ABSTRACT Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) biotype Q was first reported as an invasive species in 2005 in China. The present study is the first with this serious pest to determine the distribution and proportion with B. tabaci Q-SCAR (sequence characterized amplified region) marker, and to identify the distribution of the biotype Q through extensive survey and systematic sampling in most regions of China. We made 22 collections from 15 provinces in Sep–Oct, 2007. The results showed that B. tabaci biotype Q was found in 19 collections from Shangdong, Gansu, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Tianjin, Shanxi, Hunan, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, and Hainan provinces. The proportion (%) of B. tabaci biotype Q occurrence varied from 6.4% to 95.2% in these 19 collections, and it dominated (>50%) in 10 collections. The genetic divergence analysis based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene revealed that QSCAR marker was specific to biotype Q, and the non-Q biotypes mainly consisted of biotype B. The present results revealed that the biotype Q has become dominant across the country, and suggested that the displacement of non-Q biotypes by biotype Q has occurred in many regions. Furthermore, the introduction of the biotype Q might has mainly occurred through human activities rather than natural sources.


Objective: To investigate the role of dietary intake in the development of premature acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in a hospital-based Pakistani population in Karachi. Methods: In a case control study, 203 consecutive patients (146 males and 57 females) with their first AMI and age below 45 years were enrolled with informed consent. Similarly, 205 gender and age matched (within 3 years) healthy adults were also included as controls. Dietary intake of both cases and controls was assessed by using a simple 14-item food frequency questionnaire. Using factor analysis, 3 major dietary patterns- prudent dietary pattern, combination dietary pattern and western dietary pattern were identified. Fasting plasma/serum of both cases and controls were analyzed for homocysteine, folate, vitamin B12, blood Pb, ferritin, cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. ANOVA and conditional logistic regression were used to predict the association of dietary patterns with AMI. Results: Consumption of prudent diet, characterized by high consumption of legumes, vegetables, wheat, chicken and fruits, is protective against the risk of premature AMI. Moderate to high consumption of combination diet, characterized by high intake of eggs, fish, fruits, juices and coffee was associated with decreased risk of AMI. No association was observed between western diet, characterized by high intake of meat, fish and tea with milk and risk of AMI. Conclusions: Consumption of a prudent dietary pattern and a combination dietary pattern is protective against the risk of AMI in a Pakistani population.


We propose a stylised dynamic model to understand the role of social networks in the phenomenon we call "globalization." This term refers to the process by which even agents who are geographically far apart come to interact, thus being able to overcome what would otherwise be a fast saturation of local opportunities. A key feature of our model is that the social network is the main channel through which agents exploit new opportunities. Therefore, only if the social network becomes global (heuristically, it "reaches far in few steps") can global interaction be steadily sustained. To shed light on the conditions under which such a transformation may, or may not, take place is the main objective of the paper. One of the main insights arising from the model is that, in order for the social network to turn global, the economy needs to display a degree of "geographical cohesion" that is neither too high (for then global opportunities simply do not arise) nor too low (then the meeting mechanism displays too little structure for the process to take off). But if globalization does materialize, we show that it is a robust state of affairs that often arises abruptly as key parameters change. This occurs, in particular, as the rate of arrival of ideas rises, or when there is a high enough increase in the range at which the network transmits information.


Background: Myxomas are rare benign tumors arising from mesenchymal tissues throughout the body. These tumors are usually seen in the atrium of the heart and the jawbone. Involvement of the skull base with intracranial extension is extremely rare, and only a few cases of primary intracranial myxomas have been described in the literature. This article presents a rare case of primary myxoma of the nasal bone. Methods: The patient underwent a skull base surgery with a pre-diagnosis of possible fibromyxomas. The tumor pathology revealed a diagnosis of myxoma with bone and meningeal involvement. Despite the debulking surgery, the tumor showed a local recurrence in five month. A second debulking surgery in piece meal was required. In the article, the etiology, histological and radiological findings as well as treatment options of this rare entity were briefly discussed under the highlights of the relevant literature. Such a localization and intracranial extension of myxomas is extremely unusual in clinical practice; the diagnosis therefore requires a high degree of suspicion and detailed histopathological examination. The differential diagnosis frequently includes chondrosarcomas, chordoma, metastatic tumors of the skull, hemangiopericytoma, meningioma and other neoplasms of the dura and skull base in this location.


This dissertation describes the essential modeling components and techniques for building comprehensive polymer process models for metal-catalyzed polyolefin processes. The significance of this work is that it presents a comprehensive approach to polymer process modeling applied to large-scale commercial processes. Most researchers focus only on polymerization mechanisms and reaction kinetics, and neglect physical properties and phase equilibrium. Both physical properties and phase equilibrium play key roles in the accuracy and robustness of a model. This work presents the fundamental principles and practical guidelines used to develop and validate both steady-state and dynamic simulation models for two large-scale commercial processes involving the Ziegler-Natta polymerization to produce highdensity polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP). It also provides a model for the solution polymerization of ethylene using a metallocene catalyst. Existing modeling efforts do not include physical properties or phase equilibrium in their calculations. These omissions undermine the accuracy and predictive power of the models. The forward chapters of the dissertation discuss the fundamental concepts we consider in polymer process modeling. These include physical and thermodynamic properties, phase equilibrium, and polymerization kinetics. The later chapters provide the modeling applications described above.


The speech signal may be considered as the output of a time-varying vocal tract system excited with quasiperiodic and/or random sequences of pulses. The quasiperiodic part may be considered as the deterministic or periodic component and the random part as the stochastic or aperiodic component of the excitation. We discuss issues involved in identifying and separating the periodic and aperiodic components of the source. The decomposition is performed on an approximation to the excitation signal, instead of decomposing the speech signal directly. The linear prediction residual signal is used as an approximation to the excitation signal of the vocal tract system. Speech is first analyzed to determine the voiced and unvoiced parts of the signal. Decomposition of the voiced part into periodic and aperiodic components is then accomplished by first identifying the frequency regions of harmonic and noise components in the spectral domain. The signal corresponding to the noise regions is used as a first approximation to the aperiodic component. An iterative algorithm is proposed which reconstructs the aperiodic component in the harmonic regions. The periodic component is obtained by subtracting the reconstructed aperiodic component signal from the residual signal. The individual components of the residual are then used to excite the derived all-pole model of the vocal tract system to obtain the corresponding components of the speech signal. Experiments were conducted using synthetic speech. They demonstrated the ability of the algorithm for decomposition of a synthetic speech signal made of a mixture of periodic and aperiodic components. Application to natural speech is also discussed.


Novel Drug discovery and the development of new medicine is a time-consuming, complex, costly and highly risky process. This is the reason computer-aided drug design (CADD) approaches are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to accelerate the procedure and the hit rate of novel drug compounds, as it uses a much more targeted search than the traditional HTS. On an average of 10 to 15 years and US $500-800 million to introduce a drug into the market along with the synthesis and testing of lead compounds. Therefore, it is beneficial to apply computational tools in hit-to-lead optimization to cover a wider chemical space while reducing the compounds to synthesize and test in vitro. Homology modeling is used for the prediction of three-dimensional structure of the protein, whereas molecular docking is been performed to study the interaction of a drug molecule with the protein. The best orientation of docked structure (ligand-protein) obtained based in the overall minimum energy. In silico methods are used to identify potential drugs for various diseases. Thus, computer-aided drug designing has played an integral part of the drug discovery process. The main purpose of this review article is to give a glimpse about the part Computer Aided Drug Design has played in present medical science and the scope it conveys in the near future, in the service of designing newer drugs along with lesser expenditure of time and money.


Today's animation is much more than kids' stuff. Increasingly complex subject matter has produced a corresponding increase in artistic interest, and forms once specific to certain cultures have crossed borders to enjoy international popularity. Japanese animation has been particularly successful in the United States, and among the most celebrated Japanese animation artists is director Mamoru Oshii. This book is an analytical survey of Oshii's cinematic works from the early years of his career through his 21st-century productions, including "Beautiful Dreamer" and the acclaimed "Ghost in the Shell". The author examines these and other Oshii productions in relation to the Carnivalesque movement, technopolitics and the director's post-robotic vision. Oshii's films are particularly significant in their defiance of the premises of Western animation and their presentation of a highly personal commentary on both individual and collective identities in the 20th and 21st centuries. Special emphasis is placed on Oshii's revolutionary film techniques, including the stylistically and thematically diverse features of productions ranging from animation to live action to Original Video Animation (OVA), a technique Oshii invented. A complete filmography is included.


We analyze the impact of monetary policy on the supply of bank credit. Monetary policy affects both loan supply and demand, thus making identification a steep challenge. We therefore analyze a novel, supervisory dataset with loan applications from Spain. Accounting for time-varying firm heterogeneity in loan demand, we find that tighter monetary and worse economic conditions substantially reduce loan granting, especially from banks with lower capital or liquidity ratios; responding to applications for the same loan, weak banks are less likely to grant the loan. Finally, firms cannot offset the resultant credit restriction by applying to other banks. (JEL E32, E44, E52, G21, G32)


We describe procedures for preparing methane samples from natural waters or sediments for radiocarbon (14C‐CH4) analysis. These procedures also allow the determination of 2H/1H and 13C/12C ratios of this methane. Methane is extracted from natural samples in the field using Lamont radon stripping boards (Mathieu et al. 1988) and trapped using liquid nitrogen‐cooled U‐traps filled with HiSiv 3000. The field procedures eliminate the need to return large samples to the laboratory. The U‐traps are returned to the laboratory where a new twostage purification‐oxidation vacuum line is used to extract, purify, and oxidize the methane. The methane oxidation products (carbon dioxide and water) are analyzed for the natural content of 14C, 2H, and 13C with standard procedures. These procedures were evaluated under the conditions that methane was extracted from between 19 to 114 L water or 0.07 to 0.35 L sediment. No isotope fractionation was observed and the blanks are small (0.528 ± 0.39 µmol methane with radiocarbon content 14C/C = 96.1 ± 0.3 pMC [percent Modern Carbon] [Stuiver and Polach 1977]). Using 14C‐accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), these procedures can produce a successful radiocarbon measurement when at least 1.81 µmol methane are collected. Thus, 14C‐CH4 measurements can be made when the dissolved methane concentration is between saturation (mM) and 15.9 nM for the water column or 5.2 µM for the sediment.


