Every day users of social networking services ask their followers and friends millions of questions. These friendsourced questions not only provide informational benefits, but also may reinforce social bonds. However, there is a limit to how much a person may want to friendsource. They may be uncomfortable asking questions that are too private, might not want to expend others' time or effort, or may feel as though they have already accrued too many social debts. These perceived social costs limit the potential benefits of friendsourcing. In this paper we explore the perceived social costs of friendsourcing on Twitter via a monetary choice. We develop a model of how users value the attention and effort of their social network while friendsourcing, compare and contrast it with paid question answering in a crowdsourced labor market, and provide future design considerations for better supporting friendsourcing.


When workers allege that mental illness prevented the timely filing of a federal employment discrimination lawsuit, courts subject them to extreme standards at the equitable tolling stage, which ends workers' lawsuits against their employers. Such an approach to workers suffering from mental illness is indicative both of judicial misunderstanding of equitable remedies and judicial ignorance of equity's historical engagement with those afflicted with mental illness. More importantly, subjection of workers to high threshold requirements at equity is an affront to workers' dignity. Dignity, like equity, has a powerful moral basis that focuses on the individual. Dignity requires that workers alleging that mental illness foreclosed a timely filing of a federal employment discrimination lawsuit be heard and that they not be humiliated.My contribution to the scholarly literature is three-fold. First, I introduce dignity to the scholarly literature on equity and reject arguments by prominent readers of American equity as unresponsive to the kinds of dignitary treatment that vulnerable plaintiffs should expect from courts sitting at equity. Second, I extend judicial discussion of dignity and equity to encompass federal remedies law and federal employment discrimination law. Third, I contribute to the literature on disabilities by looking at the treatment of afflicted workers at a particular point in the federal adjudicatory process. My policy prescriptions explore possible legal and equitable responses to the humiliating experience awaiting workers who allege that mental illness prevented the timely filing of a federal employment discrimination lawsuit.


Abstract This article reviews the history of plum cultivation and cultivars in Sweden with the aim to describe important heirloom cultivars and to explain how they are conserved in the Swedish National Gene Bank. Commercial plum production in Sweden started around 1890 and was initially in part based on small-fruited local cultivars grown on their own roots. Along with the development of a modern Swedish nursery industry and experimental research the use of grafted trees grew in importance. In the mid-1950s, the yearly plum production in Sweden was estimated to be approximately 2000 tonnes. Since the mid-1980s, production has declined and it is now only about 250 tonnes per year. The work to safeguard heirloom cultivars began with a national inventory in 2005 and since 2012, so-called mandate cultivars have been planted in the Swedish National Gene Bank at Alnarp. Today 45 plum cultivars are preserved with two trees in the gene bank at Alnarp and two trees in local clonal archives.


The coordination of communication and awareness efforts in the process of Information Security Incident Management (ISIM) has been identified as a critical means of enhancing information security protection in organizations. This paper aims to explore the nuances of organizational information security with respect to the coordination of communication and awareness efforts among organizational stakeholders towards achieving a shared, interactive, and participatory ISIM. According to the findings of the study in the organizations sampled, it has been identified that reporting, communication, and awareness efforts within ISIM were found to be largely uncoordinated. The exploratory findings provided a rationale for the proposal of a conceptual model. The model would unify and subsume situational awareness and interactive modes of communication toward improving the coordination of awareness and communication efforts among stakeholders in the management of information security incidents.


Purpose: This article explores the reflection on a process of inter-collaborative team work to produce a photographic book on caregivers' experiences of parenting their disabled children. The team of authors consisted of members with diverse backgrounds, including media studies, social science and photography. The purpose of this article was to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the process of boundary breaking, one which is important if we are to develop new knowledges and new ways of thinking about disability. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with all contributors to the book. Results: Themes emerging from the interviews include the existence of different worlds, crossing boundaries, questions about expertise, conflicting hopes and expectations, and the ethics of anonymity. Conclusion: An account of the anxieties, the frustrations and rewarding aspects of the collaboration is provided. We conclude that "us" and "them" categorization permeates our thinking. It characterizes some of the most simplistic thinking in the world of disability – able-bodied vs. disabled. In reality, there are no such categories, we all reside along a highly differentiated continuum of changing states of impairment and health. If we open ourselves up to this reality, we can meet one another and draw on one another's knowledge and experience. Implications for Rehabilitation Collaboration between able-bodied researchers and disabled people and their families holds the potential for producing new perspectives on disability and rehabilitation. These collaborations may be emotionally challenging and they hold possibilities for a range of conflicts. Dealing with these challenges conflicts openly and honestly may lead to a deeper understanding of the issues at stake in disability and rehabilitation. We need more examples of reflection on innovative collaborative processes.


What is a chameleon in the world of education? What defines her professionally, personally, and why? In this autoethnography, I explore the chameleon metaphor for meanings and implications in my personal and professional identity as a female educator by seeking answers to questions stemming from Mitchell and Weber (2005): Just who do I think I am? Just who do I think I am? Just who do I think I am? Just who do I think I am? I analyzed my own autobiographical journals using the four-part Listening Guide (Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, & Bertsch, 2003) coupled with themebased family coding to examine changes by choice and changes by force particular to my personal and professional experiences. Notions of home, belonging, and change as a journey emerged as themes that served to frame my identity and highlighted the importance of self-inquiry for educators as an applied practice within the greater context of the profession. Keywords: Autoethnography, Metaphor, Educator, Change, Female


We investigate the construction of early stopping rules in the non-parametric regression problem where iterative learning algorithms are used and the optimal iteration number is unknown. More precisely, we study the discrepancy principle, as well as modifications based on smoothed residuals, for kernelized spectral filter learning algorithms including gradient descent. Our main theoretical bounds are oracle inequalities established for the empirical estimation error (fixed design), and for the prediction error (random design). From these finite-sample bounds it follows that the classical discrepancy principle is statistically adaptive for slow rates occurring in the hard learning scenario, while the smoothed discrepancy principles are adaptive over ranges of faster rates (resp. higher smoothness parameters). Our approach relies on deviation inequalities for the stopping rules in the fixed design setting, combined with change-of-norm arguments to deal with the random design setting.


Three genotypes of ostrich (South African Black, Zimbabwean Blue Necks and crosses between Zimbabwean Blue Neck males x South African Black females) were used to investigate the influence of genotype on the fatty acid composition of the musculus gastrocnemius and musculus iliofibularis, and abdominal and breast fat depots. Total saturated fatty acids in both the m. gastrocnemius and m. iliofibularis were higher in crosses (36.4% and 35.9%) than in South African Black ostriches (32.9% and 30.4%), whereas mono-unsaturated fatty acids were highest in South African Black ostriches. Total polyunsaturated fatty acids in the m. gastrocnemius were lowest in South African Black ostriches (26.5%) compared with the Zimbabwean Blue Necks (33.2%). Neither the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated (0.73 to 0.99) nor n-6 to n-3 (1.6 to 2.2) fatty acids were influenced by genotype, although the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids in Zimbabwean Blue Necks was higher in the m. gastrocnemius (0.99) than in the m. iliofibularis (0.73). Differences in individual fatty acids were prominent in the breast fat, and total saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids differed between genotypes in both breast and abdominal fat. Only the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids in the fat depots differed between South African Black (0.48) and Zimbabwean Blue Neck ostriches (0.42). The latter ratio was higher in the breast (0.50) than abdominal (0.42) fat in Zimbabwean Blue Necks. These results indicate that crossbreeding of different genotypes of ostriches reared under similar conditions does influence the overall fatty acid profiles of meat and fat.


We examined the diel vertical migration of squid (dorsal mantle length 21 to 490 mm) in warm core ring (WCR) and cold water mass (CW) areas in the transition region of the western North Pacific. A total of 28 squid species belonging to 23 genera, 2 octopus species from 2 genera, and 1 vampyrmorph Vampyroteuthis infernalis were captured from depths of 20 to 700 m by day and night sampling using a commercial otter trawl. Three patterns of diel vertical migration were recognized for 11 of the squid species. (1) Migrant, in which day and night habitats are clearly separated with peak abundance deeper than 300 m during the day and shallower than 300 m at night: Gonatopsis borealis, Gonatus berryi, Gonatus onyx, Eucleoteuthis luminosa, Onychoteuthis banksii, Enoplo- teuthis chunii, and Watasenia scintillans. (2) Semi-migrant, in which part of the population migrates to the upper 100 m at night from its daytime habitat of 500 to 600 m, while the remainder of the pop- ulation mainly remains in the daytime habitat: O. borealijaponica. (3) Non-migrant, in which the habitat is consistently distributed below 400 m: Histioteuthis dofleini, Belonella borealis, and H. iner- mis. Horizontally, E. luminosa, E. chunii, and H. inermis were restricted to the WCR, while other spe- cies were distributed in both the WCR and CW areas in the transition region. Among the vertically migratory and semi-migratory species, nighttime distribution depth was similar between WCR and CW for O. banksii, but was deepened by upper layers of warm subtropical waters in the WCR for G. borealis, G. berryi, W. scintillans, and O. borealijaponica. We also examined day-night habitat temperature ranges for these 11 species.


