This article explores the ways in which Ramadan charity and almsgiving in Aleppo before the current conflict provided an occasion for Syrian merchants to enjoy enchanted conceptions of society and economy. Recent anthropological analyses of Muslim charity and almsgiving have argued that religiosities focused on "moral reward" (thawab) are aligned with and shaped by modern neoliberal rationalities. But my interlocutors, in the ways they talked about thawab, were often fascinated less by the possibility of maximizing reward and more by the way that rewards were distributed through moral networks. They apprehended moral merit and blessing not as values to be maximized but as qualities whose exchange, circulation, and distribution defined the social. I analyze their practices of imagining society and economy as processes of enchantment that produced an abundance of meaning rather than—as in arguments about neoliberalism—an abundance of wealth or salvation.


The stakes were high in the financial services negotiations that were completed in December 1997 at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The developing countries were eager to strengthen and modernize their financial systems. The industrial countries sought access to important emerging markets in Latin America and Asia for their banking, insurance, brokerage, and other financial services firms. In the end, both sides agreed to bind unilateral and regional financial opening and reform that was already under way in many countries, industrial and developing alike. * The authors assess the agreement reached in the WTO, identifying its shortcomings and suggesting ways that it can be bolstered in future negotiations. They analyze the impact of the agreement, and of the Asian financial crisis, on the state of liberalization and market opening in several important emerging-market economies--including a summary of the remaining obstacles to establishing efficient and open financial sectors. * This book estimates the benefits of opening the financial sector to foreign competition. It assesses the macroeconomic benefits that flow from an improved financial sector and discusses the risks and costs involved in liberalization. The authors conclude with a blueprint for future efforts to liberalize financial services and emphasize that the recent financial services agreement represented only a beginning step in that process.


Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) root extract contains lot of biologically active metabolites, which have a broad range of pharmacological activities. The current study was designed to evaluate the effects of The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Healing Treatment) on the physical, spectroscopic, thermal and behavioral properties of ashwagandha root extract using PXRD, PSD, FT-IR, UV-vis spectroscopy, TGA, and DSC analysis. Ashwagandha root extract was divided into two parts – one part was control without any Biofield Energy Treatment and another part was treated with the Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment remotely by seven renowned Biofield Energy Healers and defined as The Trivedi Effect® treated sample. The PXRD analysis exhibited that both the treated and control samples were amorphous in nature. The particle size values at d10, d50, and d90 of the treated sample were decreased by 8.41%, 0.51%, and 7.88%, respectively compared with the control sample. The surface area analysis revealed that the surface area of the treated sample was significantly increased by 5% compared to the control sample. The FT-IR analysis indicated the alteration of the force constant for the functional groups of the treated sample in comparison to the control sample. The UV-vis analysis revealed that the wavelength for the maximum absorbance of the control and treated samples were at 205.3 and 205.0 nm, respectively. The TGA analysis revealed that the total weight loss was decreased by 0.65% in the treated sample compared with the control sample. The DSC analysis indicated that the onset, peak, and endset vaporization temperature of the treated sample were significantly increased by 41.97%, 23.51%, and 8.82%, respectively as compared to the control sample. The latent heat of vaporization (∆H) of the treated (239.96 J/g) sample was significantly increased by 39.84% compared with the control (171.60 J/g) sample. This indicated that the treated sample was thermally more stable as compared to the control sample. The current findings suggested that The Trivedi Effect® - Energy of Consciousness Healing Treatment (Biofield Energy Healing) might have the astounding capacity to enhance the solubility, absorption, dissolution, and bioavailability of ashwagandha root extract in various form of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical formulation by modifying its particle size and surface area. Thus, the treated ashwagandha root extract might provide better therapeutic response against against inflammatory diseases, immunological disorders, stress, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, sexual disorders, aging and other chronic infections.


The human protein interleukin-4 (IL-4) has been simulated at two different pH values 2 and 6, with different amounts of counterions present in the aqueous solution, and with two different force-field parameter sets using molecular dynamics simulation with the aim of validation of force field and simulation set-up by comparison to experimental nuclear magnetic resonance data, such as proton–proton nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) distance bounds, 3 J(HN,HCα) coupling constants and backbone N–H order parameters. Thirteen simulations varying in the length from 3 to 7 ns are compared. At pH 6 both force-field parameter sets used do largely reproduce the NOE's and order parameters, the GROMOS 45A3 set slightly better than the GROMOS 53A6 set. 3 J values predicted from the simulation agree less well with experimental values. At pH 2 the protein unfolds, unless counterions are explicitly present in the system, but even then the agreement with experiment is worse than at pH 6. When simulating a highly charged protein, such as IL-4 at pH 2, the inclusion of counterions in the simulation seems mandatory.


