This study examined determinants of fertility in Bangladesh. Data were obtained from the 1993-94 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey among a nationally representative 2-stage sample of 9640 ever-married females aged 10-49 years. Findings indicate that the age-specific marital fertility rate was highest among women aged 15-19 years. The total fertility rate was 3.44 births/woman in 1993-94 and 5.12 births/woman in 1989. The interval between marriage and first birth declined more for younger cohorts. The proportion of women who had a child within 5 years increased. Over 60% were married under the age of 14 years. The proportion currently married has remained stable since 1981. The number of those never married has increased, especially among women aged 15-19 years. 44.6% of currently married women used family planning; 36.2% used modern methods and 8.4% used traditional ones. Prevalence was highest for the pill, followed by female sterilization. 48% of infants were breast-fed on the first day. Breast-feeding duration averaged 30 months. Duration of postpartum amenorrhea averaged 12 months. 0.5% reported induced abortion. Analysis of proximate determinants indicates that contraception accounted for 39.0% of fertility decline; lactational infecundability accounted for 34.7%. Marriage patterns accounted for 23.9%. The fertility inhibition of contraception varied by religion. Contraception had the highest impact among higher educated, upper class, urban, and non-Muslim women. Lactational infecundability had the highest impact among poor, nonworking, illiterate, and non-Muslim women.


Translating and translation are transformed with Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Within three decades, a new work environment is shaking up the translator's world. New types of translators are emerging. The balance between supply and demand is changing. However, we need adequate tools and methods to investigate the new hierarchy which has become established between translators, between different kinds of job markets. Journalists are like translators confronted with computerization and an influx of amateurs. With all those rapid changes, it is time to consider an economic turn in Translation Studies and also the implications for training.


Mutual cooperation has become a mechanism that businesses and non-government organizations have adopted in order to address complex social problems that neither sector alone has the ability, resources and knowledge to deal with appropriately. By integrating two different perspectives these relations can create an added value in the long run for both parties as well as for the society. The present work focuses on the identification of conditions of establishing relations with local enterprises by non-government organizations in peripheral areas, as well as identification of local enterprises leaders' opinions and attitude in relation to the creation of relations with entities of the third sector. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.90.4.14255


Nonlinear pulse propagation in a fiber Bragg grating is investigated numerically by solving coupled-mode equations including the generation of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a time region shorter than the phonon lifetime. It is found that the Brillouin threshold is substantially reduced compared with that in an optical fiber with no gratings. Nonlinear pulse propagation is investigated for two device operations whose driving point (i.e., frequency) lies outside the stop band and at the center of the stop band (zero detuning). In general, the generation of a single pulse or a pulse train that is due to modulational instability is spoiled by the pump depletion owing to SBS for incident pulses longer than 1 ns. In the interaction between SBS and nonlinear grating dynamics, there is a distinct difference between two device operations. This reflects the difference in the fields within the grating. Especially the pulse generation from an instability of gap solitons excited at the stop-band frequency is affected by SBS even if the pulse width is less than 1 ns.


Using runtime execution artifacts to identify malware and its associated "family" is an established technique in the security domain. Many papers in the literature rely on explicit features derived from network, file system, or registry interaction. While effective, use of these fine-granularity data points makes these techniquse computationally expensive. Moreover, the signatures and heuristics this analysis produces are often circumvented by subsequent malware authors. To this end we propose CHATTER, a system that is concerned only with the order in which high-level system events take place. Individual events are mapped onto an alphabet and execution traces are captured via terse concatenations of those letters. Then, leveraging an analyst labeled corpus of malware, n-gram document classification techniques are applied to produce a classifier predicting malware family. This paper describes that technique and its proof-of-concept evaluation. In its prototype form only network events are considered and three malware families are highlighted. We show the technique achieves roughly 80% accuracy in isolation and makes non-trivial performance improvements when integrated with a baseline classifier of non-ordered features (with an accuracy of roughly 95%).


Personal care items, pharmaceutical formulations, food additives, detergents, plasticizers, and industrial solvents manufactured from artificially synthesized acids or petrochemicals can be produced with more sustainable methods. The metabolic engineering of microbial hosts, specifically the heterotrophic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using a cost-effective wastewater-based growth medium could potentially provide a solution. Upregulation of the fatty acid biosynthesis (FAS) pathway present in this species is key to increasing all fatty acid-derived products. Three plasmids containing genes responsible for the production of the enzymes acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC1), fatty acid synthase (FAS), and fatty acid reductase (Far1), were transformed into S. cerevisiae cells using the PEG-LiOAc method. Transformation was conducted separately and together to optimize efficiency. We hypothesized that transformed cells would display more varied fatty acid and fatty alcohol profiles, and an increased ability to grow in a modified wastewater-based medium while degrading dissolved organics. A spectrophotometric assay predicated on the oxidation of NADPH to NADP+ was performed to determine the activity of the overexpressed enzymes. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis underscored the presence of C-16 and C-18 fatty alcohols and fatty acids present in the yeast. Finally, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis portrayed a reduction in organic compounds in wastewater media that was metabolized by S. cerevisiae while evidence of ethanol production via fermentation was seen. The study adds to research on renewable energy alternatives, but more importantly, demonstrates an effective method in which S. cerevisiae can biologically produce valuable specialty and commodity chemicals to mitigate petroleum use while removing organic content from wastewater.


Styles in design have a strong evocative power for consumers and are commonly used by brands to communicate specific associations of ideas. This article describes the style elements and the associations related to a contemporary style in graphic design: the neo-retro style. We argue that this style is linked to the hipster subculture but used in a broader context. Complementary methods were used to progressively determine the styling elements and the values related to this style. Study 1, a multi-method qualitative study using creative sessions and content analysis, yields a description of the formative elements of the neo-retro style from both an analytical (structure, graphics, and information) and a holistic perspective (naturalness, harmony, elaborateness). In study 2, we designed eight coffee packages manipulating structural and graphical elements, namely the presence of ornaments, texture and variation in typefaces, and tested the associations evoked by these elements among 251 participants. The results first confirm quantitatively that these elements are evocative of the neo-retro style. We also show that this style is associated with values such as authenticity and craftsmanship and as such with the hipster subculture. The study contributes to theory and practice in the fields of design and brand management and shows that packaging elements can be manipulated to evoke values in the marketplace.


In the records of Lamarck's audiences, six students of Greek origin could be identified as attending his lectures between 1804-1827. In the catalogue published by Pietro Corsi four of them are listed as Greeks and two as Romanians. All have been properly identified. The Greeks were I. Kokkonis, S. Kanellos, D. Nitsos and D. Taillapierras, while the Romanians were two Greek physicians residing in Romania, I. K. Bouboukis and Th. Georgiades. It is worth noting that after their return to their home country none of them wrote on or advertised Lamarck's doctrines on species transformation.


The Zika virus (ZIKV), a flavivirus related to yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis, originated in the Zika forest in Uganda and was discovered in a rhesus monkey in 1947. The disease now has "explosive" pandemic potential, with outbreaks in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas. Since Brazil reported Zika virus in May 2015, infections have occurred in at least 20 countries in the Americas. Puerto Rico reported the first locally transmitted infection in December 2015, but Zika is likely to spread to the United States. The Aedes species mosquito (an aggressive daytime biter) that transmits Zika virus (as well as dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever) occurs worldwide, posing a high risk for global transmission. Modeling anticipates significant international spread by travelers from Brazil to the rest of the Americas, Europe, and Asia. What steps are required now to shore up preparedness in the Americas and worldwide?


Build mobile-optimized websites using the simple, practical, and powerful jQuery-based framework Overview Create websites that work beautifully on a wide range of mobile devices Develop your own jQuery mobile project with the help of three sample applications Packed with easy-to-follow examples and clear explanations of how to easily build mobile-optimized websites In Detail jQuery Mobile is a unified, HTML5-based user interface system for all popular mobile device platforms. It is the most practical HTML/JavaScript framework available today. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use jQuery Mobile with your HTML pages, and create mobile friendly websites in no time. jQuery Mobile Web Development Essentials - Second Edition will explain how to add the framework to your HTML pages to create rich, mobile optimized web pages with minimal effort. By using simple data attributes, you can quickly create mobile pages and other widgets. You'll see how each widget works, with the help of detailed examples and screenshots. jQuery Mobile Web Development Essentials - Second Edition is packed with examples that will help you become a pro at mobile web development. We will begin with simple HTML, and quickly enhance it using jQuery Mobile for incredible mobile optimized sites. We start off by learning the building blocks of jQuery Mobiles component driven design. We then dig into forms, events, and styling. You'll see how jQuery Mobile automatically enhances content, and learn how to use the JavaScript API for building complex sites. Along the way, we will leverage all these concepts, and build three sample mobile applications. What you will learn from this book Use simple HTML to create mobile optimized sites Structure your sites for browsing on mobile devices Include forms for interactive sites Convert desktop sites into mobile versions Use HTML5s local storage feature in jQuery Mobile Theme your jQuery Mobile site with the online theme builder Create native applications Approach Packed with practical examples, code, and screenshots, this book will show you how to create mobile optimized sites using the easiest, most practical HTML/JavaScript framework available today. Who this book is written for If you are a web developer looking to create mobile optimized websites then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of HTML is required. Some familiarity with JavaScript will help, but is not required.