This cross-sectional study was conducted on permanently disabled workers assisted by the Center for Occupational Rehabilitation (CRP) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, to evaluate factors associated with their chances of readmission into the labor market. A logistic model was used to investigate workers' acceptance into the professional rehabilitation program and their return into the market. The most decisive factors for their acceptance were age, presence of repetitive strain injury (RSI), and educational level. The most favorable situation was that of workers with RSI under 40 years of age and with average schooling (75.6%). Results showed that young male workers with high educational levels were the ones with the best chances of rejoining the market (90.9%). A controversial issue relates to workers' acceptance and program results. In order to be accepted, the worker had to display a given age and educational profile. Workers with RSI had this profile, but once accepted they were the ones with the greatest difficulty in rejoining the work force. In addition, discrimination against female workers was observed, despite their characteristics being similar to those of males.


While staggered boards have been documented to be negatively correlated with firm valuation, such association might be due to staggered boards either bringing about lower firm value or merely reflecting the tendency of low-value firms to have staggered boards. In this paper, we use two natural experiments to shed light on the causality question. In particular, we focus on two recent court rulings, separated by several weeks, that affected in opposite directions the antitakeover force of staggered boards: (i) a ruling by the Delaware Chancery Court approving the legality of shareholder-adopted bylaws that weaken the antitakeover force of a staggered board by moving the company's annual meeting up from later parts of the calendar year to January, and (ii) the subsequent decision by the Delaware Supreme Court to overturn the Chancery Court ruling and invalidate such bylaws. We find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the Chancery Court ruling increased the value of affected companies - namely, companies with a staggered board and an annual meeting in later parts of the calendar year - and that the Supreme Court ruling produced a reduction in the affected companies' value. The identified effects were most pronounced for firms for which control contests are especially relevant due to relative underperformance, small firm size, high asset pledgibility, or high takeover intensity in their industry. Our findings have implications for the long-standing debate on staggered boards. The findings are consistent with the market's viewing staggered boards as bringing about a reduction in firm value. Our findings are thus consistent with leading institutional investors' policies in favor of board de-staggering, and with the view that the ongoing process of board de-staggering in public firms can be expected to enhance shareholder value.


The aim
of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Postpartum
Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) in Japanese mothers. Additionally, we investigated
the association between postpartum bonding and postnatal depression. The participants
of this study were 1786 Japanese mothers, recruited during their infants' 3
months check-ups at a public health center. The mothers completed the PBQ and
the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). We examined the factor
structure of the PBQ. However, we were unable to confirm the original 4
factors. A 1-factor solution was extracted by omitting 9 items that did not
have significant loadings onto the single factor. According to the cut-off
values of the original PBQ, the positive rate was 7.7%. The PBQ score was
moderately correlated with the EPDS score. The abridged 16-item Japanese
version of the PBQ can be used as a reliable screening tool during check-ups
for Japanese mothers. Health practitioners should pay attention to mothers who
have bonding disturbances at postpartum.


The loss of suitable macro‐ and microhabitats can negatively affect an animal's ability to persist in an area, ultimately leading to range contractions. The western quoll Dasyurus geoffroii is a wide‐ranging Australian carnivore that has suffered a catastrophic range contraction since European settlement, partly due to landscape fragmentation. Bauxite mining in the jarrah forest of south‐western Australia, where western quoll currently persist, disturbs and fragments large areas, potentially reducing habitat available to quolls. We examined macro‐ and microhabitat use by western quolls in fragmented landscapes containing remnants of unmined jarrah forest and bauxite mine restoration to determine the impacts of this fragmentation on its ecology. Specifically, we aimed to identify the microhabitats required by western quoll for denning and movement and if post‐mining restored forests provided these microhabitats. Quolls used restoration of varying ages for denning. They were adaptable in den substrates used, selecting subterranean burrows associated with surface rocks in restoration where preferred substrates used in unmined forest (hollow logs and stumps) were less available. Logs were also an important microhabitat used by quolls to traverse through unmined forest and we recommend more logs are restored post‐mining. Our results suggest that post‐mining restoration provides a permeable matrix for western quolls, and individuals quickly re‐colonize restored areas and use available habitat, particularly for denning. Important microhabitats such as logs, stumps and large hollow‐bearing trees are relatively sparse in restored forest. Our study does not explicitly consider the potential effects of this on quoll survival and demography so further studies of breeding success and long‐term survival across multiple generations of quoll are recommended. We concluded that forest restoration can be an important strategy in managing fragmented landscapes for wide‐ranging species by providing pathways for movement, habitat for re‐colonization and improved landscape connectivity for these species.


Real Time II extends and evolves DH Mellor's classic exploration of the philosophy of time,Real Time. This new book answers such basic metaphysical questions about time as: how do past, present and future differ, how are time and space related, what is change, is time travel possible? His Real Time dominated the philosophy of time for fifteen years. Real TIme II will do the same for the next twenty. GET /english/edu/Studying_at_SU/History_of_Literature.html HTTP/1.0


. We propose and analyze novel adaptive algorithms for the numerical solution of elliptic partial differential equations with parametric uncertainty. Four different marking strategies are employed for refinement of stochastic Galerkin finite element approximations. The algorithms are driven by the energy error reduction estimates derived from two-level a posteriori error indicators for spatial approximations and hierarchical a posteriori error indicators for parametric approximations. The focus of this work is on the mathematical foundation of the adaptive algorithms in the sense of rigorous convergence analysis. In particular, we prove that the proposed algorithms drive the underlying energy error estimates to zero.


Three field experiments were conducted to evaluate populations of Burkholderia solanacearum and the occurrence of tomato bacterial wilt in soil left fallow, and following crops of cowpea, eggplant, and rice. Bacterial population declined after cowpea and rice, but not after eggplant. The population also declined after soil was left fallow, indicating that a suitable host plant is required to maintain the bacterial population. The area under disease progress curve (AUDPC), based on the incidence of wilted tomato plants, was significantly (P < 0.05) higher following eggplant compared with cowpea and rice for three experiments and in fallow for two of the three experiments. Yields of cowpea, eggplant, and rice were not affected by the presence of B. solanacearum in the soil; however, yields of tomato crops were significantly (P < 0.05) lower following eggplant than following rice. Under greenhouse conditions, bacterial populations decreased more when soil was cropped to rice under permanently flooded conditions.


Random media with tailored optical properties are attracting burgeoning interest for applications in imaging, biophysics, energy, nanomedicine, spectroscopy, cryptography, and telecommunications. A key paradigm for devices based on this class of materials is the transmission matrix, the tensorial link between the input and the output signals, that describes in full their optical behavior. The transmission matrix has specific statistical properties, such as the existence of lossless channels, that can be used to transmit information, and are determined by the disorder distribution. In nonlinear materials, these channels may be modulated and the transmission matrix tuned accordingly. Here, the direct measurement of the nonlinear transmission matrix of complex materials is reported, exploiting the strong optothermal nonlinearity of scattering silica aerogel (SA). It is shown that the dephasing effects due to nonlinearity are both controllable and reversible, opening the road to applications based on the nonlinear response of random media.


Is the Dutch housing market overvalued and, if so, to what degree? Are the home prices too steep in comparison to other economic data, such as interest rates and income? Can we expect a bubble to burst, causing a collapse of the market similar to what has happened in the United States of America? After all, the Netherlands also experienced a long uninterrupted period of rising home prices, from 1985 until 2008. Between 1996 and 2001 prices even increased between 10 and 18% on an annual basis. This growth period came to an end in August of 2008. The annual difference between 2008 and 2009 is according Statistics Netherlands (CBS) approximately minus 3%. Whether further price drops can be expected in the near future depends especially on the question whether the current home prices are too high in relation to the relevant economic factors. To answer this question, I will present an error correction model. This model can measure a potential overvaluation, as well as make predictions concerning future home prices.


This study aims to explore the correlation between learning behavior and English effective learning. 1,758 answers to a questionnaire designed from the perspective of learning behavior are analyzed. The influence of English effective learning is summarized as constructive learning and destructive learning. Using SPSS to analyze the data and model a construction, we study the correlation between learning behavior and the main influencing factors, including constructive learning, destructive learning, mutual influence, learning burnout and employment pressure. The structural model results show that the alpha coefficients are above 0.6, and the corresponding variables load factor values are above 0.3, which proves that the questionnaire is valid and reliable. Correlation analysis is used to explore the impact of the major variables, indicating that significant correlations exist among the major variables. The regression analysis shows that constructive learning can significantly predict the learning behavior, while the destructive behavior can significantly negatively predict the learning behavior. The mutual influence cannot significantly predict the learning behavior. Through a structural equation model fitting analysis, the influence of classmates can significantly predict the learning behavior and employment pressure can significantly negatively predict the learning burnout. Furthermore, learning behavior plays an intermediary role in constructive learning, destructive learning and learning burnout. This study may provide reference for higher vocational English teaching reform from the data analysis.


