis is placed on the risks of those estimates and, at least to a certain extent, the reader is encouraged to concentrate on an apparently precise central projection, ignoring the wide degree of uncertainty and operational difficulties surrounding the estimates. As in any forecasting exercise, there is uncertainty regarding both the estimated parameters and the way the explanatory variables evolve during the forecasting horizon. Our work presents a methodology to estimate a probability density function for the interest rate resulting from the application of a Taylor rule (the Taylor interest rate) which acknowledges that not only the explanatory variables but also the parameters of the rule are random variables.


Orientation : Research has shown that total rewards models structured according to individual preferences, positively influence efforts to attract, retain and motivate key employees. Yet, this is seldom done. Structuring total rewards models according to the preferences of employee segments is a viable alternative to accommodate individual preferences. Research purpose : The primary aim of the study was to determine the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. The secondary aim was to determine the reward preferences for different demographic groups. Motivation for the study : An enhanced understanding of reward preferences for different employee segments will enable employers to offer more competitive reward options to their employees. This may, in turn, have a positive impact on retention. Research design, approach and method : Two measuring instruments, the MBTI ® Form GRV and the Rewards Preferences Questionnaire, were distributed electronically to 5 000 potential respondents. The results from 589 sets of questionnaires were used in the data analyses. Primary and secondary factor analyses were done on the items in the Rewards Preferences Questionnaire. Main findings/results : The study confirmed that individuals with certain personality types and personality preferences, have different preferences for certain reward categories. There was a stronger relationship between reward preferences and personality preferences than for reward preferences and personality types. Preferences for reward categories by different demographic groups were confirmed. The significant difference in reward preferences between Black and White respondents in particular was noteworthy, with Black respondents indicating significantly higher mean scores for all reward categories than White respondents. Finally, a total rewards framework influenced by the most prominent preferences for reward categories, was designed. Practical/Managerial implications : This study confirms that there are significant differences in the reward preferences of different segments. Management can more effectively structure reward models according to these preferences without increasing overall costs. Contribution/value-add : The existing body of knowledge on the reward preferences of people with different personality types and personality preferences are enhanced. In addition, the study on the reward preferences of different demographic groups within a South African context adds considerably to the existing body of literature. Based on research results, a total rewards framework, on employee preferences, was designed. Furthermore, an increased understanding of the reward categories that contribute towards .the attraction, retention and motivation of employees as well as preferences for certain reward categories, have been obtained.


Is legal scholarship influential on the courts? More particularly, is American Indian legal scholarship influential on the courts? In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, tribal interests enjoyed historic success in the courts. While they didn't win every case, tribal interests prevailed far more than they ever had prior to these few decades. Since the advent of the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts, however, those successes have once again become few and far between.American Indian legal scholarship, which rose from virtual nonexistence in the 1950s to significance in the late 1960s and 1970s, appears to have been very influential on the courts during the period of success. Every decade since the 1960s has seen a dramatic increase in the number of law review articles on the subject of American Indian law. Courts cited to an incredible percentage of the Indian law articles published in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, but that citation pattern has leveled off since the 1980s. The lower courts continue to cite American Indian legal scholarship, but in a more limited manner. In the Supreme Court, Indian law scholarship has all but disappeared.This short paper, prepared for the Henderson Center's Fall 2012 Symposium, "Heeding Frickey's Call: Doing Justice in Indian Country," presents the data on the citation patterns of American Indian legal scholarship and reviews Professor Frickey's call as a means of introducing the conference.


Dry forests play a significant role if the livelihoods strategies of millions of people, including many of the world's poorest. This paper reviews the role of dry forests in providing goods and services to the rural poor. The review shows that while dry forests are essential, rural communities are engaged in multiple activities that generate income and the economic importance of forests and trees is context specific. Although the majority of households benefit from forest resources, poorer households tend to generate more relative income from forest products than wealthier households. Community forestry, tourism and payment for environmental service (PES) are promising alternative sources of environmental income, but the outcomes for the poorest remain uncertain. Trade in non-timber forest products (NTFP) is often viewed as a last resort and provides the safety net to cope with both environmental and economic shocks, especially for women. Hence, beyond timber, there are few examples of dry forest products that have generated a sustainable source of significant wealth. As such, it seems likely that dry forests will continue to play a more supplementary role in direct poverty alleviation but an increasingly important role as a safety net that prevents the most vulnerable from slipping into increased poverty and food insecurity during times of crisis.


This thesis aims to critique three leading advocates of a particular strand of postpositivism, which has become influential in contemporary international theory, and which is characterized by three defining features: the idea that a proper understanding of the world requires taking into account the intrinsically contingent character of that world, which is developed in opposition to the positivist philosophy of science; the attempt to conceptualize the contingent coming about of identities and practices as an ongoing and open process of intersubjective (re-) constitution; and the aim to understand this ongoing intersubjective constitution in a way that excludes normative judgements. The main purpose of the thesis is to point out a tension between these three features. What it argues is that the conceptualization of practices as intersubjectively constituted stands in tension with both the aim to account for the contingent character of these practices and the aim to understand these practices in a way that excludes normative judgements. In particular, the thesis attempts to point out three problems that arise from the combination of these three aims: first, it argues that the notion of intersubjective constitution entails a particular kind of determinism, which undermines the post-positivists' aim to account for the contingent character of practices; second, the thesis argues that this notion inevitably entails a normative stance by the theorist, which undermines the post-positivists' aim to understand intersubjective process of in a way that excludes normative judgements; third, it argues that, in the post-positivist empirical analyses, this normative stance is never defended and, as a result, entails the arbitrary privileging of particular moral attitudes over others. The main implication of this critique suggest the need for a fundamentally different notion of social scientific understanding, which explicitly recognizes and grounds the role of moral judgements. A minor implication is that contemporary cosmopolitan agendas in world politics seem inherently flawed.