Coastal management requires rapid, up-to-date, and correct information. Thus, coastal movements have primary importance for coastal managers. For monitoring the change of shorelines, remote sensing data are some of the most important information and are utilized for differentiating any detections of change on shorelines. It is possible to monitor coastal changes by extracting the coastline from satellite images. In the literature most of the algorithms developed for optical images have been discussed in detail. In this study, an algorithm which extracts coastlines efficiently and automatically by processing SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite images has been developed. A data set of ALOS Palsar image of Fine Beam Double (FBD) HH-HV polarized data has been used. PALSAR image has L-band data, and has a 14 MHz bandwidth and 34.3 degrees look angle. Data were acquired in ascending geometry. Ground resolution of PALSAR image was resampled to 15 m to amplitude image. Zonguldak city, lies on the northwest costs of Turkey, has been selected as the test area. An algorithm was developed for automatic coastline extraction from SAR images. The algorithm is encoded in a C__ environment. To verify the results the algorithm was applied on two PALSAR images gathered in two different date as 2007 and 2010. The results of automatic coastline extraction obtained from SAR images were compared to the results derived from manual digitizing. Random control points which are seen on each image were used. The average differences of selected points were calculated.


Osteonecrosis is a common disorder that is a result of collapse of architecture of the bone, determining severe anatomic alterations of the involved
site. Osteonecrosis is not a primary disease entity, but rather is a final common pathway secondary to a number of conditions ultimately leading
to disturbance in bone remodeling which may potentially lead to bone death. This ischemic bone disease has multifactorial etiologies such as
viral, mycotic or bacterial infections, radiotherapy, immunologic diseases and malignancies. However, recent studies prove that most cases of
osteonecrosis were iatrogenic. The common sites of osteonecrosis include subarticular avascular necrosis of the femoral head and osteonecrosis of
the mandible or maxilla.
Bisphosphonates are generally prescribed in the prevention and treatment of resorptive bone diseases such as osteoporosis and bone metastasis
associated with breast and prostate cancers. They are also recognized as an effective therapy for chronic renal disease in patients undergoing
hemodialysis that may have renal osteodystrophy. Osteonecrosis of the maxilla in patients treated with bisphosphonates is a relatively rare but
well-known complication which has shown an increasing interest by dental practitioners and maxillofacial surgeons. It is defined as an area of
exposed bone in the maxillofacial region that does not heal within eight weeks in a patient receiving bisphosphonate medication and has not had
any history of radiation to the head and neck region. Since the primary mechanism of bisphosophonate is to inhibit osteoclast function by different
mechanisms, altered bone remodeling is the leading hypothesis for bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw. Bacterial contamination may
also play a role in maintaining osteomyelitic wounds. We present a case of a 60-year old patient, known to have diabetes and end-stage renal disease
on hemodialysis and bisphosphonate therapy, with an aggressive course of palatal necrosis despite intensive diagnostic evaluation, multidrug
treatment and surgical management.


[Abstract]:

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal recessive genetic human disease affecting one in 3500 live male births. DMD is progressive, there is no cure, and patients typically die of respiratory or cardiac failure in
their second decade of life. Clinical disease symptoms are exacerbated at the onset of puberty and the physiological basis of this is unknown. The mdx mouse is the preferred experimental animal model of DMD, although aspects
of the model remain poorly understood. This dissertation characterises physiological and histological features of the dystrophic mdx mouse in response to manipulations of hormonal status including testosterone treatment, surgical castration, and oestrogen treatment. Sex-specific
differences in the mdx were also examined. Furthermore, physiological and histological features of the dystrophic mdx mouse model throughout the mdx lifespan were evaluated. Cardiac muscle contractility, left atrial response to exogenous calcium, and the contractile properties of both fast-twitch (EDL)and slow-twitch (SOL) skeletal muscles were examined in male mdx mice
ranging from 14 to 330 days of age. Testosterone treatment produced a nonsignificant trend towards a dose-dependent decrease in both basal and maximal left atrial contractility in the mdx. Surgical castration produced no
significant cardiac effects within mouse strains. The mdx castrates had a 45% lower maximum atrial force of contraction than control castrates (p<0.05). Conversely, oestrogen treatment significantly improved cardiac
contractility in the mdx. An increase in basal left atrial contractility was evident at doses of 0.08 mg/kg/day (p<0.05) and 0.16 mg/kg/day (p<0.01)
and in maximum left atrial contractility at a dose of 0.16 mg/kg/day (p<0.01). Gender studies showed cardiac forces in mdx were not different between males and females at any age tested and that both sexes in mdx had a
dampened cardiac responsiveness to exogenous calcium. Skeletal muscle function studies showed that castration produced a 25% increase in mdx EDL specific force generation (p<0.01) and no increase in SOL forces.
Oestrogen treatment produced a non-significant trend towards increased EDL forces and a 29% increase in SOL specific force at a dose of 0.16
mg/kg/day (p<0.05). Gender studies revealed no differences between male and female mdx in terms of skeletal muscle force production. Further to the hormonal investigations, lifespan characterisation studies revealed that the
mdx mouse showed reduced basal and maximal left atrial contractility specifically at ages 14 and 90 days (p<0.05). Skeletal muscle studies showed that specific tetanic force production was significantly lower than
controls at 19 (p<0.05), 21, 23, 27, and 330 days of age (p<0.01) for EDL muscles and at 19, 21, and 23 days of age in SOL muscles (p<0.01). These studies further improve our understanding of the mdx mouse as an experimental model of DMD and emphasises that the model is most appropriate a specific ages for specific muscles. These studies further
illustrate that testosterone does not improve cardiac contractility in the mdx mouse but that oestrogen improves both cardiac and skeletal muscle function. Further research is warranted into the potential of oestrogen as a
therapeutic agent in the treatment of both cardiac and skeletal musclemanifestations of DMD.