Epidemiological studies previously identified cis-5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) as the biologically active component of fish oil of benefit to the cardiovascular system. Although clinical investigations demonstrated its usefulness in surgical procedures, its mechanism of action still remained unclear. It was shown in this thesis, that EPA partially blocked the contraction of aortic smooth muscle cells to the vasoactive agents KCl and noradrenaline. The latter effect was likely caused by reducing calcium influx through receptor-operated channels, supporting a recent suggestion by Asano et al (1997). Consistently, EPA decreased noradrenaline-induced contractures in aortic tissue, in support of previous reports (Engler, 1992b). The observed effect of EPA on cell contractions to KCl was not simple due to blocking calcium influx through L-type channels, consistent with a previous suggestion by Hallaq et al (1992). Moreover, EPA caused a transient increase in [Ca2+]i in the absence of extracellular calcium. To resolve this it was shown that EPA increased inositol phosphate formation which, it is suggested, caused the release of calcium from an inositol phosphate-dependent internal binding site, possibly that of an intracellular membrane or superficial sarcoplasmic reticulum, producing the transient increase in [Ca2+]i. As it was shown that the cellular contractile filaments were not desensitised to calcium by EPA, it is suggested that the transient increase in [Ca2+]i subsequently blocks further cell contraction to KCl by activating membrane-associated potassium channels. Activation of potassium channels induces the cellular efflux of potassium ions, thereby hyperpolarising the plasma membrane and moving the membrane potential farther from the activation range for calcium channels. This would prevent calcium influx in the longer term and could explain the initial observed effect of EPA to block cell contraction to KCl.


Eighty-five percent of Italy's Jews survived World War II. Nevertheless, more than six thousand Italian Jews were destroyed in the Holocaust and the lives of countless others were marked by terror. Susan Zuccotti relates hundreds of stories showing the resourcefulness of the Jews, the bravery of those who helped them, and the inhumanity and indifference of others. For Zuccotti, the Holocaust in Italy began when the first "black-shirted thug" poured a bottle of castor oil down the throat of his victim, or when the dignity of a single human being was violated. She writes: "We might examine again how most Italians behaved from the onset of fascism...Did they do as much as they could? Or should they, and the Jews as well, have recognized the danger sooner, with the first denial of liberty and free speech? We might also ask ourselves whether we, as creatures without prejudice, would act as well as most Italians did under similar pressures. Would we risk our lives for persecuted minorities? Would we be more sensitive to the first assaults upon our liberties, when the only ones really hurt in the beginning are Communists, Socialists, democratic anti-Fascists, and trade unionists? And finally, we might be more aware than we are of the horrors that a racist lunatic fringe can commit, even in the best of societies." Susan Zuccotti teaches modern European history at Columbia University. She is also the author of The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews. The introduction by Furio Colombo was translated into English for this edition. The author of God in America: Religion and Politics in the United States, Colombo is professor of Italian Studies at Columbia.


Author(s): Geiger II, Richard Stuart | Advisor(s): Burrell, Jenna | Abstract: This dissertation investigates the roles of automated software agents in two user-generated content platforms: Wikipedia and Twitter. I analyze 'bots' as an emergent form of sociotechnical governance, raising many issues about how code intersects with community. My research took an ethnographic approach to understanding how participation and governance operates in these two sites, including participant-observation in everyday use of the sites and in developing 'bots' that were delegated work. I also took a historical and case studies approach, exploring the development of bots in Wikipedia and Twitter. This dissertation represents an approach I term algorithms-in-the-making, which extends the lessons of scholars in the field of science and technology studies to this novel domain. Instead of just focusing on the impacts and effects of automated software agents, I look at how they are designed, developed, and deployed – much in the same way that ethnographers and historians of science tackle the construction of scientific facts. In this view, algorithmic agents come on the scene as ways for people to individually and collectively articulate the kind of governance structures they want to see in these platforms. Each bot that is delegated governance work stands in for a wide set of assumptions and practices about what Wikipedia or Twitter is and how it ought to operate. I argue that these bots are most important for the activities of collective sensemaking that they facilitate, as developers and non-developers work to articulate a common understanding of what kind of work they want a bot to do. Ultimately, these cases have strong implications and lessons for those who are increasingly concerned with 'the politics of algorithms,' as they touch on issues of gatekeeping, socialization, governance, and the construction of community through algorithmic agents.


Background The iron concentration increases during normal brain development and is identified as a risk factor for many neurodegenerative diseases, it is vital to monitor iron content in the brain non-invasively. Purpose This study aimed to quantify in vivo brain iron concentration with a 3D rosette-based ultra-short echo time (UTE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence. Methods A cylindrical phantom containing nine vials of different iron concentrations (iron (II) chloride) from 0.5 millimoles to 50 millimoles and six healthy subjects were scanned using 3D high-resolution (0.94×0.94×0.94 mm3) rosette UTE sequence at an echo time (TE) of 20 μs. Results Iron-related hyperintense signals (i.e., positive contrast) were detected based on the phantom scan, and were used to establish an association between iron concentration and signal intensity. The signal intensities from in vivo scans were then converted to iron concentrations based on the association. The deep brain structures, such as the substantia nigra, putamen, and globus pallidus, were highlighted after the conversion, which indicated potential iron accumulations. Conclusion This study suggested that T1-weighted signal intensity could be used for brain iron mapping.


Aims Biliary neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are rare and mostly exist as a component of mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinomas (MANECs). Although the NET component in biliary MANECs is generally more malignant and clinically more important to the prognosis than the ordinary adenocarcinomatous component, the histogenesis of biliary NET has not been clarified. In this study, the role of the Notch1-Hes1 signalling axis in the histogenesis of biliary NETs was examined. Methods Immunohistochemistry for Notch1, its ligand Jagged1 and Hes1 was performed using surgical specimens from 11 patients with biliary MANEC. Moreover, after the knock-down of Notch1 mRNA expression in a cholangiocarcinoma cell line, the expression of chromogranin A (a neuroendocrine marker) and Ascl1 (a neuroendocrine-inducing molecule inhibited by activated Hes1) was examined by quantitative PCR. Results Histological examination revealed that the adenocarcinomatous components were predominately located at the luminal surface of the MANEC and the majority of stromal invasion involved NET components. Ordinary adenocarcinomas and non-neoplastic biliary epithelium constantly expressed Notch1, Jagged1 and Hes1, but the expression of Notch1 and Hes1 was decreased or absent in NET components, suggesting interference with the Notch1-Hes1 signalling axis in biliary NET. Moreover, in the cholangiocarcinoma cell line in which the expression of Notch1 mRNA was knocked down, the mRNA expression of Ascl1 and chromogranin A was increased. Conclusions The Notch1-Hes1 signalling axis suppresses neuroendocrine differentiation and maintains tubular/acinar features in adenocarcinoma and non-neoplastic epithelium in the biliary tree. Moreover, a disruption of this signalling axis may be associated with the tumourigenesis of NETs in biliary MANEC.


Oil shale processing at elevated temperatures to extract oil results in large amounts of alkaline oil shale solid wastes (OSSW). The objective of this study was to use a geochemical model to help predict the chemistry of leachates, including toxic chemicals, from OSSW. Several geochemical models were evaluated (e.g. EQ3EQ6, GEOCHEM, MINTEQAZ, PHREEQE, SOLMINEQ, WATEQFC); the model GEOCHEM was selected based on its more comprehensive capabilities. The OSSW samples were subjected to solubility and XRD studies. Element concentrations and pH of OSSW leachates were used as input to GEOCHEM to predict their chemistry. Ion activity products were used to infer the likely solid phases controlling the concentration of toxic elements (e.g. F and Mo) in these leachates. The model predicted that silicate phases produced during the heating process buffered the pH and controlled concentrations of major cations. The F concentrations in OSSW leachates appeared to be controlled by fluorite (CaF3. Contrary to previous findings, powellite (CaMo04) probably does not control the concentrations of Mo in OSSW leachates.


Recently, the helicase domain of the Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-U1 replicase proteins (designated MOREHEL:U1) was identified as the elicitor of the N gene-mediated hypersensitive response (HR) in tobacco. In this study, we used agroinfiltration to express the equivalent MOREHEL domain of the non-HR-inducing tobamovirus strain TMV-Ob. It appeared that this MOREHEL:Ob sequence did not elicit a HR in N gene-carrying tobacco. Both MOREHEL sequences were divided into eight subdomains, and chimeras of MOREHEL sequences from U1 and Ob were constructed. Expression of these chimeric MOREHEL sequences revealed that, in the TMV-U1 MOREHEL sequence, at least four domains involved in full HR induction were present. The presence of at least three of these four domains seems a minimal requirement for HR induction. Two additional domains may play a minor role in HR induction. To study the elicitor function of the chimeras during the TMV life cycle, chimeric MOREHEL domains were introduced into full-length TMV cDNA clones. These constructs, however, were unable to establish an infection in Nicotiana benthamiana or Nicotiana tabacum plants.


THE ROPE OF MAN is two books in one. The first book, TANGI, is set in 1973 and focuses on Tama Mahana, a young 20-year old newspaper reporter working in Wellington, as he attends his father's funeral in Waituhi. The second book, THE RETURN is a sequel, set in 2005; Tama Mahana, now 52, is living in London and is a successful TV anchorman of an international news show. This time it is his mother, Huia, who is dying, and as Tama travels back to New Zealand he realises that both he and his mother are powerless to prevent the secret that they have been harbouring for the last 32 years from blowing their family apart. Epic in scope, THE ROPE OF MAN is a story of love, loss and redemption. It is also a triumphant extension to Witi Ihimaera's exploration of Maori identity - but, this time, on a world stage. Engaging, passionate and lyrical, the novel is pure Ihimaera - blending dramatic flair and humour. It is bound to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.


In this intellectually and politically potent new book, Martin Shaw proposes a way through the confusion surrounding the idea of genocide. He considers the origins and development of the concept and its relationships to other forms of political violence. Offering a radical critique of the existing literature on genocide, Shaw argues that what distinguishes genocide from more legitimate warfare is that the enemies targeted are groups and individuals of a civilian character. He vividly illustrates his argument from a wide range of historical episodes, and shows how the question 'What is genocide?' matters politically whenever populations are threatened by violence.
This compelling book will undoubtedly open up vigorous debate, appealing to students and scholars across the social sciences and in law. Shaw's arguments will be of lasting importance.