Photosensitivity in optical fibers and waveguides has been associated with the bleaching of an absorption band located near 5.0 eV (or 242 nm). We present new results for Bragg grating formation and UV bleaching experiments carried out using 193-nm light from an ArF excimer laser instead of the usual laser sources operating near 242 or 248 nm.


By using ad hoc value transfer protocols, this paper offers a methodological contribution and provides accurate per hectare estimates of the economic value of some selected ecosystem services for all forest biomes in the world, identified following the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment taxonomy MEA. The research also estimates potential total economic losses from policy inaction in year 2050. Final results show that total losses are significant. The total figure is €78 billion, the greatest losses coming from North America and Mexico, followed by Africa, Russia and some Asiatic countries. Most of this loss is attributable to provisioning services and carbon sequestration, while only a minor part is due to loss of cultural services. In terms of biomes the greatest losses are from boreal and warm mixed forests, followed by tropical forests. These results may be surprising to some who argue that it is the loss of tropical forests, particularly the Amazon, that is the most significant. A detailed analysis, shows, however, that this is not the case. The best estimates point to greater losses in areas where use and non-use values are highest, which includes North America.


Human activity affects the Earth's climate while itself being affected by climate change - from rising sea levels to productivity effects of temperatures, natural disasters and climate-driven conflict. To empirically estimate the impact of humanity onto climate and vice versa, climate econometrics has emerged as a field split into two strands: one side focusing on conditional models of the economy taking climate as given, the other side modelling and predicting climate taking economic activity as given. However, economic and environmental systems are determined with feedbacks in both directions. Conditional modelling of one side can be informative about the underlying parameters of interest (e.g. climate impacts onto the economy, or climate sensitivity) if conditions on weak, strong, and super exogeneity are met. Here I attempt to reconcile the two strands of the climate-econometric literature by considering a full (albeit simple) empirical climate-economic system and the conditions under which the system can be studied by only looking at the conditional economic or the climate side. Weak exogeneity is required for valid conditioning, strong exogeneity - required for conditional forecasting - lends itself to the concept of climate-takers and climate-setters (countries measurably affecting climate), while super-exogeneity can be interpreted as policy invariance for the economic impact side, and as a `no-tipping point' condition on the physical side. An application to a simple bivariate climate-economic system using US SO2 emissions and temperatures highlights how these concepts can be applied in practice. A system analysis in climate econometrics allows us to move towards fully-coupled empirical climate-economic models consistent with the underlying physics and fully accounting for the necessary feedbacks, to obtain estimated impacts in both directions. While far from trivial in large systems, this is necessary to obtain rigorous empirical estimates of the impact of climate on humanity and vice versa.


The presence of pharmaceutically active compounds in the aquatic environment has become well established, and their presence is of potential concern because they are designed to produce biological response in the target receptor, may bear intrinsic toxicity (e.g. cytostatic agents, antibiotics) and they possess the potential to foster and maintain drug resistance. For both risk assessment and risk management purposes, it is important to identify the major sources of pharmaceuticals in the environment. Healthcare facilities may be major sources of the discharges of these compounds into municipal sewers. In this study, we investigated the contributions to the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influents from two hospitals and two long-term care homes of nine compounds. Twenty-four hour composite samples were collected over 5 consecutive days from the effluents of these facilities. The WWTPs receiving sewage from these facilities were also sampled on the same days to facilitate mass balance calculations. The results showed that the healthcare facilities contributed a greater proportion of the antibiotic compounds to the WWTPs than the other target compounds; with maximum contributions of ciprofloxacin by hospitals and long-term care homes of 26.7 and 37%, respectively.


This thesis analyses how the effect of unemployment on life-satisfaction varies in different contexts using data from two large-scale surveys (the World Values Survey and the European Values Study). Over 40 Western-European and Anglo Saxon countries are included in the investigation. Through multilevel modelling, relevant national-level factors are identified that moderate the impact of unemployment upon life-satisfaction relationship. The study shows that in particular sociodemographic and cultural country-level variables affect how individuals experience unemployment and how it is insufficient to rely on economic indicators only. In order to situate individuals in not only their national context, but also in their personal one, social capital constructs are integrated into the project reflecting the networks individuals are part of. More accurate estimates of the unemployment effect are calculated using structural equation modelling to control for endogeneity effects. The results show that the role of unemployment for life-satisfaction appears to be highly contextualised. After taking into account selection biases from socioeconomic characteristics of an individual as well as their social capital resources, the negative effect of unemployment upon life satisfaction that is consistently found cannot be verified as robust and independent. Instead, different domains of social capital largely determine what effect unemployment has on life-satisfaction for different individuals. Furthermore, significant variation in the effect of unemployment between countries, found in the simpler multilevel models, largely disappears when personal context is taken into account. This implies that future investigations should reconsider how to contextualise individual-level processes regarding subjective well-being. The findings from this project suggest that instead of contextualising the direct effects of predictors on life-satisfaction with countrylevel factors, it may be more appropriate to contextualise the personal context people live in and investigate the effects at the individual level thereafter. The results are discussed in a framework contrasting utility-based micro-economic approaches to understanding human behaviour with approaches that address subjective well-being emphasising the variety of human motivations, beyond profit maximisation.


We provide excess risk guarantees for statistical learning in a setting where the population risk with respect to which we evaluate the target model depends on an unknown model that must be to be estimated from data (a "nuisance model"). We analyze a two-stage sample splitting meta-algorithm that takes as input two arbitrary estimation algorithms: one for the target model and one for the nuisance model. We show that if the population risk satisfies a condition called Neyman orthogonality, the impact of the nuisance estimation error on the excess risk bound achieved by the meta-algorithm is of second order. Our theorem is agnostic to the particular algorithms used for the target and nuisance and only makes an assumption on their individual performance. This enables the use of a plethora of existing results from statistical learning and machine learning literature to give new guarantees for learning with a nuisance component. Moreover, by focusing on excess risk rather than parameter estimation, we can give guarantees under weaker assumptions than in previous works and accommodate the case where the target parameter belongs to a complex nonparametric class. We characterize conditions on the metric entropy such that oracle rates---rates of the same order as if we knew the nuisance model---are achieved. We also analyze the rates achieved by specific estimation algorithms such as variance-penalized empirical risk minimization, neural network estimation and sparse high-dimensional linear model estimation. We highlight the applicability of our results in four settings of central importance in the literature: 1) heterogeneous treatment effect estimation, 2) offline policy optimization, 3) domain adaptation, and 4) learning with missing data.


Experimental heat transfer results are presented in a two-pass rectangular channel (aspect ratio=2:1) with smooth and ribbed surfaces for two channel orientations (90 and 135 deg to the direction of rotational plane). The rib turbulators are placed on the leading and trailing sides at an angle 45 deg to the main stream flow. Both 45-deg parallel and cross rib orientations are studied. The results are presented for stationary and rotating cases at three different Reynolds numbers of 5000, 10,000, and 25,000, the corresponding rotation numbers are 0.21, 0.11, and 0.04. The rib height to hydraulic diameter ratio (e/D) is 0.094; the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) is 10 and the inlet wall-to-coolant density ratio (Δρ/ρ) is maintained at 0.115 for all surfaces in the channel. Results show that the rotating ribbed wall heat transfer coefficients increase by a factor of 2 to 3 over the rotating smooth wall results. The heat transfer from the first pass trailing and second pass leading surfaces are enhanced by rotation. However, the first pass leading and the second pass trailing sides show a decrease in heat transfer with rotation. The result show that 45-deg parallel ribs produce a better heat transfer augmentation than 45-deg cross ribs, and a 90-deg channel orientation produces higher heat transfer effect over a 135-deg orientation.


This work investigates physical mechanisms triggering phase scintillations on L-band signals under strong stormy conditions. Thanks to selected ground-based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers, located both in Antarctica and in the Arctic, an interhemispheric comparison between high latitude ionospheric observations in response to the peculiar solar wind conditions occurred on June 22, 2015 is here shown. To trace back the observed phase scintillations to the physical mechanisms driving it, we combine measurements from GNSS receivers with in-situ and ground-based observations. Our study highlights the ionospheric scenario in which irregularities causing scintillation form and move, leveraging on a multi-observation approach. Such approach allows deducing that scintillations are caused by the presence of fast-moving electron density gradients originated by particle precipitation induced by solar wind variations. In addition, we show how the numerous and fast oscillations of the north-south component of the interplanetary magnetic field (Bz,IMF) result to be less effective in producing moderate/intense scintillation events than during period of long lasting negative values. Finally, we also demonstrate how the in-situ electron density data can be used to reconstruct the evolution of the ionospheric dynamics, both locally and globally.