Privacy has long been a matter of particular concern in the minds of Americans. Indeed, privacy concerns were at the crux of the American Revolution. The earliest days of colonial life saw creation of laws protecting the individual against eavesdropping, and the sanctity of one's home.1 The Bill of Rights also reflects privacy interests.2 As America grew, technological advances in the dissemination of information caused public demands for protection of privacy rights; contemporary debates echo these demands.3 For example, as early as the Civil War, telegraph-tapping technologies emerged. Soon afterward, Congress sought to obtain certain messages directly from Western Union. This resulted in debate in both public fora and the halls of Congress over the sanctity of personal communications.4 A familiar pattern has emerged over decades. Although there have been slight variations in the privacy debate, the fundamental tension has always been among the needs of the government, the desire of the public to consume information through mass media, and the right of an individual to her private world. In today's rapidly advancing technological age, it seems as though privacy has increasingly fallen by the wayside. From private personal information stolen by hackers, to information lost through careless transfer online (and sometimes even openly disclosed by private entities or the government), today's newspapers are full of stories about the loss of personal privacy in the Information Age.5 The ubiquity of information today has certainly brought the privacy of individuals into the forefront of the national consciousness. Today, there exist hundreds of different laws pertaining to privacy.6 Against this background, policymakers, academics, and the public continue to examine these centuries-old questions regarding whether Americans have a constitutional right to privacy. If so, where in the Constitution is the specific source of that right? If not, to what extent should privacy be protected by statute or common law? These questions remain unanswered to any satisfactory degree. Looking back, however, it seems that the Framers intended some form of constitutional protection of privacy. How much protection they intended and whether their goal has been accomplished remain elusive.7 As a result, definitions and sources of a right to privacy continue to vary widely among scholars, the judiciary, and the public in general.8 Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren were the first scholars to describe privacy as a systemic legal right.9 Their seminal article grounded a right to privacy in the Constitution.10 As this article gained recognition, privacy rights became accepted as part of American constitutional law. At its most basic, this right was simply conceived as "the right to be left alone;" from that concept two primary branches of privacy rights developed, physical privacy and decisional privacy.11 The idea of a right to "informational privacy" has more recently emerged as a branch of the right to privacy12 Constitutional doctrine and the common law have been slow to respond to claimed invasions of informational privacy-when private information that one gives out to third parties such as a health care provider, a bank, or the government is stolen, misused, or wrongfully disclosed.13 The rapid advancements of the technological age, which add to the already unfilled holes in privacy rights law, have only resulted in more questions for the courts to answer. This Special Topic issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review explores the right to privacy from several angles. The first Note examines the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's ("HIPAA's") Privacy Rule, an attempt by Congress to restrict sharing of an individual's private medical records to the minimum disclosure necessary for the functioning of the health care system. HIPAA's intent to address current privacy concerns is laudable, but the author points out that the unavailability of a private right of action presents a classic enforcement problem. …


A severe form of respiratory disease – COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, has evolved into a pandemic resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. The unabated spread of the disease is due to lack of vaccine and effective therapeutic agents against this novel virus. Hence, the situation demands an immediate need to explore all the plausible therapeutic and prophylactic strategies that can be made available to stem the spread of the disease. Towards this effort, the current review outlines the key aspects of the pathobiology associated with the morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients, which includes a viral response phase and an exaggerated host response phase. The review also summarizes therapeutic agents that are currently being explored along with those with potential for consideration. The broad groups of therapeutic agents discussed include those that: (i) block viral entry to host cells, (ii) block viral replication and survival in host cells, and (iii) dampen exaggerated host immune response. The various kinds of pharmaceutical prophylactic options that may be followed to prevent COVID-19 have also been discussed.


Within both popular media and (some) scientific contexts, affective and 'emotional' machines are assumed to already exist. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to some of the key conceptual and theoretical issues raised by the ostensible affectivity. My investigation starts with three robotic encounters: a robot arm, the first (according to media) 'emotional' robot, Pepper, and Mako, a robotic cat. To make sense of affectivity in these encounters, I discuss emotion theoretical implications for affectivity in human-machine-interaction. Which theories have been implemented in the creation of the encountered robots? Being aware that in any given robot, there is no strict implementation of one single emotion theory, I will focus on two commonly used emotion theories: Russell and Mehrabian's Three-Factor Theory of Emotion (the computational models derived from that theory are known as PAD models) and Ekman's Basic Emotion Theory. An alternative way to approach affectivity in artificial systems is the Relational Approach of Damiano et al. which emphasizes human-robot-interaction in social robotics. In considering this alternative I also raise questions about the possibility of affectivity in robot-robot-relations.


The relationship between social ties, stage of disease, and survival was analyzed in a population-based sample of 525 black and 486 white women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. There were significant differences between the two race groups in reported social ties. Using logistic regression to adjust for the effects of age, race, study area, education, and the presence of symptoms, there was little or no evidence for an association between individual network measures of social ties and stage of disease. However, a summary measure of social networks was found to be associated modestly with late stage disease, attributable in part to significantly more advanced disease among black, but not white, women reporting few friends and relatives [relative risk (RR) = 1.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.1-3.0]. With adjustments for differences in stage of disease and other covariates, and with the use of Cox proportional hazards modeling to estimate hazard ratios, the absence of close ties and perceived sources of emotional support were associated significantly with an increased breast cancer death rate. White women in the lowest quartile of reported close friends and relatives had twice the breast cancer death rate of white women in the highest quartile (RR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.1-4.4). Notably, both black and white women reporting few sources of emotional support had a higher death rate from their disease during the 5-year period of follow-up (RR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.3-2.5).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Some sixty times in the Iliad and Odyssey, the narrator describes a sequence of events with the climactic phrase, "And now X would have happened, had not Y intervened." Though some recent studies have begun to focus on this narrative technique, a fuller accounting of its properties remains desirable, as many of the passages where it is employed are quite significant to the overall construction of the plots. I have termed the phenomenon pivotal contrafactuals. The present study argues that the composer achieves three general narrative benefits by employing this device. First, it is a method for emphatically changing the direction of the plot (hence the adjective "pivotal"). Second, it allows the narrator to confer added emphases of various kinds upon the events he describes. Third, the narrator often uses the construction to make an editorial comment upon the character on whose behalf the intervention occurs. Intriguingly, Homer appears to link some pivotal contrafactuals together through various means. Some occur as equivalent elements in different multiforms of a common type scene. Some occur in different narratives describing the same event. These latter raise the possibility that divine intervention of which he is unaware occurs in Odysseus9s narrative of his wanderings. Finally, I suggest that a passage at the beginning of the Catalogue of Ships, which has attracted various interpretations, is a modified pivotal contrafactual.


STEM is generally considered to be a male-dominated environment. The geek culture that often leads to social issues, and the gender imbalance that leads to fewer girls choosing a STEM subject, are becoming important topics of research. Peer learning has been widely used across the world to support retention and better grades with a more recent focus on adopting this approach to tackle issues around gender imbalance and perceived 'laddish' culture. Through peer learning, students are encouraged to work alongside their tutors, and to practice the critical soft skills that they will need as they move into the workplace. This paper explores the role of gender and geek culture, considering how students can break down the stereotypes while moving away from didactic approaches. The gender gap in STEM has narrowed, but women are still underrepresented. 'Geek culture' often creates a high-tech, androcentric environment. Policy makers have agreed that the geek culture needs to be researched and its impact identified. Social interactions and relations are the reflection of interpersonal values, and the peer norms may affect a students' engagement and motivations in STEM subjects. The discussion will examine how peer learning can prepare students in Higher Education and offer insights into creating an environment in which students can become partners. Peer learning can represent a significant step in enabling students to become more engaged in their learning and is becoming an important element across institutions globally. There is a plethora of approaches to peer learning and it is encouraging to observe how students transform and mature by participating in the scheme. Evidence is accumulating that peer learning can enable students to become more confident and independent, enhancing not only their transition into Higher Education but also into industry. Peer learning can have a positive influence across the disciplines and supports students in achieving more than they might otherwise do. It can also examine, in an informal way, the gender issues, laddish and geek culture, and promote the sense of belongingness in STEM disciplines. This paper will inform readers about how peer learning can reconstruct the geek culture and transform it from self-centred to forming relationships and overcoming social issues. With regard to Higher Education specifically, we try to understand the different situational frames that are being generated by such cultures, how we can influence those stereotypes, and make them more acceptable and more inclusive.


We address the multicast issue in a wide area WDM network in which a source broadcasts its message to some sites in the network. This problem can be formalized as the following optimal multicast tree problem. Given a directed graph G = (V, E) with a source s and a set S of nodes, assume that every node in S (⊂ V) is reachable from s. Associated with every link e ∈ E, there is a set Λ(e) of available wavelengths on it, |V| = n and |E| = m, find a multicast tree rooted at s including all the nodes in S with minimizing the cost of the tree, in terms of the sum of the cost of wavelength conversion at nodes and the cost of using wavelengths on links in the tree. That is, not only do we need to find a directed tree rooted at s, but also do we need to assign a specific wavelength Λ ∈ Λ(e) to every tree edge e and to set the switches at every node in the tree. Since this problem is NP-complete, it is unlikely that there is a polynomial algorithm to find an exact solution for it. Instead, we first present an approximation algorithm for the problem which runs in time O(k2n + km +kn log(kn) + (kn)1/e|S|), and delivers a solution within O(|S|e) of the optimal, for any fixed 0 > e ≤ 1. We then present a distributed version of the proposed algorithm. The communication and time complexities of the distributed algorithm are O(km) and O(kn) respectively, and the solution delivered is |S| times of the optimal, where k is the number of wavelengths in the network. Finally, we conduct some experiments to verify the applicability of the proposed algorithms. The experimental results matches our algorithmic claims.


