In 1994/1995, the MacArthur Midlife Research Network carried out a national survey of over 7,000 Americans aged 25 to 74. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of behavioral, psychological, and social factors in understanding age-related differences in physical and mental health. A description of the study and findings from it are available at http://www.midus.wisc.edu. With support from the National Institute on Aging, a longitudinal follow-up of the original MIDUS samples (core sample (N = 3,487), metropolitan over-samples (N = 757), twins (N = 957 pairs), and siblings (N = 950)) was conducted in 2004-2006. Guiding hypotheses, at the most general level, were that behavioral and psychosocial factors are consequential for health (physical and mental). The purpose of the Cognitive Project was to determine how cognition is related to overall mental and physical health. Specific goals were: (1) to characterize the nature and range of midlife cognitive performance, relative to those younger and older, across multiple domains in a nationally representative sample (MIDUS); and (2) to examine the relationship between biopsychosocial factors (e.g., SES, health status, health-promoting behaviors, metabolic and cardiovascular biomarkers, depression, personality, control beliefs, stressful life events) and individual differences in cognitive functioning. The development of a cognitive battery for the second wave of testing of the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study provided an opportunity to examine the cognitive performance of young, middle-aged and older adults from a wide range of education levels in a large-scale, national sample. As part of the Cognitive Project of the MIDUS II the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT) (Lachman & Tun, 2008; Tun & Lachman, 2006) was administered. More information about the BTACT can be found at www.brandeis.edu/projects/lifespan. The BTACT represents the first comprehensive cognitive battery, including measures of speed and reaction time, to be administered by telephone to a national sample across the adult years and into later life. With a response rate of over 86 percent for the cognitive testing component of the MIDUS II, a cognitive data set of unprecedented range in terms of age, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), education, and geographic diversity was produced.


Abstract. The vast majority of Australia's fires occur in the tropical north of the continent during the dry season. These fires are a significant source of aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in the region, providing a unique opportunity to investigate the biomass burning aerosol (BBA) in the absence of other sources. CCN concentrations at 0.5 % supersaturation and aerosol size and chemical properties were measured at the Australian Tropical Atmospheric Research Station (ATARS) during June 2014. CCN concentrations reached over 104 cm−3 when frequent and close fires were burning – up to 45 times higher than periods with no fires. Both the size distribution and composition of BBA appeared to significantly influence CCN concentrations. A distinct diurnal trend in the proportion of BBA activating to cloud droplets was observed, with an activation ratio of 40 ± 20 % during the night and 60 ± 20 % during the day. BBA was, on average, less hygroscopic during the night (κ = 0. 04 ± 0.03) than during the day (κ =  0.07 ± 0.05), with a maximum typically observed just before midday. Size-resolved composition of BBA showed that organics comprised a constant 90 % of the aerosol volume for aerodynamic diameters between 100 and 200 nm. While this suggests that the photochemical oxidation of organics led to an increase in the hygroscopic growth and an increase in daytime activation ratios, it does not explain the decrease in hygroscopicity after midday. Modelled CCN concentrations assuming typical continental hygroscopicities produced very large overestimations of up to 200 %. Smaller, but still significant, overpredictions up to  ∼  100 % were observed using aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS)- and hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyser (H-TDMA)-derived hygroscopicities as well as campaign night and day averages. The largest estimations in every case occurred during the night, when the small variations in very weakly hygroscopic species corresponded to large variations in the activation diameters. Trade winds carry the smoke generated from these fires over the Timor Sea, where aerosol–cloud interactions are likely to be sensitive to changes in CCN concentrations, perturbing cloud albedo and lifetime. Dry season fires in northern Australia are therefore potentially very important in cloud processes in this region.


'This much needed book ...is a creative, helpful, and hopeful contribution at a time when we are especially challenged to bridge cultures in the pursuit of mutual understanding and peace' - Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Laureate. In our global society, challenging conflicts abound in personal, business, government, and international settings. Many of these conflicts are complicated by layers of miscommunication, cultural misunderstandings, and completely different ways of looking at the world. These conflicts cannot be solved by goodwill or sincere intentions alone. In our multicultural world, we need new tools to address gaps in communication and understanding and the conflicts that flow from them."Bridging Cultural Conflicts" answers this need in groundbreaking ways that cut through complexity, replacing confusion with clarity. It introduces mindful awareness, cultural fluency, and conflict fluency as tools for decoding and moving through intercultural conflicts, and for deepening and integrating change.The book shows how fluency with culture and conflict can be learned through attention and practice, just as we would internalize a new language. As fluency is acquired, a process called dynamic engagement is presented to help prevent intercultural conflict, limit its escalation, and transform it into a learning experience. Michelle LeBaron's approach in "Bridging Cultural Conflicts" is human, practical, and adaptable to a wide range of interpersonal, community, organizational, and political conflicts. Drawing from her work as an attorney, mediator, scholar, and internationally acclaimed consultant, Michelle combines the dynamism of Western approaches to conflict resolution with the insight and balance of Eastern approaches. In the process, she offers a wide array of creative strategies and usable tools. As we urgently seek better ways to work and live together and to address the issues that divide us, this timely book inspires flexibility, creativity, and hope.


Phospholipid-derived fatty acids (PLFA) are widely used as chemotaxonomic markers in microbial ecology. In this paper we explore the use of PLFA as chemotaxonomic markers for phytoplankton species. The PLFA composition was determined for 23 species relevant to estuarine phytoplankton. The taxonomic groups investigated were Chlorophyceae, Trebouxiophyceae, Prasinophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Dinophyceae, Cryptophyceae, Rhodophyceae, Pavlovophyceae and Prymnesiophyceae. Most of these taxonomic groups have a characteristic PLFA composition, although a few contain truly unique PLFA biomarkers. The PLFA composition was used to derive species composition and abundance of the phytoplankton in the Scheldt estuary (border region between Belgium and the Netherlands) in April, July and October 2003, using the matrix factorization program CHEMTAX. The results agree well with results from HPLC-derived pigment analysis of the same samples. The advantages of using PLFA instead of pigments, or rather in addition to pigments, are that (1) information on bacteria can be derived in addition to information on photosynthetic taxa, (2) in some cases more or different taxa can be distinguished and (3) the isotopic composition of PLFA can be measured relatively easily, allowing the measurement of group-specific primary production. [KEYWORDS: Phytoplankton composition ; Phospholipid-derived fatty acids ; PLFA ; Scheldt estuary ; Biomarkers ; CHEMTAX]


Evaluation on the growth of five indigenous timber species was performed after nine years after planting. The selected species was Azadirachta excelsa, Cinnamomum iners, Hopea pubescens, Intsia palembanica and Shorea leprosula planted under open area planting technique on secondary forest area were carried out in Pasoh Forest Reserve Area, Negeri Sembilan. The assessment involving measurements of Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), height of the species and the survival rate were carried out. An experimental design of Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was adapted. The result shows that the higher growth increments for the DBH were found at A. excelsa (1.06 cm year-1) and the lowest at, I. palembanica (0.97 cm year-1). For the height increment, A. excelsa was 1.38 m year-1 which was the higher and the lowest was the C. iners (0.77 m year-1). However, the survival rate found higher at C. iners (76.3%) and the lowest was at the S. leprosula (20.7%). This indicates that some indigenous species can be adapted to rehabilitate secondary forest area.


The housing sector's important role in the U.S. economy is hard to miss: Real estate held in household portfolios in 2004 was worth $17 trillion, and the mortgage market now totals more than $7.5 trillion. ; To understand how this sector and related government policies affect households and the economy, economists attempt to incorporate housing and housing finance into heterogeneous agent models—macroeconomic models that capture the economic and demographic diversity among households. This article provides a progress report on this line of research via a discussion of four papers, presented at an Atlanta Fed conference in May 2005, that use such models. ; The author first presents microlevel data on income, real estate, and mortgage debt across the population. He then outlines a generic model with housing that incorporates the life-cycle pattern. This pattern implies two important features the model must include: the hump-shaped rise and fall in earnings that the average household experiences over time and a realistic life span that captures the different mortality risks among households of different age groups. ; The four papers discussed use variations of the basic model to explore the life-cycle behavior of housing versus nonhousing consumption, the effect of house prices changes on the macroeconomy, the effect on households of the availability of different mortgage contracts, and the effect on households of subsidizing mortgage interest rates.


This paper is presented as a counterpoint to normative research which sets out what
PR practice should be and the accounts of working life put forward by leading figures in
the industry. In adopting this orientation the author draws on contemporary
developments in historical biography which have seen a move away from so-called
"great man" perspectives on events, to research which pays attention to "everyman"
accounts, particularly the personal stories of men and women experiencing the same
episodes on the "front-line". The paper suggests that a focus on C-suite narratives in
public relations research has tended to result in an arid and sanitised understanding of
how PR teams work. The study argues that neglecting the voices of those who do not
hold formal positions of power and authority prevents a nuanced appreciation of
working life and how things get done. Episodes from his career as a PR practitioner are
used by the author to illustrate this point.
These personal stories are framed theoretically by Chia's (2011) research on the
efficacy of the oblique. Chia contends that traditional accounts of practice underestimate
the importance of peripheral and seemingly insignificant factors which can be
more influential than those designed to make a difference. Through a consideration of
these insights the paper positions humour as a crucial intangible asset of PR practice,
while noting it remains an unappreciated and unexplored subject of scholarly inquiry in
the field. To spark academic interest, the author highlights the important role humour
plays in the social interactions between PR employees, particularly in the creative
process, in the maintenance of morale in uncertain working environments and as a
mode of resistance. This aspect of the discussion is grounded in the literature from
organisational studies which explores the role of humour in work place teams
(Westwood & Rhodes, 2007).