Islamic banking and finance has gained greater recognition throughout the world since its inauguration as a contemporary finance subfield in the mid-1970s. Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, established its first Islamic bank in 1991. Presently, there are 11 Islamic commercial banks (BUS), 24 Islamic windows (UUS) and 163 Islamic rural banks (BPRS) operating within Indonesia. However, despite the upward trend in the growth of Islamic finance in Indonesia, its size and growth has been rather constrained when compared with other countries. In particular, Indonesia has much larger Muslim population than that of Malaysia yet the growth of Islamic banking of Indonesia lags behind that of Malaysia. The growth of Islamic banks within Indonesia faces many obstacles that limit their outreach and constrains their level of market penetration.

The growth of Islamic banks is influenced, on one the hand, by practices and policies employed by Islamic banks, and on the other, by customers' knowledge regarding Islamic banks. Therefore, this study examines the causes and consequences of policies adapted by Islamic banks in Indonesia and compare these with conditions in Malaysia.

Access to finance by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is recognised as a major issue for developed and emerging economies and Indonesia is no exception. However, it is suggested that Islamic banks are in a better position to meet the needs of SMEs. Theoretically, the profit and loss sharing (PLS) principles confers advantages to Islamic banks over conventional banks as IBs share risk with their borrowers, and lend money on the strength of the proposal and not on the basis of the collateral, as often is the basis for conventional bank lending. Risk sharing is preferred by SMEs which commonly do not have financial information or assets for collateral. In the context of Indonesia where the number of SMEs is large, there is a potential for Islamic banks to grow. Therefore, this research investigates lending practices, policies and access to Islamic bank financing by SMEs in Indonesia. This thesis examines the supply and demand side experiences and the obstacles that may hinder SME access to finance from Islamic banks.

To examine the experiences of borrowers and Islamic Bank lenders, the study used triangulation, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, to analyse the data and to test the hypotheses. Quantitative data obtained from questionnaires was used to investigate the experiences of SMEs regarding the theory and practice of Islamic banks and to examine whether there was a financing gap. To corroborate the findings, interviews with SME owners and bank managers were undertaken and analysed through the case study methodology. Furthermore, interviews with Islamic bank managers were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to investigate their experiences in assessing the loan applications of SMEs.

The empirical analysis undertaken in this study demonstrates: (i) the number of Islamic banks (in terms of either assets or market share in Indonesia) is small when compared to that of conventional banks, (ii) access to Islamic banks is motivated by ii a combination of religious and profit considerations, (iii) similar to conventional banks, collateral remained the main obstacle for SMEs in accessing funds from Islamic banks, (iv) a financing gap exists for SMEs exists in Indonesia, and (v) customer mind-set is a crucial barrier in the penetration of Islamic banks into the market.


Abstract Adolescents have been found to differ by age in their attraction to facial symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism. However, it has not been demonstrated that attraction to these facial characters changes over time as a consequence of age-linked development. We aimed to extend previous cross-sectional findings by examining whether facial attractiveness judgments change over time during adolescence as a consequence of increasing age, in a within-subjects study of two cohorts of adolescents aged 11–16. Consistent with previous findings, we find that adolescents (often particularly females) judged faces with increased averageness, symmetry and femininity to be more attractive than original, asymmetric and masculine faces, respectively. However, we do not find longitudinal changes in face preference judgments across the course of a year, leading us to question the extent to which some of the previously reported differences in facial attractiveness judgments between younger and older adolescents ...


Free electron lasers (FEL's) are not new instruments: for a long time, they have produced high-intensity photon beams, primarily in the infrared. They can be, therefore, excellent complementary facilities to synchrotron radiation, whose primary spectral domains are the ultraviolet and the xrays. The use of free electron lasers for experiments, however, has been quite limited; this situation is rapidly changing, with programs being put in operation at Santa Barbara, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, at the LURE laboratory in Orsay, at the FOM in Holland and elsewhere. We present here our practical experience with one of the first programs using the Vanderbilt FEL - which also constitutes at present one of the largest materials research programs with an FEL. Concrete results will be presented in two areas: two-photon absorption and internal photoemission measurements of interface energy barriers (the so-called FELIPE technique), The discussion will analyze the specific problems and requirements of this class of experiments. The main point, however, is the practical evidence that the FEL can sustain long-term research programs very much like synchrotron facilities. The future possibilities are also briefly discussed, in particular as far as the possible extension of FEL's to the x-rays is concerned.


Different habitats of seas and oceans made them an enormous source of biodiversity. Seven different marine species (Coral, Anemon, Tunicate) were tested in a screening platform for the identification of their potential bioactivity related to antimicrobial, cytotoxicity, tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Antimicrobial activity was carried out by broth dilution methods, used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The cytotoxic activity of the samples was carried out by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The tyrosinase inhibitory potentials of selected species extracts were determined using ELISA microtiter assays. The tyrosinase inhibitory activity of these species is the most important result obtained within the experiment.


Aza-Blanc et al. expressed the three vertebrate Gli transcription factors in the wing of Drosophila in order to explore how the functions of these three proteins relate to the Drosophila Cubitus protein (Ci). Ci and Gli transcription factors are major mediators of signaling by Hedgehog (Hh), and they can have repressor or activator functions depending on the concentration of the Hh signal. The authors find through ectopic expression experiments that each of the Gli proteins has a subset of Ci functions: Gli1 is an Hh-regulated activator, Gli3 is an Hh-regulated repressor, and Gli2 has some activator and repressor functions. Supporting these results, cleaved forms similar to the Ci repressor form were only detected for ectopically expressed Gli2 and Gli3, and only Gli3 cleavage was regulated by Hh. The authors propose that Ci is a composite protein with multiple functions in a single polypeptide that may represent a mechanism by which a compact genome like that of Drosophila may still yield complexity of function. Aza-Blanc, P., Line, H.Y., Ruiz i Altaba, A., and Kornberg, T.B. (2000) Expression of the vertebrate Gli proteins in Drosophila reveals a distribution of activator and repressor activities. Development 127: 4293-4301. [Online Journal]


The stable isotopic (δ 18 O δ 13 C) composition of freshwater microcrustaceans (ostracodes) is presented for a long (100 m) sequence off late Pleistocene glaciolacustrine sediments at Toronto, Canada. This section may span a substantial part of the last (Wisconsin) glacialcycle from the close of the last (Sangamon) interglacial (oxygen isotope stage 5) to the glacial maximum after 25 ka (O-isotope stage 2). A well-defined secular trend in both δ 18 O and δ 13 C for two benthic ostracode species Candona subtriangulata and Candona caudata contained in these early and middle Wisconsin sediments records the increasing contribution of glacial meltwater to the basin; isotopically lightest ostracodes (δ 18 O = 17‰) are toward the top of the glaciolacustrine stratigraphy immediately below the erosive base of a late Wisconsin till. In the last stages of the lake, δ 18 O of the lake water ranged between -17‰ and -21‰, implying that the lake consisted of between 35% and 55% glacial meltwater. Consistent differences in isotope values for the two ostracode species suggest an isotopically stratified lake and confirm modern ecological data that the two species have different depth preferences. This study provides important information regarding the isotopic composition of meltwaters from the Laurentide ice sheet and may ultimately help constrain the relation between ice volume over the North American continent and δ 18 O of sea water. This study confirms other glacial geologic data from mid-continent North America which indicate that the maximum regional extent of the Laurentide ice sheet was attained after 25 ka within oxygen isotope stage 2.


This paper presents second year results from the first ever multi-visit, longitudinal experiment on the benefits from arts-focused field trips. Students in fourth and fifth grades in ten elementary schools in a large urban school district were randomly assigned to receive three arts-related field trips throughout the school year, including an art museum, a live theater production, and a symphony performance or to serve as a control. We find that treatment students exhibit higher levels of school engagement as measured by students' behavioral infractions and self-reported engagement. We also find that treatment students perform significantly better on their end of year standardized tests, up to 16% of a standard deviation increase. These effects are persistent even one year following treatment. However, the effects appear to be stronger for the first cohort of students in our sample.


This paper develops propositions on how to theorise the mechanisms linking three particular phenomena: 1) organised civil violence, framed by perpetrators and victims as being 'ethnic', 2) the involvement of groups in such violence having putative ethnic kin in a neighbouring country, and 3) the choice by the executive in kin countries to escalate the neighbouring civil violence by intervening militarily in support of a conflict party. The 'first actors' in this analysis are the members of the executive in the intervening state. In developing a causal narrative connecting transnational ethnic ties with the choice to intervene, this paper seeks to take account of the socially constructed nature of ethnic identity, and the extent to which the politicisation of ethnic identity is endogenous to organised political violence. In order to link processes of construction with mechanisms of choice, the paper argues that social-theoretic 'bridge building' is a useful analytical tool – 'bridge building' being an approach that typically combines rationalist and conventional constructivist modes of social explanation to build more complete theories of political outcomes. * Paper prepared for presentation at the Workshop on the Role of First Actors in Civil War, Oslo, Norway, 17-18 August 2006. I gratefully acknowledge Scott Gates for helpful comments.