The relationship between design and the determination of social and skill practices has been under-considered within the literature. This paper investigates the relationship between design and skill transmission in the context of the Second World War 'Shadow Factory' programme. The Shadow Factory programme formed an integral part of the Second World War re-armament strategy of the British Government. The term came into widespread use to describe both (1) duplicated facilities under the direct control of the parent company and (2) distributed facilities managed by other companies with appropriate skills. This paper examines the Shadow Factory component of the wartime expansion of manufacturing production in Britain, and its implications for skill formation and gender in the workplace. The paper also explores the extent to which these shadow plants represented a government-sponsored attempt at technology transfer from the automobile industry to the aircraft industry. The rationale for the advent of this policy was that the introduction of metal fabrication to both aircraft and motor industries had narrowed the difference between them. The managerial skills developed in mass car production were deemed essential to the volumes now required from an aircraft industry that had survived the inter-war period on limited government orders. The shortage of appropriately experienced labour had, during the recovery of the 1930s, prompted the dilution of the proportion of skilled employees and the deskilling of component tasks. In this situation, women were seen as a significant additional source of factory labour. With the advent of preparations for re-armament, this source of labour gained enhanced importance. The paper charts, in the context of re-armament, the alliance between government and unions on the temporary and crisis character of the widespread employment of women. It also documents the deliberate and open governmental strategy of 'containing' the impact of women's employment by defining it as a discrete and reversible state of affairs appropriate only to a crisis situation. It is within this context that this paper examines the genesis of the policy decisions relating to the deployment of new manufacturing technology, its impact on work organisation, and the responses of managements, unions and workers.


We present PAFMPB, an updated and parallel version of the AFMPB software package for fast calculation of molecular solvation-free energy. The new version has the following new features: (1) The adaptive fast multipole method and the boundary element methods are parallelized; (2) A tool is embedded for automatic molecular VDW/SAS surface mesh generation, leaving the requirement for a mesh file at input optional; (3) The package provides fast calculation of the total solvation-free energy, including the PB electrostatic and nonpolar interaction contributions. PAFMPB is implemented in C and Fortran programming languages, with the Cilk Plus extension to harness the computing power of both multicore and vector processing. Computational experiments demonstrate the successful application of PAFMPB to the calculation of the PB potential on a dengue virus systemwithmore than onemillion atoms and amesh with approximately 20 million triangles.


Background and aims: The first genome wide association study on coeliac disease (CD) and its follow-up have identified eight new loci that contribute significantly towards CD risk. Seven of these loci contain genes controlling adaptive immune responses, including IL2/IL21 (4q27), RGS1 (1q31), IL18RAP (2q11–2q12), CCR3 (3p21), IL12A (3q25–3q26), TAGAP (6q25) and SH2B3 (12q24). Methods: We selected the nine most associated single nucleotide polymorphisms to tag the eight new loci in an Italian cohort comprising 538 CD patients and 593 healthy controls. Results: Common variation in IL2/IL21, RGS1, IL12A/SCHIP and SH2B3 was associated with susceptibility to CD in our Italian cohort. The LPP and TAGAP regions also showed moderate association, whereas there was no association with CCR3 and IL18RAP. Conclusion: This is the first replication study of six of the eight new CD loci; it is also the first CD association study in a southern European cohort. Our results may imply there is a genuine population difference across Europe regarding the loci contributing to CD.


Traditional signal processing systems, based on linear modeling principles, face a stifling pressure to meet present-day demands caused by the deluge of data generated, transmitted and processed across the globe. Fortunately, recent advances have resulted in the emergence of more sophisticated, nonlinear signal models. Such nonlinear models have inspired fundamental changes in which information processing systems are designed and analyzed. For example, the sparse signal model serves as the basis for Compressive Sensing (CS), an exciting new framework for signal acquisition. In this thesis, we advocate a geometry-based approach for nonlinear modeling of signal ensembles. We make the guiding assumption that the signal class of interest forms a nonlinear low-dimensional manifold belonging to the high-dimensional signal space. A host of traditional nonlinear data models can be essentially interpreted as specific instances of such manifolds. Therefore, our proposed geometric approach provides a common framework that can unify, analyze, and significantly extend the scope of nonlinear models for information acquisition and processing. We demonstrate that the geometric approach enables new algorithms and analysis for a number of signal processing applications. Our specific contributions include: (i) new convex formulations and algorithms for the design of linear systems for data acquisition, compression, and classification; (ii) a general algorithm for reconstruction, deconvolution, and denoising of signals, images, and matrix-valued data; (iii) efficient methods for inference from a small number of linear signal samples, without ever resorting to reconstruction; and, (iv) new signal and image representations for robust modeling and processing of large-scale data ensembles.


In this paper, we re-examine private transfer behaviour in light of recent public and media discourse on black tax. In particular, we aim to better understand whether graduates of postsecondary education face disproportionate responsibilities to meet family needs through increased ability to offer financial support. Firstly, we reject a unitary model of household decision making for remittances, suggesting that a collective model of household behaviour is likely to govern remittance-sending behaviour. This means an individuals' characteristics, preferences and responsibilities are likely to underpin remittance decisions. Indeed, we find that graduates are more likely to be remitters than other individuals, and that part of this responsibility arises from graduate status alone – that is, over and above labour market characteristics and living arrangements. We additionally observe a weaker relationship between remittance value and graduate remitters' income, suggesting the amount sent by graduates is not as strongly determined by the income they earn – consistent with graduates facing a responsibility regardless of their income. Lastly, we consider a measure of intra-household sharing, and find that a sizeable share of children receive transfers towards their education expenses from co-resident family members who are not their parents. Thus intra-household transfers may form an integral part of the black tax narrative, although they are not typically observed in survey data.


Among marine habitats Sabellaria alveolata -reefs deserve protection since they provide important ecosystem services and positive effects on biodiversity. Several marine species are listed among the S. alveolata -reef associated fauna, but characteristic species were seldom reported. Eulalia ornata (Annelida, Phyllodocidae) might represent an exception, since it appears common/abundant in S. alveolata -reefs of the Eastern Atlantic. The most evident geographical mismatch in the distributions of E. ornata and these biogenic reefs occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, where S. alveolata -reefs are commonly found, but E. ornata was never recorded, whilst E. viridis , a non-Mediterranean species, was previously listed among the dominant reef-associated taxa. The faunal characterization of the sabellarid reefs along the Sicily Channel revealed an Eulalia species as the dominant taxon associated with that habitat in the area. A taxonomic approach integrated with DNA barcoding, and comparisons with closely related species, allow us to report E. ornata as a new record for the Mediterranean Sea. We describe patterns of abundance and distribution and corroborate its status as a preferential species in the S. alveolata -reef habitat. Focusing on the biology and ecology of E. ornata could help us to better understand the dynamics and functioning of this valuable European shallow marine habitat.


Background The incidence of breech presentation is 3–4% at tem. Since the publication of Term Breech Trial, elective Caesarian section (ELCS) has been the default mode of delivery with little or no opportunity for mothers to consider alternative approaches to manage breech presentation at term. Methods Once a week Breech Clinic was introduced in June 2012 with a dedicated team of two midwives and two consultant obstetricians who are trained to counsel the mothers to aid informed decision making on their management and to undertake external cephalic version (ECV) if agreed. All mothers with breech presentation of a singleton fetus over 35 weeks of gestation with no known contraindications were booked to attend "Breech Clinic" at 37 weeks of gestation. They were provided with an information leaflet to read prior to the clinic appointment, and a detailed consultation on different approaches such as ECV, vaginal breech delivery (VBD) or ELCS was carried out with ample time for mothers to make their decision. Results Since the implementation of Breech Clinic, more mothers are accepting ECV as their first choice, reaching a rate of 97% at the end of one-year period. 36% of attempted ECVs were successful with 80% of them achieving vaginal deliveries. 10% of mothers with unsuccessful ECVs opted for VBD over elective CS and eventually achieved vaginal deliveries. Conclusion Introduction of Breech Clinic provides an opportunity for mothers to make an informed decision on the management of breech presentation resulting in higher acceptance of alternative approaches over ELCS. References Hannah ME, Hannah WJ, Hewson SA, Hodnett ED, Saigol S, Willan AR. Planned caesarean section versus planned vaginal birth for breech presentation at term: a randomised multi-centre trial. Lancet 2000;356:1375–85 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Green top Guideline No 20b, Breech Presentation, Management, 2006


Abstract The performance of structural materials in lead or lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) systems is evaluated. The materials evaluated included refractory metals (W, Mo, and Ta), several U.S. steels [austenitic steel (316L), carbon steels (F-22, Fe-Si), ferritic/martensitic steels (HT-9 and 410)], and several experimental Fe-Si-Cr alloys that were expected to demonstrate corrosion resistance. The materials were exposed in either an LBE rotating electrode or a dynamic corrosion cell for periods from 100 to 1000 h at temperatures of 400, 500, 600, and 700°C, depending on material and exposure location. Weight change and optical scanning electron microscopy or X-ray analysis of the specimen were used to characterize oxide film thickness, corrosion depth, microstructure, and composition changes. The results of corrosion tests validate the excellent resistance of refractory metals (W, Ta, and Mo) to LBE corrosion. The tests conducted with stainless steels (410, 316L, and HT-9) produced mass transfer of elements (e.g., Ni and Cr) into the LBE, resulting in degradation of the material. With Fe-Si alloys a Si-rich layer (as SiO2) is formed on the surface during exposure to LBE from the selective dissolution of Fe.