The key role of beach dunes in protecting coastal developments from damages caused by seasonal storm and hurricanes (e.g. Hurricane Sandy 2012), prompted series of studies devoted to assess their stability during these conditions. A 2-D numerical study for a "100-year storm" event (1% probability of annual exceedance) in Rhode Island indicate extreme dune erosion can occur when these structural barriers become submerged during coastal flooding events, making them ephemeral solutions only (Schambach et al., 2018). In contrast, areas with dense vegetation experienced less morphological changes due to reduced wave energy. Model predictions however remain uncertain due to the lack of comparative studies with field data. The study provides a performance evaluation assessment of four modeling scenarios used to assess the stability of a vegetated dune system in barrier beaches during storm events. These are combination of two wave models (phase averaging vs. phase resolving) with two approaches to modeling the affect of vegetation on sediment transport (bed friction formulations vs. wave damping formulations). Best estimates of the post dune profiles were obtained when using the phase averaged wave model with vegetation described by bed friction coefficients. This scenario was able to predict accurate changes of the along shore crest height elevations, making it a good assessment tool for determining the vulnerability of coastal communities in Rhode Island. In a second chapter, we address the potential use of Geotextile Sand-filled Containers (GSCs) to reinforce and stabilize a dune system during storm events. A new classification of the damage states associated with these "soft-structures" used for coastal protection are identified and described. Modeling approaches to identify each damage level during a storm were validated using post survey measurements taken from a storm which caused damage to a new project site where reinforced dune system with GSCs was constructed. Two hydraulic stability formulas for GSCs were used to determine the critical conditions for the instability of the GSC structure. Results indicate lower confidence when using Hudson's (1956) based stability equations when compared with Recio and Oumeraci (2008) semi-empirical formulations. Overall good prediction of the damage levels was obtained when compared with measurements, suggesting a potential tool for predicting the stability of the structure.


"Using data that enables us to distinguish between the different components of program participation (i.e., knowledge, application, and acceptance), we investigate the determinants of household behavior and program implementation in a social safety-net program that combines administrative and self-selection targeting methods. High undercoverage of eligible households primarily reflects lack of knowledge and binding budget constraints in poor areas. High leakage to ineligible households reflects the combination of their high levels of knowledge, application, and acceptance. Lowering undercoverage will require greater program awareness among the poor living in nonpoor areas and this is likely to come at the expense of substantial leakage to the nonpoor unless improvements are made to the verification process. Our results also suggest that in the presence of a budget constraint, the administrative selection process gives priority to the poorest households and those with children." Authors' Abstract


In recent times, environmental issues have gained a lot of public attention due to the threat of environmental problems to the future survival of humanity. In view of this most countries, of which Sweden is not an exception, have come up with environmental quality objectives to help deal with the threat pose by these environmental problems. Sweden has adopted sixteen (16) environmental quality objectives with most of it slated to be achieved by the year 2020 with the exception of the climate change objective scheduled to be met by the year 2050. To achieve these objectives, each County in Sweden is mandated to adapt, define and translate into potential targets 15 of the 16 environmental goals. The Dalarna County conducted its first review of the regional environmental objectives between 2006 -2007. This process adopted a consultative meeting approach with the relevant stakeholders. Currently another review process is going on but this time around, the County Administrative Board (CAB) has decided to adopt the process of dialogue. This study sought to assess the impact of this dialogic process, the stakeholder's perception about this process and also the major challenges associated with the use of such process in reviewing the regional environmental objectives and also formulating action plans. By adopting a qualitative approach through interviewing of relevant stakeholders, it was established that this new approach has helped enhanced stakeholder's sense of responsibility, fostered mutual learning and increased stakeholders understanding about the process, enhanced collaboration and relationship among the stakeholders and finally led to the emergence of new and co-ordinated action. It was also established that all the stakeholders had a positive perception about the process.

Finally, it was identified that the main challenges associated with the use of the dialogic process included: inability to achieve all the environmental objectives as scheduled and also lack of recognition of this new role of the County Administrative Board by some stakeholders.
Key words: Dalarna County, Environmental Objectives, Dialogue, Revision, Action plans


The principles of guided tissue regeneration (GTR) have been used for decades for the treatment of periodontal lesions using barrier membranes to generate new attachment. Guided bone regeneration (GBR) was a principle adopted some years later utilizing a barrier membrane specifically to exclude fast-growing soft tissues from slower-growing alveolar bone. The ideal membrane for GTR and GBR has been defined as having several advantages including being highly biocompatible, well-controlled biodegradable, and possessing a space-making ability. While classic barrier membranes were fabricated from non-resorbable materials, more frequently and more widely utilized in the dental field have been biodegradable collagen barrier membranes. These membranes possess the added advantage that they do not require a second surgical intervention to remove the membrane causing the drawbacks of additional patient morbidity, as well as potential tissue damage and wound infection. Resorbable membranes include synthetically fabricated aliphatic polyesters like poly (L-lactide) (PLLA), poly (L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and their co-polymers, or natural membranes made of collagen or chitosan. Recently, novel lyophilizing and sterilization procedures have pioneered the development of atelo-collagen type I barrier membranes fabricated from (achilles tendon) bovine sources. The advantages of atelo-collagen (type I) are that it provides complete immunological biocompatibility while having anti-bacterial properties facilitating the regeneration of various tissues found in the oral cavity. Here we investigated this novel bioabsorbable bovine atelo-collagenized membrane (BBAM) (ImploSorb®, Bioimplon, Germany) using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and evaluated their biocompatibility in a rat gastrocnemius muscle implant model.


The embryonic outflow tract is a simple tubular structure that connects the single primitive ventricle with the aortic sac and aortic arch arteries. This structure undergoes a complex sequence of morphogenetic processes to become the portion of the heart that aligns the right and left ventricles with the pulmonary artery and aorta. Abnormalities of the outflow tract are involved in many clinically significant congenital cardiac defects; however, the cellular and molecular processes governing the development of this important structure are incompletely understood. Histologic and tissue-tagging studies indicate that the outflow tract tissues compact and are incorporated predominantly into a region of the right ventricle. The hypothesis tested in the current study was that cell death or apoptosis in the muscular portion of the outflow tract is an important cellular mechanism for outflow tract shortening. The tubular outflow tract myocardium was specifically marked by infecting myocytes of the chicken embryo heart with a recombinant replication-defective adenovirus expressing beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) under the control of the cytomegalovirus promoter. Histochemical detection of the beta -gal-labeled outflow tract myocytes revealed that the tubular structure shortened to become a compact ring at the level of the pulmonic infundibulum over several days of development (stages 25-32, embryonic days 4-8). The appearance of apoptotic cardiomyocytes was correlated with OFT shortening by two histologic assays, TUNEL labeling of DNA fragments and AnnexinV binding. The rise and fall in the number of apoptotic myocytes detected by histologic analyses paralleled the change in activity levels of Caspase-3, a protease in the apoptotic cascade, measured in outflow tract homogenates. These results suggest that the elimination of myocytes by programmed cell death is one mechanism by which the outflow tract myocardium remodels to form the proper connection between the ventricular chambers and the appropriate arterial trunks.


This paper presents the design and experimental results of a 0.4 ps rms jitter (integrated from 3 kHz to 300 MHz offset at 2.5 GHz) 1-3 GHz tunable ring-oscillator PLL for integrated clock multiplier applications. A new loop filter structure based on a sample-reset phase-to-voltage converter and a Gm-C filter decouples reference spur performance from charge-pump current matching and loop filter leakage, while enables phase error preamplification to lower PLL in-band noise without reducing VCO analog tuning range or increasing loop filter capacitor size. The ring-oscillator VCO features programmability of phase noise and power consumption at a given frequency. The PLL is implemented in a digital 0.13 mum CMOS process using only 1.2 V devices, occupies 0.07 mm2 and consumes 23 mW excluding reference clock receiver for 2.5 GHz output at the lowest phase noise mode.


The aim of the current study was to analyse the food choices and physical activity of obese adult Estonian persons, and associations with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The study was carried out on 76 patients aged over 35 years whose body mass index was ≥30 kg/m2. The subjects were recruited through family physicians. The subjects' consumption of three food groups (fruit, vegetables, whole-grain products) and physical activity based on the IPAQ questionnaire was compared with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome based on five indicators (waist circumference, triglycerides, HDL- cholesterol and fasting plasma glucose, blood pressure). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found to be 50%. The results of the study did not show statistically significant correlations between prevalence of metabolic syndrome and age or gender. Neither were there any significant age or gender differences in the subjects' nutritional and activity behaviour. Comparison of the nutritional behaviour of persons with and without the metabolic syndrome showed that daily consumers of fruit had a 4.48 times lower risk of metabolic syndrome than those who ate fruit more seldom. No statistically significant correlation was found between physical activity and prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Based on the current study, the daily consumption of fruit can be an essential protective factor against metabolic syndrome in obese patients and provides a simple recommendation physicians can give their patients to follow.