The purpose of this article is a critique of the strategic approach to the so-called Battle of Cuito Cuanavale by the leadership of the South African Defence Force (SADF). The article starts with an analysis of South Africa's strategic position on the eve of the campaign in 1987. It concludes that the country was internationally isolated, and that it would have to fight basically alone against FAPLA (the Angolan Army), PLAN (Swapo's army), and possibly also the Cuban forces in Angola - in other words, an overwhelming force. At the same time, the white South Africans viewed the war as an existential struggle which they could not afford to lose.
Against the above-mentioned background, the thinking in SADF circles is then analysed. It is shown that leading SADF military thinkers were of the opinion that any campaign would have to be well thought through and concluded quickly, before international pressure became unbearable. Against a much stronger enemy, it was also thought that a brutal head-on clash would be unwise, and that South African forces would have to follow Sir Basil Liddell Hart's "indirect approach".
The article subsequently analyses the haphazard way in which the SADF became sucked into the campaign. In the beginning, no clear political objective existed, the South Africans became involved incrementally, they naively tried to keep their involvement secret, and threw their indirect approach convictions overboard and opted for exactly the brutal frontal attacks against which their leading thinkers previously warned. The final conclusion is that, although the SADF fared extremely well on a tactical and operational level, their strategic handling of the campaign was not good.


Mission created the framework, identified the raison d'etre and generated the energy and enthusiasm for what will be called later the ecumenical movement. The pioneers of this movement were all missionary-minded people and were concerned with the Christian responsibility and vocation of proclaiming the message of the gospel to the whole world. The concern and search for Christian unity have emerged out of this perspective and in close relation to it. Mission has ignited the fire and created the thirst for the unity of the church not as a goal in itself but rather as a sine qua non condition for the credibility of the gospel: "That they may all be one so that the world may believe." (John 17:21) Mission laid the basis and prepared the way for the establishment in 1948 of the WCC as a fellowship of churches bound together by the common confession of Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures. In 1961 the International Missionary Council ceased to exist as a separate organization and merged with the World Council of Churches on the consideration and strong belief that within the new configuration the whole historical tradition of the missionary movement would be carried on. And it is being carried on to this day. 1. Rearticulating the role and meaning of mission. For some time, but particularly in the last decade, the general approach to and discourse on mission has changed. The wrong doings of the missionaries in the history of Western missions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in particular, such as the destruction of local cultures, the close link with the colonial powers, the expropriation of lands and the exploitation of the indigenous people were revealed and denounced. Consequently, that brought about in the West a tremendous sentiment of guilt and opened the way for expressing remorse, repentance and apologies for the past. Unfortunately, the very notion and content of mission itself were also greatly affected. In some contexts the very word 'mission' got a very bad connotation and there have been voices clearly speaking against it. Within some academic frameworks, due to a certain extent also to the process of restructuring, among the first chairs to have been eliminated were the chairs on missiology. More recently, a healthy correction to such one-sided attitudes is coming, in my opinion, from the people of the 'third world' countries, who are themselves the contemporary results of the work of the missionaries in the past centuries. There have been many instances when representatives from non-Western cultures reacted to the very often masochistic Western discourses on the missionary guilt by asking for discernment, balance and objectivity. They would say that there were indeed many bad and anti-evangelical attitudes in the work of the missionaries which have to be condemned, but that there were also good aspects which have to be recognized and affirmed. Above all and despite everything, they brought the gospel of Christ which became in itself an element of liberation and affirmation of the local people. They cared for the education and health of the people among whom they witnessed to the gospel and built schools and hospitals. At least on two occasions, such witnesses became very evident at the Harare assembly. I will mention first the strong and meaningful testimonies of both President Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. President Mandela has affirmed, As we were coming here, I told President Mugabe that he is a younger man than myself, and I said perhaps the experiences I have had he did not have during his time. But I said my generation is the product of church education. Without the missionaries and other religious organizations I would not have been here today. The government of those days took no interest whatsoever in the education of Africans, Coloureds and Indians. The churches bought the land, built the schools, equipped them, appointed and employed people. …


The purpose of this research was to explore how the values of travel time (VTT) and preferences for different modes vary within individuals compared with the variation between observed trips. With 6-week revealed preference panel data and stated preference data from a mode choice context, both collected in Switzerland, a revealed–stated preference logit mode choice model was estimated. The model was applied to simulate how VTT and change in consumer surplus vary across trips within and between individuals over the 6 weeks in response to a hypothetical congestion-charging scheme. The variation in VTT arising from income differences was found to be substantially smaller than the variation in VTT between trips. Moreover, the variability in VTT averaged over all trips within each individual was considerably smaller than the variability in VTT for all observed trips. Therefore, the assumption that variation in VTT between observed trips reflects the variation in the average VTT between individuals, which is usually made in equity analyses, will overstate the between-individual variation. The results suggest that if intra-individual variation in preferences is not taken into account, the negative equity effects of congestion charges are likely to be overestimated.