Nutrient availability is a major limitation to plant growth. Legumes have entered into a symbiotic interaction with nitrogen-fixing rhizobial bacteria that provide the plant with a source of nitrogen. The legume/rhizobial symbiosis is globally important for introducing nitrogen into biological systems. Legume crops are used in sustainable agricultural processes to naturally enrich the soil for nitrogen. Our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie this interaction is expanding and we are beginning to understand the means by which the molecular dialogue occurs between the plant and the bacteria. The signalling pathway in the plant, that is responsible for the recognition of the bacterial signal Nod factor, appears to have evolved in part from a pre-existing signalling pathway necessary for the establishment of the mycorrhizal symbiosis. Further research in this field may help to apply this symbiosis more broadly in agriculture.

Keywords:

symbiosis;
nodulation;
legumes;
rhizobia;
signal transduction;
calcium


—An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a security layer used to detect ongoing intrusive activities in information systems. Traditionally, intrusion detection relies on extensive knowl- edge of security experts, in particular, on their familiarity with the computer system to be protected. To reduce this dependence, various data-mining and machine learning techniques have been deployed for intrusion detection. An IDS is usually working in a dynamically changing environment, which forces continuous tuning of the intrusion detection model, in order to maintain sufficient performance. The manual tuning process required by current systems depends on the system operators in working out the tuning solution and in integrating it into the detection model. In this paper, an automatically tuning IDS (ATIDS) is presented. The proposed system will automatically tune the detection model on-the-fly according to the feedback provided by the system operator when false predictions are encountered. The system is evaluated using the KDDCup'99 intrusion detection dataset. Experimental results show that the system achieves up to 35% improvement in terms of misclassification cost when compared with a system lacking the tuning feature. If only 10% false predictions are used to tune the model, the system still achieves about 30% improvement. Moreover, when tuning is not delayed too long, the system can achieve about 20% improvement, with only 1.3% of the false predictions used to tune the model. The results of the experiments show that a practical system can be built based on ATIDS: system operators can focus on verification of predictions with low confidence, as only those predictions determined to be false will be used to tune the detection model.


In this talk I'll take you on a whirlwind tour of the world of parallemism. Why is it a hot topic? How do we screw it up and get horrible performance and lack of scalability? What are the hot new technologies that aim to make it easier? And just what, exactly, does Perl 6 have to say about parallelism? Topics I will cover will include:
* Why we can't just make faster CPUs
* Task vs Data Parallelism
* Mutexes, semaphores and threads: the assembly language of concurrency
* Issues: deadlock, livelock, risk of unsafe data access, stupid numbers of threads, etc.
* It's about the cache, stupid: bus protocols and false sharing
* Software Transactional Memory and its application in Perl 6
* Data parallelism in Perl 6
* Other futuristic ideas and research, including lock free data structures
No experience of thread programming in Perl or any other language is required - this is a "big picture" talk rather than digging into the gory details.


Since the early development of Software-Defined Network (SDN) technology, researchers have been concerned with the idea of physical distribution of the control plane to address scalability and reliability challenges of centralized designs. However, having multiple controllers managing the network while maintaining a "logically-centralized" network view brings additional challenges. One such challenge is how to coordinate the management decisions made by the controllers which is usually achieved by disseminating synchronization messages in a peer-to-peer manner. While there exist many architectures and protocols to ensure synchronized network views and drive coordination among controllers, there is no systematic methodology for deciding the optimal frequency (or rate) of message dissemination. In this paper, we fill this gap by introducing the SDN synchronization problem: how often to synchronize the network views for each controller pair. We consider two different objectives; first, the maximization of the number of controller pairs that are synchronized, and second, the maximization of the performance of applications of interest which may be affected by the synchronization rate. Using techniques from knapsack optimization and learning theory, we derive algorithms with provable performance guarantees for each objective. Evaluation results demonstrate significant benefits over baseline schemes that synchronize all controller pairs at equal rate.


Indoor visible light positioning (VLP) using signals transmitted by lighting LEDs is a topic attracting increasing interest within the research community. In the recent years, VLP techniques using a range of receiver structures and positioning algorithms have been described. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a VLP system, which uses an aperture-based receiver and measurements of received signal strength. An aperture-based receiver has a number of receiving elements, each consisting of a photodiode and an associated aperture. It has been shown that receivers of this form can be designed which are compact and provide both a wide overall field-of-view and good angular diversity. As a result, they can efficiently extract position-related information from light transmitted by nondirectional LEDs. In our approach, we correlate the signals at the outputs of the photodiodes with a set of reference signals. The resulting observations include information on the received signal strength as well as the angle-of-arrival, and are used to directly estimate the receiver's position. In order to assess the performance of positioning algorithms based on this approach, we derive the Cramer–Rao lower bound on the position estimate. We show that the Cramer–Rao bound depends on the selected reference signal, and that subcentimetre to centimetre accuracy can be obtained, using only a limited number of nondirectional LEDs.


Phenolic-based composites for automotive frictional materials contain a variety of inorganic fillers and modifiers in addition to combination of the base resin and fibers (mostly asbestos). The frictional behavior under low speed conditions cannot provide sufficient foundation for the prediction of friction and wear behavior at high speed because the temperature rise courses chemical changes in some frictional constituents of the composite system. In the previous papers the high speed friction behavior of carbon and glass fiber composites has been studied. The purpose of this paper is to enable a clear interpretation of high speed friction performance of Aramid fiber composites comparing with two other systems. The following results have obtained : (1) Frictional coefficient was reduced by incoeporation of the aramid fibers under low speed and high speed conditions. However, frictional coefficient increased under medium speed conditions when the fiber content was high. (2) Frictional flucturations during sliding was significantly reduced with increasing amount of fibers for all sliding condition. (3) The rate of wear was reduced with increasing amount of fibers and increasing with sliding speed. The aramid-fiber system was more resistant to wear than carbon fiber and glass fiber systems.


In this article we present a numerical study of a new electrically pumped heterogeneously integrated III-V on silicon micro-laser. The novelty in our design lies in the fact that we use resonant silicon grating cavities to serve as reflectors. The proposed structure is simulated using a 3D FDTD simulator and we provide some preliminary experimental results.


INTRODUCTION In this paper, we explore the pedagogical concerns of integer resource allocation problems. A natural, ongoing question from students following lectures on integer resource allocation problems asks, "How can I obtain other optimal or non-optimal solutions for comparison purposes?" It has been our experience that students enjoy the decision analysis phase regarding resource tradeoffs after obtaining a solution to these problems by traditional means. Hence, we investigate an alternative algorithm to solve an integer resource allocation problem in terms of its isomorphically equivalent Linear Diophantine Equation (LDE). An LDE is a linear equation with solutions in the set of integers (Barnett, 1969). Unlike most other Diophantine equations, LDEs can be solved algorithmically (Rowe, 1986; Stewart, 1992). We present an alternate, computer applicable approach to formulate the general solution of an LDE. The algorithm developed in this paper to find the general solution of an LDE involves three steps. Step one involves finding an initial solution to the LDE using Blankinship's Version of the Euclidean Algorithm as its basis. In the second step, the general solution to a Homogeneous LDE (HLDE) is determined. Finally, the general solution of the LDE is found by advancing the initial solution of the LDE found in step one with the general solution of the HLDE obtained in step two through addition. Since the use of general solutions to LDEs is an alternate approach for finding multiple solutions to integer allocation problems, the methodology is compared to the more traditional approach of finding an optimal solution using branch and bound enumeration. A comparison of both methodologies as tools for quantitative decision analysis are discussed. AN EXAMPLE INTEGER RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROBLEM To illustrate the students' question, we explore an integer resource allocation problem where an integer quantity must be allocated in integer amounts to two or more entities (Ibaraki and Katoh, 1988). Thus, the following integer allocation problem is posed. Problem: A real estate developer has a parcel of land with a frontage of 1,000 ft. The property is to be subdivided into lots having frontages of 60 ft. and 80 ft., respectively. In how many ways can this task be done? A typical model used to represent the problem is the linear equation 60[X.sub.1] + 80[X.sub.2] = 1,000, (1) where [X.sub.1] and [X.sub.2] respectively represent the number of lots with 60 ft. and 80 ft. frontages. The solution set for the problem is restricted to a subset of integers. BRANCH AND BOUND LITERATURE Literature concerning branch and bound enumeration is wide in scope and crosses into many Operations Research topics. According to Salkin (1975), the classic enumeration algorithm and many of its variations were developed by Land and Doig (1960). Their specialized methodology was designed for the traveling salesman problem by Little, Murty, Sweeney, and Karel (1963). They termed the specialized procedure as branch and bound. Later, Thompson (1964) presented an algorithm for the integer program called "The Stopped Simplex Method" which was a consequence of Land and Doig's work. A year later, Dakin (1965) proposed a simple, yet interesting, variation which employed the use of integer solution space inequalities at each node of Land and Doig's branch and bound algorithm. Shortly there after, Beale and Small (1965) extended the Dakin method to include the linear programming post optimization procedures suggested by Driebeek (1966). Finally, Tomlin (1970; 1971), described a refined version of the Beale and Small algorithm. THE BRANCH AND BOUND APPROACH In an effort to show the value of the LDE approach, we compare it to an equivalent integer resource allocation problem formulated as an integer programming (IP) problem. There are many software packages on the market to solve IP problems, and many of these packages generally employ a branch and bound algorithm. …


Couplings of core mode to guided cladding and unguided radiation modes in fiber Bragg and long-period gratings are investigated by a unified approach based on complex mode matching method (CMMM). With the combination of the perfectly matched layer (PML) and the perfectly reflecting boundary (PRB), the continuous radiation modes can be well represented by a set of discrete complex modes so that simulation of coupling to radiation modes is greatly simplified and may be treated in the same fashion as guided modes. Numerical results of fiber Bragg and long-period gratings with refractive index of the outer cladding lower, equal, and higher than that of the inner cladding indicate that the unified approach is highly effective in the simulation of couplings to cladding and radiation modes.