J. R. R. Tolkien is best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and the creator of Middle-earth, but those who look beneath the surface quickly learn that his background lay in the study of philology and of Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic languages and literatures in his position as a professor at Oxford University. In any more in-depth study of any of these aspects of Tolkien's career it soon becomes clear that all of these activities were integrally related. Much of the existing Tolkien scholarship has focused on the influences of Norse and Germanic mythology in Tolkien's novels, and on the linguistic underpinnings and relationships they share. Less often discussed, but equally apparent upon careful examination, is the stylistic influence of Anglo-Saxon poetry on Tolkien's work. While the influence of imagery and subject manner from works such as Beowulf and "The Battle of Maldon" are frequently discussed, the stylistic influences should be equally clear. That they are not is perhaps due to their influence being most apparent in Tolkien's verse, both in that which appeared in small amounts throughout Tolkien's novels and more prominently in some of his lesser known works. Some of these, although published posthumously (through the heroic efforts of his son, Christopher Tolkien), were works to which he had nonetheless devoted a great deal of his life. That these issues--alliterative poetry and the aura of the Anglo-Saxon era--were important to Tolkien is obvious from the critical and scholarly works that he continued to produce over the course of his career, and from their continual appearance, in varying degrees, in the creative works for which he achieved world renown. Tolkien notes in the essay "On Translating Beowulf' that the Beowulf poet likely was consciously using archaic and literary words, words that had already become obsolete in the everyday usage of the language. In the "Lay of the Children of Hurin" and in the "Lay of Leithian" Tolkien, like the Beowulf poet, is himself using archaic words in order to provide a literary, mythical, and traditional feeling to the work. In the introduction to The Lays of Beleriand, Christopher Tolkien notes that the "Lay of the Children of Hurin" "is the most sustained embodiment of his abiding love of the resonance and richness of sound that might be achieved in the ancient English metre" (Beleriand 1), as shown in this example: He sought for comfort, with courage saying: 'Quickly will I come from the courts of Thingol; long ere manhood I will lead to Morwin great tale of treasure, and true comrades'-- for he wist not the weird woven by Bauglir, nor the sundering sorrow that swept between. ("Hurin" 10, lines 156-161) Tolkien here is consciously harkening back to the Old English meaning of "weird" or wyrd as it would have been spelled. This is clearly an example of an archaic usage, as every student of Anglo-Saxon has examined the concept of wyrd--meaning fate or doom--and how it differs in meaning and power from its modern cognate. Perhaps this is a reaction against the rigidity and formality of translating authentic Anglo-Saxon literature. In "On Translating Beowulf," Tolkien noted, "Words should not be used merely because they are 'old' or obsolete. The words chosen, however remote they may be from colloquial speech or ephemeral suggestions, must be words that remain in literary use, especially in the use of verse, among educated people" ("Translating" 55). Tolkien was writing these particular works, anyway, mostly for the benefit of himself and perhaps his philological and Anglo-Saxon colleagues--"educated people" in the sense referred to in his description of the audience of the ancient English poets. "Many words used by the ancient English poets had, even in the eighth century, already passed out of colloquial use for anything from a lifetime to hundreds of years. …


Social Security benefits are taxed under a complex regime that raises marginal effective tax rates by up to 85 percent, which could discourage the labor supply of older workers and affect the decision to claim benefits. Using a nonparametric graphical methodology, this paper investigates whether older taxpayers reduce income to avoid the tax. While previous research found that the labor supply of older workers is significantly affected by the Social Security earnings test, we find little evidence of a response to benefit taxation in a large panel of data compiled from individual income tax and information returns. Similarly, while taxation of benefits provides an incentive for many to delay claiming, we find no evidence of such an effect. Overall, the findings suggest that older taxpayers have little understanding of the rules governing Social Security benefit taxation.


The changes from the present times influence more and more in general the national economies and in particular the companies thought the impact on their business environment. We can see how the events from one county have sometimes a global impact and other times have an impact on specific national economies or companies from a specific country. In this way the business environment it is in a continuous change that influences the company's activities. If with decades behind, the organization of the company could remain unchanged for a long period of time, even in conditions of economic crisis or economic growth, in present the situation is totally different because of the dynamic rhythm of economic and social life. In order to face and to adapt to all these changes, the companies have to modify their management and organizational structures. The ease with which firms adapt to environmental changes depends on their organizational structures and flexibility. But why some organizations yield more profit than other ones? Why some companies "survive" to competition and others "die" after a short period of success? These are standard questions of researches on business management. The answer to these questions is their capacity to adapt to changes and to choose the best alternative based on a proper match to the firm's economic environment.


The global financial crisis has potentially many adverse effects on the developing world: falls in exports of goods and services to the OECD, dramatic falls in commodity prices and resource exports, and falls in remittances. Many of the poorer countries are heavily specialized and dependent on natural resources, often landlocked, ethnically polarized, and financially underdeveloped. They therefore suffer especially from the notorious volatility of natural resource prices. Volatile oil prices harm not only producers and consumers in the developing world, but also harm environmental quality if they hold back irreversible investments in costly energy-saving technology and hydrocarbon substitutes. In the aftermath of the crisis, political leaders should seek for a global deal whereby resource-rich developing countries are helped to cope with managing very volatile streams of resource revenues while cutting back pollution of the energy industries. The global crisis facing the world today is thus not only a financial crises, but also a fuel and commodity crisis. In addition, the world also faces a food, water, and climate change crisis, all of which undermine the ability to sustain prosperity and eradicate poverty in the developing world. Hence, the contours of a Global Green New Deal will be sketched.


The aim of this article is to describe and analyse the working conditions of interpreters and interpreting services in Sweden. An understanding of interpreters' working conditions is a key to such factors as the management of resources, the reading and implementation of legislation, the organisation of interpreting services and the performance of interpreters in different situations. An understanding of interpreters' working conditions is also important in understanding how multiculturalism and multilingualism are viewed on a national scale in Sweden. This review of the working conditions of interpreters is based on material from two joint research projects, which appear to indicate that interpreters as a group have much to say and often reflect on their work and working conditions. The interpreters participating in this study often demonstrated a strong commitment to professionalism. At the same time, however, many of the reflections recorded for this study were about things that undermine professionalism: bad working conditions, low pay, the feeling of being "as replaceable as potatoes", and the feeling that the social status of interpreters is low. In analysing the consequences of working conditions we have found a tension between professionalism and deprofessionalisation. This tension has consequences for the rule of law and integration.


This paper addresses the themes of self, gender and community in Alexander McCall Smith's best-selling series, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, focusing on the character of Precious Ramotswe, that "very, very fine lady," the central character of the series. Set in Gaborone, Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency describes the life of Mma Ramotswe, the first woman in Botswana to enter the profession of private detective, and who, by determination and intelligence, sets out to help those in need and to make Botswana a better place. In his portrayal of Mma Ramotswe, McCall Smith explores what he calls "all that is fine in the human condition." Mma Ramotswe is a character who looks on life positively and, through her empathy and generosity, inspires people around her. She shows qualities such as integrity, compassion and forgiveness, and by her moral judgement and attention to interpersonal relationships, she highlights important dimensions of human experience. This paper explores the communicative ethical aspects of Mma Ramotswe's actions, in light of what the philosopher Seyla Benhabib calls "situating the self." Using her own resources to create her own identity, Mma Ramotswe, enters into the public sphere, and mediating between "public norms" and "private values," she demonstrates agency, autonomy and selfhood. By displaying an embodied subjectivity grounded in everyday life, she re-negotiates women's marginalised positionality and seeks out alternatives for action and empowerment.


Women hold over half of all professional jobs today, yet they represent just four percent of CEOs in the S&P 500. Even worse, that percentage has barely budged in a decade.
 That's where The Influence Effect comes in. Based on recent research by the authors of the New York Times bestseller Break Your Own Rules, this book begins with the premise that when it comes to political savvy, what works for men at work won't work for women. Packed with the authors' coaching insights and their "Big Five" strategies designed specifically for female executives, this book guides women to break past political barriers and get right to what they really want—influence.

 Authors Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, Mary Davis Holt, and Diana Faison make success far less complex, helping women overcome entrenched resistance to their ideas, create their own access points to power, and attract followers in a way that works for them. They present tools such as Influence Loops (to organically increase influence), Personal Scaffolding (to grow a groundswell of support), and Scenario Thinking (a savvy twist on strategic planning). These and other smart strategies finally allow women to succeed on their own terms.

 Illustrated with dozens of engaging, real stories culled from the authors' many years of coaching experience, The Influence Effect moves women past the politics problem and offers a new path to power. Actually, it's more than a path—it's a runway—it frees women to take off in their careers on their own terms. The Influence Effect will work for women, not because gender barriers will no longer exist, but because they will no longer hold women back.