The Stenochironomus complex contains all those species which exhibit the highly modified, mining larval form previously recognized as typical of only the genus Stenochironomus Kieffer: larvae with a dorsoventrally compressed head capsule, expanded thoracic segments and a long, flaccid abdomen. The complex includes members of Xestochironomus Sublette & Wirth (New World), Harrisius Freeman (Australian Region), Stenochironomus (cosmopolitan) and two larval forms, one from New Zealand and the other from Africa.This revision provides analysis of 12 species of Xestochironomus (five new), four species of Harrisius , and 54 species of Neotropical and Holarctic Stenochironomus (32 new named species, two new species not named, and four new combinations: S . innocuus (Williston), S . semifumosus (Edwards), S . longilobatus (Tokunaga) and S . gracilivalva (Kieffer)). Of these species, the pupae and fourth instar larvae are described for two species of Xestochironomus , Harrisius pallidus Freeman and 24 of the named species of Stenochironomus . Descriptions, diagnoses, keys, and distribution maps are provided for all species in each available stage. Stenochironomus taeniapennis (Coquillett, 1901), S . zonopterus (Mitchell, 1908), and S . exquisitus (Mitchell, 1908) are newly recognized as junior synonyms of S . hilaris (Walker, 1848).A cladistic analysis of all these species suggests that the Stenochironomus complex is monophyletic. The African larval form is the sister group of all other members; Xestochironomus is the sister group of Harrisius , the New Zealand larval form and Stenochironomus ; and Stenochironomus is the sister group of Harrisius plus the New Zealand larval form. These relationships suggest possible southern continental affinities. Stenochironomus is composed of two monophyletic species groups, the subgenus Stenochironomus s . str . with species whose larvae mine wood and the new subgenus Petalopholeus (type-species, S . cinctus Townes) with species whose larvae mine leaves.Cladistic patterns show that Caribbean species are related to other New World species, and that North American species are related to Neotropical or Palaearctic species.Larval food type and ecological differences are analyzed using cladistic relationships. The plesiotypic habitat for species of the Stenochironomus complex is running waters.The phylogenetic relationships of Stenochironomus species and their mite parasites are compared and show little congruence.


Check with local Forest Service unit for current travel conditions and restrictions. FS Primary Route FS High Clearance Route FS Passenger Route a« Interstate Route State Route US Route WX . / H Expressway Local Connector Ramp 4WD Secondary Hwy Local Road This map was produced to conform with the National Geospatial Program US Topo Product Standard, 2011. A metadata file associated with this product is draft version 0.6.16 CONTOUR INTERVAL 20 FEET NORTH AMERICAN VERTICAL DATUM OF 1988 SCALE 1:24 00


The Chukar Footwall mine forms part of the NW striking Carlin trend in northern Nevada, and lies beneath the southwest highwall of the Gold Quarry, a world-class deposit with total 1999 reserves, resources, and mineral inventories in excess of 24M oz gold. The Chukar Footwall orebodies are hosted in the planar to wispy silty limestone and calc-silicates of the Silurian-Devonian Roberts Mountains Formation (SDrm). The Devonian Popovich Formation (Dp), a micritic package locally hosting economic gold mineralization, structurally overlies the DSrm. The Raven dike intrudes the DSrm at several mine levels along northwest-trending structures. The dike is composed of abundant dark green, millimeter sized subhedral-anhedral phenocrysts in a light colored aphanitic groundmass. It is altered to clay and pyrite, but does not appear to be a feeder structure. These rocks were deformed during the Antler orogeny, generating the Chukar anticline, a northeast trending open structure with a subhorizontal plunge. High gold grades are commonly situated along the hinge and the southeast limb and in small parasitic folds. A conjugate system of structures is represented by northwest and northeast striking faults, where the former cuts the latter. Kinematic indicators denote predominantly oblique normal slips for both fault sets. Geochemical analyses show that As, Fe, and Sb have a high correlation with Au, whereas Ag and Ba have a weak correlation with this element. Finally, pyrite and stibnite are the most common sulfides. Arsenic minerals are scarce, occurring in the deeper mine levels replacing decalcified rock. Calcite occurs as multistage veins, stockworks, and in vugs. The Chukar Footwall mine exhibits the hydrothermal alteration assemblages typical of Carlin-type gold deposits: (a) decalcification, (b) dolomitization, (c) silicification, and (d) baritization. The uniqueness of this deposit relative to the more typical Carlin-type is the (1) sharp boundaries between fresh and altered rocks, and (2) presence of abundant visible gold. Gold mineralization is spatially related with strong decalcification in the vicinity of intersections of northeasterly structures with the Chukar anticline. Coarse gold occurs in decarbonatized silty limestone along fractures of all orientations as well as along bedding planes. Also, visible gold is present in late barite veinlets, coprecipitating with the latter phase.


Gene transcription is a fundamental process of the living cell. Eukaryotic transcription of messenger RNA requires the regulated recruitment of the conserved transcribing enzyme RNA polymerase (Pol) II to the gene promoter. The most heavily regulated step is transcription initiation that involves the ordered assembly of Pol II, the general transcription factors (TF) -IIA, -IIB, -IID, -IIF, -IIE, -IIH and the co-activator Mediator complex. Mediator communicates between transcription regulators and Pol II, and is associated with human disease. Mediator from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc) has a molecular mass of 1.4 megadaltons and contains 25-subunits that constitute a head, middle, tail and kinase module. The core of Mediator contains the head and middle modules that are essential for viability in Sc, and directly contact Pol II. Mediator co-operates with TFIIH, to assist assembly and stabilization of the transcription initiation complex and stimulate TFIIH kinase activity. Because of the large size and complexity of Mediator and the initiation machinery, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this work we studied the structure and function of Mediator head and middle modules, the structure of the reconstituted Pol II-core Mediator transcription initiation complex, and reveal mechanisms of transcription regulation.
We report the crystal structure of the 6-subunit Schizosaccharomyces pombe Mediator head module at 3.4 A resolution. The structure resembles the head of a crocodile and reveals eight elements that are part of three domains named neck, fixed jaw and movable jaw. The neck contains a spine, shoulder, arm and finger. The arm and essential shoulder elements contact the remainder of Mediator and Pol II. The head module jaws and central joint, important for transcription, also interact with Mediator and Pol II. The Sp head module structure is conserved and revises a 4.3 A model of the Sc head module, explains known mutations, and provides an atomic model for one half of core Mediator. We further propose a model of the Mediator middle module based on protein crosslinking and mass spectrometry.
To determine how Mediator regulates initiation, we prepared recombinant Sc core Mediator by co-expression of its 15 subunits in bacteria. Core Mediator is active in transcription assays and bound an in vitro reconstituted core initially transcribing complex (cITC) that contains Pol II, the general factors TFIIB, TBP, TFIIF, and promoter DNA. We determined the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the initially transcribing core initiation complex at 7.8 A resolution. The structure reveals the arrangement of DNA, TBP, TFIIB, and TFIIF on the Pol II surface, the path of the complete DNA template strand and three TFIIF elements. The 'charged helix' and 'arm' of TFIIF subunit Tfg1, reach into the Pol II cleft and may stabilize open DNA. The linker region of TFIIF subunit Tfg2 extends between Pol II protrusion and TFIIB, and may stabilize TFIIB. The structure agrees with its human counterpart, and suggests a conserved architecture of the core initiation complex. Finally, we determined the cryo-electron microscopy architecture of the cITC-core Mediator complex at 9.7 A resolution. Core Mediator binds Pol II at the Rpb4/Rbp7 stalk close to the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD). The Mediator head module contacts the Pol II dock and TFIIB ribbon and stabilizes the initiation complex. The Mediator middle module 'plank' domain touches the Pol II foot and may control polymerase conformation allosterically. The Med14 subunit bridges head and middle modules with a 'beam', and connects to the tail module that binds transcription activators located on upstream DNA. The 'arm' and 'hook' domains of core Mediator form part of a 'cradle' that may position CTD and the TFIIH kinase to stimulate Pol II phosphorylation. Taken together, our results provide a structural framework to unravel the role of Mediator in transcription initiation and determine mechanisms of gene regulation.


Increased rates of child abuse reporting over recent years have resulted in closer attention being paid to the interviewing techniques employed by police and human services staff to elicit the child's account of alleged abuse incident(s). Such accounts are commonly elicited under Video and Audiotaped Evidence conditions and form a crucial component of a prosecution case against an alleged offender. Serious and pervasive problems with such accounts have, however been identified in the literature on investigative interviewing with child witnesses. Key amongst these is the fact that interviewers seem to rely too heavily on specific questioning, in spite of the fact that best-practice guidelines from around the globe emphasise the importance of using open-ended questions that promote free narrative on the part of the child. The aim of this research was to evaluate a representative sample of child abuse interviews from the field using a narrative framework derived from the field of linguistics. The authors examine the concept of 'free narrative' from a linguistic, rather than an eye-witness memory perspective. They review relevant literature on the composition of a linguistically intact narrative, and examine the extent to which current police interviewing practices are successful at eliciting a narrative account that is linguistically coherent. Fifty-one de-identified transcripts of police interviews with children formed the basis of the analysis.


Summary The Wood Cadillac mining site, in north-western Quebec, is an important source of arsenic contamination. The arsenic-rich effluent is treated through a reductive biofilter, which allows arsenic to precipitate as a sulphide (likely As2S3). The top-fed biofilter, built at the end of 1999, is 50 m x 57 m by 1 m thick. The reducing conditions are provided by the decomposition of yellow birch bark chips. At the outlet, dissolved arsenic was maintained below 57 µg/L during the entire periods investigated, which is May 2000 to October 2002, except June 20 th 2001 (93 µg/L). Relative to mean input values of 103, 227, and 168 µg/L in 2000, 2001, and 2002, arsenic concentrations were removed on average by 92, 88, and 76 %, respectively. Dissolved sulphates were removed in the summer up to 99%, 95%, and 67% in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Alkalinity is a direct product of sulphate reduction, and its variation was found to be inversely proportional to that of sulphate removal. Unfortunately, water is also enriched with organic matter after its journey through the biofilter, with high COD, BOD, and, to some extent, phenols. The physical properties of the biofilter have been modified over time due to its compaction since its construction (6 to 10 %). Thus, the heterogeneity of the porous media has increased and preferential flow paths have been developed (shorter residence time), which could explained part of the decrease in arsenic removal in 2002. Furthermore, the geotextile near the surface of the biofilter got partly plugged by organic material limiting the infiltration. As a consequence, the maximum discharge decreased from 7 L/s in 2000 to 5 L/s in 2002. To sum up, the biofilter has improved the water quality of Wood Cadillac effluents with respect to arsenic. However, its performance has somewhat decreased in 2002 in comparison to the two previous years. This decrease is due to preferential flow paths, which shorten the residence time, and/or to less available easily degradable organic matter available to reducing sulphate bacteria. The quality of the biofilter effluent has somewhat degraded when one's consider organic matter. However, chemical and biological demands have significantly decreased in 2002 in comparison to the two previous years.