We are pleased to welcome you to the "International Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Parasitology" after the successful completion of the series of Microbiology Congress. The congress is scheduled to take place in the beautiful city of London, UK on Jul 22-23, 2020. This Advanced Microbiology 2020 conference will provide you with an exemplary research experience and huge ideas. The perspective of the Microbiology conference is to set up research to help people understand how techniques have advanced in the field of Microbiology and how the field has developed in recent years. Longdom Conferences extends immense pleasure and honour by inviting you to attend the Webinar on "Clinical Microbiology and Parasitology" scheduled during July 22 2020. Advanced Microbiology 2020 will be focusing on the theme "Progressing research Trends in Clinical Microbiology" to enhance and explore knowledge among academicians and industry personnel. Advanced Microbiology 2020 will be having sessions on, microbiology, infectious diseases, pharmaceutical microbiology, environmental microbiology, medical microbiology and its related subjects to establish a connection for exchanging ideas. Detailed agenda of Advanced Microbiology 2020 will have keynote presentations, plenary sessions, oral sessions, panel discussion, posters presentations, workshops, symposia, and young researchers' forum.


Ascites is a common finding in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Clinico-pathologic correlations with respect to the presence of ascites, positive cytology and prognostic role of ascites, and the impact of ascitic volumes were not previously studied extensively. A total of 372 patients with EOC were retrospectively evaluated with respect to presence and amount of ascites, cytologic findings, and survival. Two groups were compared by using Chi-square, Student's t and Mann-Whitney U, binary logistic regression, Kaplan Meier and Cox-regression analysis tests, where appropriate. Omental metastasis (P < 0.001; OR: 3.21, 95% CI = 1.945–5.297) and mean number of metastatic lymph nodes (P= 0.008; OR: 1.063, 95% CI = 1.016–1.112) were significantly related with presence of ascites. Evaluation of ascitic volume at different thresholds revealed lymphatic-omental metastasis, and also the disease stage to be significantly different among patient groups at lower threshold values and the positive cytology and high-grade diseases at higher threshold values. In conclusion, presence of ascites correlates with both the intraperitoneal and also the retroperitoneal tumor spread. Amount of ascites has different correlations with the clinico-pathologic factors depending on the thresholds chosen. At lower volumes, lymphatic and omental metastasis seems to correlate with the development of ascites. Once ascites develops, tumor grade seems to be important for larger ascites volumes. Neither the presence of ascites or its volume nor the cytologic positivity was an independent predictor of survival.


In Australia all residential aged care facilities applying for new Australian Government funded aged care places, must demonstrate planning for environmental disaster threats such as bushfires and floods (Department of Health and Ageing, 2011). This policy was introduced in 2009 following the catastrophic bushfires in Victoria, Australia. Added to this Australian policy decision was the adoption by the State Government of South Australia of a new fire danger rating scale, with the inclusion of an extreme level weather warning called catastrophic or code-red. This rating requires all services and community members living in bushfire prone areas, to assess their risk and decide whether or not to evacuate from the catastrophic zone the day before or morning of a code-red weather warning. This paper discusses the issues these Australian and state government emergency management policy decisions are having on the management of residential aged care facilities.


A survey of the archaeological literature on the southern Thai-Malay Peninsula identifies 39 sites associated with chronometric dates suitable for quantitative analysis covering the Holocene, since 10,000 years ago. The essential criterion for accepting a date is an expected error of less than five percent in assessing the probability that the date refers to any of the 20 intervals of 500 years covered by the Holocene. The resulting documentation would suggest little changed occupancy levels for cave sites throughout the Holocene apart from a mid-Holocene dip. Higher levels of site occupancy are documented for the late Holocene than earlier times, due to the addition of a wide variety of open-air sites to the record. However, literal reliance on the quantitative results should be tempered with recognition that archaeological sites and their contents are prone to destruction with time or, in the case of open-air sites, preservation in contexts at inaccessible depths beneath the surface. Mid-Holocene and earlier open-air sites have been recovered only in exceptional circumstances, and so any review of the Peninsula's Holocene prehistory should be careful not to interpret absence of evidence as evidence of absence for early open-air sites. In the case of cave sites, some allowance can be made for the destruction of suitable dating materials over time. This allowance would point to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition at around 10,000 years ago, and an interval of elevated sea-levels at around 6,500 years ago, as the peak periods for occupancy rates of cave sites. These findings are discussed in the context of the probable commencement of the Neolithic in the Peninsula at around 6,500 years ago, and current issues in relating the archaeological record to the Austroasiatic (Aslian) and Austronesian (Malay) languages spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the southern Peninsula.


Background: Rescue PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) in STEMI (ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction) performed with favorable outcome in patients that experience failure of reperfusion therapy, although limited information on the major predictors of outcome. Aim: Identify factors affecting Rescue PCI in STEMI as regard incidence of Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE) early after PCI in hospital& after six months of intervention.

Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study assessed 120 patients receiving rescue PCI for STEMI. Effects of some factors including age, sex, coronary artery risk factors, time from symptoms onset to admission, time from failure of reperfusion to start PCI, Left Ventricular Function Ejection Fraction (LVEF), Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow, and type of stent implantation on MACE were studied.

Results: Age, DM, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia did not significantly affect the incidence of MACE (P>0.05). However, time from the start of symptoms onset to admission (P=0.04, OR=1.278), time from failure of reperfusion to start of PCI (P=0.038, OR=1.382), TIMI flow grade 0 at time of diagnostic coronary angiography (P=0.035, OR=3.75), and type of stent implantation (P=0.003, OR= 2.548) were independent risk factors associated with MACE post PCI, also good LVEF had significant relations with less incidence of MACE (P=0.02,OR=0.93).

Conclusion: Prolonged time from symptoms onset to admission, prolonged time from failure of reperfusion to start of PCI, TIMI flow grade 0 at time of diagnostic CA, BMS (Bare Metal Stent) implantation and LVEF are risk factors of MACE after rescue PCI.


The propagation of solitons in materials with saturable nonlinearity has been investigated with numerical and analytical methods. It is demonstrated that bistable (or two-state) solitons exist that describe pulses with the same duration but different peak powers. It is proved that both solution branches are stable. The minimum possible pulse duration of a fundamental soliton depending on the saturation parameter has been predicted. The influence of loss and the evolution of high-order solitons are studied.


Heterogeneity in unsaturated soils and sediments is well known to exist at different scales, from microscopic scale to macroscopic scale. Characterization of different types of heterogeneity in deep vadose zones is challenging because of the usual lack of information at such sites. In this paper, we considered a site with detailed geological, chemical, and hydraulic properties measurements throughout an approximately 16‐m deep vadose zone consisting of unconsolidated, alluvial deposits typical for the alluvial fans of the eastern San Joaquin Valley, California. At the agricultural site, data were also available for a 7‐yr long field fertilization experiment that we used to independently estimate the amount of nitrate stored within the vadose zone at the end of the experiment. Simple mass balance calculations were performed and compared to six conceptually different two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional vadose zone numerical models that were implemented to represent varying degrees of hierarchical details of heterogeneity. Despite widely differing structure and heterogeneity of unsaturated flow, all models resulted in a narrow range of estimated nitrate storage in the deep vadose zone for near‐cyclically repeated water and nitrogen fertilizer applications. Simulated nitrate storage was found to be approximately six to eight times larger than the measured storage at the field. Simulated nitrate variability, while qualitatively similar in pattern, was considerably lower than measured, despite the large simulated hydraulic variability. This study underscores that physical heterogeneity of deep vadose zones may have limited effects on the transfer of conservative contaminants applied repeatedly to the land surface. It also raises questions about our understanding of the chemical fate of nitrate in the vadose zone; and suggests the presence of a significant immobile moisture domain within the deep vadose zone that is not explainable by heterogeneity of Richards equation parameters, yet needs to be considered for simulating nitrate transport under conditions of cyclical infiltration with gravity dominated convective flux.


At the foot of the Argentine Andes, bulldozers are destroying forests and homes to create soy fields in an area already strewn with rubble from previous waves of destruction and violence. Based on ethnographic research in this region where the mountains give way to the Gran Chaco lowlands, Gaston R. Gordillo shows how geographic space is inseparable from the material, historical, and affective ruptures embodied in debris. His exploration of the significance of rubble encompasses lost cities, derelict train stations, overgrown Jesuit missions and Spanish forts, stranded steamships, mass graves, and razed forests. Examining the effects of these and other forms of debris on the people living on nearby ranches and farms, and in towns, Gordillo emphasizes that for the rural poor, the rubble left in the wake of capitalist and imperialist endeavors is not romanticized ruin but the material manifestation of the violence and dislocation that created it.