Methamphetamine (MA) is a toxic, addictive drug shown to modulate learning and memory, yet the neural mechanisms are not fully understood. We investigated the effects of 2 weekly injections of MA (30 mg/kg) on working memory using the radial 8-arm maze (RAM) across 5 weeks in adolescent-age mice. MA-treated mice show a significant improvement in working memory performance 1 week following the first MA injection compared to saline-injected controls. Following 5 weeks of MA abstinence mice were re-trained on a reference and working memory version of the RAM to assess cognitive flexibility. MA-treated mice show significantly more working memory errors without effects on reference memory performance. The hippocampus and dorsal striatum were assessed for expression of glutamate receptors subunits, GluA2 and GluN2B; dopamine markers, dopamine 1 receptor (D1), dopamine transporter (DAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH); and memory markers, protein kinase M zeta (PKMζ) and protein kinase C zeta (PKCζ). Within the hippocampus, PKMζ and GluA2 are both significantly reduced after MA supporting the poor memory performance. Additionally, a significant increase in GluN2B and decrease in D1 identifies dysregulated synaptic function. In the striatum, MA treatment increased cytosolic DAT and TH levels associated with dopamine hyperfunction. MA treatment significantly reduced GluN2B while increasing both PKMζ and PKCζ within the striatum. We discuss the potential role of PKMζ/PKCζ in modulating dopamine and glutamate receptors after MA treatment. These results identify potential underlying mechanisms for working memory deficits induced by MA.


Muslim-Jewish relations began with the emergence of Islam in 7th-century Arabia, but contacts between pre-Jewish Israelites and pre-Muslim Arabs had been common for nearly two millennia previously. These interactions inform the earliest relations between Muslims and Jews and serve as precursors to the social, cultural, religious, political, and institutional relations between Muslims and Jews from the 7th century to the present. Areas and periods of particular importance are 7th-century Arabia with first contacts between Jews and the earliest Muslims, 8th–9th-century Middle East with the establishment of legal and social status of Jews in Islam, the 9th to 14th centuries in many parts of the Muslim world with the development of great Jewish intellectual advances under Islamic influence, the subsequent decline of the Muslim world and its negative impact on Jews and other minorities, the period under colonial powers with the rise of national movements and the subsequent transition to independent nation-states that includes the rise of both Jewish and Palestinian nationalisms, and the current status of Muslim-Jewish relations today. Common issues include language production; cultural production including literature, hermeneutics, and systematic thinking; legal developments, political relations, religious commonalities and differences, and economic relations and partnerships.


The "caring ethic" is central to the teaching-learning process. Early childhood teacher educators can promote a teacher as leader paradigm that supports the development of caring skills and perspectives in future teachers. Future teachers can benefit from learning about caring, developing competencies in caring, and continuing their education in the caring/nurturing processes. The history of early childhood teacher education is in a sense a microcosm of the struggle to become humane, decent, and nurturing (Osborn, 1991). The "caring curriculum" Bronfenbrenner (1979) explicates is a contemporary elaboration of earlier struggles to advance civilization through nurturing and renewing modes of thinking and feeling. What is distinct in our historical context is the urgency for realizing an ethic of caring and the recognition that we have new knowledge and resources to develop a system that promises new possibilities for achieving it (Greene, 1995a). Early childhood teacher education is ideally positioned to create the needed resources for promoting a caring ethic in our society. It has contact with many of the professionals who interact with children and families. Thus, a "Teacher as Leader" construct that is based on caring is achievable in early childhood education. Leadership that is "lived" through caring relationships with young children and families is the needed factor in transforming our society from excessive materialism toward more humane and nurturing living. As Noddings (1994) notes: An ethic of care starts with a study of relation. It is fundamentally concerned with how human beings meet and treat one another. (p. 45) Teachers of young children (and those who teach and learn with them) are the "leaders" in the community in terms of potentially creating the caring ethic. In this context, the teacher leader is a growing person whose primary ethic is that of seeking relationship conditions to develop community harmony in ways that enhance the integrity of everyone. This construct advances the importance of educating early childhood teachers in ways that enable them to generate and renew beliefs, values, and attitudes that are consonant with having the "caring relationship" among themselves and the children and families they care for and nurture. This means bringing alive the voices of early childhood teacher education students in ways that validate their journey toward becoming caring persons. Questions That Shape The Journey Three questions help to shape the context for transforming early childhood education (and teacher education) into a journey that nurtures and sustains the caring ethic: 1. How do we develop a system that nurtures people in becoming caring human beings? 2. How can we create an environment that engages teachers, children, and families in experiences that nurture in them the ethic of caring? 3. What are the means of extending the caring ethic into all facets of community living? Nurturing Teacher Leaders in Developing The Caring Ethic What is needed to sustain our journey to become caring people? Since the journey involves opening up to new ways of relating, our first requirement is to be explorative and sensitive learners. As Bateson (1994) describes this process within the study of cultures so must we craft our vision of the caring relationship for early childhood teacher education: Arriving in a new place, you start from an acknowledgement of strangeness, a disciplined use of discomfort and surprise. Later, as observations accumulate, the awareness of contrast dwindles and must be replaced with a growing understanding of how observations fit together within a system unique to the other culture. (p. 27) Helping teacher leaders see the value of learning about a new culture - a "culture of caring" is indeed a critical and integral part of our mission in early childhood teacher education. …


Methods for easily following the main changes in the composition, stability, and acidity of bio-oil as a result of hydrotreatment are presented in this paper. The methods provide the basis for the development of an analytical protocol, which can be used for bio-oil, as well as the hydrotreated products from bio-oil. The correlation to more conventional methods is provided; however, the use of these methods for the upgrading products is different than previously recognized. The differences in the properties of bio-oil and the hydrotreated products will also create challenges for the analytical protocol. Polar pyrolysis liquids and their hydrotreated products can be divided into five main groups with solvent fractionation, and the change in the proportions of the groups as a result of handling or processing is easy to follow. Over the past 10 years, this method has been successfully used for comparison of fast pyrolysis bio-oil quality and the changes during handling and storage and provides the basis of the analytical protocol presented in this paper. This paper describes the use of the method for characterization of bio-oil hydrotreatment products. A discussion of the use of gas chromatographic and spectroscopic methods is also included. In addition, fuel oil analyses suitable for fast pyrolysis bio-oils and hydrotreatment products are discussed.


The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) worldwide has increased dramatically in the last three decades. In 2014 there were 64.5 million individuals with diabetes in India alone. South Asians (SA) have a two to fourfold increased risk of T2DM at a significantly lower body mass index (BMI), occurring at a younger age and with a greater risk of diabetic related complications, when compared with white Europeans (EU). The rise in T2DM rates have coincided with increased levels of adiposity, 'westernised' diets and lower levels of physical activity, with more people living in urbanised environments. Even adjusting for these variables SA still have an increased risk of T2DM and the reason for this is unknown. Observational studies have demonstrated that SA phenotypically have higher levels of total fat (adipose tissue), less lean tissue (muscle), and lower cardiorespiratory fitness, as well as typically undertaking less physical activity compared with their EU counterparts. Whilst studies have indicated that these factors contribute to insulin resistance with varying degrees, the relationship between adipose tissue (AT) and insulin resistance has never been properly understood.
Triacylglycerol is the main storage form of fat. Due to poor diet and lower levels of physical activity, excess calories are stored in adipocytes in several adipose tissue depots in the body. Location of depots appears important, and evidence indicates that visceral (VAT) and ectopic fat depots significantly correlate with insulin resistance. Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and specifically superficial subcutaneous adipose tissue (SSAT) depots, have been associated with lower levels of insulin resistance and metabolic inflammation. As well as fat depot location cellular response of adipocytes is relevant, adipocytes can either expand in size (hypertrophy), or increase in cell number (hyperplasia) to accommodate excess energy. Hyperplasia has been associated with lower levels of inflammation and insulin resistance whilst hypertrophy has been associated with increased risk of T2DM and pro-inflammatory metabolic state. Adipogenesis is the process by which new adipocytes are recruited and fully differentiate to mature adipocytes with the ability to safely store triacylglycerol. Impairment of this process and dysfunctional adipogenesis has been associated with insulin resistance, T2DM, increased number of hypertrophic adipocytes, small adipocytes and ratio of small to large adipocytes.
South Asians have higher levels of total fat compared to EU, and it has been commonly presumed that more visceral and ectopic fat is present in SA causing insulin resistance. However, the limited number of studies analysing fat depots in SA have not all consistently demonstrated this. Cross-sectional studies of SA adipocyte morphology and function have found hypertrophic adipocytes associated with insulin resistance, but the causality and pathogenesis underlying these observations is not known. In 2007 the adipose tissue expandability hypothesis was proposed, implying that SA have limited ability to safely store fat in SSAT and therefore store excess fat in visceral and ectopic depots, causing insulin resistance and diabetes.
To explore the relationship between adiposity and insulin resistance in South Asians the Glasgow Visceral and ectopic fat with weight gain in South Asians (Glasvegas) study was proposed in 2014. This thesis is based on initial findings as part of the Glasvegas study and includes meta-analysis conducted to investigate adiposity distribution in South Asians. Given limitations of cross-sectional research the best way to observe underlying mechanisms is via a prospective weight gain/overfeeding study. In this thesis a group of male SA and EU participants gained ~6.4% body weight via supplemental overfeeding diet. Measurements were taken at baseline and following weight gain. These included whole-body MRIs to analyse fat depots, metabolic rate assessments, fitness tests, mixed-meal tolerance tests, subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies, physical activity and dietary measurements.
The findings of this thesis demonstrated that whole-body insulin sensitivity decreased by 38% in young, lean South Asian men with ~6.4% weight gain, but not in white Europeans. Adiposity analysis indicated that South Asians at baseline had more total fat, subcutaneous, deep subcutaneous (DSAT) and liver fat, but not visceral fat. South Asians had twice as much DSAT compared to EU (0.17 litres vs. 0.08 litres, p=0.003) and more liver fat (4.11% vs. 2.05%, p=0.01). Meta-analysis of studies of SA adipose distribution supported the finding that male SA have more SAT but not necessarily VAT.
The novel aspect of this study was prospective overfeeding. Unexpectedly the EU group gained more VAT than SA (0.56 litres vs. 0.23 litres, p=0.005) but there were no differences in liver or muscle fat gained between groups. White Europeans also gained significantly more lean tissue with overfeeding than SA (2.43 litres vs. 0.67 litres, p=0.02). There was no indication of a limited SSAT capacity in SA, which is contrary to expectations and the adipose tissue expandability hypothesis. Correlations were observed in SA with insulin resistance and the deep subcutaneous adipose tissue depot, which is larger in South Asians and metabolically akin to VAT. There were no contributions of fitness, physical activity or metabolic rate accounting for differences in insulin sensitivity.
Adipocyte findings indicated that EU increased size of adipocytes by hypertrophy in response to weight gain, without any change in insulin sensitivity. South Asians conversely already had larger adipocytes but did not change mean size with weight gain. South Asians increased numbers of very small and large adipocytes, and this is associated with dysfunctional adipogenesis and T2DM. There was also a trend to adipocyte hyperplasia noted in SA.
The combined findings of this thesis supported our hypothesis that SA would develop insulin resistance with weight gain, but adiposity findings were contrary to expectations. South Asians appear to have more subcutaneous and deep subcutaneous fat, but not visceral fat. This likely contributes to excess insulin resistance at lower BMI and there is evidence of dysfunctional adipogenesis with weight gain. Ongoing analysis of samples taken during this thesis, to investigate adipocyte gene expression and signalling pathways, is underway. Future studies are also required to help prevent adiposity in SA, reduce risk of dysfunctional adipogenesis and type 2 diabetes.