Can Catholicism's claim to permanent and normative truths be reconciled with the.changes in that religion brought to light by modern hlstorical-mlndedness? Such a question frames the modern problem of doctrinal development. The argument of this thesis is that the method in theology developed by Bernard Lonergan contributes much to the clarification and solution of this problem. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part One introduces the problem of doctrinal development and examines the context of Lonergan's approach to the problem. The first chapter analyzes the French Modernist Alfred Lolsy's position on doctrinal development. It is shown that the modern problem of doctrinal development turns on the issue of synthesizing the normative and the historical elements of doctrine; and it is argued that such a synthesis must be grounded in theological foundations appropriate to historical-mlndedness. In the remaining two chapters Lonergan's contribution to the formulation of such foundations is discussed: his analysis of the transition from classicism to hlstoricalmindedness (Chapter Two) and his development of transcendental method (Chapter Three). This discussion provides the context for our analysis of Lonergan's position on doctrinal development. Part Two addresses in detail Lonergan's efforts to synthesize the permanent and the historical elements of doctrine. Chapter Four traces changes in Lonergan's reflections on doctrinal development over the past forty years, showing that the basis for his affirmation of the permanence of doctrine has altered significantly with changes in his understanding of the method and foundations of theology. Chapter Five examines Lonergan's Christian Philosophy, showing how transcendental method provides a basis for the synthesis of the permanent and historical in doctrine. And Chapter Six discusses how the method and foundations of theology proper to Lonergan's notion of functional specialization can provide for a viable mediation of the permanent meaning of a doctrine through varying cultural and historical contexts. On the basis of the foregoing analysis there follows a response to several criticisms of Lonergan's affirmation of the permanence of doctrine. The argument of this thesis Is of value in three related areas of scholarship. First, the thesis addresses students of Lonergan's thought by showing the ·strengths and possible shortcomings of his theological method with respect to the specific problem of doctrinal develop-' ment. Secondly, the thesis addresses Catholic theologians by Illustrating the significance of Lonergan's method In theology for problems arising out of Catholicism's engagement with modern historical-mlndedness.· Thirdly, the thesis addresses students of modern Western thought by elucidating Lonergan's efforts to work out the foundations for modern historlcal-mindedness in general and a historically-minded theology in partlcuiar.


This paper introduces a new comprehensive database of macroprudential policies, which combines information from various sources and covers 134 countries from January 1990 to December 2016. Using these data, we first confirm that loan-targeted instruments have a significant impact on household credit, and a milder, dampening effect on consumption. Next, we exploit novel numerical information on loan-to-value (LTV) limits using a propensity-score-based method to address endogeneity concerns. The results point to economically significant and nonlinear effects, with a declining impact for larger tightening measures. Moreover, the initial LTV level appears to matter; when LTV limits are already tight, the effects of additional tightening on credit is dampened while those on consumption are strengthened.


FILM READING OF SHAKESPEARE. ADAPTATION AS INTERPRETATIONThe text is a review of a book entitled Lustra i echa. Filmowe adaptacje dzieł Williama Shakespeare'a Mirrors and Echoes. Film Adaptation of William Shakespeare's Works edited by Olga Katafiasz. The monograph is a compilation of studies and essays prepared by filmologists, theatre studies and culture studies scholars referring to various film adaptations of William Shakespeare's works. At the beginning the reviewer reminds film theories concerning film adaptation and the output of filmology on the topic of film adaptations of Shakespeare's works. The author situates the book in view within the map of past and update researches of both types and evaluates their quality as a part of them. She underlines that the variety of points of view and research approaches to Shakespeare himself and to his oeuvre in Olga Katafiasz's elaboration highlight the distinctive place of Shakespeare in nowadays culture, including pop-culture. Moreover, the variety of scholar and artistic approaches to the master from Stratford reveals also cognitive and creative abilities of film art and makes clear cultural productivity and actuality of Shakespeare. The latter means first of all possible achievement of historical and cultural accommodation to different discourses as well as of being a tool of update cultural communication. Namely in Marczak's opinion Mirrors and Echoes… provides a practical implementation of the film theory of adaptation as interpretation of the source text and endeavors to be a response to those who ask whether Shakespeare remains a vivid author, delivering important questions and important answers for human beings of 21st century.


Part I. Measured data for carbon dioxide emissivities at temperatures up to 1800°K have been correlated by postulating (a) that the effective spectral region widths, in which significant contributions are made to the total emission of radiant energy, increase with temperature and optical depth, and (b) that unknown combination and harmonic bands make contributions to the integrated intensities of selected spectral regions in such a way that the absolute values of the integrated intensities (cm^(-2)atm^(-1) remain invariant with temperature. Spectral emissivities have been calculated in the infrared for hydrogen chloride to the rigid-rotator harmonic oscillator approximation using the "smeared-out" rotational line model for temperatures of 600 and 2400°K. In the weak-line approximation, this model gives reasonable agreement with numerical calculations. In the strongline approximation, there is quite a large discrepancy, particularly in the P-branch, at 2400°K; much better agreement is obtained if vibration-rotation interaction and anharmonicity terms are included in the calculation. Equilibrium spectral emissivities have been computed for water vapor by using available low-temperature spectroscopic data. Satisfactory agreement with experimental results at 1111°K is obtained if the nearly symmetric top expressions for integrated intensities are used in conjunction with the just-overlapping line model. Part II. The general equations of radiative energy transfer are presented. When the absorption coefficients and/ or the gas volume are sufficiently large, the general transport equation can be approximated by the "diffusion approximation". This approximation is applied to a two-phase system consisting of carbon- particles dispersed in a gas. The Rosseland mean absorption coefficients are calculated for spherical carbon particles of 200 and 987 A radius at temperatures of 1000 and 2000°K, and a comparison is made of the relative magnitudes of conductive and radiative heat transfer for this system. In the special case when scattering may be neglected, and the temperature and pressure of the gas are constant, the transport equation can be integrated for a particular direction. The total radiant energy transfer to any given element of area depends upon geometrical interchange factors. These interchange factors have been evaluated for centrally located areas in cylindrical and conical chambers; simple relations are given for a transparent gas and an optically dense gas. A represei1ative calculation has been carried out for the radiant energy transfer to a centrally-located area element at the plane of intersection of two truncated cones.


The entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana, is attracting increased attention as potential biological control agent against insect pests. The research of this thesis focused on a B. bassiana strain, ARSEF 252 that is highly pathogenic for the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata. Because of both the strong evidence supporting the role of cuticle-degrading proteases (PR1 and PR2) as well as phospholipase B (PLB) in fungal pathogens and their correlations to virulence observed in either M. anisopliae or C. albicans, these genes were cloned from B. bassiana 252. Two PLB-encoding genes (plb1 and plb2, 57% identity) and PR2-encoding genes (try1 and try2, 22.4% identity) are detected in B. bassiana 252. The predicted TRY1peptide is homologous to the trypsin-like proteases from fungi, whereas the putative TRY2 peptide is homologous to that from insects. The structure similarity of TRY2 protease to insect enzymes might allow the fungal cells to evade host "non-self" recognition and thus might represents one important virulence determinant. The antisera against PR1 and PLB2 were raised, respectively. B. bassiana was grown in poor medium containing insoluble beetle cuticle as the sole nitrogen and carbon source. Equivalent studies on M. anisophlie have shown that this is an effective way of inducing the production of cuticle-degrading enzymes. As a control, B. bassiana was also grown in rich medium. Expression of PR1 was not detected in rich medium by either RT-PCR or western blot analysis, whereas in cuticle medium, the expression of the pr1 and the secretion of the enzyme were highly increased. The formation of PLB2 was not influenced by carbon or nitrogen sources. These results indicate that the infectious process that involves enzyme production and penetration of host cuticle occurs only when a nutritional relationship with the host is necessary. Because B. bassiana252 is naturally resistant to many selection antibiotics, a new selectable marker, sorR, was developed for transformation assay. It is based on the sensitivity of B. bassiana252 to fungicide soraphen A. Soraphen A is a macrocyclic polyketide, which is produced by the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum. Soraphen A specifically inhibits the eukaryotic Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase (ACC) but not prokaryotic ACC. In fungi, three ACC functional domains are located on a multifunctional polypeptide derived from the expression of a single gene. In contrast, these three domains of E. coli ACC reside on four distinct polypeptides, which are the products of the separate genes. These four peptides function together in an enzymatic complex. The distinct structure of the ACC enzymes of eukaryotes and prokaryotes is believed to be the reason for their different sensitivity to soraphen A. The sorR marker is constructed based on the expression of complete E. coli ACC polypeptides in fungus, which confer soraphen A resistance. P. pastoris was chosen for marker development since the transformation procedure for B. bassiana252 was not yet available. The presence of the four E. coli acc genes under the control of the fungal expression signals confers soraphen A resistance to P. pastoris. As the sorR marker consists of four E. coli acc expression cassettes, it might be an advantage for the application of this system to split the marker cassette and transform its elements in subsequent transformation experiments. Therefore, a stepwise transformation procedure for sorR marker was developed in order to confirm this hypothesis. The transformant containing three E. coli acc expression cassettes was as sensitive to soraphen A as the recipient strain. Furthermore, this strain obtained soraphen A resistance only after the transformation of the fourth E. coli acc expression cassette in the last step. This new selection marker system has been submitted to apply a patent.