Sub-species DTU Orbit (25/12/2018)  Multiplex Solid-Phase PCR for Rapid Detection and Identification of Salmonella spp. at Sub-species This study presents a solid-phase PCR (SP-PCR) for rapid detection, identification, and sub-typing of various Salmonella species, the major food-borne cause of salmonellosis. The target DNA is firstly amplified with PCR primers (one primer is labeled with fluorophores) in the liquid phase. Simultaneously on the solid phase, the amplified PCR amplicons interact with the nested DNA probes immobilized on the solid substrate as an array. If the immobilized probes match the sequence of the DNA templates they are extended by the polymerase and serve as template for the second strand elongation primed by the liquid phase primer thus generating new templates for the SP-PCR. After the reaction, PCR products labeled with fluorophores remain attached to the substrate and can be visualized directly by fluorescence readout devices. Using this method, S. enteritidis, S. typhimurium and S. dublin can be detected at the same time. The method offers several advantages over conventional multiplex PCR: less competition between different primer pairs thus increasing multiplexing capability, only single wavelength optical readout needed for the multiplexing detection, and less timeconsuming owing to reduction of the post-PCR gel electrophoresis. The method will be useful for development of point-ofcare devices for rapid detection and identification of Salmonella spp. A solid-phase PCR for rapid detection and identification of S. enteritidis, S. typhimurium and S. dublin is developed. The method offers advantages such as better multiplexing capability, only single wavelength optical readout needed, and less time-consuming.


The proposed presentation is a progress report from a project which is aimed at establishing some phonetic correlates of language dominance in various kinds of bilingual situations. The current object of study is Swedish students starting in classes which prepare for the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. The IB classes in Sweden are taught in English, except for classes in Swedish and foreign languages. This means that after they enter the programme the students are exposed to and speak a good deal more English than previously. The assumption made by many students that they will, on the one hand not "damage" their Swedish, and on the other will dramatically improve their English simply by attending an English-medium school will be tested. The linguistic background of the students studied and their reasons for choosing the IB programme will be established. Their English and Swedish proficiency will be tested according to various parameters (native-like syntax, perceived foreign accent, the timing of vowels and consonants in VC sequences, vocabulary mobilisation) on arrival at the school, and again after one and three years at the school. The initial recordings are now underway. In a preliminary study involving just three young people who were bilingual in Swedish and English, the timing of the pronunciation of (C)VC syllables in Swedish and English was studied. The results of this investigation indicate that it may be possible to establish language dominance in bilingual speakers using timing data. It was found that the three subjects differed systematically in their pronunciation of the target words. One subject (15 years old), who was apparently native-like in both languages, had the V-C timing of both Swedish and English words of a native speaker of English. His brother (17 years old), who had a noticeable Swedish accent in English, pronounced both Swedish and English words in this respect like a native speaker of Swedish. The boys' sister (9 years old) apparently had native-like timing in both languages.


Staining techniques are the primary method for quantitative detection of gel-resolved proteins. With stain sensitivity defining the extent of total protein detected, staining-technique enhancements that facilitate increased detection of low-abundance proteins are constantly sought. Although stains must exhibit high detection sensitivity, they must also be broadly applicable, practical, cost-effective and compatible with downstream identification techniques. Currently, the most widely utilised in-gel protein stains are colloidal Coomassie Brilliant Blue and SYPRO Ruby (or slight variants on each). As with any stain, each requires extensive characterisation and rigorous optimisation of protocols to effectively define limits of sensitivity and quantitative capacity. However, the procedures involved in preparing, resolving, imaging and analysing samples can also have significant consequences on quantitative outcomes, and thus must be fully considered in order to facilitate detailed and reproducible analyses (i.e. as required in top-down proteomics).

Keywords:

protein staining;
quantitative analysis;
gel electrophoresis;
fluorescence;
imaging;
detection;
proteomics;
protein sample preparation


Theoretical research has demonstrated that the gains in data rate achievable with spectrum coordination or signal coordination techniques are substantial for digital subscriber line (DSL) networks. Work on these two fronts has progressed steadily and usually independently. In this paper, we combine the two types of coordination for a mixed DSL scenario, one in which some of the infrastructure required for full-fledged signal coordination is available, but not all. This kind of scenario, which is referred to as the discrete multi-tone MIMO interference channel (DMT MIMO IC), can be an important stepping stone for the development of DSL towards a fully signal coordinated architecture. Our solution has characteristics of both signal and spectrum coordination and delivers good performance.


The laws of physics govern our lives, and the fundamental constants of Nature (for example, the mass and charge of the electron) define our very morphology. If a human body were totally dehydrated there would only remain about thirty kilograms of crystals and powder, after having removed about fifty litres of water. Yet the amazing machine that is our body functions because of the forces of interaction (attraction and repulsion) that exist between the molecules in that powder when fully hydrated. These forces of interaction are mediated and directed by the vast amount of water that is present. It is the precise orientation of one hydrated molecule with respect to another hydrated molecule, at a well-defined separation, in our central nervous systems that allows a nerve impulse to tunnel quantum-mechanically through the intermediate space between two nerve cells at a synapse. Thereby allowing us to observe our environment, and contemplate our existence. It is the arrangement of the water molecules along molecules of muscle proteins that allows one protein molecule to slide over neighbouring protein molecules, thereby allowing us to do exercise and work, or to hunt and to gather. The precise distances and orientations between the molecules of which our bodies are composed are determined by subtle intermolecular electrostatic forces, whose magnitude is determined by the various constants of Nature, and whose operation is dictated by the laws of physics. We are merely living representations of these immutable physical laws.


Analyses of genomes from Tibetan populations reveal a signaling pathway that may account for high-altitude adaptation. During the past 100,000 to 200,000 years, anatomically modern humans successfully colonized a diverse range of environments across the planet. Some of the most extreme of these environments are found on the high-altitude plateaus of Central Asia and the Andes. The Tibetan Plateau appears to have been inhabited for ∼25,000 years, and permanent settlements have been established at elevations of 3500 to 4500 m (1, 2). Residents of these lofty altitudes descend from a long line of highland ancestors who lived long enough to reproduce in spite of the physiological challenges associated with chronic oxygen deprivation. Thus, studies of indigenous high-altitude residents provide the opportunity to identify genes that may have played a role in hypoxia adaptation. On pages 72 and 75 of this issue, Simonson et al. (3) and Yi et al. (4), respectively, combine genomic and candidate-gene analyses to identify the genetic basis of high-altitude adaptation in Tibetans. Together with another recent analysis (5), the studies reveal that genes in the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) oxygen signaling pathway have been subject to strong and recent positive selection in Tibetan highlanders.


We present results for direct dating of Fe oxide-(Cu-Au) (iron oxide, copper, gold—IOCG) mineralization by U/Pb zircon geochronology. Constraining the timing of mineralization has important geodynamic implications for the processes involved in the genesis of these types of deposits and the tectonic evolution of rocks associated with these deposits. Hydrothermal zircon crystals were separated from four IOCG-type ore deposits associated with the Lyon Mountain Granite in the Adirondack Mountains, United States. Zircon grains from these low-Ti magnetite deposits reveal at least two periods of mineralization; one episode ca. 1039 Ma and a second between ca. 1015 and 1000 Ma. Previous age determinations of these deposits were constrained by the age of the altered host granitoids, and the assumption that Fe mineralization was directly related to pluton emplacement. Zircon crystals extracted from the ore yield ages that show that ore mineralization was episodic and younger than pluton emplacement.