Multivariate time series prediction has applications in a wide variety of domains and is considered to be a very challenging task, especially when the variables have correlations and exhibit complex temporal patterns, such as seasonality and trend. Many existing methods suffer from strong statistical assumptions, numerical issues with high dimensionality, manual feature engineering efforts, and scalability. In this work, we present a novel deep learning architecture, known as Temporal Tensor Transformation Network, which transforms the original multivariate time series into a higher order of tensor through the proposed Temporal-Slicing Stack Transformation. This yields a new representation of the original multivariate time series, which enables the convolution kernel to extract complex and non-linear features as well as variable interactional signals from a relatively large temporal region. Experimental results show that Temporal Tensor Transformation Network outperforms several state-of-the-art methods on window-based predictions across various tasks. The proposed architecture also demonstrates robust prediction performance through an extensive sensitivity analysis.


The cryosphere is represented in some hydrological models by the areal extent of snow cover, a variable that has been operationally available in recent years through remote sensing. In particular, the snowmelt–runoff model (SRM) requires the remotely sensed snow-cover extent as a major input variable. The SRM is well-suited for simulating the hydrological response of a basin to hypothetical climate change because it is a non-calibrated model. In order to run the SRM in a climate-change mode, the response of the areal snow cover to a change in climate is critical, and must be calculated as a function of elevation, precipitation, temperature, and snow-water equivalent. For the snowmelt-runoff season, the effect of climate change on conditions in the winter months has a major influence. In a warmer climate, winter may experience more rain vs snow events, and more periods of winter snowmelt that reduce the snow water equivalent present in the basin at the beginning of spring snowmelt. As a result, the spring snowmelt runoff under conditions of climate warming will be affected not only by different temperatures and precipitation, but also by a different snow cover with a changed depletion rate. A new radiation-based version of the SRM is under development that will also take changes in cloudiness and humidity into account, making climate-change studies of the cryosphere even more physically based.


Micro-electrode array (MEA) technology has been exploited as a powerful tool for providing distributed information on learning, memory and information processing in cultured neuronal tissue, enabling an experimental perspective from the single cell level up to the scale of complex biological networks. An integral part in the use of MEAs involves the need to apply a local stimulus to stimulate or modulate the activity of certain regions of the tissue down to the single neuron level. Currently, this presents various limitations due to the low spatial resolution of the electrical stimulation. The recent development of optogenetic probes enables for the opportunity to switch from a full electrical paradigm to a combination of a reliable optical stimulation, including excitation and inhibition, coupled to large scale recordings based on MEA. In order to take full advantage from the expression of such optical tools, the capability of properly shaping the optical stimulation pattern has to be developed to fit at the same time either the single neuron targeting or multi site/large area stimulation. The design of a versatile patterned light projection device is an essential step towards this goal. Digital micro-mirrors devices (DMDs) spatial light modulators became recently available a tools for spatial mapped fluorescence measurements, photo-patterning, molecule uncaging and high resolution imaging. Here we describe a two-wavelength spatial light projection system for real-time closed loop modulation of neuronal activity, which is able to trigger a specific protocol of optical stimulation (space, time, wavelengths) by properly configuring the DMD upon detection of typical patterns (space and time) of electrical activation recorded with MEA. By adopting such an approach, it will be possible to better understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying the propagation and processing of the information in distinct neuronal subareas or subpopulations and their specific roles within in-vitro or ex-vivo neuronal networks.


The acidity of precipitation has been observed at stations of the Acid Rain Monitoring Network run by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA-ARMN) since 1992. Previous studies have shown that different long-term trends exist in different regions but detailed analysis of the causes of these is lacking. In this paper, we analyze summertime precipitation acidity data from the CMA-ARMN during 1992–2006 using EOFs and show that the summertime pH in China had different trends before and after 2000. The most significant decrease of pH is found in Central China. To investigate the causes of this decrease of pH in summer, we explore the relationship between changes in the pH value, the East Asian summer monsoon index, rainfall data, and pollutants emissions. We find that the East Asian summer monsoon can significantly affect the acidity of summer precipitation in Central China. In strong monsoon years, the pH in Central China is about 0.33 lower than that in weak monsoon years. Chemical transport model simulations using fixed emissions indicate that about 65% of the pH value difference (i.e., 0.22) is related to the summer monsoon, and constitutes 18–36% of the observed pH change (0.6∼1.2) in Central China during 1992–2006. Further studies reveal a relationship between the pH in Central China and the rainfall in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLYR), which can explain about 24% of the variance of pH in Central China. Simulations using an annually varying emission inventory show that at least 60% of the variation in precipitation acidity in Central China can be attributed to changes in pollutant emissions. Therefore, the increase in emissions of acidic species is the most important cause for the observed decrease of pH in Central China, and changes in meteorological factors, such as rainfall and other parameters related to the East Asian summer monsoon, play a less important but still significant role.


[1] A company's employee has sued for sexual harassment, age discrimination, or wrongful termination. Or, as another example, the company has been sued for infringement of intellectual property, breach of contract, fraud, or any number of other business reasons. During the course of discovery, the plaintiff serves discovery requests, including a request for data that has been deleted from the company's electronic records but may still be contained within the company's backup systems. The search for this data is time consuming and expensive. Discoverable materials may be found in the company's backup system, but does that possibility justify the lost productivity and expense to restore the material?


ABSTRACT : GLAD Conference 2015The Alternative Crit: peer feedback within art & designA pilot project involving final year students within BA Hons Contemporary Applied Arts, Belfast School of ArtPaperDickson, R. AbstractThis paper will explore the implementation of a pilot peer feedback project within BA Hons Contemporary Applied Arts (ceramics, jewellery and silversmithing), with specific relation to Final Year students. The design, implementation, attitudes and responses of students frame the context of the introduction of a more formalised approach to peer feedback within the art and design learning and teaching environment. Student consultation and input will be addressed.There is a range of evidence of the benefits of providing students with the opportunity to give feedback to, and receive it from, their peers. Peer feedback can demystify assessment strategies, develop skills in self-driven improvement in the quality and depth of work produced, and recognising high quality outcomes in the subject area (Sadler, 1989). The involvement in, and the participation in developing a peer feedback session can also enable students to 'take an active role in the management of their own learning' (Liu and Carless, 2006).The QAA has stated that encouraging students to reflect on their own performance as well as receiving feedback from their peers is worthwhile, and even more so "when opportunities for self-assessment are integrated in a module or programme" (QAA, 2006).The process of formalised peer feedback should work more successfully when responsibility is equally shared, where each student both gives and receives feedback, where the feedback occurs on a 'real' project, and where ground rules have been explained to students including explanations and value of constructive and formative feedback.Within art and design, various teaching methods are utilised, including lectures, seminars, individual and group tutorials and critiques. Students will have the opportunity to receive a range of feedback in many forms. As teaching is usually studio-based, many discussions are informal both between staff and student and student to student. This has many positive aspects, including continual informal, formative feedback. However, when students are required to provide feedback to their peers within a 'crit', often there is a lack of confidence in providing constructive criticism to their friends. The pilot peer feedback project aimed to overcome this tentative response through formalising the process and introducing an element of confidentiality.Peer feedback can take many different forms (Hounsell, 2008), through students commenting on a tutor's written feedback, they can provide criteria on which a piece of work is assessed, or they can comment/ give feedback on work which accompanies a tutor's written feedback.Peer feedback can take another form, which was employed in the pilot. Students are asked to assess and give written feedback to another student, on a piece of artwork and oral presentation. Module Feedback Forms are chosen at random, and the assessor remains confidential. This allows for honest, constructive and more rounded feedback. Each student will both give and receive feedback, and as a consequence, will have a richer understanding of the assessment process and its requirements.In consultation with students, the process was implemented and through feedback from students, further sessions were requested. It is extremely encouraging to see that students responded positively to peer feedback and recognised its value to their learning and development, and the benefit of alternative forms of feedback.