Leading the corn extension program in the top corn producing state in the nation is no small task, but Iowa State University has found just the right person to step in. Roger Elmore will take over the program in July when he joins the agronomy faculty as the state's corn extension specialist. Disciplines Agricultural Education | Agricultural Science | Agriculture | Agronomy and Crop Sciences This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cropnews/1454 Roger Elmore ISU welcomes new corn extension specialist in July Leading the corn extension program in the top corn producing state in the nation is no small task, but Iowa State University has found just the right person to step in. Roger Elmore will take over the program in July when he joins the agronomy faculty as the state's corn extension specialist. "My extension program focuses on delivering the best scientific principles to producers and my research is driven by the desire to generate research that answers questions and impending needs of farmers," Elmore said. He believes extension is a team effort of problem solving involving farmers, extension specialists and education directors, university faculty and staff, farm press, industry groups, and ag professionals. Elmore's research has included resourceefficient cropping systems, corn greensnap, nodulation and physiological response of glyphosateresistant soybean to glyphosate and comparing glyphosatetolerant and conventional corn hybrid performance. "At Iowa State I have a number of research projects planned such as testing abiotic stresses (like frost, hail, and wind), biotic stresses (insects, weeds, and disease), yield, and new cropping systems," he said. Elmore believes communicating is key to a successful extension program and plans to do just that by holding field demonstrations, onfarm research, gathering support, providing advice, and seeking information and advice. His previous extension communication during his work in Nebraska incorporated newsletters, workshops, field days, integrated crop management winter meetings, and onfarm research projects. He is currently a professor of agronomy and horticulture at the University of Nebraska. He received his bachelor's degree in agriculture from Illinois State University and his master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Illinois in agronomy. Elmore is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and an active member of several professional organizations including the Crop Science Society of America and the Nebraska Cooperative Extension Association. He has served as anassociate editor for the Journal of Production Agriculture and the Agronomy Journal. Elmore has worked internationally over the years with projects in Ghana, China, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. He also served with the Peace Corps in Malaysia. His international work provided him with a unique perspective on corn production and agricultural systems, and has made a profound impact on his extension and research philosophy as well as his philosophy about life in general. "I feel compelled to help others optimize yields with environmentally sound production practices to meet the needs for information and research necessary to produce food," Elmore said. This article originally appeared on page 45 of the IC494 (5)  April 4, 2005 issue. Source URL: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/icm//ipm/icm/2005/442005/newspecialist.html


The Malthusian theory of evolution disregards a pervasive fact about human societies: they expand through con ict. When this is taken account of the long-run favors not a large population at the level of subsistence, nor yet institutions that maximize welfare or per capita output, but rather institutions that maximize free resources. These free resources are the output available to society after deducting the payments necessary for subsistence and for the incentives needed to induce production, and the other claims to production such as transfer payments and resources absorbed by elites. We develop the evolutionary underpinnings of this model, and examine the implications of free resource maximization for the evolution of societies in several applications. Since free resources are increasing both in per capita income and population, evolution will favor large rich societies. We will show how technological improvement is likely to increase per capita output as well as increase population, and how economically ine cient institutions such as bureaucracy arise. JEL Classi cation Numbers: D74 (Con ict Resolution), C73 (Evolutionary Games), O15 (Human Development, Migrations), D02 (Institutions)


Abstract New spiroindoline-substituted sulphonamide compounds were synthesised and their inhibitory effects on the activity of purified human carbonic anhydrase I and II were evaluated. Human carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes (hCA-I and hCA-II) were purified from erythrocyte cells by affinity chromatography. The inhibitory effects of the 14 synthesised sulphonamides (6a–n) on esterase activities of these isoenzymes were studied in vitro. In relation to these activities, the inhibition equilibrium constants (Ki) were determined. The results showed that all the synthesised compounds inhibited the carbonic anhydrase (CA) isoenzyme activity. Among them, 6b was found to be the most active (Ki: 0.042 μM) for hCA I and 6a (Ki: 0.151 μM) for hCA II.


This article revisits the problematic of the cognitive mapping of capital by probing the affinity between two representational predicaments: the depopulated nature of images of human-altered landscapes in the "new topographics" photography and its epigones, and the current debate over the definition of the Anthropocene. It looks in Fredric Jameson's treatment of the time of capital, and of the place therein of dead labor, for a clue to critically rethink both these phenomena, revealing their profound affinity in the aporia besetting our thinking of historical agency under capitalist conditions. The article concludes with a brief reflection on what it might mean to define communism in this light as the "resurrection of dead labor."


Although progress has been made for text-to-image synthesis, previous methods fall short of generalizing to unseen or underrepresented attribute compositions in the input text. Lacking compositionality could have severe implications for robustness and fairness, e.g., inability to synthesize the face images of underrepresented demographic groups. In this paper, we introduce a new framework, StyleT2I, to improve the compositionality of text-to-image synthesis. Specifically, we propose a CLIP-guided Contrastive Loss to better distinguish different compositions among different sentences. To further improve the compositionality, we design a novel Semantic Matching Loss and a Spatial Constraint to identify attributes' latent directions for intended spatial region manipulations, leading to better disentangled latent representations of attributes. Based on the identified latent directions of attributes, we propose Compositional Attribute Adjustment to adjust the latent code, resulting in better compositionality of image synthesis. In addition, we leverage the $l_{2}$-norm regularization of identified latent directions (norm penalty) to strike a nice balance between image-text alignment and image fidelity. In the experiments, we devise a new dataset split and an evaluation metric to evaluate the compositionality of text-to-image synthesis models. The results show that StyleT2I outperforms previous approaches in terms of the consistency between the input text and synthesized images and achieves higher fidelity.


Background: Sterile surgical gloves protect patients from the surgical team members' microbial flora of the hands, and mutually, the members of the surgical team from pathogens of the patient's body. Damage of surgical gloves during each surgical procedure is one of the major concerns. There are a lot of risk factors and related issues associated with the damage of gloves that the results of other studies about them in some cases are consistent and in some cases inconsistent with each other. The aim of this study was to investigate the rate of surgical glove damages based on various factors in orthopedic surgery. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, 384 surgical gloves (192 pairs) were the study samples. The gloves were all made of the same material, and they were consisted of two layers. The gloves were selected based on a simple sampling study method. The study environment was the orthopedic and nerve operating room in Kashani Hospital associated with Isfahan's Medical Sciences University. The study population included the gloves wore by the scrubbed individuals during foot and hand orthopedic plating operations. Data collection tools were comprised of questionnaires and checklists all constructed by the researcher. Questionnaire contained demographic information, surgery type, and the operation team members, and the checklists covered items pertaining to the surgical glove damages. The present study made use of Water Leak Test to evaluate whether the gloves have been damaged or not. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics tests and analytical statistical tests were applied, and the data were further inspected in the SPSS software, ver. 22. Results: The results of this study showed that there was a significant relationship between the type of surgery, the role of people in procedure, the gender of the surgical team, the location of damage on the gloves, the glove layer, the dominant hand of people, and the rate of damage of the surgical gloves, among different issues (*P 0.05). Discuss and Conclusion: Considering to risk factors that damage to surgical gloves by the surgical team, can reduce the number of needle sticks or transmission of infection between patients and them. According to the results, it is suggested that the surgical team during surgery should seek more attention to their dominant hands and in the areas contacting with the surgical instruments and the patient's body, including the thumb and index finger. Furthermore, due to the higher rate of surgical gloves damages in implanting plates into the femur, it is recommended to put on two layers gloves or routine changing of them during these surgical procedures.


HMP 607 is the third in a three-course sequence intended to impart to generalist administrators the knowledge of finance and accounting necessary to manage health care organizations. The first course, HMP 608, covers financial accounting. The second course, HMP 606, focuses on managerial accounting topics. This third course concentrates on corporate finance topics. It aims to impart an understanding of how finance theory and practice can inform the decision-making of the health care firm. As such, HMP 607 is most appropriately considered a corporate finance course, as opposed to a course in financial markets. In addition, it will integrate corporate finance and accounting theories, institutional knowledge of health care finance, and applications to specific problems.


Abstract Although numerous studies have examined habitat use by raccoons (Procyon lotor), information regarding seasonal habitat selection related to resource availability in agricultural landscapes is lacking for this species. Additionally, few studies using radiotelemetry have investigated habitat selection at multiple spatial scales or core-use areas by raccoons. We examined seasonal habitat selection of 55 (31 M, 24 F) adult raccoons at 3 hierarchical orders defined by the movement behavior of this species (second-order home range, second-order core-use area, and third-order home range) in northern Indiana, USA, from May 2003 to June 2005. Using compositional analysis, we assessed whether habitat selection differed from random and ranked habitat types in order of selection during the crop growing period (season 1) and corn maturation period (season 2), which represented substantial shifts in resource availability to raccoons. Habitat rankings differed across hierarchical orders, between seasons within hierarchical orders, and between sexes within seasons; however, seasonal and intersexual patterns of habitat selection were not consistent across hierarchical orders of spatial scale. When nonrandom utilization was detected, both sexes consistently selected forest cover over other available habitats. Seasonal differences in habitat selection were most evident at the core-area scale, where raccoon selection of agricultural lands was highest during the maturation season when corn was available as a direct food source. Habitat use did not differ from availability for either sex in either season at the third-order scale. The selection of forest cover across both seasons and all spatial orders suggested that raccoon distribution and abundance in fragmented landscapes is likely dependent on the availability and distribution of forest cover, or habitats associated with forest (i.e., water), within the landscape. The lack of consistency in habitat selection across hierarchical scales further exemplifies the need to examine multiple biological scales in habitat-selection studies.