Fire will play an important role in shaping forest and stream ecosystems as the climate changes. Historic observations show increased dryness accompanying more widespread fire and forest die-off. These events punctuate gradual changes to ecosystems and sometimes generate stepwise changes in ecosystems. Climate vulnerability assessments need to account for fire in their calculus. The biophysical template of forest and stream ecosystems determines much of their response to fire. This report describes the framework of how fire and climate change work together to affect forest and fish communities. Learning how to adapt will come from testing, probing, and pushing that framework and then proposing new ideas. The western U.S. defies generalizations, and much learning must necessarily be local in implication. This report serves as a scaffold for that learning. It comprises three primary chapters on physical processes, biological interactions, and management decisions, accompanied by a special section with separately authored papers addressing interactions of fish populations with wildfire. Any one of these documents could stand on its own. Taken together, they serve as a useful reference with varying levels of detail for land managers and resource specialists. Readers looking for an executive summary are directed to the sections titled "Introduction" and "Next Steps."


Background and aims: It is in high importance to pay attention to different aspects of health and well-being in the elderly age. So, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the association between spiritual health and life satisfaction in the elderly hospitalized in Shahrekord hospitals.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 308 elderly hospitalized in medical internal and surgical wards were enrolled into study by convenience sampling in 2013. The tools of gathering data were Spiritual Well-Being Scale and Life satisfaction Scale questionnaires. After collecting data, they were analyzed using SPSS software and independent t-test and one-way ANOVA tests.
Results: Spiritual health in 51.3% of the elderly was low and the mean score for spiritual health was 86.16±18.61. Spiritual health was significantly associated with marital status, age, and number of children (P≤0.001). Life satisfaction was high (slightly satisfied, satisfied and very satisfied) in 63.9% of the elderly with mean score of 20.80±5.8 Life satisfaction was associated with demographic characteristics such as gender (P=0.002), social status (P=0.001), and number of children (P=0.001). There was a positive, significant association between spiritual health and life satisfaction (P≤0.001).
Conclusion: Over half of the elderly reported their spiritual health in low level, but most of them had a high level of life satisfaction. Therefore, it seems necessary to conduct religious interventions to promote spiritual health in hospitalized elderly.


In response to the call for first-hand accounts of individuals experiencing autism, this study addresses the need for qualitative investigation of the thinking and learning of gifted adults with Asperger syndrome (AS). The findings represent a broad phenomenological 'map of the landscape' of the experience of the participants and take the form of: (a) five case study reports; and, (b) a conceptual framework for understanding thinking and learning in autism, which was developed from the research literature. The need for such a framework is particularly relevant for professional development of teachers of students with AS in mainstream schools, however, the framework also addresses the need for information and understanding concerning thinking and learning by: parents of children with AS; life partners of individuals with AS; and, individuals experiencing AS. Utilising phenomenological case study methodology, five in-depth case studies were conducted and analysed employing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The case studies were interpreted in the light of an iterative review of the neuroscience and autism research literature, which was also used to construct the conceptual framework for teacher professional development: the 'Thinking, Memory and Learning Framework' (TML). The five themes emerging from the case studies of thinking, memory and learning are: (a) compensatory learning; (b) self-referential thinking vs. externally oriented thinking; (c) enhanced perceptual functioning and giftedness; (d) temporality; and, (e) language. The primary participants as a group demonstrated a distinct cognitive profile while displaying some within-group differences. Their narratives exposed existential problems with the trustworthiness of knowledge and identity formation: this led to the superordinate theme of 'Knowledge and the knower'. The conceptual framework that is an outcome of this doctoral study illuminates the thinking, memory and learning of gifted individuals with AS and has implications for the development of teachers' understanding of learning per se. It also indicates a hierarchy within explicit mental learning activities with learners with AS benefitting at the lower end of the hierarchy and being challenged at the higher end. Pedagogical


The study design for randomised double-blind studies is powerful. Randomisation and blinding ensure that the groups that are compared are truly exchangeable. Any differences in health outcomes can be attributed rightfully to the one aspect on which the study groups differ: the treatment. In this commentary, we argue that the use of this powerful study design at the wrong moment can lead to undesirable situations.


Recent research has acknowledged the need to shift from the traditional one to one e-enabled business model to a many-to-many one. With the introduction of the Internet in the 1990's companies such as Blacksocks SA and Jacob Rohner AG suddenly found a mean and the environment to think about e-enabling their business models or even start a company purely based on that existence. Building on a wide range of analysis of the terms business models and e-business models, e-business models to our understanding depict a company's capability to apply, use or even exist throughout the presence of an e-enabled environment. The internet itself is being seen as a family of tools, methodologies and concepts to represent the e-enabled environment. Currie and others are drawing the attention to value creation from e-business models and Joyce and Winch discuss the evolvement of a business model to become e-enabled (Currie, 2004). In contrast to their key findings, the EU research project ITAIDE and the underlying business cases in this paper go beyond. The argumentation and the conclusion we will infer in the paper show that e-enabled business models are much more than applying tools, methodologies through the simple existence of the Internet. Further than the reach of companies, collaborative and decent research environments such as ITAIDE allow companies and ecosystems to adopt from the research findings and transfer those into applicable and scalable e-business models.