The development and optimisation of programs through search is a growing application area for computational intelligence techniques. Evolution-inspired search heuristics, such as genetic programming, provide methods for autonomously generating programs within the constraints of a program representation. Genetic programming is a machine learning approach to producing programs represented using executable or interpreted structures. However, despite theoretical advances, choosing a suitable representation remains a basic concern for designers. Choice of representation affects search space size, structure and accessible solutions, as well as engineering considerations such as ease of implementation.

Locality is a property of evolutionary search spaces derived from the representation and search operators, that relates genotype and phenotype distances. The interaction between search space locality and search performance under different representations is not well understood. The objective of this thesis is to broaden the present understanding of locality to encompass more complex representations, for example graphs and grammars, as well as non-traditional coevolutionary approaches.

This thesis presents four main original contributions. Firstly, a statistical approach to measuring locality is defined that incorporates the Mantel test, a method adapted from numerical ecology. The method is assessed empirically in a series of case studies over two established forms of genetic programming, Grammatical Evolution and Cartesian Genetic Programming. Secondly, a new approach to visualising locality is provided. The technique uses force-layout algorithms derived from the field of graph-drawing to construct fitness landscapes in genetic programming. The technique is applied to produce visualisations that demonstrate structural characteristics across regions of the search space. Thirdly, the effect of locality on performance is assessed in model coevolutionary problems. A framework to analyse performance in a coevolutionary context is provided, followed by an examination of the response to locality and coupled algorithm parameters. The final contribution explores the interaction between locality and two `pathological' dynamics in coevolutionary algorithms, disengagement and cycling. The analysis demonstrates that locality can influence the likelihood of coevolutionary pathologies, when using executable representations. Results are provided for new constructed problems and a coevolutionary pursuit and evasion task.

In the conclusions, directions for future analysis of the role of locality in evolutionary search are considered, as well as the relationship between these findings and other outstanding general issues in the field of genetic programming.


This work was based on the hypothesis that fingernail clippings can be used as a biomarker for the subchronic exposure to fluoride. The results provide data on factors that may affect the concentration of fluoride in fingernail clippings as determined with the electrode following HMDS–facilitated diffusion. The following variables had only minor or no effects on the concentrations: (1) the surface area of the clippings (intact, minced or filed into powder) that were placed into the diffusion dishes; (2) soaking in deionized water for up to 6 h; (3) soaking in fluoridated water (1.0 ppm) for 2 h, and (4) removal of the organic material of nails by dry ashing. Fingernail fluoride concentrations were approximately 50% higher than those in toenails. A 1–month period of increased fluoride intake by one of the authors resulted in significant increases in fingernail fluoride concentrations after a lag time of approximately 3.5 months. The fluoride concentrations in fingernail clippings obtained from three groups of Brazilian children were directly related to the concentrations in the drinking water (0.1, 1.6 or 2.3 ppm). The results indicate that: (1) HMDS–facilitated diffusion completely separates fluoride from intact nail clippings, so the need for ashing or other preparative methods is obviated; (2) fingernail fluoride is derived mainly from the systemic circulation, and (3) fluoride intake is reflected by the concentrations in fingernails.


India is undergoing a radical makeover. According to projections by the census office, large chunks of country are going to be urbanized over the next two decades. By 2026, more than half the populations of states like Tamilnadu, Maharastra, Gujarat and Punjab would be living in urban areas. India has entered the 21st Century with urban population of 285 million, which is even greater than the total population of United States of America. The million plus cities have also grown substantially in terms of number, size and area. As per 2001 Census there are 35 million plus cities, which account for about one third of India's urban population. The urbanization scenario reveal that the percentage of urban population which was about 20% in 1971 may increase to about 41 to 45% by 2021. In absolute terms it may increase to about 550 million by 2021. Ahmedabad is one of 35 million plus city, which is ranked seventh largest city in India. Urban governance encompasses institutional strengthening and capability building, decentralization, community participation, and involvement of the private sector. Community participation has increased in urban development through the involvement of non-government organizations (NGOs), cooperative societies, Non Trading Corporations, business associations, associations of slum dwellers, and other community-based organizations. Such groups may become involved in local planning initiatives, taking responsibility for infrastructure improvement and maintenance, collective ownership of land and development of housing and allotting units to their members, obtaining innovative means of credit, participating in the provision of basic services and providing stable socio-economic means. Land management is vital issue in urban governance. The present study is proposed to critically analyze various kind of formal ownership (title of property) of land that exists in city of Ahmedabad, the economic capital of Gujarat. The local authority classifies land into four classes on the basis of permissive use; namely public purpose, residential, commercial & industrial use. According to local Land Revenue Code, the ownership may be free hold or lease hold. Large chunk of land has no clear and marketable title as such. The ownership of the land is vested in individual, HUF (Hindu Undivided Family), group of individuals, Cooperative Societies, Non Trading Corporations (NTC), Association of Persons, Body of Individuals, Trust, Company, Club, Society, Government and its various Departments, Boards and Corporations. However this study is intended to focus on major ownership of land (lease or free hold) for housing & commercial purpose owned by individual, HUF, Cooperative Society & NTC and its impact to what an extent each type of ownership made an impact on spatial growth, efficiency and equity with context to development of Ahmedabad city. Objective & Research Problem: -How these alternatives of ownership performed in meeting various objectives including providing affordable (economic), sustainable (effectiveness) land ownership? -How far each alternative has made an impact on designed spatial growth? -To rate each alternative in terms of cost-effectiveness, service provision, credit access, service access and alienation of landed property. -What are the major constraints in each class of ownership affecting the efficiency of the formal land and housing market and land delivery? Research Methodology & Data Source: The study encompasses analysis using primary and secondary data from various sources. The ownership of land by different kind of person is already availed (as on 31st March 2005) from Local Authorities; namely Registrar of Assurance, Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The data pertaining to number of Cooperative Society and NTC, members, size of land held in each category will be made available from Registrar of Cooperative Society and Registrar of Companies, Gujarat state respectively. The detail of illegal construction will be availed from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, to analyze category wise illegal construction. Primary study will be conducted using structured questionnaire on a sample size in each category determined using appropriate quantitative tools to know perception and experience of the actual users or members of each type of ownership mode vis-a-vis individual ownership. The populations of study being all landowner in Ahmedabad city as on 31st march 2005. The result will be analyzed using statistical tools to measure impact of each variable with reference to the objectives set. Conclusion: The study likes to derive cost and benefit analysis of individual ownership of land vs. institutional ownership. These benefits may be to the ultimate user of land and government both, as the institutional ownership paves way for smooth control by government and affordability by member to required compliance. When individual can't afford expenses to comply, he tries to circumvent legal provisions. Again, collective ownership also offers cost effectiveness by allocation of common expenses. Within different institutional ownerships, research paper would like to discuss pros & cons of each category of ownership. Cooperative Society is used as tool to render justice to the weaker section of the society on the foundation of equity. HUF is cultural social institution, while NTC is association of person for limited purpose. At the end research outcome may tend to suggest any new model for institutional ownership for creating affordable, efficient and sustainable land ownership modes for better urban development plan.


In the present study, the operating temperatures of the mechanical heat pump
 (MHP) in waste heat recovery were investigated to elucidate the effect of
 control parameters such as compressor speed, wastewater temperature and mass
 flow rate. The experimental trials were performed using the Taguchi L27 full
 factorial orthogonal array, and the results were optimized for compressor
 suction gas temperature, compressor discharge gas temperature, temperature
 difference of water entering and leaving the evaporator, temperature
 difference of water entering and leaving the condenser, evaporation
 temperature and condensation temperature. Analysis of variance was conducted
 to determine the effect of the control factors on the operating temperatures
 of MHP. The analysis results show that the wastewater temperature was the
 most significant factor on compressor suction gas temperature and discharge
 gas temperature. The compressor speed has shown a meaningful effect on the
 temperature difference of water entering and leaving from condenser. The
 nominal levels of control factors and the optimal temperatures were specified
 for the studied experimental parameters. Prediction models were developed for
 the operating temperatures through the Taguchi method (TM) and the operating
 temperatures were predicted with a mean squared error less than 12%.


There has long been bad blood between India and Pakistan, but the South Asian nations are temporarily making peace.