Factors influencing the use of physical restraints on children living in residential treatment facilities by April Minjarez-Estenson M.A., University Of Phoenix, 2006 B.A., National University, 2001 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology Walden University March 2016 Abstract The use of physical restraints in residential treatment centers for children has been shown to be detrimental to both staff and the children. Although there have been nationwide initiatives to reduce or eliminate the use of physical restraints on children, to date, researchers have not yet identified the organizational factors that predict the likelihood of using physical restraints on children. Based on the two-factor theory, in which two different types of predictors of motivation and behavior in the workplace were identified, the purpose of this quantitative non-experimental study was to examine whether satisfaction with pay, a hygiene factor, and satisfaction with supervision and perceived organizational support, motivating factors, predict the frequency of the use of physical restraints. Satisfaction with pay and supervision were measured using the Job Satisfaction Survey and perceived organizational support was measured using the Perceived Organizational Support Survey. Data were collected from 245 direct care staff members employed at residential treatment centers for children. Pearson product moment correlations and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The results indicated that satisfaction with supervision was negatively and statistically significantly related to theThe use of physical restraints in residential treatment centers for children has been shown to be detrimental to both staff and the children. Although there have been nationwide initiatives to reduce or eliminate the use of physical restraints on children, to date, researchers have not yet identified the organizational factors that predict the likelihood of using physical restraints on children. Based on the two-factor theory, in which two different types of predictors of motivation and behavior in the workplace were identified, the purpose of this quantitative non-experimental study was to examine whether satisfaction with pay, a hygiene factor, and satisfaction with supervision and perceived organizational support, motivating factors, predict the frequency of the use of physical restraints. Satisfaction with pay and supervision were measured using the Job Satisfaction Survey and perceived organizational support was measured using the Perceived Organizational Support Survey. Data were collected from 245 direct care staff members employed at residential treatment centers for children. Pearson product moment correlations and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The results indicated that satisfaction with supervision was negatively and statistically significantly related to the use of physical restraints on children in residential care and satisfaction with pay approached significance. Organizational changes that address training, development, pay, and best practices for supervision may aid in the reduction of physical restraints used on children. The reduction in physical restraints would thereby reduce the undesirable impact they have on children and result in positive social change. Factors influencing the use of physical restraints on children living in residential treatment facilities by April Minjarez-Estenson M.A., University of Phoenix, 2006 B.A., National University, 2001 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Clinical Psychology


Abstract. A lot of image matching applications require image comparison to be invariant relative to intensity values variations. The Pyt'ev theory for Morphological Image Analysis (MIA) was developed based on image-to-shape matching with mosaic shape models. Within the framework of this theory, the problem of shape-to-shape comparison was previously considered too. The most sophisticated and weakest part of MIA theory is the comparison of mosaic shapes with some arbitrary restrictions described by graphs or relations. In this paper we consider the possible options for comparing images and shapes using morphological projection and morphological correlation. Our contribution is a new scheme of morphological shape-to-image projection and, correspondingly, the new morphological correlation coefficient (MCC) for shape-to-image correlation with restricted mosaic models. We also refine the expressions for shape-to-shape comparison.


Forgiveness is a potentially significant modality for increasing well-being and improving interpersonal relationships. Results of a survey of 381 mental health counselors regarding attitudes and practices related to forgiveness revealed forgiveness issues to be highly salient in clinical practice. Counselors' religiosity and theoretical orientations were associated with attitudes toward forgiveness. Endorsed intervention activities by mental health counselors appeared to indicate a lack of understanding regarding key activities designed to facilitate forgiveness with a wide range of clients. There appears to be a need to address an existing gap between research advances in the area of forgiveness and current counseling practices. Within the past decade, scientific studies have begun to document what religious leaders, theologians, and philosophers have long proposed. Forgiveness is a potentially significant modality for increasing well-being and improving interpersonal relations. Although the scientific literature is sparse, initial studies agree that forgiving is effective in resolving feelings of remorse, guilt, anger, anxiety, and fear (Cerney, 1988; Fitzgibbons, 1986). Benefits have been found in highly diverse populations such as incest survivors, substance abusers, and cancer patients (Flanigan, 1987; Freedman & Enright, 1996; Phillips & Osborne, 1989). Current interest in forgiveness--what it is, how it works, and whether and how it can apply to the counseling process--follows years of neglect and avoidance of the topic by research scientists (McCullough, Exline, & Baumeister, 1998; McCullough & Worthingon, 1994). Despite the fact that for centuries forgiveness has been lauded by most societies and cultures as valuable and worthy of adoption, there has been a general reluctance to study it. Denton and Martin (1998) explain the hesitancy as the result of associating forgiving with religion, not science. In general, current definitions of forgiveness lack clarity and consistency. As Hebl and Enright (1993) pointed out, this hampers further productive research and clinical application. There are, however, notable areas of emerging consensus. For example, Denton and Martin's (1998) definition of forgiveness is fairly representative. They state that forgiveness involves: two people, one of whom has received a deep and long-lasting injury that is either psychological, emotional, physical, or moral in nature. [Forgiveness is] an inner process by which the person who has been injured releases himself or herself from the anger, resentment, and fear that are felt and does not wish for revenge. (p. 284) Similarly, Hargrave and Sells (1997) stated that forgiveness is a process that occurs over time, from which the individual who has been injured becomes less angry, resentful, fearful, and interested in revenge. Forgiving is not to be equated with forgetting, pardoning, condoning, excusing, or denying the offense (Enright & Zell, 1989). Areas of disagreement include the relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation, whether forgiveness is a necessary component of personal growth (Hargrave & Sells, 1997), and whether one has to feel love and compassion toward the offender in order to forgive (Davenport, 1991; Denton & Martin, 1998). Given the evidence pointing toward the beneficial effects of forgiveness and the dearth of research assessing attitudes by counselors toward forgiving, we developed a survey to assess if and how counselors were addressing forgiveness in their practice. Specifically, our research questions included: 1. Does forgiveness present as an issue in the counseling process and how likely are mental health counselors to raise the issue by themselves? 2. What do mental health counselors view as essential components of forgiveness? 3. What are the prevalent attitudes held by mental health counselors regarding forgiveness and what factors contribute to their attitudes? …


How important is foreign diversification? In this paper, we re-examine this question motivated by findings from the literature about foreign companies that are listed on US exchanges. Specifically, domestic portfolios including cross-listed stocks can provide the same diversification as foreign market returns without the need for US investors to go abroad. At the same time, the betas of these foreign stock returns against the US market increase after cross-listing, suggesting diversification worsens over time. In this paper, we assess the impact of these changes on foreign diversification for a US investor. We test for and estimate breaks in the sensitivity of individual foreign stocks listed on US exchanges. We find that roughly half of the changes in betas arise from greater integration between the U.S. and the companies' home markets, not in the companies betas themselves. Moreover, the gains from diversifying into these stocks has declined over time.


Background:Given the high prevalence of bacterial infections, particularly the E. coli in the semen of infertile men compared to fertile men and according to the controversial reports on the association of E. coli with male infertility herein, the prevalence of this bacterium in the semen of infertile men and its possible association with parameters determining sperm fertility was evaluated. Methods: In this case-control study and in a convenient sampling manner in 2014, semen specimens were collected from infertile and fertile men and were cultured on eosin methylene blue medium, and then, gram staining and biochemical tests were used to identify the E.coli bacteria. Sperm morphology and motility and other related parameters such as; fast, slow and non-progress motility was investigated according to the World Health Organization protocol. Finally, the sperm characteristics were compared between fertile and infertile E. coli-positive groups. Results: the prevalence of E. coli in the semen of the infertile group was significantly higher than that in the fertile group (p <0.001). Also, there was statistically significant differences between fertile and infertile E. coli-positive men in terms of mean age, percentage of normal sperm morphology and all the characteristics of sperm motility (p < 0.01). Conclusion: despite the high prevalence of E.coli bacteria in the semen of the infertile compared to the fertile men, it seems that this bacterium is not responsible for alterations in morphology and motility properties of sperm. However, it suggested that in individuals with E.coli infection, along with increasing the age, the association between this bacterium and sperm quality becomes much more tangible.