Raman spectroscopy is one of the few non-destructive techniques capable of identifying pigments in art works. Raman spectra contain powerful information that can be used to identify unknown compounds and their chemical structures. However, the analysis of spectral data comes with some difficulties, and therefore the spectral interpretation is not straightforward. Sometimes, there are very little differences in the spectral data concerning to specific identification objectives, for instance, in polymorphic discrimination or in the discrimination of natural and synthetic forms of certain pigments. Moreover, this discrimination is often performed manually so that the process can be repetitive, subjective and particularly time-consuming. The result is an increasing motivation to automate the identification process involved in the classification of pigments in paint. In this paper, we propose a system to automatically classify the spectral data into specific and well-known classes, i.e. reference classes. The proposal is based on a combination of chemometric techniques, which provides a powerful way to achieve spectral separability so that it is possible to discriminate between very similar spectra in an automatic way. In this regard, a decision-making algorithm was specifically developed to select the corresponding reference class with no user input, which was successfully validated using simulated spectra. The implemented methodology was used to classify Raman spectra of pigments commonly present in artist's paints in experimental cases, providing reliable and consistent results. Therefore, the presented system can play a good auxiliary role in the analysts' endpoint classification. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Introduction F more than 25 years wetland scientists have been striving to develop scientifically defensible wetland assessment methods that are robust, easily applied, affordable, and provide sufficient discrimination to guide management or regulatory decision making. While each generation of methods attempts to build upon the concepts and techniques developed in the previous generation, the fundamental goal remains to evaluate wetland(s) relative to a gradient of condition ranging from natural and undisturbed to extremely perturbed or altered. The progression from one method to the next is a natural and healthy indication that wetland science continues to advance and society learns. However, each generational transition is often accompanied by discourse about the benefits of various methods/approaches and the need or desirability to alter the assessment approach. Such was the case when the Corps of Engineers shifted from the Wetland Evaluation Technique (WET) to the Hydrogeomorphic Assessment Method (HGM). More recently, similar discussions have arisen around the development and application of Rapid Assessment Methods (RAMs) for wetland condition. The recent release of the Corps/EPA rule that strongly promotes use of condition or functional assessment in mitigation monitoring and performance evaluation (U.S. Army Corps and Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency 2008) has once again intensified debates about the efficacy of various assessment approaches.


Stan's Hamilton Monte Carlo (HMC) has demonstrated remarkable sampling robustness and efficiency in a wide range of Bayesian inference problems through carefully crafted adaption schemes to the celebrated No-U-Turn sampler (NUTS) algorithm. It is challenging to implement these adaption schemes robustly in practice, hindering wider adoption amongst practitioners who are not directly working with the Stan modelling language. AdvancedHMC.jl (AHMC) contributes a modular, well-tested, standalone implementation of NUTS that recovers and extends Stan's NUTS algorithm. AHMC is written in Julia, a modern high-level language for scientific computing, benefiting from optional hardware acceleration and interoperability with a wealth of existing software written in both Julia and other languages, such as Python. Efficacy is demonstrated empirically by comparison with Stan through a third-party Markov chain Monte Carlo benchmarking suite.


There is a body of research, providing both rhetoric and discussion about the use of ICT (audience response systems, CDROMs, simulations, dataloggers, emails, Internet, modelling, virtual worlds and whiteboards) in science education for learning and assessment purposes. The research has alluded to benefits in terms of learner control, pro-active learning, increased student motivation, and increased student engagement. In this seminar the findings from several small scale studies will be presented in order to illustrate both the potential and the challenges of technology based assessment in science education. For if technology based assessment encourages inattentional blindness or selective amnesia, then using technology to assess student learning is unlikely to generate a better insight into their understanding or provide an accurate record of their capability.


Two headwater flood plains in tributaries of the Tagliamento catchment (N.E. Italy) were investigated to compare and contrast floodplain morphology, aquatic habitat structure, physico-chemical characteristics, and Trichoptera community relationships. The two flood plains (one stable and forested, the other dynamic and open) were similar with respect to position along the longitudinal continuum, elevation, stream order, and geological material. However, the two flood plains differed greatly in aquatic habitat structure, physico-chemical character, and Trichoptera abundance, distribution, and richness. The forested reach had lower slope, finer sediment, more standing waterbodies, significantly higher benthic organic matter standing stocks, and a closed canopy of predominantly Alnus incana. Trichoptera abundance in the forested flood plain was higher, as was taxa richness (27 taxa), than in the open flood plain (16 taxa). Differences in Trichoptera composition and richness were due to the presence of several species of Limnephilidae, which were correlated with benthic organic matter. These findings are discussed in the context of species-abundance relationships, environmental factors, and reach-specific morphological characters. Results illustrate the dependence of habitat type and invertebrate community response to reach scale factors (i.e., geomorphology and hydrology) that may be uncoupled from position along the longitudinal continuum.