Everything was balanced before the computers went off line. Try and adjust something, and you unbalance something else. Try and adjust that, you unbalance two more and before you know what's happened, the ship is out of control. A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem. — Anonymous Let's play. I'll assume that everyone is already familiar with the standard terminology for binary search trees—node, well as the standard algorithms for searching for a node, inserting a node, or deleting a node. Otherwise, consult your favorite data structures textbook. For this lecture, we will consider only full binary trees—where every internal node has exactly two children—where only the internal nodes actually store search keys. In practice, we can represent the leaves with null pointers. Recall that the depth of a node is its distance from the root, and its height is the distance to the farthest leaf in its subtree. The height (or depth) of the tree is just the height of the root. The size of a node is the number of nodes in its subtree. The size n of the whole tree is just the total number of nodes. A tree with height h has at most 2 h leaves, so the minimum height of an n-leaf binary tree is lg n. In the worst case, the time required for a search, insertion, or deletion to the height of the tree, so in general we would like keep the height as close to lg n as possible. The best we can possibly do is to have a perfectly balanced tree, in which each subtree has as close to half the leaves as possible, and both subtrees are perfectly balanced. The height of a perfectly balanced tree is lg n, so the worst-case search time is O(log n). However, even if we started with a perfectly balanced tree, a malicious sequence of insertions and/or deletions could make the tree arbitrarily unbalanced, driving the search time up to Θ(n). To avoid this problem, we need to periodically modify the tree to maintain 'balance'. There are several methods for doing this, and depending on the method we use, the search tree is given a different name. 1 and jumplists. Some of these trees support searches, insertions, and deletions, in O(log n) worst-case time, others in O(log n) amortized time, still others in O(log n) expected time. …


The aim of this research is to compare the quality of meat of local carcass sheep between fresh and aging meat stored at room temperature for 12 hours, at 4oC for one day and one week. For that purpose a study of aging carcass involving 12 local sheep (male and female with different ages) was carried out by separating carcass into two parts: (1) the right portion was aged on 4oC for one day and one week, room temperature for 12 hours, and (2) the left portion as control without aging. A factorial design 2x2 (2 sexes and aging vs without aging) for three kinds of aging on quality of meat. A factorial design 2x3 (2 sexes and 3 kinds of aging) on aging loss. Replicate twice was carried out with different ages (old and young sheep). Parameter measured were pH, warter-holding capacity, cooking loss, color, tenderness, carcass weight loss. There was decrease in pH, increase in tenderness value for aged meat that stored at room temperature for 12 hours (1.84 kg), at cold temperature for one day (2.03 kg), but tenderness value was the most (0.92 kg) at cold temperature for one week compared to fresh meat (3.41, 4.06, and 3.66 kg). Lightness color (l), red color (a) and yellow color (b) for aged meat is usually increase compare to fresh meat, except for aged meat stored at room temperature for 12 hours was decrease significant. Water-holding capacity and cooking loss value of aged meat was not significant compared to fresh meat. Aging loss of aged meat stored at 4oC for one week (13.58%) was significant compared to aged meat stored at room temperature (2.42%) and 4oC for one day (2.90%). Key words : Aging of carcass, room temperature, cold temperature, meat quality, aging loss


The morphological characteristics of yardangs are the direct evidence that reveals the wind and fluvial erosion for lacustrine sediments in arid areas. These features can be critical indicators in reconstructing local wind directions and environment conditions. Thus, the fast and accurate extraction of yardangs is key to studying their regional distribution and evolution process. However, the existing automated methods to characterize yardangs are of limited generalization that may only be feasible for specific types of yardangs in certain areas. Deep learning methods, which are superior in representation learning, provide potential solutions for mapping yardangs with complex and variable features. In this study, we apply Mask region-based convolutional neural networks (Mask R-CNN) to automatically delineate and classify yardangs using very high spatial resolution images from Google Earth. The yardang field in the Qaidam Basin, northwestern China is selected to conduct the experiments and the method yields mean average precisions of 0.869 and 0.671 for intersection of union (IoU) thresholds of 0.5 and 0.75, respectively. The manual validation results on images of additional study sites show an overall detection accuracy of 74%, while more than 90% of the detected yardangs can be correctly classified and delineated. We then conclude that Mask R-CNN is a robust model to characterize multi-scale yardangs of various types and allows for the research of the morphological and evolutionary aspects of aeolian landform.


Quadrotor as one type of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is a system that underactuated. It means that the system has a signal control amount is lower than the degrees of freedom or DOF (Degree Of Freedom). This condition causes the quadrotor have limited mobility. If quadrotor is made to have 6 DOF or more (overactuated system), the motion control system to optimise the flight will be different from before. We need to develop overactuated quadrotor control. Quadtiltrotor as the development of quadrotor has some control signal over its DOF. So we call it as an overactuated system. Based on the type of manoeuvre to do, the transition process when the quad tiltrotor performs a translational motion using the tilting rotor need special treatment. The tilt angle change is intended that the quad tiltrotor can perform translational motion while still maintaining its orientation angle near 0°. This orientation angle can change during the undesirable rotational movement as the effect of the transition process. If additional rotational movements cannot be damped, the quad tiltrotor can experience multi overshoot, steady-state error, or even fall. Because of this matter, we need to develop flight control system to handle it. The flight control system of quad tiltrotor can be designed using a model of the system. Models can be created using quad tiltrotor dynamics by the Newton-Euler approach. Then the model is simulated along with the control system using the method of control. Several control methods can be utilised in a quad tiltrotor flight systems. However, with the implementation of LQG control method and Integrator, optimal translational control of the quad tiltrotor can be achieved.


By investigating the resistance characteristics of bacteria from organic and conventional keeping systems of laying hens, it was to be determined to what extent different rearing systems influence bacterial resistance patterns. For this purpose, samples from 10 organic and 10 conventional flocks were investigated 4 times between January 2004 and April 2005. In total, 799 cloacal swabs and 800 egg samples were taken and examined. The isolation and identification of Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., E. coli/Coliforms, Campylobacter spp., and Enterococcus spp. was performed with standardized, cultural methods.
Selected isolates of the genera Salmonella (n = 44), Listeria (n = 13), Campylobacter (C. jejuni, n = 218; C. coli, n = 46), Escherichia (E. coli, n = 545; E. fergusonii n = 18; E. hermanii n = 1 ) Citrobacter (Citrobacter freundii n = 9), Enterobacter (Enterobacter cloacae n = 5; Enterobacter sakazakii n = 3; Enterobacter gergoviae n = 2; Enterobacter asburiae n = 1), Pantoea (Pantoea agglomerans n = 2) and Enterococcus (E. faecalis, n = 361; E. faecium, n = 57; other enterococci [E. nonfaecalis/nonfaecium], n = 569) were tested for their resistance behaviour with respect to 29 different antibiotics by means of microdilution.

During the bacteriological investigation of the cloacal swabs, prevalences were found for all bacteria groups in the same order of magnitude in the different rearing systems (Salmonella spp. 3.5 % (organic [org.]) vs. 1.8 % (conventional [con.]); Listeria spp.: 1.3 % (org.) vs. 1.6 % (con.); Campylobacter spp : 34.8 % (org.) or 29.0 % (con.); E. coli: 66.4 % (org.) vs. 72.0 % (con.); Enterococcus spp.: 95.5 % (org.) vs. 97.5 % (con.). Eggs were generally infected with less bacteria, most of which were of the genera Enterococcus and Escherichia, whereas Listeria, Salmonella and Campylobacter were only rarely isolated from the samples.

Salmonella of the serovar type S. Typhimurium were resistant to up to nine antibiotics; Salmonella of the serogroup B were resistant to up to 6 different antibiotics. All Salmonella isolates proved to be resistant towards spectinomycin. A high percentage of C. jejuni and C. coli isolates showed resistance to flourquinolones; a similar resistance was observed in the case of ampicillin and doxycycline. The Listeria isolates were mostly sensitive towards the tested antibiotics, and only a few strains showed resistance to clindamycin and imipenem. E. coli isolates showed a high resistance prevalence to s-lactames, doxycycline, streptomycin, and cefaclor. High percentages (54.8 %) of E. faecalis were found to be resistant to doxycycline; macrolides were also only marginally effective. The investigated E. faecium isolates proved to have high resistance rates to clindamycin, fosfomycin and erythromycin, while a significant percentage (9.1 %) of E. faecium had already been classified as resistant to the reserve antibiotic synercid. Other enterococci showed higher resistance rates to doxycycline, erythromycin, fosfomycin, and rifampicine. There were no glykopeptide-resistant enterococci.

The analysis of the prevalence rates of sensitive and resistant isolates depending on the keeping system showed a correlation between rearing system and resistance rates: In the case of E. faecalis, a significantly lower prevalence of resistance to tylosin, streptomycin and doxycycline was determined among isolates from organic farms, while significantly higher amounts of isolates were found to be sensitive to enrofloxacin and ciprofloxacin; however, when tested on rifampicin and imipenem, E. faecalis behaved contrary to this.
E. coli isolates from organic layers showed significantly lower resistance rates or significantly higher amounts of sensitive isolates with regard to nine agents, while in the case of E. coli from conventional rearing systems, these results could only be observed for two antibiotics.
In the case of C. jejuni, significantly better rates were observed for isolates from organic flocks with regard to imipenem and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, whereas fosfomycin favoured isolates from conventional layer flocks. In the case of 8 antibiotics, the amounts of sensitive and resistant enterococci of the E. nonfaecalis/nonfaecium group originating from organic farms were found to be higher and lower respectively compared to the isolates from conventional farms.

Overall, the comparison of the amounts of sensitive and resistant bacteria isolates and the mean MIC values showed that the isolates from organic layer rearing systems scored much better statistically than those from conventional systems. The results show that organic layer flocks reduce the amount of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, as both the resistance rates of the selected bacteria to certain antibiotics as well as the mean MIC values for certain antibiotic agents were lower in organic systems than in conventional ones. Thus, organic livestock farming contributes towards securing the continued effectiveness of anti-infectives.