Impacts of progressive urbanization on peak streamflow are often difficult to quantify due to the dynamic, but subtle changes from year-to-year. In this instance urbanization impacts are further complicated by upstream regulation -- debris basins, water supply dams, and flood control dams and channels -- constructed during this period. The system operation requirements make use of a rainfall-runoff model to compute reservoir inflow and simultaneous runoff in downstream subareas a virtual necessity. The rainfall-runoff model is linked to a reservoir routing model to determine reservoir releases and combine these with downstream runoff. Discrete event rainfall-runoff analysis provides estimates of a range of peak floodflows throughout the basin, and also makes available flood hydrographs at any location of interest. The basis of this approach - frequency rainfall and sub-area runoff calibrated to observed flow - provides a sound basis for computation of frequency runoff. The dynamics of urbanization are quantified by establishing a 'current' discharge-frequency relationship for observed flow for urbanized locations. The rainfall runoff model linked to a reservoir operation model was able to replicate these floodflow trends, especially in the downstream reaches.


Resorting to the Dichotomous decision model, where individuals can make alternative decisions, we study two geometric approaches to construct all possible decisions tiling. Each decision tiling indicates the way the Nash equilibria co-exist and change with the relative decision preferences of the individuals. We find the Nash domains for the pure and mixed strategies and characterize the space of all parameters where the pure Nash equilibria are either cohesive or disparate. We show how the coordinates of the influence matrix together with the total number of individuals affect significantly the occurrence of bifurcations with and without overlaps between the pure strategies. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 91A05, 91A25, 91A35, 91A43.


Building on Professor Andrew Taslitz's work, this article explores how Fair Price Theory can help us analyze the fairness of guilty pleas. In "Judging Jena's D.A.," Professor Taslitz used Fair Price Theory to explore how prosecutors could strive to achieve fairness and reduce the perception of racial stigma. He used Fair Price Theory to propose a system of prosecutorial ethics that takes into account racial stigma. This article considers how Fair Price Theory challenges courts to analyze guilty pleas differently, by focusing on price without relying on the agency of prosecutors. Under current doctrine, a court examines whether the defendant's decision to plead guilty is voluntary, informed, and factually supported. Courts do not assess whether the defendant is getting a fair deal or fair price. Fair Price Theory could help define and assess what makes a deal (or price) fair. And that analysis, with its related questions, challenges the status quo by making price and fairness a central inquiry.


As one response to the secular crisis of capitalism, higher education is being proletarianised. Its academics and students, increasingly encumbered by precarious employment, debt, and new levels of performance management, are shorn of autonomy beyond the sale of their labour-power. Incrementally, the labour of those academics and students is subsumed and re-engineered for value production, and is prey to the twin processes of financialisation and marketisation. At the core of understanding the impact of these processes and their relationships to the reproduction of higher education is the alienated labour of the academic. The article examines the role of alienated labour in academic work in its relationship to the proletarianisation of the University, and relates this to feelings of hopelessness, in order to ask what might be done differently. The argument centres on the role of mass intellectuality, or socially-useful knowledge and knowing, as a potential moment for overcoming alienated labour.


A same-nested PCR was used to re-amplify the amplicon of a hypervariable region of the HPV-16 L1 gene DNA in the postmortem blood and splenic tissue obtained at autopsy of a formerly healthy teenage girl who suffered a sudden unexpected death in sleep 6 months after 3 intramuscular injections of a quadrivalent HPV vaccine, Gardasil?. A full autopsy analysis revealed no cause of death. The HPV-16 gene DNA detected in the postmortem materials was similar to the HPV-16 gene DNA fragments in Gardasil? in that both were in non-B-conformation, requiring nondegenerate GP6 and MY11 primers to re-amplify the PCR amplicon for detection and to generate a template useful for direct DNA sequencing. A sequence excised from the base-calling DNA sequencing electropherogram was analyzed by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) alignment and a 45 - 60 base sequence fully matched with a standard hypervariable region of the HPV-16 L1 gene retrieved from the National Center for Biotechnology Information database validated the correct genotyping for HPV- 16 L1 gene DNA. These naked non-proliferating HPV- 16 L1 gene DNA fragments appeared to be in the macrophages of the postmortem blood and spleen, and were protected from degradation by binding firmly to the particulate aluminum adjuvant used in vaccine formulation. The significance of these HPV DNA fragments of a vaccine origin found in post-mortem materials is not clear and warrants further investigation.


Cass Sunstein coined the term "constitutive commitment" to refer to an idea that falls short of a constitutional right but that has attained near-constitutional significance. This Article argues that access to safe and affordable water for drinking, hygiene, and sanitation has attained this status and that national legislation is needed to realize this new constitutive commitment. Following the termination of water to thousands of households in Detroit, residents and community organizations filed an adversary complaint in Detroit's bankruptcy proceedings seeking a six-month moratorium on the disconnections. The bankruptcy court dismissed the case, accurately finding that "there is no constitutional or fundamental right either to affordable water service or to an affordable payment plan for account arrearages." The widespread protests and outrage at the Detroit water shutoffs suggest, however, that people perceive access to water as a right. Although affordable access to water for essential needs falls short of a constitutional right, it could implicate substantive due process, which reflects its near constitutional status. An analysis of American history, culture, and law demonstrates how access to water for drinking, hygiene, and sanitation could be protected under the right to life. This Article argues that legislation is needed to implement a new constitutive commitment to water and proposes numerous policy options that would not only make moral and economic sense, but also would ensure that all Americans have affordable access to safe water for drinking, hygiene, and sanitation.


Jonathan Swift is best remembered today as the author of Gulliver's Travels, the satiric fantasy that quickly became a classic and has remained in print for nearly three centuries. Yet Swift also wrote many other influential works, was a major political and religious figure in his time, and became a national hero, beloved for his fierce protest against English exploitation of his native Ireland. What is really known today about the enigmatic man behind these accomplishments? Can the facts of his life be separated from the fictions? In this deeply researched biography, Leo Damrosch draws on discoveries made over the past thirty years to tell the story of Swift's life anew. Probing holes in the existing evidence, he takes seriously some daring speculations about Swift's parentage, love life, and various personal relationships and shows how Swift's public version of his life - the one accepted until recently - was deliberately misleading. Swift concealed aspects of himself and his relationships, and other people in his life helped to keep his secrets. Assembling suggestive clues, Damrosch re-narrates the events of Swift's life while making vivid the scents, sounds and smells of his English and Irish surroundings. Through his own words and those of a wide circle of friends, a complex Swift emerges: a restless, combative, empathetic figure, a man of biting wit and powerful mind, and a major figure in the history of world letters.