This essay, originally presented at the Stanford Law School symposium The Future of American Sentencing: A National Roundtable on Blakely, examines how the Supreme Court's majority and dissent could look at Blakely in such radically different ways. As the majority sees it, Blakely is a fundamental, ringing vindication of the substantive right to jury trial. On this view, Blakely should be fully retroactive to habeas and for Ex Post Facto purposes. But the dissent's view was so different that the two sides were speaking past each other. On that view, Blakely is a mindless formalism, just another hoop for legislatures to jump through or to evade. Though I have been the leading critic of the Apprendi/Blakely line of cases, I must give the Supreme Court credit for forcing us to confront and bridge the artificial divide between substantive criminal law and criminal procedure. What is a crime - is it whatever the legislature labels as a crime? And why have a distinct sentencing phase, after the guilt phase and run by a different factfinder using looser procedures? Do these artificial divisions distract us from the moral import and message that our criminal justice system should be sending? Apprendi and Blakely asked the right questions but gave the wrong answers. A better approach, I argue, would use not the Fifth and Sixth Amendments but the Eighth Amendment to regulate statutory and guideline penalties equally.


Law influences and is shaped by the emergence of race-based biotechnologies in the genomic age. This review examines how law and social science scholars have approached the role of legal regulation, theories, and norms in governing the definition and utility of race in gene-based technological innovation. I structure my discussion around four main themes: the institutional regulation of biotechnology research, commercial incentives for race-specific products, the paradoxes of inclusion and difference, and racial equality jurisprudence. My attention then turns to future directions for research in this field needed to attend to the serious political implications of increasing race consciousness in genomic research and technology at a time when color blindness and postracialism are gaining popularity. I argue for a biopolitical and transdisciplinary paradigm that is committed to our common humanity and to the need for social change.


Immune dysfunction can be either at the humoral or cellular levels and is mediated by a myriad of factors including virus-induced immunosuppression. Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) affects domesticated poultry and causing health problems mainly due to prolonged immunosuppression. Destruction of the immunoglobulin-producing cells is the principal cause of IBDV-induced immunosuppression, which leads to significant impairment of the primary antibody responses. Due to these effects, IBDV infection not only increases the susceptibility of poultry to other viral infections but predisposes the host to several other bacteria of variable pathologies. The IBDV-induced immune-suppression is well-known phenomenon, however, recently there have been significant advancements in understanding the molecular mechanisms of this immune-suppression. This review discuss current updates regarding the immunotoxic and immunosuppressive nature of IBDV in the poultry and highlights areas requiring future research attentions that may help to establish foundations for effective and improved vaccines against IBDV.


Background The changes and correlations of TRAIL (TNF-related apoptosis-inducing-ligand) and CXCL8 (IL8) prior to treatment and three months following therapy as well as the corresponding Positron emission tomography (PET/CT) (SUVmax: standardized uptake maximum values) results were evaluated. Material/Methods The measurements were taken before and after treatment for comparison purposes. The study population comprised 29 patients with Metastatic Colorectal cancer (MCRC), undergoing PET/CT scanning prior to treatment. Results There were significant changes prior to treatment and three months later for sTRAIL (p=0.0080) and CXCL8 (p=0.0001)values. Generally, sTRAIL values were increasing during therapy, while a decrease was observed for CXCL8. Correlation analysis was applied to the data and revealed significant correlations for the SUVmax in the primary tumor prior to treatment and CXCL8 prior to therapy (p=0.0303). Furthermore, significant correlations were observed for the SUVmax and sTRAIL (p=0.0237) as well as CXCL8 (p=0.0002) three months after treatment initiation. CXCL8 prior to treatment was also correlated with the SUV three months after onset of treatment (p=0.0072). A significant correlation was noted for one combination of two variables, the SUVmax in the metastases and CXCL8 prior to treatment (p=0.0175). These results are supported when we group the SUVmax in the metastases following treatment into two groups with SUVmax <5 and SUVmax >5. Conclusions This study provides evidence that proteomics patterns of sTRAIL and CXCL8 predict tumor response und survival in MCRC patients treated with bevacizumab and within a high concordance of FDG-PET/CT findings.


We develop an approach combining mass balance and four‐dimensional variational (4D‐Var) methods to facilitate inversion of decadal‐scale total nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) emissions. In 7 year pseudo‐observation tests, hybrid posterior emissions have smaller normalized mean square error (NMSE) than that of mass balance when compared to true emissions in most cases and perform slightly better in detecting NOx emission magnitudes and trends. Using this hybrid method, OMI NO2 satellite observations and the GEOS‐Chem chemical transport model, we find more than 30% increases of emissions over most of East China at the 0.5° × 0.667° grid cell level, leading to a 16% growth of emissions over all of China from 2005 to 2012, whereas emissions in several urban centers have decreased by 10–26% in the same period. From 2010 to 2012, a decline is found in the North China Plain, Hubei Province, and Pearl River Delta area, coinciding with China's enforcement of its twelfth "Five Year Plan." Changes in individual grid cell may be different from changes over the entire city or province, as exemplified by opposite trends in Beijing versus the Mentougou district of Beijing from 2005 to 2012. Also, NO2 columns do not necessarily have the same trend as NOx emissions due to their nonlinear response to emissions and the influence of meteorology, the latter alone which can cause up to 30% interannual changes in NO2 columns. Compared to recent bottom‐up inventories, hybrid posterior emissions have the same seasonality, smaller emissions, and emission growth rate at the national scale.