Construction has begun on a corridor at the border, to allow Sikh pilgrims to travel visa free to their sacred place of worship and the resting place of Sikh leader Guru Nanak.

Without the crossing, Sikhs are required to view the the site from kilometres away through a set of binoculars.
But there are questions as to why are the rivals co-operating now, and if politicians are seeking to capitalise on a potential tourism market.


The dissolution of the old mechanisms of state welfare has not yet led to the generation of a new welfare settlement, although the rise of neoliberalism and of what Jessop has called the Schumpeterian Competition State have highlighted some key directions of change. The importance of geographical inequality and unevenness to the process of reshaping welfare has been widely recognised, and the fragmentation and decentralisation of employment and social policies are giving rise to the production of new welfare spaces, which institutionalise the new arrangements, helping to make up neoliberalism in practice. These issues are discussed with the help of case studies of two contrasting areas: Sheffield, a city recently experiencing economic restructuring and high levels of labour-market adjustment and employment deprivation; and Milton Keynes, a city which has been a growth area within the South East since the 1960s and which is earmarked for further employment and the location of planned population and employment growth. The ways in which new welfare spaces are being produced is explored through a consideration of the configuration of partnerships around the governance of workfare, welfare, and competitiveness within these cities.


We present remote-sensing and fi eld observations of an ~350-km-long east-west left-lateral strike-slip fault (the South Hangay fault) in the Hangay Mountains of central Mongolia, an area previously believed to be deforming solely by slip on scattered, and randomly oriented, normal faults. The known dip-slip faults are shown to be short segments introduced at bends in the much longer strike-slip fault. Our observations show that the active faulting in the Hangay Mountains is consistent with the regional strain fi eld of Mongolia and does not require, as suggested in other studies, that the faults result from stresses introduced by the locally elevated topography. Our observations help to defi ne the active tectonics of this important part of the India-Eurasia collision. The South Hangay strike-slip fault is a potential source of large-magnitude earthquakes and constitutes a previously unrecognized hazard in this part of Mongolia.


Phone no: +966504417712 E-mail: email@example.com ABSTRACT Aim: This study's objective was to analyze dentists' practice of drug information resources in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a 4-month cross-sectional study about the dentists' practice of drug information resources in Saudi Arabia. It is a self-reported and electronic survey of dentists. We included dentists from interns to consultants and from all specialties in dentistry and located in Saudi Arabia. The survey consisted of two parts. The first part collected demographic information. The second part collected data about the type of drug information inquiries, aspects of dental drug information resources, and the dental drug information resources and types of dental drug information resources used in practice are responsible. We used the 5-point Likert response scale system to obtain responses to the survey questions. The data were collected through the Survey Monkey system and analyzed through the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS), Jeffery's Amazing Statistics Program (JASP), and Microsoft Excel (version 16). Results: The average number of dental information resources was 0.84 per patient daily. The most commonly referred resource in relation to the dental drug information was biweekly (94 (36.43%)), monthly (92 (35.66%)) followed by weekly (35 (13.58%)) newsletter in addition to those published a few times per year (18 (6.98%)). The most frequently searched question was about the adverse reaction (190 (73.36%)) and drug availability (144 (55.60%)), whereas the majority of the dental prescriptions was related to the oral ulcer (83 (32.05%)) and sedation medications (74 (28.57%)). The average score for the item "implemented items for dental drug information resources" was 1.78. The highest score was obtained for the element "an annual plan of dental drug information resources" (1.88). In contrast, the lowest score was obtained for "dental drug information resources dentist's competency" (1.7), with statistically significant differences between all responses (p<0.001). The highest scores of dental drug information resources (to authorities) the responsibility was a clinical pharmacist (4.65) and pharmacy technicians (4.34). In contrast, the lowest score was dentists (2.19), with statistical signification among all answers in each aspect (p<0.001). Conclusion: Despite the demand for resources to resolve drug-related dental care problems, the resources were seldom utilized. Targeting education and training of dental information resources is required to improve dental patient care in Saudi Arabia.


The recent shift from conventional construction to green construction has brought about efficiency and improvement to the construction industry. However, the construction industry is still reluctant to embrace this new development. This circumstance is primarily due to a fundamental problem of the lack of clarity in grasping the concept of green construction. Consequently, it has called for a need to explore the current practice of green construction in the construction industry with which this research has attempted to deal. In this research, a considerable effort was made towards identifying the solution to the problem through the establishment of a green construction model. In the process of establishing the model, four objectives were outlined; (1) To identify the current practice of green construction, (2) To investigate the level of awareness and understanding of the benefits and disadvantages of green construction, (3) To investigate factors of green construction innovation, and (4) To determine the major challenges for the implementation of green construction. The findings used for the establishment of the model were structured and analysed based on the data from 346 usable questionnaires and 25 semi-structured interviews with the aid of SPSS 19 and NVivo-9 respectively. The datasets from the questionnaire survey were analysed using several statistical analyses; exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, assessment of normality, descriptive analysis (mean and ranking), and analysis of variance (ANOVA), while the datasets from the semi-structured interview were analysed using content analysis. A structural equation modelling (SEM-AMOS) was further employed in order to establish and validate the statistical model analyses that involved pooled-confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and moderation effect for the latent constructs. From the findings, it was found that the implementation of ISO 14001: Environmental Management System attained the highest mean score for the current practices. The mean scores for the level of awareness and understanding in green construction were almost equal; the highest mean score for benefits was "Improve customer satisfaction" and the highest mean score for disadvantages was "High cost of green construction material." Subsequently, the highest mean scores for green construction innovation and challenges were "Environmental Policies and Procedures in Green Construction" and "Lack of Awareness of the Environmental Preservation" respectively. Based on the overall establishment and validation of the model, it was found that the model performed well and all five hypotheses of the model establishment were supported. From the practical perspective, the model should be able to encourage construction stakeholders to be more attentive in the area of green construction. Hence, it can be used as a diagnostic tool for the continuous improvement of green construction in the Malaysian construction industry.


A modification of the agar-gel precipitation inhibition technique of Thorne and Belton for detecting anthrax antibodies reduces inconsistency of visually determined end points on the same sera observed by different technicians. Determination of the minimal reacting concentrations of the anthrax antigen and antibody reagents, modifications of the visualization apparatus, methods for combining reagents, and length of incubation periods contribute to the ease of the end-point determinations and the uniformity of results. When compared with the previous technique, the modified procedure is less time-consuming while retaining satisfactory reproducibility, simplicity, specificity, and sensitivity.


High-speed photonic switching networks can switch optical signals at the rate of several terabits per second. However, they suffer from an intrinsic crosstalk problem when two optical signals cross at the same switch element. To avoid crosstalk, active connections must be node disjoint in the switching network. In this paper, a sequence of decomposition and merge operations, called conjugate transformation, performed on each switch element to tackle this problem, is proposed. The network resulting from this transformation is called the conjugate network. By using the numbering schemes of networks, the authors prove that if the route assignments in the original network are link disjoint, their corresponding ones in the conjugate network would be node disjoint. Thus, traditional nonblocking switching networks can be transformed into crosstalk-free optical switches in a routine man- ner. Furthermore, it has been shown that crosstalk-free multicast switches can also be obtained from existing nonblocking multicast switches via the same conjugate transformation.


The vibration control problem for flexible structures is examined within the context of overall controller performance and power reduction. First, the issue of optimal sensor and actuator placement is considered along with its associated control robustness aspects. Then the option of alternately activating subsets of the available devices is investigated. Such option is considered in order to better address the effects of spatiotemporally varying disturbances acting on a flexible structure while reducing the overall energy consumption. Towards the solution to the problem of optimal device placement, three different approaches are proposed. First, a computationally efficient scheme for the simultaneous placement of multiple devices is presented. The second approach proposes a strategy for the optimal placement of sensors and collocated sensor/actuator pairs, taking into account the influence of the spatial distribution of disturbances. The third approach provides a solution to the actuator location problem by incorporating considerations with respect to preferred spatial regions within the flexible structure. Then the second problem named above is considered. Activating a subset of the available and optimally placed actuators and sensors in a flexible structure provides enhanced performance with reduced energy consumption. Such approach of switching on and off different actuating devices, depending on their local-in-time authority, results in a hybrid system. Therefore the proposed work draws on existing results on hybrid systems and includes an additional degree of freedom, whereby both the actuating devices and the control signals allocated to them are switched in and out. To enable this switching an activation strategy, which insures also that stability-under-switching is guaranteed, is required. Three different strategies are considered for such actuators allocation: first a cost-to-go index is considered, then a cost function based on the mechanical energy of the flexible structure and finally a performance index based on the maximum deviation of the transverse displacement. A flexible aluminum plate was chosen to validate and test the proposed approaches. The set up utilized four pairs of collocated piezoceramic patches that serve to provide sensing and actuating capabilities. Extensive numerical simulations were performed for both the placement strategies and the switching policies proposed, in order to predict the behavior of the flexible plate and provide the optimal actuator and sensor locations that were to be affixed on the flexible structure. Finally, to complete the validation process a sequence of experimental tests were performed. The objective of these tests was to compare the performance of the proposed hybrid control system to traditional non switched control schemes. In order to provide a repeatable perturbation, four of the piezoceramic patches were allocated to simulate a spatiotemporally varying disturbance, while the remaining four patches were used as sensors and controlling actuators. The experimental results showed a significant performance improvement for the switched controller over the traditional controller. Moreover the switched controller exhibited improved robustness towards spatiotemporally varying disturbances while the traditional controller showed a significant loss of controller performance. The improvement achieved in vibration control problems could be extended to a wider range of applications. In particular, although this study was concentrated on a rectangular thin plate, the proposed strategies can be applied to any structure and more generally to any plant whose dynamics can be represented by a second order linear system. For example, by removing the restriction of spatially fixed actuators and sensors, the proposed theory can be applied to the problem of unmanned vehicles control. Acknowledgements I would like to gratefully thank my advisor Prof. Demetriou for his guidance during my academic studies at WPI. I would like to thank my family and my wife for all the moral and practical support they provided during those years. I am also grateful to all the members of the Aerospace group of ME Dept. for being an always stimulating source of knowledge and help at the same time. Thanks to Randy and Sia for their invaluably help with computer problems and to Barbara Furhman, Pamela St Louis and Barbara Edilberti for their precious help with the bureaucracy world.