Abstract Purpose: Although peer support has received research attention within different health related contexts, there is limited research considering individuals who have experienced an amputation. In particular, the peer mentoring role is under-explored. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the experiences of participants delivering peer support interventions to individuals with lower limb loss. Methods: Eight people who acted as peer mentors for people with limb loss took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: Two overarching themes were identified from the data: "Developing a Helpful Self", in which the personal value and meaning of being a peer mentor is presented, and "Connecting with Vulnerability", which addresses the emotional challenges of peer mentoring and the impact of these on wellbeing. Conclusions: Findings suggest positive experiences of providing support, including increased hope, resilience and a sense of belonging and connection to others. However, peer mentors experienced challenges related to uncertainty and doubt about their mentoring abilities and with developing and maintaining resilience in the role. Recommendations include the development of training packages and increased clarity for volunteers of the peer mentor role. Implications for rehabilitation It is important to define clearly the role of a peer mentor and the responsibilities this involves. Peer mentors should be provided with support and training to increase their confidence and ability to act appropriately when encountering distress. It is important to provide transparent guidelines and procedures to support peer mentors to minimize concerns over risk and safety. Feedback regarding how effective the support offered is and how it could be improved should be provided.


Introduction: The role of inflammatory indices has been suggested in preterm labor.

Objectives: The possible relationship of some inflammatory and hematological markers were investigated
as predictors of preterm labor.

Patients and Methods: Around 110 full-term and 109 preterm women were randomly enrolled. According
to the gestational age at delivery, they were divided into two groups including <37 weeks and ≥37 weeks
pregnancies. The patients' age, body mass index (BMI), history of smoking were recorded. Selected
hematological parameters, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were measured. Comparison of groups, the odd's ratio and accuracy of each index were evaluated
and assessed statistically.

Results: Overall, 110 full-term and 109 preterm mothers were evaluated. Mothers with preterm labor
had higher WBC, hemoglobin, neutrophil proportion, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet count,
platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and ESR and also hs-CRP values. However, they had lower lymphocyte
proportion than mothers with full-term delivery. Hs-CRP higher than 10.9 mg/L showed moderate sensitivity
(50.46%) instead of high specificity (90.91%), while ESR >30 mm revealed 85.32% sensitivity and 93.64%
specificity for predicting preterm labor. Lymphocyte ratio ≤22% and NLR >3.21 represented high sensitivity
and plausible specificity. Hemoglobin >10.8 g/dL, platelet count >178000 cells/μL, PLR> 8.53 and WBC
>7800 cells/μL showed adequate sensitivities with low to moderate specificities to predict preterm labor.

Conclusion: Most of the investigated variables were associated with preterm delivery. The cut-off values
obtained here may help obstetricians to predict preterm delivery, and therefore to manage its complications,
costs, hazards and care problems.


George Orwell's best-known novels, Animal Farm, describing a revolution that goes horribly wrong, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, portraying a world where human freedom has been crushed, are two of the most famous, well-quoted and influential political satires ever written. The other novels in this volume also tell stories of people at odds with repressive institutions: the corrupt imperialism of Burmese Days, disaffection with materialistic society in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the perils of modern suburban living in Coming Up for Air and surviving on the streets in A Clergyman's Daughter. All the novels brought together here display Orwell's humour, his understanding of human nature and his great compassion.


In August 1825 several free, young black people were enticed onto a ship in the Delaware River along the Philadelphia waterfront. Thus began their descent to the heart of the old South. They were kidnapped and held aboard a ship destined for a stop somewhere near Cape Henlopen, Delaware. Some days later they were carried by wagon to Maryland's eastern shore and another ship took them further south. They walked across Georgia and into Alabama. One young man, Cornelius Sinclair, was sold in Tuscaloosa. He was a free person converted into a slave. But that was not the end. Those who survived were then taken to Mississippi, where a slave-owner realized that they were probably free. The slave-owner contacted the Mayor of Philadelphia to verify the story of kidnapping and eventually most of those held in Mississippi were sent back to Philadelphia. Then the mayor set about rescuing Sinclair, too. In Tuscaloosa, a local minister helped Sinclair by filing a lawsuit to ask for his freedom. A judge, who would later, as governor of Alabama, seek to imprison abolitionists for spreading antislavery literature, presided over the trial that freed Sinclair. The newly freed Sinclair made a trip even further south, to New Orleans, and eventually back to Philadelphia where he faced down the men who had kidnapped him.Sinclair's story is one of epic proportions. It is a nineteenth century version of the Odyssey. And while Cornelius' journey home took fewer years than Odysseus' journey, Sinclair traveled farther. Some of the other kidnapped people made it home as well; one died along the way. Others never returned. But this story is one of the dark evil in human hearts and also of the triumph, even if in greatly circumscribed fashion, of the rule of law. It is a story of a most unexpected turn in a legal system dedicated to the maintenance of the system of slavery.While there has been some previous discussion of Sinclair's case, that story has been told only briefly and exclusively from the perspective of the anti-slavery press and the records in Philadelphia. This is the first time that the Tuscaloosa part of the story has been told. And in this case study one can see the difficulty that southern jurists, slave-owners, and litigants had in dealing with the central tendency of the slave law in contrast with considerations of humanity and justice.


A reduced semi-empirical model using time-dependent axisymmetric vacuum field calculations is used to develop the prefill and feed-forward coil current targets required for reliable direct induction (DI) startup on the new MA-class spherical tokamaks, MAST-U and NSTX-U. The calculations are constrained by operational limits unique to each device, such as the geometry of the conductive elements and active coils, power supply specifications and coil heating and stress limits. The calculations are also constrained by semi-empirical models for sufficient breakdown, current drive, equilibrium and stability of the plasma developed from a shared database. A large database of DI startup on NSTX and NSTX-U is leveraged to quantify the requirements for achieving a reliable breakdown (Ip ~ 20 kA). It is observed that without pre-ionization, STs access the large E/P regime at modest loop voltage (Vloop) where the electrons in the weakly ionized plasma are continually accelerating along the open field lines. This ensures a rapid (order millisecond) breakdown of the neutral gas, even without pre-ionization or high-quality field nulls. The timescale of the initial increase in Ip on NSTX is reproduced in the reduced model provided a mechanism for impeding the applied electric field is included. Most discharges that fail in the startup phase are due to an inconsistency in the evolution of the plasma current (Ip) and equilibrium field or loss of vertical stability during the burn-through phase. The requirements for the self-consistent evolution of the fields in the weakly and fully-ionized plasma states are derived from demonstrated DI startup on NSTX, NSTX-U and MAST. The predictive calculations completed for MAST-U and NSTX-U illustrate that the maximum Ip ramp rate (dIp/dt) in the early startup phase is limited by the voltage limits on the poloidal field coils on MAST-U and passive vertical stability on NSTX-U.