Athletes and practitioners are continually looking for new strategies that could minimise the negative effects of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) and hasten the recovery process. One strategy that has shown promise in recent years is the use of functional foods rich in phytonutrients. A functional food that has attracted a lot of attention recently, although primarily for its performance enhancing effects, is beetroot (Beta Vulgaris L.). In addition to displaying a range of physiological effects that may benefit athletic performance, beetroot also exhibits antioxidant (AOX) and anti-inflammatory effects, both of which could be of benefit for reducing secondary damage and enhancing exercise recovery. Nonetheless, the effect of beetroot on exercise recovery is yet to be systematically investigated in the literature. Thus, the overarching aim of this thesis was to test the efficacy of beetroot supplementation, in the form of beetroot juice (BTJ), as a recovery intervention following strenuous exercise.

The series of investigations that set out to address this aim have led to many novel and interesting findings. To start with, study 1 was the first to show that a commercially available BTJ is a rich source of phytonutrients and therefore possesses a high AOX capacity in comparison to several other fruit and vegetable juices. Secondly, and perhaps the most novel finding in this thesis, was that BTJ showed promise as an efficacious recovery intervention following some bouts of muscle-damaging exercise. Although not a consistent finding throughout this thesis, BTJ was able to improve the recovery of dynamic muscle function and reduce muscle pain after eccentric-heavy exercise. Another important finding was that BTJ, despite being rich in AOXs, did not adversely affect the acute adaptive response to exercise, as measured by the repeated bout effect (RBE). In contrast to the findings in the earlier studies, however, BTJ was not found to be beneficial for recovery after long distance running. Importantly, the final study in this thesis provided the first evidence that BTJ is more beneficial than sodium nitrate (SN) for enhancing some aspects of recovery. This study highlighted the importance of the phytonutrients in BTJ other than nitrate on recovery after exercise. In summary, the collective findings of this thesis provide new information on the potential application of a phytonutrient rich functional food, in BTJ, for recovery from strenuous athletic performance.


Battery charger plays an important role in the battery and electric vehicle technology. Due to on-board type of charger it should be light in weight and should occupy less space as it should be on the vehicle all the time, so the smaller the better and of course, it is very important to minimize the cost of the charger. For a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), when the battery is charging from the grid, the vehicle should be parked. The traction system components are normally not engaged during the charging time, thus it is possible to reconfigure these components for the battery charger system. In this paper, an innovative integrated battery charger is presented. The operation mode of charger can be divided into three modes: boosting drive motor mode, directly drive motor mode and charging mode. The analysis of these three modes has been explained in detail and the control scheme is also introduced in this paper. The simulation model is built using Matlab/Simulink software, and simulation results have been presented to verify the operation for battery charger, showing the system has good operation performance.


Purpose: Besides advent of genome detection for respiratory viral infections by multiplex PCR, the correlation between individual viruses with clinical presentations and outcomes is unclear. We conducted a retrospective monocentric study in order to evaluate virus specific clinical correlation in children attending emergency department.
Methodology: A total 411 children aged<18 years during 5 winter seasons were evaluated for presence of viral infection by using multiplex PCR. Patients were sampled within 48 hours of their presentation to emergency department. Individual viruses were correlated with clinical presentations and clinical outcomes by using multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: Results of multiplex PCR demonstrated the presence of virus in 312/411 (76%) patients where single virus infections were identified in 256/312 (82%) patients and multiple (mixed) virus infections were found in 56/312 (18%) patients. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Human Rhinovirus (HRV) were more prominent among young children but only the presence of RSV virus was significantly higher among young children (<3 years) as compared to older (3-18 years). As most of the viral infections share common clinical presentations therefore discrimination of ARTI on the basis of signs and symptoms is not possible. HRV was found to be associated with bronchodilators (OR: 2.5) and corticosteroid treatment (OR: 4.2) as well as severe respiratory complications (OR: 4.7). RSV was found to be correlated with oxygen therapy (OR: 4.7) and inversely correlated with respiratory complications.
Conclusions: Most of the children presenting to emergency department had single virus infections with RSV and HRV. Presenting clinical presentations does not discriminate four virus groups while infections with RSV and HRV portended heavy burden of morbidity in our study.


Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) is a second-year subject offered within the Information Technology (IT) course at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University in South Africa. The diverse environment of this campus includes students representing most ethnic groups in South Africa, adding to the complexity of classroom interaction. This is further complicated by the fact that students find the subject difficult, mostly because it includes many new concepts used in different contexts. SAD students also grapple with fuzzy issues such as fact-finding from system users and representing information obtained from models that are designed for feedback. SAD is therefore far removed from the more exact subjects like programming and mathematics that many IT students excel in. Videos explaining difficult SAD concepts were produced and made available to students on a Learning Management System (LMS). The students were motivated to come to classes prepared. During the first semester concepts were explained during formal class times. Formal explanations were not given during the second semester because students were expected to build on the knowledge that they had gained during the first semester. The students were also required to make use of all the resources available to them to come to class prepared. Group work was done in class during both semesters. The success of implementing reverse instruction in the second semester is evaluated through an interpretive lens. The fifteen modal aspects developed by the philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd were used to ensure a clearer picture of the researched situation was painted with a view on diversity and unexpected usage.