The performance of digital interference holographic system is improved for microscopic imaging of biological tissues. Tomographic imaging of subsurface tissue structure is demonstrated for microscopic plant and animal tissues. The imaging process consists of holographic recording at a multitude of wavelengths followed by numerical superposition of 3D diffraction fields.


In this functional-MRI study we examined the hypothesis that the prefrontal cortex responds differently to the extent of competition during retrieval, whereas the parietal cortex is responsible for problem representation that should not be directly related to the competition. Participants mastered arbitrary person–location pairs, and their recognition memory was tested in a functional-MRI session. The pairs were constructed such that a person was associated with one, two, or three different locations and vice versa. The recognition time increased with the number of associations, reflecting increased competition. A confirmatory analysis of imaging data with prespecified prefrontal and parietal regions showed that, although both regions were highly involved during memory retrieval, only the prefrontal region responded to the levels of competition. This result was consistent with predictions of an information-processing model as well as with an exploratory identification of regions of interest.


This thesis about lmplementing Leadership in Cultural Team in Spandershoeve Restaurant is written as the final part of the Bachelor degree tor Hospitality Management. In order to examine leadership style to cultural team. In this thesis the writer has used qualitative research which begin with literature review that consist of' characteristic of the culture, that culture can be learned, the reason for using leadership in order to manage the culture, with the ending result to make the better motivated team, etc The second step in making this thesis is using interviews and analysis of the leadership in the restaurant Spandershoeve ,from the interviews and analysis which one based on the literature review can be concluded that in building a solid team in Spandershoeve need a certain type of leadership which is leadership in decision group ,the reason for using this type of leadership are based on the behavior of each individual who is coming from different culture back ground which is influence the working condition of the team From this thesis it is concluded that the right type of leadership is important in facing the different culture background, the reason for understanding others people culture and how to eliminate the communication barrier, etc in order to build a good team spirit These are some recommendations in order to built the best team spirit : I. communication : a process in which three elements are involved (the sender, receiver, and message). 2. motivation : something that can arouse people. 3. needs for affiliation : seeking and retaining friendship. 4. needs for power : an achievement on betterment and improvement, not equated with control or domination people. Since this is the first research in implementing leadership facing the different culture, further research is recommended to give more detail information's about this subject, this study can also be used as a starting point for further research.


Cost overruns experienced in transportation infrastructure projects continues to remain an issue of wide scholarly interest throughout the developed and developing world. Adopting a geotechnical trajectory, this research investigates the cause of unusually high cost overruns experienced in highway projects, executed in the tropical wetland setting of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Using the case study research strategy, archival data is sourced along with sixteen interviews conducted within the three highway agencies responsible for infrastructure project delivery in the region. The qualitative data gathered was comprehensively analysed using deductive-inductive thematic analysis. The results of the analysis identified latent triggers such as non-adherence to geotechnical best practices, amidst a wide array of unanticipated social constructs, which festered in the practises of the highway agencies. The interplay of the emergent social constructs with the fundamental geotechnical triggers is cognitively mapped out, relaying the intricate web of the contextual dynamics, driving the unusually high level of cost overruns experienced in highway project delivery in the Niger Delta. The study submits that the phenomenon of cost overruns in highway projects is multi-hydra headed, driven by a complexity of technical and social variables, contextually specific to the practices of highway organisations.


Requirements engineering activities act as a backbone of software development. The more efforts devoted during requirements engineering activities guarantee a better software product. Appropriate selection of requirements has been a challenge for software industry. This selection will increase the probability of success of the software product. Each year many cases are registered against companies for not fulfilling product requirements appropriately. The product failure mostly depends on, either by missing important requirements or capturing irrelevant requirements. SDLC consists of stages where software starts from scratch to a refined product. Requirements Development Life cycle (RDLC) consists of stages where requirements gets initiated, raised, refined, forcefully changed, implemented and validated. The processes to capture requirements vary industry to industry. This paper presents several requirements engineering processes used during the development of requirements, in industry. These processes will identify appropriate requirements and develop a quality product within budget on time. These practices are captured within the Pakistan software industry. This paper also explains the motivations for selecting particular methods, within company, during requirements development and the results associated with it. The processes captured in this paper, from different companies, can be an education for software industry.


Abstract This paper explores the arguments put forward for prohibiting the possession of fantasy images of child sexual abuse within the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, and applies them to sexual ageplay in Second Life. Sexual ageplay is the virtual act of simulating child sexual abuse using animated child characters operated by consenting adult users. The arguments underpinning the legislation centre on the issue of harm and the relationship between online, virtual behaviour and real world contact offences. It is argued that extant research does not support a causal connection, although some work on fantasy offence planning and online paedophilia chat groups suggests a link. Due to the lack of empirical work in the area it is concluded that legislation to criminalise such behaviour on grounds of harm causation is currently unjustified, although prohibition of sexual ageplay for known sex offenders is recommended. Further research into the extent, use and effects of sexual ageplay is required.


The Aristotelian Society's Virtual Issue is a free, online publication, made publically available on the Aristotelian Society website. Each volume is theme-based, collecting together papers from the archives of the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society and the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume that address the chosen theme. This year's Virtual Issue includes a selection of papers from across the Society's fourteen decades, each accompanied by a specially commissioned present-day response. The aim of the volume is to aid reflection on how to go about doing moral and political philosophy, by bringing together papers that bear on their epistemology and methodology. In some cases this involves pieces whose declared focus is on one of those areas, as is the case with Margaret MacDonald's 1941 essay 'The Language of Political Theory' and Mary Midgley's 1974 article 'The Neutrality of the Moral Philosopher'. In other cases the editor, Ben Colburn, selected papers whose primary focus is elsewhere, but which include some interesting epistemological or methodological reflections or implications along the way. The contributions from our present-day commentators vary similarly in how far their explicit attention is methodological. Nevertheless, there is throughout a concern (either explicit or implicit) on how to 'be an honest reasoner', to borrow a phrase from the late Dudley Knowles.


The quest for renewable energy sources has led to growing attention in the research of organic photovoltaics (OPVs), as a promising alternative to fossil fuels, since these devices have low manufacturing costs and attractive end-user qualities, such as ease of installation and maintenance. Wide application of OPVs is majorly limited by the devices lifetime. With the development of new encapsulation materials, some degradation factors, such as water and oxygen ingress, can almost be excluded, whereas the thermal degradation of the devices remains a major issue. Two aspects have to be addressed to solve the problem of thermal instability: bulk effects in the photoactive layer and interfacial effects at the photoactive layer/charge-transporting layers. In this work, the interface between photoactive layer and electron-transporting zinc oxide (ZnO) in devices with inverted architecture was engineered by introducing polymeric interlayers, based on zinc-binding ligands, such as 3,4-dihydroxybenzene and 8-hydroxyquinoline. Also, a cross-linkable layer of poly(3,4-dimethoxystyrene) and its fullerene derivative were studied. At first, controlled reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation was employed to achieve well-defined polymers in a range of molar masses, all bearing a chain-end functionality for further modifications. Resulting polymers have been fully characterised, including their thermal and optical properties, and introduced as interlayers to study their effect on the initial device performance and thermal stability. Poly(3,4-dihydroxystyrene) and its fullerene derivative were found unsuitable for application in devices as they increased the work function of ZnO and created a barrier for electron extraction. On the other hand, their parental polymer, poly(3,4-dimethoxystyrene), and its fullerene derivative, upon cross-linking, resulted in enhanced efficiency and stability of devices, if compared to control. Polymers based on 8-hydroxyquinoline ligand had a negative effect on the initial stability of the devices, but increased the lifetime of the cells under accelerated thermal stress. Comprehensive studies of the key mechanisms, determining efficiency, such as charge generation and extraction, were performed by using time-resolved electrical and spectroscopic techniques, in order to understand in detail the effect of the interlayers on the device performance. Obtained results allow deeper insight into mechanisms of degradation that limit the lifetime of devices and prompt the design of better materials for the interface stabilisation.


In Psychological Antecedents of Financial Risk Tolerance, from the Fall 2020 issue of The Journal of Wealth Management, authors Heena Thanki, Anushree Karani (both of Shri Jairambhi Patel Institute of Business Management and Computer Applications in Gujarat, India), and Anil Kumar Goyal (of Rukmini Devi Institute of Advanced Studies in New Delhi, India) analyze how psychological and behavioral factors influence financial risk tolerance (FRT) among investors. Past research has focused on how investors' socioeconomic status, demographic characteristics, and personality types influence their FRT. But the authors say such studies may be of limited value since they do not consider financial satisfaction, financial anxiety, self-esteem, sensation-seeking behavior, and obsession with money. The authors surveyed nearly 400 investors to assess the correlations between these factors and FRT. They found that people who are more satisfied with their financial situation tend to have lower FRT. People who have higher self-esteem or engage in sensation-seeking behavior, and those with Type A personalities, tend to have higher FRT. Obsession with money shows only a weak correlation with FRT. The authors conclude that policymakers and financial advisors should consider such psychological and behavioral factors when deciding what risk level is suitable for investors. TOPIC: Wealth management


Summary
1.Biologists have long puzzled over the apparent conspicuousness of blue-green eggshell coloration in birds. One candidate explanation is the 'sexual signalling hypothesis' that the blue-green colour of eggshells can reveal an intrinsic aspect of females' physiological quality, with only high-quality females having sufficient antioxidant capacity to pigment their eggs with large amounts of biliverdin. Subsequent work has argued instead that eggshell colour might signal condition-dependent traits based on diet.