It is generally a challenge to interpret incomplete and degraded skeletal assemblages found during archaeological excavations. Several events after the death of animals and humans, before and after burial, will have influenced the situation as seen upon excavation. This post-mortem sequence of events can be called the taphonomic history of bones. Taphonomic signatures detected using histology can provide additional data on deposition/ burial and the evolution of the burial environment. This paper reports on the results of a histological characterization of diagenetic alterations in a bone assemblage from the Roman Period burial and settlement site of Castricum, located in the province of NoordHolland in the Netherlands. The aim is to assess the relationship between bone histology and known taphonomic events. Both transmitted light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to investigate histological changes. In 1995, the excavation at Castricum uncovered skeletal material of humans and a variety of animal species that had received different burial treatments. The humans, as well as some dogs and cattle, were buried as complete inhumations. The skeletal remains of horses provided evidence of surface exposure before deposition. Additionally, both environmental changes (e.g. variations in groundwater levels) as well as disturbances by later human activity are known to have occurred since the internment of the bones. Together with the animal refuse bones from the site, this assemblage provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the relationship between early taphonomy, burial conditions and histological appearance. The complex taphonomic history of the Castricum skeletal material was found to be reflected in several characteristic alterations of the bone microstructure such as extent of bioerosion, cracking, staining and inclusions of framboidal pyrite crystals. This allowed for the reconstruction of a post-mortem sequence of events.


Communications Networks Resource Management (RM) functions such as dynamic and static resource usage monitoring, real time resource reservation as well as advance resource reservation have been widely studied in the past few years. Research has been investigating variant techniques for addressing RM problems in different fixed and wireless networks. One of the key observations is that with the increased complexity of these networks, the function of providing real-time OAM&P has resulted in an ever increased network element MIB attribute polling resulting in a data mountain. The key issue is to extract intelligence from this data using data analytical tools in an efficient manner if it is to have any impact on optimising real-time network resource utilisation as a function of demand. This paper reviews some of the recent techniques conducted in RM for different domains. We discuss data management (DM) in telecommunications and try to depict its role to support our real-time data analytics within the OAM&P functions. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate RM components in groups of networks (ATM, MPLS, Wireless, EPONs) and indicate recent solutions for each group.


The creation of new local governments is a pervasive feature of decentralization in developing countries. This redistricting process often causes substantial changes in two widely debated sources of conflict: diversity and contestable public resources. Using new geospatial data on violence and the plausibly exogenous timing of district creation in Indonesia, we show that allowing for redistricting along group lines can reduce conflict. However, these reductions are undone and even reversed if the newly defined electorates are ethnically polarized, particularly in areas that receive an entirely new seat of government. We highlight changes in the salience of ethnic cleavages as a key mechanism driving the violent contestation of political control. Overall, the findings illustrate the policy tradeoffs associated with redistricting and offer novel insight into the instrumental role of ethnicity in shaping conflict.


Abstract Great hopes have been placed in the sharing economy to provide a new business model based on peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges of underutilized assets. As a model, the sharing economy has been expected to make significant contributions to sustainability, providing new opportunities for entrepreneurship, more sustainable use of resources, and consumer co-operation in tight economic networks. However, in recent years, digital platforms have turned into the most important actors in the global sharing economy, turning global corporations, such as AirBnB, Booking, or TripAdvisor into intermediaries controlling and profiting from most transactions. Focused on accommodation, this paper conceptualizes the sharing economy in comparison to the wider collaborative economy, and discusses its social, economic, environmental, and political impacts in comparison to the sustainable development goals. It concludes that the sharing economy has great potential to make very significant contributions to sustainability, though the model is increasingly being replaced by the collaborative economy, which performs as an extension and acceleration of neoliberal economic practices.


Collagraphs are prints made from collages, relief sculpture, carved, stripped or layered plates, or mixed media. Material can be added to prints at any stage, which means that this method of working allows for a much more fluid artistic approach than other types of printmaking. In this book, the authors describe a wide range of collagraph techniques, providing the user with practical help on the choice of materials and printing methods to achieve the best results. It is illustrated with images of the work of British and international collagraph artists, making it a practical and inspirational guide for both students and experienced printmakers. A large portion of the book is dedicated to information about a wide range of collagraph artists and their work.


The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has used double-twisted hexagonal wire mesh and wire rope cable nets for several decades as slope protection to control rockfall initiating from slopes along state highways. Double-twisted hexagonal wire mesh has generally been applied to slopes with rock blocks less than 2 ft in size, while wire rope cable nets have been employed where larger blocks, typically up to 4-5 ft, are expected. In recent years, ring nets have been increasingly used for slope protection (drapery), mostly outside North America, to control large-sized rockfall. Because of the reported high strength of ring nets and the need to examine cost-competitive alternatives to cable nets, WSDOT proposed to evaluate ring nets for slope protection on a Federally-funded rockfall mitigation project. As outlined in the work plan submitted to FHWA, the study includes an evaluation of the ring net installation and an annual assessment of the performance for a 5-year period. This end-of-construction report documents the installation of the ring nets.


Erin Moure's The Unmemntioable (2012) tells a story of one of the poet's heteronyms (E.M. or Erin Moure) taking her mother's ashes back to Ukraine, while observed, and then followed, by another (E.S. or Elisa Sampedrin). As selves multiply, the landscapes through which they move, split, and superimpose themselves upon each other: Bucharest, Alberta, and the Galicias of both Spain and Ukraine. Words too traverse different languages and different materialities (fonts, colors, alphabets, genres, and pictorial renditions). These multiple versions of person, place, and writing recurrently challenge notions of the interiorized self, authenticity, and linguistic transparency to open up new domains of expressivity that resonate with the cognitive, the sentient, and the affective. The article maps out Moure's strategies of mobilizing the affective charge of bodies, objects, and words to translate physical and emotional landscapes beyond direct knowledge. We position Moure's poetic praxis against recent discussions within "the affective turn" in theory about the intensity, transmissibility, and political momentum of affect by Sara Ahmed (2004), Teresa Brennan (2004), and Nigel Thrift (2007). Our argument, therefore, is that Moure's practice of "transelation" ("a way of foregrounding the translator's presence instead of pretending to disappear") in rendering what we have termed the affective trans-scapes of memory and history constitutes a significant contribution to critical work on the ethical dimensions of translation (by Jeremy Munday 2001 and Lawrence Venuti 1995) and a powerful intervention in the rereading of historically affect-laden landscapes, such as those of Galicia, Bucharest, and Alberta.