Purpose There are still debates on the benefit of mass screening for prostate cancer (PCA) by prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing, and on systemized surveillance protocols according to PSA level. Furthermore, there is a paucity of literature on current practice patterns according to PSA level in the Korean urologic field. Here, we report the results of a nationwide, multicenter, retrospective chart-review study. Materials and Methods Overall 2122 Korean men (>40 years old, PSA >2.5 ng/mL) were included in our study (from 122 centers, in 2008). The primary endpoint was to analyze the rate of prostate biopsy according to PSA level. Secondary aims were to analyze the detection rate of PCA, the clinical features of patients, and the status of surveillance for PCA according to PSA level. Results The rate of prostate biopsy was 7.1%, 26.3%, 54.2%, and 64.3% according to PSA levels of 2.5-3.0, 3.0-4.0, 4.0-10.0, and >10.0 ng/mL, respectively, and the PCA detection rate was 16.0%, 22.2%, 20.2%, and 59.6%, respectively. At a PSA level >4.0 ng/mL, we found a lower incidence of prostate biopsy in local clinics than in general hospitals (21.6% vs. 66.2%, respectively). A significant proportion (16.6%) of patients exhibited high Gleason scores (≥8) even in the group with low PSA values (2.5-4.0 ng/mL). Conclusion We believe that the results from this nationwide study might provide an important database for the establishment of practical guidelines for the screening and management of PCA in Korean populations.


ABSTRACT Available evidence demonstrates that direct patient contact and contact with infectious body fluids are the primary modes for Ebola virus transmission, but this is based on a limited number of studies. Key areas requiring further study include (i) the role of aerosol transmission (either via large droplets or small particles in the vicinity of source patients), (ii) the role of environmental contamination and fomite transmission, (iii) the degree to which minimally or mildly ill persons transmit infection, (iv) how long clinically relevant infectiousness persists, (v) the role that "superspreading events" may play in driving transmission dynamics, (vi) whether strain differences or repeated serial passage in outbreak settings can impact virus transmission, and (vii) what role sylvatic or domestic animals could play in outbreak propagation, particularly during major epidemics such as the 2013–2015 West Africa situation. In this review, we address what we know and what we do not know about Ebola virus transmission. We also hypothesize that Ebola viruses have the potential to be respiratory pathogens with primary respiratory spread.


There are algorithms for finding zeros or fixed points of nonlinear systems of equations that are globally convergent for almost all starting points, i.e., with probability one. The essence of all such algorithms is the construction of an appropriate homotopy map and then tracking some smooth curve in the zero set of this homotopy map. HOMPACK is a mathematical software package implementing globally convergent homotopy algorithms with three different techniques for tracking a homotopy zero curve, and has separate routines for dense and sparse Jacobian matrices. The HOMPACK algorithms for sparse Jacobian matrices use a preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm for the computation of the kernal of the homotopy Jacobian matrix, a required linear algebra step for homotopy curve tracking. Here variants of the conjugate gradient algorithm are implemented in the context of homotopy curve tracking and compared with Craig''s preconditioned conjugate gradient method used in HOMPACK. The test problems used include actual large scale, sparse structural mechanics problems.


In this paper, we propose a discriminative variational autoencoder (DVAE) to assist deep learning from data with imbalanced class distributions. DVAE is designed to alleviate the class imbalance by explicitly learning class boundaries between training samples, and uses learned class boundaries to guide the feature learning and sample generation. To learn class boundaries, DVAE learns a latent two-component mixture distributor, conditioned by the class labels, so the latent features can help differentiate minority class vs. majority class samples. In order to balance the training data for deep learning to emphasize on the minority class, we combine DVAE and generative adversarial networks (GAN) to form a unified model, DVAAN, which generates synthetic instances close to the class boundaries as training data to learn latent features and update the model. Experiments and comparisons confirm that DVAAN significantly alleviates the class imbalance and delivers accurate models for deep learning from imbalanced data.


We have deployed a first-of-its-kind, urban-scale wireless mesh network which provides Internet access to 1000's of users spanning multiple square kilometers in an underserved area in Houston, TX. However, in this and other urban environments, IEEE 802.11 link performance is both misunderstood and poor-performing due to complex node interactions which are affected by a vast array of factors including topology, channel conditions, modulation rate, packet sizes, and physical layer capture. In this thesis, I draw from 100's of thousands of urban measurements and develop an analytical model to understand the performance of links embedded in the aforementioned complex scenarios. My focus is on two fundamental concepts involving embedded links. First, choosing the modulation rate which maximizes the throughput is imperative since each bit of the (overly-)shared medium is critical. Yet, all existing rate adaptation mechanisrns fail to track the ideal rate even in a simple, non-mobile urban scenario. Using a custom cross-layer framework, I implement multiple and previously un-implemented rate adaptation mechanisms to reveal the reasons for the failure and design rate adaptation mechanisms which are able to track urban and downtown vehicular and non-mobile environments. Second, I pose a basic, yet unsolved problem: given a time-varying channel and traffic matrix in the aforementioned complex scenario, predict the throughput of an embedded link and understand the complex interactions of factors that lead to its performance. By performing thousands of measurements of embedded links on an urban mesh network and developing an analytical model, this work is the first to show that even a 1 dB change in channel state can yield a bi-modal shift in throughput that emulates a change in node connectivity. Finally, I apply our model and experimentation to modulation rate selection and the interaction of control and data traffic to show that understanding these complex interdependencies leads to operation in improved performance regimes. My work has implications for this and other urban communities which have unequal access to Internet resources, enabling a high-speed access infrastructure at extremely low cost.


As I write this, we are preparing again for the annual convention of the NASA and beginning to think about the next year. The role of senior editor will pass to Graeme Sullivan, and we have talked about continuity and change within our arrangements for Studies. Continuity is the more important. As I think about my brief spell as editor, there are few things I would change about Studies' contents or procedures. They reflect quite directly the topics and issues that concern the readers (at least those that submit manuscripts) and reflect too their attitudes and abilities. This is how it should be. One of the few things I would like to change is Studies' record with book reviews. Book reviews are helpful to the field for many reasons. They not only alert us to new books, but they can in various ways help us to understand them. They can compare new books with those that already exist, relate them to new trends or movements, raise issues of approach, ideology, and coverage. I think that Studies, as the major academic journal of the Association, should have a more active book review section. It seems a reasonable goal that there should be no significant new book in our field published without review in Studies. Of course, I recognize that it is sometimes a question whether a book is "in our field" or not; but the major reason we publish so few book reviews is that few are submitted. So this a call (again: I remember Graeme Chalmers issued a similar one during his editorship) to readers to consider submitting a review of a significant book, or books, and moreover, to make the review itself significant. Book reviews do not have to be short, though many of the best are. They do need to meet the same writing standards as other manuscripts do, but there is plenty of space in Studies for good ones. The results of the new annual research grant competition held by the NASA Research Commission are now available. Readers will remember that the first call for proposals focused on student learning in secondary art education, and the second year will have the same focus. We have high hopes that this program will result in significant and cumulative research and that the results will eventually be published in the pages of Studies. Below, I will append an announcement of the awards by Tom Brewer, the research commission chair. To make space for the announcement, I will simply say of the contents of this issue that they are as various as those of the past, and the issue has been an equal pleasure to prepare. It says again, I think, that there is plenty of life and variety in art education. …


The purpose of the present study is to deeply investigate the mechanical behavior of paper materials in the out-of-plane direction, especially, the compressive behavior of a single sheet or multiple sheets. In this dissertation, the mechanical behavior of paper and paper stacks was detailed discussed from three different research perspectives.
The surface roughness plays a very important role in the compressive behavior of paper materials. The first goal of the present study is to investigate the effect of the surface topography in calculating the stress-strain curve of paper. The difference between the actual and the nominal contact area was compared and a new experimental method by using carbon papers was proposed to measure the actual contact areas. With the aid of the image processing technology, the actual stress-strain curve of paper was calculated and compared with the nominal stress-strain curve. As indicated, there is an obvious difference between the actual and nominal stress-strain curves.
A second goal of this study is to establish the mathematical model for describing the force-deformation behavior of multiple sheets. Two different methods with and without considering the paper structures were selected for building the paper models. With considering the structure, the paper can be regarded as an elastic material, the body of which can be divided into two rough surfaces and one internal structure. On the basis of Hooke's law or Paetow's method, the relationship between the total deformation and surface deformation can be calculated by using the Newton-Raphson method. Then, the force-deformation relation of a single sheet was derived according to the relationship between the surface and total deformation, the model of a single sheet was extended to calculate the force-deformation curves of multiple sheets. Without considering the structure, the loading and unloading stress-strain curve of paper were expressed by using a sextic polynomial equation and a modified exponential equation, respectively. Based on the hypothesis that when the force is the same, the deformations of the paper stacks are directly proportional to the sheet numbers, the force-deformation relation of multiple sheets was derived. By comparing with the experimental results, it shows that the maximum number of sheets which can be calculated by both of the proposed models is about 140 sheets, especially, when the numbers are between 20 and 140.
In addition, without considering the effect of the surface roughness, the stress-strain curve of paper is a typical J-shaped curve. So, in this dissertation, a much easier way to simulate the paper material by using a gasket model was proposed. The material property was defined based on the experimental stress-deformation data under 100 N, then, some simulations under 20 N, 40 N, 60 N and 80 N were implemented based on the model established above. The findings indicated that, this method can be used with high confidence for the simulation of paper under different forces.


Extracted from text ... THE LEVYING of costs on
retirement products has come
under scrutiny in South Africa following
a paper presented at the
South African Actuarial Society's
annual conference in 2004.
According to KPMG's VAT Mail,
research showed retirement-funding
costs in South Africa to be
extremely high, particularly on
life assurance products. The
Pension Funds Adjudicator also
made several determinations during
2005 that questioned the costs,
charges and commissions incurred
by life companies in administering
investment and retirement
products.
This has put the life assurance
industry under pressure to
offer low-cost products on which
all costs and charges are set out in ..