2.Using Araucana chickens that lay blue-green eggs, we explored (i) whether high levels of dietary antioxidants yield eggshells with greater blue-green reflectance, (ii) whether females differ from one another in eggshell coloration despite standardized environments, diets and rearing conditions, and (iii) the relative strength with which diet vs. female identity affects eggshell coloration.

3.We reared birds to maturity and then placed them on either a high- or low-antioxidant diet, differing fourfold in Vitamin E acetate and Vitamin A retinol. After 8 weeks, the treatments were reversed, such that females laid eggs on both diets in an order-balanced design. We measured the reflectance spectra of 545 eggs from 25 females.

4.Diet had a very limited effect on eggshell spectral reflectance, but individual females differed strongly and consistently from one another, despite having been reared under uniform conditions. However, predictions from avian visual modelling suggest that most of the egg colour differences between females, and nearly all of the differences between diets, are unlikely to be visually discriminable.

5.Our data suggest that eggshell reflectance spectra may carry information on intrinsic properties of the female that laid the eggs, but the utility of this coloration as a signal to conspecifics in this species may be limited by the sensitivity of a receiver to detect it.


This paper reviews the literature on financial crises focusing on three specific aspects. First, what are the main factors explaining financial crises? Since many theories on the sources of financial crises highlight the importance of sharp fluctuations in asset and credit markets, the paper briefly reviews theoretical and empirical studies on developments in these markets around financial crises. Second, what are the major types of financial crises? The paper focuses on the main theoretical and empirical explanations of four types of financial crises - —currency crises, sudden stops, debt crises, and banking crises - —and presents a survey of the literature that attempts to identify these episodes. Third, what are the real and financial sector implications of crises? The paper briefly reviews the short- and medium-run implications of crises for the real economy and financial sector. It concludes with a summary of the main lessons from the literature and future research directions.


BACKGROUND
Depressive symptoms are a well-known predictor of mortality in patients with heart failure, and positive spousal support is associated with improved outcomes in these patients. However, in the context of depressive symptoms, the effect on survival of having a spouse is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of marital status on event-free survival in patients with heart failure who did or did not have depressive symptoms.

METHODS
Depressive symptoms were assessed by using the Beck Depression Inventory-II in patients with heart failure who were followed-up for up to 4 years to collect data on mortality and hospitalizations. Patients were grouped according to the presence and absence of depressive symptoms by using the standard cutoff score of 14 on the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to compare event-free survival for married and nonmarried patients who were stratified according to the presence or absence of depressive symptoms.

RESULTS
Of 166 patients, 56% were married, and 33% had depressive symptoms. Levels of depressive symptoms were similar between married and nonmarried patients (10.9 vs 12.1; P = .39). Married patients experienced longer event-free survival than did nonmarried patients (P = .009), even with stratification according to depressive symptoms (P = .01).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with a spouse had longer event-free survival than nonmarried patients did, even in the context of depressive symptoms.


The dilemma of diagnosing and possibly treating dentinal cracks continues to present a challenge in endodontics. The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the effectiveness of transillumination and dyes in identifying root-end dentinal cracks. Fifty maxillary central incisors were decoronated, and the canals were instrumented to an ISO size 50 at the working length. The apical 3 mm of the roots was resected, and cracks were artificially created in the apical dentin. Four independent examiners evaluated the root ends at x8 magnification with a surgical operating microscope using transillumination (group 1), sodium fluorescein dye (group 2), caries detect dye (group 3), methylene blue dye (group 4), and methylene blue plus transillumination (group 5). The examiners' ability to identify root ends correctly with and without cracks was analyzed by comparing the data with the predetermined standard (cracked and noncracked) using logistic regression analysis. All techniques used were shown to be more effective than random chance at diagnosing cracks. The areas under the curve of the different techniques were as follows: transillumination, 0.81 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.69-0.93); sodium fluorescein, 0.72 (95% CI, 0.58-0.86); caries detector, 0.76 (95% CI, 0.63-0.89); methylene blue, 0.70 (95% CI, 0.55-0.84); and methylene blue plus transillumination, 0.82 (95% CI, 0.70-0.94). Thus, the crack assessment techniques that gave the best discrimination between cracked and noncracked specimens, regardless of rater, was methylene blue plus transillumination. This study emphasizes the usefulness of transillumination along with magnification in detecting dentinal cracks.


The policy gradients of the expected return objective can react slowly to rare rewards. Yet, in some cases agents may wish to emphasize the low or high returns regardless of their probability. Borrowing from the economics and control literature, we review the risk-sensitive value function that arises from an exponential utility and illustrate its effects on an example. This risk-sensitive value function is not always applicable to reinforcement learning problems, so we introduce the particle value function defined by a particle filter over the distributions of an agent's experience, which bounds the risk-sensitive one. We illustrate the benefit of the policy gradients of this objective in Cliffworld.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between background amplitude and interictal abnormalities in routine electroencephalography (EEG).

METHODS
This retrospective audit was conducted between July 2006 and December 2009 at the Department of Clinical Physiology at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) in Muscat, Oman. A total of 1,718 electroencephalograms (EEGs) were reviewed. All EEGs were from patients who had been referred due to epilepsy, syncope or headaches. EEGs were divided into four groups based on their amplitude: group one ≤20 μV; group two 21-35 μV; group three 36-50 μV, and group four >50 μV. Interictal abnormalities were defined as epileptiform discharges with or without associated slow waves. Abnormalities were identified during periods of resting, hyperventilation and photic stimulation in each group.

RESULTS
The mean age ± standard deviation of the patients was 27 ± 12.5 years. Of the 1,718 EEGs, 542 (31.5%) were abnormal. Interictal abnormalities increased with amplitude in all four categories and demonstrated a significant association (P <0.05). A total of 56 EEGs (3.3%) had amplitudes that were ≤20 μV and none of these showed interictal epileptiform abnormalities.

CONCLUSION
EEG amplitude is an important factor in determining the presence of interictal epileptiform abnormalities in routine EEGs. This should be taken into account when investigating patients for epilepsy. A strong argument is made for considering long-term EEG monitoring in order to identify unexplained seizures which may be secondary to epilepsy. It is recommended that all tertiary institutions provide EEG telemetry services.


Wood gasification systems have the potential to contribute to the rural electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper presents an operational and economic analysis of two wood-based gasification systems (250 and 10 kW) installed in Uganda in 2007. Both systems proved their potential to compete economically with diesel generated electricity when operating close to the rated capacity. At an output of 150 kW running for ~12 h/day and 8 kW running for ~8h/day, the systems produced electricity at US$ 0.18 and 0.34/kWh, respectively. A stable electricity demand close to the rated capacity proved to be a challenge for both systems. Fuelwood costs accounted for ~US$0.03/kWh for both systems. Recovery of even a small fraction of the excess heat (22%) already resulted in substantial profitability gains for the 250 kW system. Results indicate that replicating successful wood gasification systems stipulates integration of sustainable fuelwood supply and viable business models.


Communication between diseased cells and the microenvironment is a complex yet crucial element in progression of varied pathological processes. Recent studies in cancer highlight an important role for small extracellular nanovesicles secreted by cancer cells as modulators of cancer-associated stroma, leading to enhanced angiogenesis and metastatic priming. The intrinsic factors regulating extracellular nanovesicle biogenesis and secretion are therefore relevant in studies of nano-communication in the cancer milieu. We generated prostate cancer cells bearing stable knockdown of several candidate vesicle regulating factors and examined the impact on cell health, vesicle secretion and on communication with fibroblastic stromal cells. We highlight that RAB11B and RAB35 regulate phenotypically distinct nanovesicle populations, each accounting for only around 20% of the total. Depleting RAB35, but not RAB11B leaves a remaining population of vesicles whose phenotype is insufficient for driving fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation, leading to attenuated motile behaviours in 3D in vitro models. Co-implantation of tumour cells with stromal fibroblasts in xenografts similarly showed that RAB11B knockdown had little effect on growth rates in vivo. In contrast, significant attenuation in growth, and attenuation of myofibroblasts at the tumour site was evident when using RAB35-knockdown cells. The study concludes that a RAB35 regulated nanovesicle sub-population is particularly important for communication between cancer and stromal cells, and is required for generating a tumour-supportive microenvironment.


Identification and description of variables used in any study is a necessary component in biomedical research. Statistical analyses rely on the type of variables that are involved in the study. In this short article, we introduce the different types of biological variables. A researcher has to be familiar with the type of variable he/she is dealing with in his/her research to decide about appropriate graphs/diagrams, summary measures and statistical analysis.