Verification of current nuclear arms control treaties between United States and Russia relies primarily on the verification of delivery vehicles. Warheads are counted indirectly via the delivery vehicles that they are associated with. As states move to lower numbers of nuclear weapons in their arsenals, verification will likely pose complex challenges. Most importantly, future nuclear disarmament treaties may place limits on the total number of nuclear weapons in the arsenals. Their verification would require inspections of individual nuclear warheads without revealing secret information. Confirming the authenticity of nuclear warheads and perhaps also of warhead components is at the center of the verification challenge for future reductions in the nuclear arsenals. This paper provides an overview of the development of verification systems, and highlights the challenges and the opportunities for future research in this area.


How are teacher pension benefits funded? Under traditional plans, the full cost of career teachers' benefits far exceeds the contributions designated for them. The gap between the two has three pieces, which may (with some license) be mnemonically tagged the three R's of pension funding: redistribution, return, and risk. First, some contributions made for the benefits of short-term teachers are redistributed to fund the benefits of career teachers. Second, pension plans assume rosy returns on their investments, which push costs onto future teachers and taxpayers. Finally, the risk inherent in providing guaranteed pensions carries other costs, tangible and intangible, notably including the nontrivial risk of insolvency, which would dramatically raise mandated contributions and endanger future teacher benefits. I quantify these three components of the gap between benefits and contributions using the same metric as annual contributions. Illustrating with the California plan, I find the full cost of a career teacher's annual accumulation of benefits can be as high as 46.6% of earnings, nearly triple the corresponding contributions of 17.5%. To understand this gap, which fiscally affects all areas of education policy, researchers and practitioners may find it helpful to think of the three R's of pension funding: redistribution, return, and risk.


Agendas and Sustainability considers the processes used for devising global environment and development agendas and provides practical suggestions for their future development and influence. A collaboration of the latest research from the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Earth Council, the book presents similarities and differences in problem definition, objectives, principles, priorities and actions across eleven of the major agendas put forward for environment and development after Rio. Points of divergence and areas of common ground are investigated for over 30 environment and development-related topics, such as biodiversity, consumption patterns, trade, urbanization, population, education, deforestation and water resources.


Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in the adult population, affecting about 5% of the population over 65 years. Occurrence of AF is an independent risk factor for stroke, and together with other cardiovascular risk factors (CHADS2/CHA2DS2- VASc), the stroke risk increases. Since AF is often paroxysmal and asymptomatic (silent) it may remain undiagnosed for a long time and many AF patients are not discovered before suffering a stroke.Aims: To estimate the prevalence of previously undiagnosed AF in an out-of-hospital population with CHADS2 ≥1, in patients with an enlarged left atrium (LA) and of total AF prevalence in sleep apnea (SA) patients, conditions that have been associated with AF. To compare the efficacy of short intermittent ECG with continuous 24h Holter ECG in detecting arrhythmias.Methods: Patients without known AF recorded 10−30 second handheld ECG (Zenicor-EKG®) registrations during 14−28 days at home, both regular, asymptomatic registrations twice daily and when having cardiac symptoms. Recordings were transmitted through the in-built SIM card to an internet-based database. Patients with palpitations or dizziness/presyncope referred for 24h Holter ECG were asked to additionally record 30-second handheld ECG registrations during 28 days at home.Results: In the out-of-hospital population with increased stroke risk, previously unknown AF was diagnosed in 3.8% of 928 patients. Comparing AF detection in patients with an enlarged LA versus normal LA showed that eleven of 299 patients had AF. Five of these had an enlarged LA (volume/BSA). No statistical difference in AF prevalence was found between patients with enlarged and normal LA, 3.3% and 3.2% respectively, (p = 0.974). AF occurred in 7.6% of 170 patients with sleep apnea, in 15% of patients with sleep apnea ≥60 years, and in 35% of patients with central sleep apnea. AF prevalence was also associated with severity of sleep apnea, male gender and diabetes. Comparing the efficacy of arrhythmia detection in 95 patients with palpitations or dizziness/presyncope with continuous 24h Holter and short intermittent ECG, 24h Holter found AF in two and AV-block II in one patient, resulting in 3.2% relevant arrhythmias detected. Short intermittent ECG diagnosed nine patients with AF, three with PSVT and one with AV-block II, in total 13.7% relevant arrhythmias. (p = 0.0094).Conclusions: Screening in the out-of-hospital patient population (mean age 69.8 years) yielded almost 4% AF, making it seem worthwhile to screen older patients with increased stroke risk for AF with this method. Screening patients with LA enlargement (mean age 73.1 years) did not result in higher detection rates compared with the general out-of-hospital population. AF occurred in 7.6% of patients with sleep apnea, (mean age 57.6 years) and was associated with severity of sleep apnea, presence of central sleep apnea, male gender, age ≥60 years, and diabetes. Short intermittent ECG is more effective in detecting relevant arrhythmias than 24h Holter ECG in patients with palpitations or dizziness/presyncope.


Hundreds of studies have failed to establish the effects of decentralisation on a number of important policy goals. This paper examines the cases of Bolivia and Colombia to explore decentralisation's effects on government responsiveness and poverty-orientation. I first summarize economic data on the effects of decentralisation in each. In Bolivia, decentralisation made government more responsive by re-directing public investment to areas of greatest need. In Colombia, municipalities increased investment significantly as decentralisation deepened, while running costs fell. In both countries, investment shifted from economic production and infrastructure to social services and human capital formation. Resources were rebalanced in favour of poorer districts. The contrast between the two also highlights four important lessons. In order for decentralisation to work well, (i) local democracy must be free, fair, transparent and competitive; (ii) sub-national governments must face hard budget constraints; (iii) central government must be scaled back; and (iv) significant tax-raising powers must be devolved to the periphery. Where all four conditions obtain, decentralising resources and political authority can generate real accountability where none existed before, and improve the quality of government a society achieves.


This paper focuses on the detection of misbehaving agents within a group of mobile robots. A novel approach to automatically synthesize a decentralized Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as well as an efficient implementation of local monitors are presented. In our scenario, agents perform possibly different independent tasks, but cooperate to guarantee the entire system's safety. Indeed, agents plan their next actions by following a set of logic rules which is shared among them. Such rules are decentralized, i.e. they depend only on configurations of neighboring agents. However, some agents may not be acting according to this cooperation protocol, due to spontaneous failure or tampering. To detect such misbehaviors, we propose a solution where each agent runs a local monitor that uses only locally available information. In this paper, we present an implementation of such monitors by which events occurred to a target-agent can be estimated for any combination of neighborhood and observable space. Validity of the proposed implementation is shown through simulation.