Economies are so high dimensional and non-constant that many features of models cannot be derived by prior reasoning, intrinsically involving empirical discovery and requiring theory evaluation. Despite important differences, discovery and evaluation in economics are similar to those of science. Fitting a pre-specified equation limits discovery, but automatic methods can formulate much more general initial models with many possible variables, long lag lengths and non-linearities, allowing for outliers, data contamination, and parameter shifts; then select congruent parsimonious-encompassing models even with more candidate variables than observations, while embedding the theory; finally rigorously evaluate selected models to ascertain their viability.


Neuroscientific evidence is increasingly being introduced in legal contexts, and neurolaw scholarship is correspondingly on the rise. Yet absent from neurolaw research to date are extended examinations of neuroscience in legislative domains. This Article begins to fill that gap with a focus on the illustrative case of neuroscience and juvenile justice in state legislatures. Such examination reveals distinctions between lab neuroscience, lobbyist neuroscience, and legislator neuroscience. As neuroscience narratives are constructed in the policy stream, normative questions arise. Without courtroom evidentiary rules to guide the use of neuroscience in legislatures, these questions are complicated. For instance, to what extent should lobbyists and legislators adhere to the complexities and caveats of laboratory science? How much should lawmakers simplify and reformulate the scientific findings to achieve desired policy ends? The Article argues that the construction of neuroscience narratives is necessary and desirable, but if the narratives diverge too greatly from actual research findings, they may ultimately undermine the efficacy of the neuroscience in policymaking.


This essay represents the author's attempt to grapple with a number of tensions inspired and enriched by Habermas's Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. This author's interest in history and historical context first engendered skepticism regarding Habermas's surprising discovery of the ideal of the bourgeois public sphere (hereafter BPS) within the far less than ideal context of eighteenth-century English politics and political discourse. Habermas critics have long noted that Structural Transformation often ignored many of the dreadful realties of the context of eighteenth-century political discourse (Calhoun, 1992, pp. 33, 239). There can be little doubt that the reality of politics and political discourse, at least in the English BPS, was antithetical to Habermas's ideal. According to Craig Calhoun (1992), for Habermas: The importance of the public sphere lies in its potential as a mode of societal integration. Public discourse ... is a possible mode of coordination of human life, as are state power and market economies. But money and power are non-discursive modes of coordination ... they offer no intrinsic openings to the identification of reason and will, and they suffer from tendencies toward domination and reification. (p. 6) In fact, public discourse of the period associated with the English BPS was thoroughly inundated with the influences of money and power. This period saw the rise and consolidation of modern financial institutions like the Bank of England and stock markets. And this timeframe also saw important developments in the growth of English political institutions--particularly political parties--that also exercised influence over policy outcomes and social coordination. In sum, the Structural Transformation may be said excessively to downplay the extent to which the power of emerging financial and political institutions, rather than the power of the better argument, shaped and guided English political discourse and policy--even during the time at which the BPS was allegedly in its prime. But alongside this longstanding unease with the manner in which Habermas may be said to have neglected historical accuracy in the service of his efforts to recover "a valuable critical ideal" (Calhoun, 1992, p. 29) from the BPS, my current ruminations on Habermas's Structural Transformation are informed not just by history, but by concerns about the hyperpartisan context of early twenty-first century political discourse in the United States. As a corrective both to Habermas's downplaying of party and partisanship in the English BPS, as well as the seemingly unchecked partisanship of current political discourse, this essay uses Habermas's Structural Transformation as a springboard for developing contextually based strategies for argument evaluation that view political parties and partisan discourse, not exclusively as distortions of rationality or culprits in the decay of an idealized BPS, but rather as potential agents of rational deliberation and discourse. Although Habermas (1989) maintained that the rise of modern interest-based political parties was a contributing factor in the decline of the BPS (pp. 203-5), he recognized nevertheless that the rational critical debate of the English BPS was itself somehow structured by a discursive tension between Robert Walpole's government and Bolingbroke's opposition. The English BPS, Habermas contends, resulted largely from the parliamentary opposition's attempt to influence the state by recourse to the umpire of public opinion. Opposition papers achieved the status of a fourth estate; and the public sphere developed in a confrontation between the press and the state: "From 1727 on, under the impact of the Craftsman, a systematic opposition arose which ... until 1742, via literature and press, informed the public at large about the political controversies in Parliament" (Habermas, 1989, pp. 63-64). Habermas (1989) continues, through the critical debate of the public, it [political opposition] took the form of a permanent controversy between the governing party and the opposition . …


Thank you very much. And thank you to Mayor Van Aartsen and to the American Society for organizing this event. I'm sorry that I only joined the Hague delegation today, detained in the Hague by other responsibilities, but I'm very happy to be here. The Permanent Court of Arbitration, a product of the 1899 Hague Peace Conference, is not a court in the sense of the other international courts represented on this panel. Rather, the PCA serves as a permanent framework designed to assist temporary arbitral tribunals with the conduct of proceedings. Seeking to facilitate recourse to peaceful resolution of disputes, the states assembled at the Peace Conference determined that a permanent arbitral institution would make it more likely that they would use arbitration to resolve disputes and thereby avoid recourse to arms. The PCA was busy in its early years. Eighteen cases were brought before it in the first two decades of its existence. Nevertheless, the PCA was also immediately criticized. Some critics believed arbitral tribunals created on an ad hoc basis for each dispute could not contribute to the coherent development of international law. There was also a sense of disappointment with the 1899 Conference, and its successor 1907 Conference, that the delegations had been unable to agree on general compulsory jurisdiction for the PCA. Although only a small minority of delegates opposed compulsory jurisdiction for this new institution, the rules of the Peace Conferences required unanimity in all decisions, which prevented the establishment of compulsory jurisdiction for the PCA. In effect, states agreed to the creation of the PCA, but not to its use. The institution's weakness was revealed with the two world wars that would follow its founding. After the Second World War, the PCA went into a period of dormancy, administering only three cases between 1956 and 1996. Its reemergence as an active international court is due in large part to its close relationship with the other courts and tribunals in The Hague. Today the PCA benefits from a level of activity unparalleled in its history, with fifty-eight pending cases: six inter-state, thirty-two investor-state, and twenty contract claims involving at least one state or state entity. Its broad mandate enables the institution to lend its services to a wide range of cases. The PCA's case administration services extend to all subject matters, so long as the parties consent to arbitration and so long as one party is a state, state entity, or intergovernmental organization. The concentration of international jurists in The Hague has a lot to do with the renewed activity of the PCA. These leading jurists are the same individuals who are sought after to sit as arbitrators in the most sensitive disputes in the world. So they attract arbitration to The Hague, a fact that may have nothing to do with the presence of the PCA in The Hague. For example, I think that Sir Robert Jennings, as President of the Eritrea-Yemen arbitration, only thought of using the PCA as an afterthought. The arbitral tribunal was constituted and seeking secretarial support. I imagine Sir Robert, a former President of the International Court of Justice, saying: "Well, what about this PCA over here that doesn't have anything to do? Maybe we could use them." Thus, since the 1990s, the PCA has witnessed increasing contact with the jurists based at other courts and tribunals in The Hague. In addition to these leading judges calling upon the PCA for assistance in the arbitrations where they are appointed, they have also been involved in modernizing the institution, particularly through the development of new procedural rules for the PCA. On eight occasions over the last fifteen years, groups have been established to draft new procedural rules for the PCA, including leading jurists from The Hague courts and tribunals. The most recent set of Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Outer Space Activities was produced by an advisory group chaired by the former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, showing further cooperation between the institutions. …


GENETIC EFFICIENCY IN TWO LOBLOLLY PINE (PINUS TAEDA L.) SEED ORCHARDS by SHARON FRIEDMAN University of New Hampshire, December, 1982 The degree to which seed crops in seed orchards reflect the gene tic variability and superiority present among orchard parents (genetic efficiency) was examined in two loblolly pine seed orchards using seven allozyme loci as genetic markers. The frequency of outcrossed progeny in the seed crop was esti mated using unique markers, a single locus mixed mating model, and a multilocus model. These estimates were 0.982, 0.992, and 0.994, respectively. Thus, selfing did not contribute significantly to deviations from genetic efficiency in these orchards. Pollen contamination, on the other hand, was found to have a significant impact on genetic efficiency. Unique markers in background stands were used to estimate a contamination rate of 0.28 0.06. The proportion of seed in one orchard fertilized by pollen from the other orchard was estimated to be 0.10 +. 0.02. The overall genetic efficiency of the orchards was examined by comparing the observed gene frequencies in the bulk seed crop to those expected on the basis of two models, full genetic efficiency (each clone weighted equally), and a model in which each clone was weighted by the number of ramets present. The best fit of the ovule pool gene vii frequencies was to the model weighted by ramets. The best fit of the pollen pool gene frequencies was to a model which incorporated pollen contamination. Of eight markers each expected to occur at a frequency of less than five percent (based on weighting by ramets), all eight were found in both the pollen and ovule contributions to the seed crop in each of three seed years. When seed was separated into size classes, a substantial loss of clonal representation and genetic diversity occurred in each size class.