Young women aged 10-24 years in Malawi currently experience HIV prevalence of about 5%.  This high HIV prevalence amongst young women reflects a heart-breaking feature of the serious epidemic in southern Africa for the past five years. Given the serious situation it is vital to understand the risk factors faced by young women of Malawi, and further understanding of the interventions necessary to address the problem. A narrative review set out to explore the literature, retrieved from institutional reports and peer-reviewed publications, on the factors increasing young women's vulnerability to HIV in Malawi, and on interventions aimed at reducing their risk. Young women in Malawi are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection as a result of poverty, harmful gender norms, and economic and social inequities. Whilst there are some interventions in place, in the face of such a disproportionately difficult social and socio-economic environment, lack of resources and other systemic gaps, these are not sufficiently effective. Given the scale of the problem and the difficult environment experienced by young women, effective HIV prevention interventions remain critical. Further research is required to establish appropriate and effective interventions, and to address the social determinants of health, especially in relation to gender and rights.


Empirically, this thesis has focused on nine research and development (R&D) networks set up to promote a professional approach to care and strengthen the collaboration between health care sectors in a Swedish health care setting. The research project was embedded in an action research approach intended to encourage network development by means of a dialogical process. The specific research question was: What are the actors" perceptions of knowledge networks and how might we account for the networks" evolution, role and ways of working? Bourdieu"s concepts reproduction and symbolic violence were used as analytical tools and were chosen as a way of answering and explaining the empirical story line. Data was collected by use of a multi-method approach consisting of 39 interviews, observations, document review and reflexive notes. The intention was to elicit data that supported both network development and the theoretical explanation to come. It appeared that the networks concerned had several advantages, such as being a forum for internal dialogue and exchange of experiences. In addition, two main patterns emerged: Firstly, most of the participants within the networks were advocates of a linear top-down model of implementation of evidence-based knowledge into practice. Secondly, they experienced inertia in the transfer process. From the collaborative process undertaken it emerged that their linear top-down model of knowledge transfer seemed to be firmly rooted. Theoretically, the thesis contributes to an understanding of why the process of knowledge transfer was considered by the participants within the networks to be a sluggish process. The thesis also contributes to an explanation of why they adhered to the macro-discourse of evidence-based medicine at the expense of involving practitioners outside the networks in horizontal patterns of exchange. It is argued that the networks had a symbolic value and were also a product of and reproduced the evidence-based discourse and the prevailing structures within their field. This contrasted with the role of networks as arenas for generation of local knowledge in the network literature. A major challenge facing health care sectors is that of how to support practitioners in the incorporation of new practices resulting in actual changes.


PET brain imaging of the serotonin 1A (5-hydroxytryptamine 1A [5-HT1A]) receptor has been widely used in clinical studies. Currently, only a few well-validated radiolabeled antagonist tracers are available for in vivo imaging of this central receptor. 5-HT1A receptors exist in high- and low-affinity states, depending on their coupling to G proteins. Agonists bind preferentially to receptors in the high-affinity state and thereby could provide a measure of functional 5-HT1A receptors. Therefore, it is of great interest to develop an 18F-labeled full agonist 5-HT1A receptor radiotracer. In this study, we radiolabeled the high-affinity 5-HT1A receptor agonist 18F-F13714 and investigated its potential as a PET tracer. Methods: F13714 nitro precursor was synthesized and radiolabeled via a fluoronucleophilic substitution. In vitro binding assays were performed using established protocols. Radiopharmacologic evaluations included in vitro autoradiography in rat brain and PET scans on anesthetized cats. Results: The chemical and radiochemical purities of 18F-F13714 were greater than 98%. F13714 has a high affinity (0.1 nM) and selectivity for 5-HT1A receptors. In vitro 18F-F13714 binding in rats was consistent with the known 5-HT1A receptors distribution (hippocampus and cortical areas) and was particularly high in the dorsal raphe. In vitro binding of 18F-F13714 was blocked in a dose-dependent fashion by WAY100635, the prototypical 5-HT1A antagonist, and by the endogenous agonist, serotonin (5-HT). Addition of Gpp(NH)p also inhibited in vitro 18F-F13714 binding, consistent with a preferential binding of the compound to G-protein–coupled receptors. Ex vivo tissue measurements in rat revealed an absence of brain radioactive metabolites. In vivo studies showed that the radiotracer entered the cat brain readily and displayed a preferential labeling of 5-HT1A receptors located in cingulate cortex. In vivo labeling was prevented by preinjection of WAY100635. Conclusion: 18F-F13714 is a radiofluorinated agonist that presents suitable characteristics for probing the high-affinity states of the 5-HT1A receptors in vitro and in vivo. Thus, it is a promising tool for investigation of 5-HT1A agonist binding in the living human brain.


Objective: Demonstrate if the introduction of more and more efficacious antiretroviral (ARV) combinations for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) over time translated into a declining HIV-infection among HIV-exposed infants. Methods: This was a retrospective review of routinely collected PMTCT service data from 2008 to 2014 in 682 secondary and tertiary health facilities across Nigeria. The ARV regimen was measured by the proportions of different ARV regimens received by HIV-positive pregnant women each year and the HIV-infection among infants was determined by the rate of HIV-positive polymerase chain reaction tests each year. The District Health Information Software (DHIS) was used to extract data from health facilities. The same DHIS was used to aggregate and analyze data. Results: Maternal HIV positivity rates varied from 4.1% in 2008, 2.9% in 2011, and 3.2% in 2012, then declined steadily to 1.9% in 2014. The total number of pregnant women who tested positive for HIV and received different ARV regimen for PMTCT during the period (2008-2014) was 63,774; ranging from 7506 in 2008 to 10,388 in 2014. Uptake of single dose nevirapine by the positive pregnant women was 34.4%, 41.6%, and 45.9% in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. HIV positive pregnant women on triple ARVs (prophylaxis or treatment) increased from 22% in 2008 to 99% in 2014. Infant HIV positivity rates showed a steady decline over the years, from 38% in 2008 to 6% in 2014 (P < 0.001). Conclusions: We demonstrated the declining trend of HIV-infection among HIV-exposed infant in Nigeria as more and more efficacious ARV regimens were available for HIV-positive pregnant women. We conclude that if current efforts were sustained and coverage widened, an alignment of the country′s PMTCT program with the best available scientific evidence could lead to the elimination of mother to child transmission.


Celebrated by academics, multilateral organizations, policymakers and the media, Mexico's Progresa/Oportunidades conditional cash transfers program (CCT) is constantly used as a model of a successful antipoverty program. This paper argues that the transformation of well-trained scholars into influential practitioners played a fundamental role in promoting a new conceptual approach to poverty reduction, ensuring the technical soundness and effectiveness of the program's design, incorporating rigorous impact evaluations as part and parcel of the program's design, and persuading politicians to implement and keep the program in place. The involvement of scholars-practitioners also helped disseminate the new CCT "technology" to many countries around the world quite rapidly. It makes sense that scholar-practitioners can increase the chances of success of a policy intervention. Scholar-practitioners are more likely to emphasize data gathering and evaluation exercises to demonstrate success (or failure) and make changes to improve policy. Additionally, scholar-practitioners are more likely to share data and results from evaluation exercises widely. Finally, they can play a major role in spreading knowledge about successful interventions in multilateral institutions and public policy programs. This conclusion is based, to a large extent, on the author's personal experience when she was senior advisor and chief of the Poverty and Inequality Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (1997–2001). During this time, she was instrumental in facilitating the first-round of impact evaluation of Progresa and in promoting CCTs more broadly.


Personal Response Systems or clickers have been used for a number of years to help create active learning environments in the lecture classroom. Researchers have shown that the use of clickers stimulate student‐student and student‐lecturer interaction. In addition, students value the use of clickers and feel that these devices contribute to their understanding. Even though clickers have been used for quite some time, there are relatively few research studies focusing on how student knowledge is enhanced through the use of clickers. To contribute to this body of research, we compared student responses on exam questions to similar or identical clicker questions that were presented during lecture. The analysis of the responses to both clicker and exam questions show how individual student knowledge evolves during instruction. Although there is evidence of improvement during lecture, many students were unable to respond correctly when the questions were posed on the exam, despite the similarity in the questions.


Lesotho is located approximately at latitude 30 degrees south in the interior of Southern Africa. The mesoscale climate is complicated and governed by various weather systems. The inter-annual rainfall variability is great, resulting in low food security, since the growing of crops in the Lesotho Lowlands is almost exclusively rain-fed. Reliable forecasts of austral summer rainfall are thus valuable. Earlier research has shown that the sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Indian Ocean to some extent govern rainfall in Southern Africa. The research presented is part of an on-going project to find suitable oceanographic and meteorological predictors, which can be used in a forecast model for summer rainfall, to be developed later. The first part of this paper investigates the correlation between the average SSTs in the Equatorial Indian Ocean, the Central Indian Ocean, and the Agulhas Gyre, respectively, and rainfall two months later in the Lesotho Lowlands during early austral summer, October until December for the period 1949-1995. No significant correlations have been found, probably because the three ocean areas are too large. In the second part of this paper the monthly SST in 132 grid squares in the Indian Ocean were investigated and found to be correlated with rainfall in the Lesotho Lowlands two months later, October until March. Significant correlations have been found between the SSTs and certain ocean areas and December, January, and February rainfall, respectively. There is significant negative correlation between December rainfall and October SST in an ocean area between Kenya and Somalia across the Indian Ocean to Sumatra. In the area where the Somali Current flows there is also significant correlation between December SST and December rainfall. January rainfall is significantly negatively correlated with November SST in an ocean area, northeast of Madagascar. February rainfall is significantly, but weakly, negatively correlated with SST in a narrow north-south corridor in the Eastern Indian Ocean from the equator down to latitude 40 degrees south.