Regional depositional systems analyses combining surface and subsurface geological and geophysical data provide the framework for a sequence stratigraphic study of the Lower Oligocene Vicksburg Formation of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The results describe the eustatic history of the Vicksburg stratigraphic unit. The two primary Texas depocenters, the Houston embayment and the Rio Grande embayment, were separated by a deep-rooted structural nose: the San Marcos arch. A barrier / strandplain intervened between the Louisiana deltaic depocenter and the Houston embayment. Within the embayments, deltaic complexes merged along strike with barrier / strandplains. Contemporaneous growth faulting controlled deltaic depositional patterns in the Rio Grande embayment and, to a lesser degree, in the Houston embayment. Smaller wave-dominated delta complexes interspersed with barrier / strandplains extended across the San Marcos arch. Updip of the paralic depocenters, fluvial systems traversed coastal plain units. Seaward of the paralic systems, sand and mud deposits prograded across and built up over the relict Jackson shelf and shelf margin. The contact between the Vicksburg Formation and the underlying Jackson Group marks the position of the Eocene - Oligocene boundary within the Gulf Coastal Plain section. On regional dip-oriented well-log cross sections there is a distinct, abrupt, seaward shift in the paralic facies at the Jackson - Vicksburg boundary; this contact corresponds to an Exxon-model Type 1 unconformity. The unconformity is related to the development of an Antarctic ice sheet in the earliest Oligocene. During middle Vicksburg time, a minor transgression (genetic stratigraphic sequence boundary) flooded the coastal plain. Overlying the progradational Vicksburg Formation, the lower Frio Formation accumulated in an aggradational mode; this switch of depositional modes corresponds to an Exxon-model Type 2 sequence boundary. Construction of genetic stratigraphic sequence diagrams and comparison to Exxon's coastal onlap curves across different areas of the Oligocene coast show that the effects of local depocenters (sediment influx) may mask eustatic effects. Only truly regional events, such as the middle Vicksburg transgression and the basal Vicksburg seaward shift in coastal position, correlate across the coastal plain and may result from a eustatic change.


We show that the importance of flexible labor supply in determining the impact of foreign transfers depends upon whether the transfers are untied or tied to productivity enhancement. This is because the transfer has both a wealth effect and a relative price effect, the relative importance of which depends upon its allocation. For an untied transfer, the relative price effect is weak, the wealth effect on leisure dominates, and the endogeneity of the labor supply is important. For a tied transfer, the increase in productivity raises the wage rate, thereby inducing an increase in aggregate labor supply and offsetting the increase in leisure due to the wealth effect. The overall response in leisure is small and is dominated by the relative price effect. In this case, given this small response, whether the aggregate labor is supplied elastically or is constrained to be fixed turns out to make little difference.


This startlingly original (and sure to be controversial) account of the evolution of Christianity shows that the economics of religion has little to do with counting the money in the collection basket and much to do with understanding the background of today's religious and political divisions. Since religion is a set of organized beliefs, and a church is an organized body of worshipers, it's natural to use a science that seeks to explain the behavior of organization—economics—to understand the development of organized religion. The Marketplace of Christianity applies the tools of economic theory to illuminate the emergence of Protestantism in the sixteenth century and to examine contemporary religion-influenced issues, including evolution and gay marriage. The Protestant Reformation, the authors argue, can be seen as a successful penetration of a religious market dominated by a monopoly firm—the Catholic Church. The Ninety-five Theses nailed to the church door in Wittenberg by Martin Luther raised the level of competition within Christianity to a breaking point. The Counter-Reformation, the Catholic reaction, continued the competitive process, which came to include "product differentiation" in the form of doctrinal and organizational innovation. Economic theory shows us how Christianity evolved to satisfy the changing demands of consumers—worshipers. The authors of The Marketplace of Christianity avoid value judgments about religion. They take preferences for religion as given and analyze its observable effects on society and the individual. They provide the reader with clear and nontechnical background information on economics and the economics of religion before focusing on the Reformation and its aftermath. Their analysis of contemporary hot-button issues—science vs. religion, liberal vs. conservative, clerical celibacy, women and gay clergy, gay marriage—offers a vivid illustration of the potential of economic analysis to contribute to our understanding of religion.


Time has been a major constraint in the project undertaking in Malaysia. Hence, proper works scheduling need to be planned. However, there are always unexpected circumstances out of parties? control for the project processes slipping over its planned schedule and end-up with disputes on delay issues. Usually, people always look for more economical and time saving method for dispute settlement. But there are still a portion of people choose to settle via litigation proceeding. This problem brought to this study which aims to investigate the origin of disputes settlement via litigation proceeding that contributed by delay in project undertaking. The objectives of the study include the analysis of taxonomy of delay and review of the available dispute resolution techniques. Analysis on the trend of delay dispute resolution by litigation in the selected cases is made. Third objective was set where the outline for dispute avoidance is formulated. This study is restricted to the cases within Malaysia. Analysis shows that the main causes of the delay are the mostly defaulted by the proprietor; the executors were showed as the majority party in filing the court suit among which they obtained high percentage in winning the award. The study shows that delay dispute settlement via litigation proceeding generally occurred when the financial conflict between parties take place. In order to avoid the settlement of dispute via litigation, measures of dispute avoidance are proposed. The findings are expected to be useful as further references for parties in facilitate the execution of their construction work.


Abstract. The specification of state background error statistics is a key component of data assimilation since it affects the impact observations will have on the analysis. In the variational data assimilation approach, applied in geophysical sciences, the dimensions of the background error covariance matrix (B) are usually too large to be explicitly determined and B needs to be modeled. Recent efforts to include new variables in the analysis such as cloud parameters and chemical species have required the development of the code to GENerate the Background Errors (GEN_BE) version 2.0 for the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) community model. GEN_BE allows for a simpler, flexible, robust, and community-oriented framework that gathers methods used by some meteorological operational centers and researchers. We present the advantages of this new design for the data assimilation community by performing benchmarks of different modeling of B and showing some of the new features in data assimilation test cases. As data assimilation for clouds remains a challenge, we present a multivariate approach that includes hydrometeors in the control variables and new correlated errors. In addition, the GEN_BE v2.0 code is employed to diagnose error parameter statistics for chemical species, which shows that it is a tool flexible enough to implement new control variables. While the generation of the background errors statistics code was first developed for atmospheric research, the new version (GEN_BE v2.0) can be easily applied to other domains of science and chosen to diagnose and model B. Initially developed for variational data assimilation, the model of the B matrix may be useful for variational ensemble hybrid methods as well.