One major focus of adolescent research concerns their experience with depression. According to Peterson et al. (1993), a major impetus for this work is that depression stands out among psychological problems of adolescence for its impact on adjustment during the adolescent years and its long-term effects on adult functioning. An extensively applied theoretical notion in research concerning adolescent functioning suggests that the adolescent operates as part of multiple social units (e.g., the family, community, peer group, and academic setting). Moreover, it is very likely that an individual's perceptions of his/her experiences in these units provide an important perspective for understanding adolescent development. The primary purpose of this project is to examine the relation between depression and high school students' self reports of academic coping and perceptions of autonomy support from significant individuals (i.e., their parents and peers). To date, few projects have examined the link between depression and academic coping (i.e., a student's ability to deal with school demands). Ehrenberg, Cox, and Koopman (1990) reported that self efficacy correlated the strongest with depression (among the variables included in their study). Although coping was not directly assessed in their project, self efficacy is generally considered a very critical component of one's ability to cope. Specifically, when one's self efficacy is low, it may be more difficult to cope with the existing demands then when one's self efficacy is high. Thus, although not directly assessed in Ehrenberg, Cox, and Koopman's (1990) project, a relation between coping and depression is certainly a possibility. On the other hand, a number of projects have demonstrated the importance of parent autonomy support and involvement with respect to adolescent development, in general, and school achievement, in particular (see Melby, 1993; Rosenthal & Feldman, 1991). Specifically, when parents provide encouragement (e.g., developing and implementing a well-defined set of expected behaviors in a non-conflictual manner) students will work to achieve those standards especially when the parents are involved in the youth's academic experience. In fact, Connell, Spencer, and Aber (1994) reported that family support and involvement were highly significant predictors of school-related outcomes among African-American students. In work on adolescent depression, a number of researchers have found that positive parent-child relationships tends to shield the adolescent from depression. For example, feeling distant from mothers and fathers (implicitly suggesting the lack of autonomy support and involvement) places female adolescents at a greater risk for depression (Gouws & Huffman, 1994). Similarly, conflictual relations with parents (again, likely indicating a lack of autonomy support) are associated with a higher incidence of depression. Taken together, results such as these suggests that a strong and positive relationship between the parents and the adolescent reduces the likelihood that he/she will experience depression (Herman-Stahl, 1994). Further, these results suggest that a relation between depression and parental autonomy support may exist. With respect to the peer group, numerous projects have reported that well-liked and popular students tend to do well academically (Dusek, 1996). Although autonomy support from peers was not directly assessed in these projects, implicitly well-liked students have support and involvement from their peers. In that sense, a relation similar to the parent-adolescent relation regarding support and overall positive development may exist. Dusek (1996) suggests that the peer group can provide an environment that is conducive to academic success in which an adolescent is expected to abide by certain norms. Assuming that the individual follows the norms, the group can and will provide support which, in turn, enhances performance (Dusek, 1996). …


IN THE EARLY FOURTH century, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius lost his job as a professor of rhetoric, a position he had been invited to assume years earlier by the Roman emperor Diocletian. Lactantius was not native to the area, nor was he native to Christianity, but in the midst of his professional life he had arrived at both. He had been born a pagan in North Africa around 240 A.D. He studied under Arnobius--the renowned rhetor and, later, Christian apologist who taught at Sicca (Tunisia) in Roman Africa--and over time his own reputation as a learned rhetorician caught the attention of the Roman leadership, resulting in an invitation from Diocletian to teach at Nieomedia. All might have gone well for Lactantius had he not subsequently discovered Christianity. His conversion put him at odds with the Emperor, and when Diocletian issued his first edict against Christianity in 303 A.D., it was clear Lactantius's tenure at Nicomedia would be revoked. With the loss of his professorship, Lactantius was soon reduced to abject poverty, from which he would not successfully recover until late in his life when the Emperor Constantine remembered his skills as a teacher and appointed him a tutor to his son Crispus. Having followed his charge Crispus to Trier, Germany, in 317, Lactantius spent his final months in that city and died circa 320 A.D. Only Lactantius's Christian writings survive, and, although not known for the depth and originality of his theological vision, Lactantius made a lasting mark through his style--he was dubbed the "Christian Cicero" during the Renaissance--and for his work in apologetics. In particular, Lactantius focused on defending Christianity against polytheistic pagan religions, and it is this combination of graceful style steeped in classical learning with his systematic dismantling of the theories and creeds held by the best minds of the classical era that likely resulted in his popularity in the Renaissance and established Lactantius as one of the more oft-quoted and oft-reprinted of the early church fathers. Around 314 A.D., Lactantius wrote a volume entitled De ira Dei (A Treatise on the Anger of God). The stated purpose of this treatise is to refute the arguments of" those who believe God does not act in wrath either because (1) God is all-benevolent, or (2) God is set apart from the direct affairs of humankind. Much of" the text is given over to a point-by-point answer to the Stoics, the Epicureans, and a handful of other classical philosophers who in one form or another argued that God cannot or does not experience wrath. About halfway through his discourse, Lactantius tackles what we would refer to now as the problem of pain. He brings this part of his treatise to a point by introducing a formulation Lactantius attributes to Epicurus. Lactantius writes: God, he [Epicurus] says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God, if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if tie is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does tie not remove them? (Lactantius, 28) The problem of pain, as set forth here by Lactantius, is often framed, or answered, with an appeal to questions of teleology. In other words, the dilemma might be reconceived thus: by, revealing some greater design or discovering some remarkable end or purpose--a teleos--for pain, can we explain adequately why, if God is both benevolent and omnipotent, that He does not remove pain from the world? Lactantius thinks so. Having earlier in his treatise argued that the universe is divinely ordered and governed by God's providence, Lactantius proposes that the existence of evil in the world serves the purpose of forcing humanity to exercise wisdom. …


Given the high levels of crime and violence in South Africa, there may be a temptation for citizens to arm themselves for protection. Using quantitative survey data from the Cape Area Panel Study and qualitative interviews with residents of high-violence neighborhoods, this paper examines the question of who carries weapons outside the home in Cape Town and what the effects of weapon carrying may be. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the significance of possible socioeconomic drivers of weapon carrying and the results are discussed in the South African social context. Weapon carrying is found to be associated with both assault perpetration and victimization, suggesting that it is part of a violent lifestyle in which weapon carriers are likely to use their weapons both offensively and defensively. Possible weaponrelated policies for violence reduction are also discussed.


In the fast-growing world of translation studies, many students may not receive adequate training at universities. A new multi-facetted approach is therefore needed to be applied in translator educational programs to meet the students' needs and professional expectations. In order to describe the complex interrelations in translator education systems and propose a research framework that takes into account its dynamism, complexity theory is used as an analytical tool that proposes better ways of thinking about the world of education. This study attempts to bring new insights into translator education by showing how the main tenets of complexity thinking can be applied metaphorically in translator education and how the implications of this theory can be applied in translator educational programs at universities in the context of Iran's higher education system. According to this perspective, the competitive top-down approach, which is traditionally applied in Iran's educational system can no longer be effective and should be replaced by a participative bottom-up approach.


The objective of the present study was to determine the polymorphism in the leptin (332G>A) and its association with biometric traits in Sanjabi sheep. For this purpose, blood samples from 96 rams were taken, and tail length, width tail, circumference tail, body length, body width, and height were simultaneously recorded. PCR was performed using specific primer to amplify 463 bp fragment including exon 3 of leptin gene, and PCR products were digested by Cail restriction enzymes. The 332G>A (at 332th nucleotide of exon 3 leptin gene) that caused an amino acid change from Arg to Gln was detected by Cail (CAGNNNCTG) endonuclease, as the endonuclease cannot cut this region if G nucleotide is located in this position. Three genotypes including GG (463), GA (463, 360and 103 bp) and GG (360 bp and 103 bp) were identified after digestion by enzyme. The estimated frequencies of three genotypes including GG, GA, and AA for 332G>A locus were 0.68, 0.29 and 0.03 and those were 0.18 and 0.82 for A and G alleles, respectively. In the current study, chi-square test indicated that 332G>A positions did not deviate from the Hardy–Weinberg (HW) equilibrium. The most important reason to show HW equation was that samples used in this study belong to three large local herds with a traditional breeding system having random mating and without selection. Shannon index amount was calculated which represent an average genetic variation in Sanjabi rams. Also, heterozygosity estimated by Nei index indicated that genetic diversity of mutation in the leptin gene is moderate. Leptin gene polymorphism in the 332G>A had significant effect on body length (P<0.05) trait, and individuals with GA genotype had significantly the higher body length compared to other individuals. Although animals with GA genotype had higher body width, this difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). This non-synonymous SNP resulted in different amino acid changes at codon positions111(R/Q). As leptin activity is localized, at least in part, in domains between amino acid residues 106-1406, it is speculated that the detected SNP at position 332 may affect the activity of leptin and may lead to different biological functions. Based to our results, due to significant effect of leptin gene polymorphism on body size traits, this gene may be used a candidate gene for improving these traits. Keywords—Body size, Leptin gene, PCR-RFLP, Sanjabi sheep. Roya Bakhtiar and Hadi Hajarian are with the Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University. Kermanshah, Iran. Alireza Abdolmohammadi is with the Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University. Kermanshah, Iran (corresponding author, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com). Zahra Nikousefat is with the College of Veterinary Medicine, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran (e-mail: yaldanikousefat@ gmail.com). Davood Kalantar-Neyestanaki is with the School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran (e-mail: email@example.com).


BACKGROUND
Individuals with increased oral health awareness may also have increased general health awareness, and vice versa. Such associations between oral and general health awareness has the potential to induce spurious associations in oral epidemiological research.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the extent to which oral self-care patterns and general health awareness are confounded, we investigated the association between flossing and obesity, two lifestyle factors that are unlikely to be causally related.

METHODS
A cross-sectional study of 1497 individuals presenting for an initial periodontal exam by the specialist. Self-reported flossing behaviors and body mass index (BMI) categories were related using logistic regression models.

RESULTS
After adjustment for confounding variables, lack of daily flossing was associated in a dose-dependent way with morbid obesity (odds ratio (OR), 20.3; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.7-154.0), obesity (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.5-2.9), and being overweight (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3-2.2). When restricting to never smokers, a significant relationship between obesity and lack of flossing remained.

CONCLUSION
The strong associations between two causally unrelated oral and general lifestyle characteristics indicate that simplistic epidemiologic methodology is unlikely to provide insights into causal mechanisms of oral diseases or oral-systemic relationships.