In recent times, the issue of odious debts has received a lot of political and academic attention, particularly in the context of Iraq and the unilateral decision of the Norwegian government to cancel certain debts of developing countries because of Norwegian co-responsibility. In 2008, the World Bank published a discussion paper on odious debts that examines the legal standing of the doctrine of odious debts in international law and the recent trend to expand the traditional concept to wider scenarios, presenting improved lending practices as an alternative to classifying certain debts as odious and allowing their repudiation. This article offers a critique of the main findings of the discussion paper. It argues that the authors were too quick in dismissing the ius cogens approach to odious debts; that legal approaches to odious debts need to be understood in the context of transitional justice; and that the odious debt doctrine and debt restructurings are not mutually exclusive, but should rather be seen as complementary, given that an assessment of the odiousness of debts has an important place in the context of restructurings and sovereign insolvency.


One of the interesting applications is in creating computers at the AGI ( Artificial General Intelligence ) level equal to human intelligence. Designing AGI is basically creating the human brain on a computer. General intelligence has tons of components and required testing on many functions from image recognition, to the ability to write an essay, to solving Inverse Kinematic problems, etc. In this paper, we present a AGI – a large scale neural network model to achieve General Intelligence involving different components. The AGI model contains three subsystems : (1) EEG based system where Xiang Zhang et all, proposed a novel deep neural network based learning framework that affords perceptive insights into the relationship between the EEG data and brain activities and designed a joint convolutional recurrent neural network that simultaneously learns robust high-level feature presentations through low-dimensional dense embeddings from raw EEG signals. The proposed approach has been to use results of this study as it is and use simulated conditions as true input for our study; (2) Image system that contains an encoder to convert the input into abstract representations, and a deep image reconstruction which optimizes the output of the decoded images so that it more closely resembles the actual or true images, in combination with a multi-layered convolutional neural network ( CNN ) to simulate the same processes that occur when a human brain perceives images; (3) a LSTM that combines inputs in the forms of both EEG and Image, and predict text symbols associated with images and next images accordingly. In this work, the proposed AGI model illustrates the ability to incrementally learn different functions and form a machine programming loop that enables interactions between EEG signals and Image system, and possibly possess human-like general intelligence.


Indigenous peoples often view water as a living entity or a relative, to which they have a sacred responsibility. Such a perspective frequently conflicts with settler societies' view of water as a "resource" that can be owned, managed, and exploited. Although rarely articulated explicitly, water conflicts are rooted in ontological differences between Indigenous and settler views of water. Furthermore, the unequal water governance landscape created by settler colonialism has perpetuated the suppression of Indigenous ways of conceptualizing water. This paper thus examines the "political ontology" of water by drawing on insights from the fields of critical Indigenous studies, post-humanism, and water governance. Additionally, we engage a case study of four Yukon First Nations (Carcross/Tagish, Kluane, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, and White River First Nations) in the Canadian North to examine their water ontologies through the lens of a politics of kinship including ideas about "respecting water." We also examine the assumptions of settler-colonial water governance in the territory, shaped by modern land claims and self-government agreements. We close by discussing the implications of Indigenous water ontologies for alternate modes of governing water.


OBJECTIVES
The Cognitive Growth and Stress (CGAS) model draws together cognitive processing factors previously untested into a single model. Intrusive rumination, deliberate rumination, present and future perceptions of control, and event centrality were assessed as predictors of post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-traumatic stress (PTS).

METHOD
The CGAS model is tested on a sample of survivors (N = 250) of a diverse range of adverse events using structural equation modelling techniques.

RESULTS
Overall, the best fitting model was supportive of the theorized relations between cognitive constructs and accounted for 30% of the variance in PTG and 68% of the variance in PTS across the sample.

CONCLUSIONS
Rumination, centrality, and perceived control factors are significant determinants of positive and negative psychological change across the wide spectrum of adversarial events. In its first phase of development, the CGAS model also provides further evidence of the distinct processes of growth and distress following adversity.

PRACTITIONER POINTS
Clinical implications People can experience positive change after adversity, regardless of life background or types of events experienced. While growth and distress are possible outcomes after adversity, they occur through distinct processes. Support or intervention should consider rumination, event centrality, and perceived control factors to enhance psychological well-being. Cautions/limitations Longitudinal research would further clarify the findings found in this study. Further extension of the model is recommended to include other viable cognitive processes implicated in the development of positive and negative changes after adversity.


Gestation sow housing is a contemporary animal welfare issue with legislative actions in the United States to ban individual gestation sow systems. This review sought to summarize the scientific literature since earlier reviews were published in 2004 and 2005. Seventeen papers comparing effect of housing systems on the welfare of gestating sows were published from 2005 to 2012. Stalls or crates, tether housing, and group pens including conventional group pens, loose-house pens, electronic sow feeders pens, and hoop barns were reported. The majority of recent findings were similar to the previous conclusions from papers and reviews. Cortisol concentrations were not different between stalled and group-penned sows but were higher shortly after mixing in concert with increased sow aggression and skin lesions. The effects of gestation housing system on neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio were still mixed. In the recent literature, stereotypies were greater among stalled sows compared with group-penned sows, which may reflect a change in sow genetics, because the basic housing systems have not changed. Recent papers indicated more sitting or standing inactive, leg and claw problems, and higher farrowing rate (in some studies) among stalled sows. Other studies reported more lying down among group-penned sows and no differences in other reproductive and productivity measures between stalled and group-penned sows. Weaning-to-estrus intervals were similar between stalled and group-penned sows in contrast to previous reviews that observed a shorter interval among stalled compared with grouped sows. In conclusion, recent papers found similar productivity, physiology, health, and behavior among individually or grouped sows during gestation.


OBJECTIVES: The National Formulary of India (NFI), a ready reckoner for medicines among healthcare-professionals aims for promoting rational drug use. This needs periodic update based on evidence-based medicines and suggestions from end-users. This study assessed the level of awareness among health-care professionals and sought suggestions for enhancement of utility/content of NFI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This pan-India cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey was conducted between November-2020 and March-2021. A Google-doc-based validated questionnaire (20 questions) was circulated through E-mail/social media groups and to 311 medical institutes/hospitals/clinics across India through the adverse drug reaction monitoring centers under the Pharmacovigilance Program of India. RESULTS: A total of 461 participants (39-interns, 167-resident doctors, and the rest practicing physicians/doctors) affiliated to 224 institutes/hospitals/clinics had responded. About 46% respondents consulted NFI for drug-related information and 82.3% stated that NFI provides balanced unbiased information. About 95% respondents were aware of NFI's content and 76% mentioned usefulness of NFI in their clinical practice; however, 34.4% had misconceptions about NFI, 28.7% had a false belief that NFI is a legal document to safeguard health-care providers and 22.2% had never used it. Suggestions to enhance NFI's utility included digital accessibility, incorporation of information like drugs for basic medical emergencies (71.3%), disposal of expired-pharmaceutical products (38.7%), pharmaceutical price control policy (36.3%), and drug-procurement practices in hospitals (35.6%). CONCLUSION: As per the survey findings, NFI is an effective tool for instant access to precise and unbiased drug-related information, and fostering rational use of drugs. Boosting its practical usefulness needs incorporation of suggested information, digital accessibility, and periodic update.


Recent behavioral experiments examining the siphon withdrawal reflex of Aplysia have revealed inhibitory effects of strong tail shock, a stimulus commonly used as an unconditioned stimulus in studies of associative and nonassociative learning in Aplysia. We utilized a reduced preparation to perform a cellular analysis of tail shock- induced inhibition in the siphon withdrawal reflex. First, we carried out behavioral studies that showed that the reduced preparation exhibits a siphon withdrawal reflex to water jet stimuli, and that tail shock produces inhibitory behavioral effects comparable to those in the intact animal: (1) strong shock produces transient inhibition of nonhabituated responses, and (2) a habituated response is facilitated by weak shock, but not by strong shock, suggesting that increasing tail shock intensity recruits the inhibitory process that competes with facilitation of habituated reflexes. Next, we carried out cellular studies that showed that the amplitude of the complex EPSP in siphon motor neurons elicited by water jet stimuli to the siphon also exhibits the inhibitory patterns produced by tail shock: (1) the nondecremented complex EPSP (a neural correlate of a nonhabituated siphon withdrawal reflex) is significantly inhibited 90 sec after strong tail shock and recovers to preshock levels 10 min later, and (2) the decremented complex EPSP (a neural correlate of a habituated reflex) is significantly facilitated by weak shock, but is not facilitated by strong shock. In addition to the complex EPSP, we simultaneously examined the monosynaptic connection between siphon sensory neurons and siphon motor neurons. The monosynaptic EPSP does not show the pattern of inhibitory modulation by tail shock exhibited by the siphon withdrawal reflex and the complex EPSP: (1) the nondecremented monosynaptic EPSP is not inhibited 90 sec after strong shock, but tends to be above preshock levels; and (2) the decremented monosynaptic EPSP is facilitated by weak as well as strong tail shock. Our results suggest that an important component of the inhibitory process triggered by strong tail shock is mediated by neural elements presynaptic to the siphon motor neurons. Because modulation of the monosynaptic connection between identified siphon sensory and siphon motor neurons does not parallel the tail shock-induced inhibitory patterns observed in the siphon withdrawal reflex and in the complex EPSP, other synaptic connections are likely to play an important role in mediating tail shock-induced inhibition in the siphon withdrawal reflex.