There are two components to breast conservation treatment (BCT): science and art. Science involves statistical interrogation of outcomes between a limited number of treatment strategies. For the surgeon, 'art' comprises integration of available clinical information that leads to decision making with respect to operative techniques applied to complete the surgical phase of treatment.


Human listeners can distinguish between languages of different rhythmic classes (e.g. stress- and syllable-timed languages). The present study investigated the role of speech rate in this process. Acoustic data suggests (experiment I) that speech rate can distinguishes as reliable between stress- and syllable-timed languages as previously proposed correlates of speech rhythm (%V, VarcoC and nPVI). Behavioral data showed (experiment II) that listeners make use of rate differences when asked to assess rhythmic characteristics of stress- and syllable-timed languages in delexicalized speech. Results imply that speech rate is an important acoustic correlate for cross-language speech rhythm.


The goal of community-based research is to develop a deeper understanding of communities and to discover new opportunities for improving quality of life.

The nine case studies in this diverse collection provide real life examples of community-based research in Aboriginal, urban, and rural communities. Journeys in Community-Based Research shows how taking into account socio-economic, geographic, and cultural contexts can lead to public policy that better serves the most vulnerable in our society.


We are engaged in a comprehensive study of cicada killers (Sphecius spp.), including their behavioral ecology. At one location, we observed interactions among three putative species of Sphecius, and used DNA barcoding to help clarify relationships among them. For this, we sequenced a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. During our study, a new taxonomic key of New World cicada killers, based on morphology, was published, and we expanded the barcoding project to test the congruence between barcodes and this key. In general, barcoding evidence supports morphological distinctions among species; sequence divergences between individuals of different species were within the range expected for congeneric Hymenoptera. However, two conflicts between barcoding and morphological evidence were noted. 1) Haplotypes of Sphecius grandis Say fall into two highly divergent clades, suggesting they are cryptic species. 2) Two clades of S. convallis Patton were found, and the sequences of one clade are virtually identical to those of S. speciosus Drury, suggesting that this clade of S. convallis is conspecific with S. speciosus. Alternative explanations are possible for this result, including hybridization and introgression between the two species. We conclude that our DNA barcoding evidence should be interpreted with caution, but that it has generated interesting questions we hope to resolve with field research coupled with analysis of suitable nuclear gene sequences.


A dynamic inflow model is a powerful tool for predicting the induced velocity distribution over a rotor disc. On account of its closed form and simplicity, the model is highly practical especially for studying flight mechanics and designing control systems for helicopters. However, scant attention has been so far paid to applying this model to analyse autorotative rotors (i.e. rotors in the windmill-brake state), which differ from powered helicopter rotors (i.e. rotors in the normal working state) in that the geometric relation between the inflow and the rotor disc.
The principal aim of this research is to theoretically investigate the applicability of existing dynamic inflow models for autorotative rotors, and if necessary, to provide a new dynamic inflow model for autorotative rotors.
The contemporary dynamic inflow modelling is reviewed in detail from first principles in this thesis, and this identifies a modification to the mass-flow parameter for autorotative rotors. A qualitative assessment of this change indicates that it is likely to have a negligible impact on the trim state of rotorcraft in autorotation, but a significant effect on the dynamic inflow models in certain flight conditions.
In addition, this thesis includes a discussion about the small wake skew angle assumption, which is invariably used in the derivation of Peters and He model. The mathematical validity of the assumption is cast doubt, despite the resultant model has experimentally been fully validated. The author discusses on a theoretical ground the possible reason why the Peters and He model works well in spite of its inconsistent derivation


A 4-colour, illustrated best-of-the-best of the comic book world - with writers/creators who launched an industry (Jack Kirby, Stan Lee), amazing graphic novels (Preacher, The Watcher), legendary artists (Jim Lee) and characters as wide-ranging as Archie, The Gay Ghost, Batman, Blue Devil and the Fantastic Four. Never before has there been a single volume of superheroes, graphic novels, strange comic icons, legendary writers and artists of the comic world. Comic Book Encyclopedia is the multiverse of comic legend and lore for every comic-book fan, and for everyone who wants to understand the characters, history, and universal appeal of this world. Collected into a single volume, this is the best-of-the-best of comics. From the 1930s to today, it includes everything a young, budding comic reader - or an experienced pro - needs to know and/or read.


Acknowledgements Introduction PART I ? Lawmaking through Legislation: Codified Law Chapter 1. Lawmaking through Legislation: An Introduction Chapter 2. Optimal Specificity of Laws: Rules versus Standards Chapter 3. Optimal Timing of Legal Intervention: Lawmaking under Uncertainty Chapter 4. Optimal Territorial Scope of Laws: Subsidiarity and Legal Harmonization PART II ? Lawmaking through Adjudication: Judge-Made Law Chapter 5. Lawmaking through Adjudication: An Introduction Chapter 6. Litigation and the Evolution of Legal Remedies Chapter 7. Judicial Path-Dependence and Legal Change Chapter 8. Theories of Legal Precedent: Stare Decisis and Jurisprudence Constante PART III ? Lawmaking through Practice: Customary Law Chapter 9. Lawmaking through Practice: An Introduction Chapter 10. Fostering the Emergence of Customary Law Chapter 11. Customary Law and Articulation Theories Chapter 12. Stability and Change in Customary Law PART IV ? Lawmaking through Agreement: Treaty Law Chapter 13. Lawmaking through Agreement: An Introduction Chapter 14. Formation and Accession to Treaties Chapter 15. Ratification and Reservations: The Effects of Reciprocity Chapter 16. The Hidden Bias of Treaty Law Conclusions


Early identification of children most at risk of reading failure is central to the prevention of illiteracy. Therefore the earliest time frame for identification should be determined. Reading is related to communication and literacy. Prominent researchers in the field asserted that, and supported by empirical evidences, early school years is the critical time for early identification and prevention
(Torgesen, 1998). This study focuses on Year 1 and Year 4 primary school children utilizing the descriptive correlational method. It was carried out on 344 primary school pupils of which 168 were from Year 1 and 176 were Year 4 pupils. The pupils in the sample were academically weak who underwent screening and diagnostic tests. Findings showed a significant number had difficulty in reading skills. Reading is basic in understanding information and it is related to overall learning in general and Year 1 pupils did have problems in literacy skills where 33.8% were unable to read and write, As for Year 4 pupils, there was a slight drop in reading skills as compared to the pupils in Year 1. This was perhaps due to the fact that the problems encountered were more difficult. However, pertinently, it was found that those specific areas of weaknesses in other learning subjects (mathematics and languages) were related to reading and literacy skills. The implications are these pupils should be given the diagnostic tests as early as possible(pre school) by the teachers so that intervention programs could be carried out.