Client engagement in psychotherapy can be defined as intense involvement with the therapy tasks and materials, and presence with the therapist and the self. Client engagement is deemed important in determining the success of the psychotherapeutic process and outcome (Hubble, Duncan and Miller 1999). Client engagement has been investigated most often in the context of its intersection with other client related factors in psychotherapy such as attendance, accessibility, agreement on and completion of the tasks of therapy, or the mutual process of the therapeutic alliance (Tetley et al. 2011; Dew and Bickman 2005). Little is known about clients' experiences of engagement in psychotherapy and the key issues for clients therein. In this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study, individual interviews were conducted with five clients who attended psychotherapy in a mental health setting with therapists of varied experience and therapeutic orientations. The transcribed interviews were analysed using the analytic method described by Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009). The study highlights the complex, evolving and dynamic nature of engagement. It particularly illuminates the profound sense of risk of self-annihilation, through death of the physical self or destruction of the psyche that participants grappled with as they navigated a number of key interconnected dilemmas inherent in engaging in psychotherapy. The study contributes to the field by informing practice concerns such as therapeutic impasse, informed consent and drop-out. It also informs client response to mental health treatment in general in relation to issues such as treatment compliance and decision making. Additionally, the study has implications for training, policy and future research.


Dyslexia is a brain-based type of learning disability that specifically impairs a persons ability to read. Although the disorder varies from person to person, common characteristics among people with dyslexia are difficulty with phonological processing (the manipulation of sounds) and/or rapid visual-verbal responding. The syndrome of dyslexia does not imply low intelligence or poor educational potential, and is independent of race and social background. Although dyslexia seems to be more prevalent among males than females, the exact ratio is unknown: the most commonly quoted figures are between 3:1 and 5:1. The evidence suggests that in at least two-thirds of cases, dyslexia has a genetic cause, but in some cases birth difficulties may play a role. Dyslexia may overlap with related conditions such as dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder (with or without hyperactivity) and dysphasia. In childhood, its effects can be misattributed to emotional or behavioural disorders. By adulthood, many dyslexics will have developed sophisticated compensating strategies that may mask their difficulties. This new book presents state-of-the-art research in this dynamic field.


This paper identifies quantitative risks in financial market infrastructures (FMIs), which are inspired by the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures. We convert transaction level data into indicators that provide information on operational risk, changes in the network structure and interdependencies. As a proof of concept we use TARGET2 level data. The indicators are based on legislation, guidelines and their own history. Indicators that are based on their own history are corrected for cyclical patterns. We also define a method for setting the signaling threshold of relevant changes. For the signaling, we opt for a traffic light approach: a green, yellow or red light for a small, moderate or substantial change in the indicator, respectively. The indicators developed in this paper can be used by overseers and operators of FMIs and by financial stability experts.


Prior analyses of the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program demonstrated that perfectionism was negatively related to outcome, whereas both the patient's perception of the quality of the therapeutic relationship and the patient contribution to the therapeutic alliance were positively related to outcome across treatment conditions (S. J. Blatt, D. C. Zuroff, D. M. Quinlan, & P. A. Pilkonis, 1996; J. L. Krupnick et al., 1996). New analyses examining the relations among perfectionism, perceived relationship quality, and the therapeutic alliance demonstrated that (a) the patient contribution to the alliance and the perceived quality of the therapeutic relationship were independent predictors of outcome, (b) perfectionistic patients showed smaller increases in the Patient Alliance factor over the course of treatment, and (c) the negative relation between perfectionism and outcome was explained (mediated) by perfectionistic patients' failure to develop stronger therapeutic alliances.


The coupling of parallel flow, in a three layer channel, with the main fluid flow sandwiched between two Darcy-Forchheimer-Brinkman permeable layers of varying porousness is investigated in this work. A single binary model is proposed to characterize the flow through the channel. Within the transition porous layers, the reciprocal of the permeability is represented by a polynomial of degree n. Due to the lack of an analytical framework in this regard, cutting-edge computational tools are used to provide a novel insight into fluid dynamics in heterogeneous porous media. In this context, a solver capable of simulating heterogeneous porous media is created by modifying an open source software package OpenFOAM's steady state finite volume solver. The solver has first been checked and approved for the case of homogeneous porous media using the homotopy analysis method and numerical data from previous literature. Then, a parametric study is conducted to identify the effect of a specific set of medium variables on flow characteristics and transport efficiency. The variables that can be changed include the Darcy number, permeability degree, free-space layer thickness, Reynolds number, and pressure gradient.


How accurate can a Bible translation be? Gennavw as example in 1 John 5:1-4
An analysis is made of different translations of gennavw in 1 John 5:1-4. The inconsistencies in and among translations are noted. The influence of the socio-cultural ecology as well as the literary and grammatical aspects that play a role in the process of translation, are then illustrated. The complex nature of translation is underlined and it is suggested that the focus should fall on the purpose of a particular translation. This will lead to the purposeful use of different translating techniques in any particular translation.


This paper takes a critical look at the interaction between intellectual property law and culture using three examples, namely: 1) the need to preserve and disseminate culture, through the recognition of cultural heritage institutions' vital role in society; 2) the need to maintain culture from depreciation, through the safeguard of a strong public domain; and 3) the need to let culture evolve, through the protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCE's). This brief study shows that, although IP rights can be said to afford useful protection to objects of culture – taken in the narrow sense of 'culture', they can also prove to be inappropriate for preserving and promoting culture or cultural diversity – taken the broader sense of the word, either because they are too rigid, last too long, or are ill-suited for the intended object of protection. As a result, a serious mismatch occurs between the private appropriation of objects of culture through IP rights and the full implementation of public policy objectives towards the protection and promotion of culture and cultural diversity.


In his valuable contribution, Novak refers to what he calls four salient principles of Catholic social thought, which already can be seen in Rerum Novarum . The principle of personal agency and responsibility is at the cornerstone, and the other three principles that flow from this fundamental motive are, in his view (and in my shorthand): a spirited defense of private property, an emphasis on personal initiative and enterprise, and a condemnation of socialism as unjust and contrary to nature. His overview leads, I think, to an interesting question, especially in this conference about the legacy of these two pioneers. And that is the question, whether Abraham Kuyper had indeed the same principles in mind as Novak states, when he spoke about Rerum Novarum and its principles? Or had he a somewhat different appreciation of the social principles that are common to all Christians? Bob Goudzwaard, "A Response to Michael Novak's 'Human Dignity, Personal Liberty,' " Journal of Markets & Morality 5, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 113-125


There has been significant recent interest, within the aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) community, in representing crosscutting concerns at various stages of the software lifecycle. However, most of these efforts have concentrated on the design and implementation phases. The focus of this paper is on representing aspects during requirements modelling. In particular, the issue of how to model aspects as part of scenario-based modelling is addressed. The use of scenarios is common in requirements development and analysis. The authors describe how to represent and compose aspects at the scenario level. Aspectual scenarios are modelled as interaction pattern specifications (IPSs) and are composed with nonaspectual scenarios using instantiation and special composition operators. The composed collection of scenarios can then be translated automatically into a set of state machines using an existing state machine synthesis algorithm. The resulting set of state machines is an executable form of the scenarios and can be used for simulation and analysis of the requirements.


The 2014 Farm Bill adds the Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) and the Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) to the suite of insurance choices for producers in 2015. Unlike other crops with the ARC and PLC programs, cotton only has access to crop insurance under the new Farm Bill. Therefore, the crop insurance choices that farmers make will constitute the only government safety net for farm income. The overall objective of this research is to understand the impact of the new crop insurance policy options for cotton on farmer decisions regarding risk management strategies. A mail survey was conducted in February 2015, at the time when farmers were making insurance purchase decisions. Our results suggest that cotton farmers are taking benefits of 2014 Farm Bill, which enables them to take separate dry land and irrigated insurance policies.


ABSTRACT Language and practices associated with democracy and multipartyism are used by practitioners of the gurna society among the Tupuri of northern Cameroon to comment on local changes in gurna dances and their attending social values. At the heart of this commentary is a widely-shared anxiety about moral standards for political action and the threat of factionalism, as well as nostalgia for unity among dancers and in society at large. This appropriation of a nationallevel lexicon enabled practitioners of an ostensibly "traditional" institution to revitalize their practice and comment on the broader political life of the nation.


The crystal structures of eight cascade complexes, [Zn2L(μ-Cl)](ClO4)3·2H2O·3CH3CN (1), [Zn2L(μ-Br)](ClO4)3·2H2O·3CH3CN (2), [Cd2L(μ-OH)]2[CdI4]3·6DMF (3), [Cd2L(μ-Cl)][CdCl4](Cl)·4.5H2O (5), [Cd2L(μ-Br)][CdBr4](Br)·1.5H2O (6), [Hg2L(μ-Cl)][HgCl4](Cl)·6H2O (9), [Hg2L(μ-Br)][HgBr4](Br)·1.25H2O (10), and [Hg2L(μ-I)](NO3)3·6H2O (11), were presented, which reveal the influence of the coordinated metal ions on the selectivity in the cascade binding mode. The dizinc(II) cryptate shows the recognition of Cl− and Br− rather than that of F− and I−. Unexpectedly, the dicadmium(II) cryptate shows the recognition of OH−, F−, Cl− and Br− rather than that of I−, while all of the above-mentioned anions can form stable cascade complexes with the dimercury(II) cryptate. For better understanding, the binding behaviors and stabilisation energies between [M2L]4+ and anions were calculated by DFT calculations.