Estrium Whey is an alternative nutritional support therapy for women.It's enhanced with specific nutrients including phytoestrogens,folate,antioxidants and fiber to support healthy estrogen detoxification and hormone balance.We describe the first case of hepatotoxicity due to Estrium Whey in a 51-year old female with metastatic breast cancer with clinical,laboratory and histopathological changes.


Eurycoma longifolia Jack or Tongkat Ali is well known among the local communities mainly for its aphrodisiac properties and its effectiveness as the cytotoxic, anti-malarial, anti-ulcer, anti-tumor promoting and anti-parasitic agent. In view of its potential commercial value as a plantation crop as well as to conserve its germplasm, the somatic embryogenesis and direct plant regeneration of E. longifolia were carried out as these in vitro micropropagation protocols had not been reported.

In attempts to establish the somatic embryos of E. longifolia, the potential of cotyledon, zygotic embryo, leaf, petiole, stem and taproot in forming embryogenic callus were examined in the basal Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different auxins at various concentrations. Only cotyledon explants were able to form embryogenic callus in the presence of 1.0 mg/L (w/v) of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic (2,4-D) at 30%. A higher yield (60%) of embryogenic callus was obtained when the Type 4 method dissected cotyledon explants were cultured in basal MS medium containing 0.5 mg/L (w/v) of kinetin and 1.0 mg/L (w/v) of 2,4-D. The highest number of somatic embryos (45 ± 2) was observed in the same medium formulation with the addition of 1.0 g/L (w/v) activated charcoal. Subsequent transfer of these mature somatic embryos in basal MS media supplemented with 1.0 mg/L (w/v) of kinetin produced a 90% of plantlet regeneration. Addition of activated charcoal, casein hydrolysate, abscisic acid, proline and polyethylene glycol (PEG) at various concentrations into the regeneration medium did not stimulate the conversion of E. longifolia somatic embryo into plantlet. The differences between the embryogenic and non-embryogenic callus were also determined based on histological studies.

Successful direct plant regeneration was obtained from the root, stem, shoot tip, axillary and adventitious bud explants. Each explant generally requires different combinations of media and plant growth regulators to produce the highest regeneration percentage. In the root explant, the best medium formulation determined was basal Juglans medium (DKW) supplemented with 1.0 mg/L (w/v) of kinetin + 1.0 mg/L (w/v) of zeatin whereas in the stem explants, basal woody plant medium (WPM) enriched with 2.0 mg/L (w/v) of BAP and 2.0 mg/L (w/v) of zeatin was found to be the best medium formulation in increasing the regeneration rate and healthy plantlets formation. Stem and root explants that were 2 cm distant from one another as has been identified as the most suitable position for attaining the maximum percentage of direct plant regeneration. Successful direct plant regeneration from in vitro and in vivo shoot tip explants of E. longifolia was achieved in basal MS medium supplemented with 3.0 and 5.0 mg/L (w/v) of kinetin, respectively. As for the direct plant regeneration from axillary bud explant, explants produced the highest regeneration capability (90%) in basal Nitsch medium (NM) supplemented with 10.0 mg/L (w/v) of zeatin while basal NM supplied with 6.0 mg/L (w/v) of zeatin produced the highest regeneration percentage in adventitious bud explants. Rooting induction of in vitro plantlets of E. longifolia was also achieved and the highest induction rate was attained in basal MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L (w/v) of Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Acclimatization of in vitro plantlets regenerated from somatic embryogenesis and direct plant regeneration survived well with no morphological differences from the parent plants after two months of transplantation to the soil.


There are over two billion children worldwide under the age of 18, who are targeted by an increasing number of television channels solely dedicated to them. As such globally circulated programmes and networks expand their reach using digital platforms, is there a need – and room for – locally produced television content for young people? From the perspective of national media policy advocates, locally developed, produced and broadcast programmes can provide children with a sense of their own place in an increasingly complex globalized media landscape and ensure that programmes are developed with the interest, perspective and views of local children in mind. This article explores the dichotomy between 'local' and 'global' television content targeting children in the context of debates on media globalization. Our three case studies from radically different media policy environments, focus specifically on locally produced content offered on dedicated national children's digital television channels launched locally to promote the cultural heritage of a specific nation or region. They provide concrete examples of how local content is conceptualized and what types of content children have to choose from. Our findings are paradoxical. Although each channel has been created to speak back to dominant audio-visual children's flows from the periphery, our findings are that the better funded nationally based dedicated children's channels have grown into successful market players beyond original national boundaries. The first case study examines dedicated local children's provision in New Zealand, focusing on TVNZ6, a digital children's channel that operated as part of the public service broadcasting sector. The second case study focuses on children's television content in Hungary and uses the case of Minimax Hungary, an Eastern European regional commercial network targeting children growing up in a dynamically transforming post-communist media system. The third case study looks at television content produced in the Middle East by focusing on Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC), a pan-Arabic non-commercial edutainment channel established in Qatar and funded by the Qatar Foundation.


The enrichment of glycopeptides plays an important role in glycoproteomics. In this paper, a covalent-organic framework called TpPa-1, synthesized by the Schiff base reaction of 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol and paraphenylenediamine, was first successfully utilized as a hydrophilic porous material for N-linked glycopeptide enrichment. Using this material, interference from non-glycopeptides could be efficiently eliminated, which facilitated the mass spectrometry detection of glycopeptides. By capturing N-linked glycopeptides from tryptic digests of human IgG, our method was proved to have high sensitivity at the femtomole level. And it showed superior selectivity for glycopeptides even when non-glycopeptides were 1000 times more concentrated. Due to the strong covalent bonds, this material possessed good stability and could be repeatedly used for at least 10 times. The ultra-low mass density and abundant binding sites also provided it with high binding capacity (178 mg g-1, IgG/TpPa-1). Moreover, N-linked glycopeptides were easily enriched by this material from only 10 μL human serum, which demonstrated its potential in pretreatment of complex biological samples.


textabstractIf significance testing were a game, it would be dictated by chance and encourage researchers to cheat. A dominant rule would be that once you conduct a study, you go all in: you have one go at your one preregistered hypothesis — one outcome measure, one analysis plan, one sample size or stopping rule etc. — and either you win (significance!) or you lose everything. The game does not allow you to conduct a second study, unless you prespecified that as well, together with the first. Strategies that base future studies on previous results, and then meta-analyze, are not allowed. Honestly reporting the p-value next to your 'I lost everything' result does not help; that is like reporting the margin in a winner takes all game. In a new round you have to start over again. No wonder researchers cheat this game by filedrawering and p-hacking. The best way to solve this might be to change the game. Fortunately, this is possible by preventing researchers from losing everything and allowing them to reinvest their previous earnings in new studies. This new game keeps score in terms of $-values instead of p-values, and tests with Safe Tests.


The "Ring Learning with Errors" (RLWE) problem was formulated as a variant of the "Learning with Errors" (LWE) problem, with the purpose of taking advantage of an additional algebraic structure in the underlying considered lattices; this enables improvements on the efficiency and cipher expansion on those cryptographic applications which were previously based on the LWE problem. In Eurocrypt 2010, Lyubashevsky et al. introduced this hardness problem and showed its relation to some known hardness problems over lattices with a special structure. In this work, we generalize these results and the problems presented by Lyubashevsky et al. to the more general case of multivariate rings, highlighting the main differences with respect to the security proof for the RLWE counterpart. This hardness problem is denoted as "Multivariate Ring Learning with Errors" ($m$-RLWE or multivariate RLWE) and we show its relation to hardness problems over the tensor product of ideal lattices. Additionally, the $m$-RLWE problem is more adequate than its univariate version for cryptographic applications dealing with multidimensional structures.


Ira Shor is a pioneer in the field of critical education who for over twenty years has been experimenting with learning methods. His work creatively adapts the ideas of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire for North American classrooms. In Empowering Education Shor offers a comprehensive theory and practice for critical pedagogy. For Shor, empowering education is a student-centered, critical and democratic pedagogy for studying any subject matter and for self and social change. It takes shape as a dialogue in which teachers and students mutually investigate everyday themes, social issues, and academic knowledge. Through dialogue and problem-posing, students become active agents of their learning. This book shows how students can develop as critical thinkers, inspired learners, skilled workers, and involved citizens. Shor carefully analyzes obstacles to and resources for empowering education, suggesting ways for teachers to transform traditional approaches into critical and democratic ones. He offers many examples and applications for the elementary grades through college and adult education.