Few constructions in children's production can be considered originals and not mere copies (partial or complete) of adult input. These rare constructions are precious to child language studies because they may reveal a developmental process at work. One of them is children's left-dislocated subjects. In French, when there is no lexical subject, the use of a subject pronoun is mandatory. When there is a lexical subject, two constructions are possible: one with the use of a personal pronoun and one without. Children tend to produce a lot of pronouns in the context of lexical subjects, which makes it a good candidate for being a specific feature of child language.This study used two corpora of spontaneous language production, one with children aged three to four and one with children aged two to four. The data were analyzed using Tomasello's framework (usage-based theory of language acquisition). In this theory, children's language competence differs from the adults' and develops with age. The first issue was to demonstrate the existence of this specific feature. Indeed, it appeared that children produced more leftdislocated subjects than adults and did not simply reproduce a feature of adults' oral language. The presence of a developmental effect in the children's production was also strongly suggested by the results. The second issue was to try to better understand what could be the reason for the difference in production of left-dislocated subjects between children and adults. Several explanations of the children's results were put forward, in keeping with the predictions of the usage-based theory. Lexical and usage-based explanations of children's behaviour were shown to be unlikely. More plausible explanations were performance limitation or a consequence of the development of the use of personal pronouns, even when they are not obligatory. It is proposed that children's left-dislocated subjects should not be considered as a copy of adults', but as a specific construction pattern that appears during the course of language development. This pattern could provide a path towards the development of more general linguistic abstractions, as proposed in the usage-based theory.


When we watch other people perform actions, this involves many interacting processes comprising cognitive, motor, and visual system interactions. These processes change based on the context of our observations, particularly if the actions are novel and our intention is to learn those actions so we can later reproduce them, or respond to them in an effective way. Over the past 20 years or so I have been involved in research directed at understanding how we learn from watching others, what information guides this learning, and how our learning experiences, whether observational or physical, impact our subsequent observations of others, particularly when we are engaged in action prediction. In this review I take a historical look at action observation research, particularly in reference to motor skill learning, and situate my research, and those of collaborators and students, among the common theoretical and methodological frameworks of the time.


The unconditional generation of high fidelity images is a longstanding benchmark for testing the performance of image decoders. Autoregressive image models have been able to generate small images unconditionally, but the extension of these methods to large images where fidelity can be more readily assessed has remained an open problem. Among the major challenges are the capacity to encode the vast previous context and the sheer difficulty of learning a distribution that preserves both global semantic coherence and exactness of detail. To address the former challenge, we propose the Subscale Pixel Network (SPN), a conditional decoder architecture that generates an image as a sequence of sub-images of equal size. The SPN compactly captures image-wide spatial dependencies and requires a fraction of the memory and the computation required by other fully autoregressive models. To address the latter challenge, we propose to use Multidimensional Upscaling to grow an image in both size and depth via intermediate stages utilising distinct SPNs. We evaluate SPNs on the unconditional generation of CelebAHQ of size 256 and of ImageNet from size 32 to 256. We achieve state-of-the-art likelihood results in multiple settings, set up new benchmark results in previously unexplored settings and are able to generate very high fidelity large scale samples on the basis of both datasets.


The publication in 1982 of Northrop Frye's The Great Code: The Bible and Literature was a literary event of major significance. Frye took what he called 'a fresh and firsthand look' at the Bible and analysed it as a literary critic, exploring its relation to Western literature and its impact on the creative imagination. Through an examination of such key aspects of language as myth, metaphor, and rhetoric he conveyed to the reader the results of his own encounter with the Bible and his appreciation of its unified structure of narrative and imagery. Shortly before his death in January 1991, Frye characterized The Double Vision as 'something of a shorter and more accessible version' of The Great Code and its sequel, Words with Power. In simpler context and briefer compass, it elucidates and expands on the ideas and concepts introduced in those books. The 'double vision' of the title is a phrase borrowed from William Blake indicating that mere simple sense perception is not enough for reliable interpretation of the meaning of the world. In Frye's words: 'the conscious subject is not really perceiving until it recognizes itself as part of what it perceives.' In four very readable, engaging chapters, Frye contrasts the natural or physical vision of the world with the inward, spiritual one as each relates to language, space, time, history, and the concept of God. Throughout, he reiterates that the true literal sense of the Bible is metaphorical and that this conception of a metaphorical literal sense is not new, or even modern. He emphasizes the fact that the literary language of the Bible is not intended, like literature itself, simply to suspend judgement, but to convey a vision of spiritual life that contineus to transform and expand our own. Its myths become, as purely literary myths cannot, myths to live by. Its metaphors become, as purely literary metaphors cannot, metaphors to live in. The Double Vision originated in lectures delivered at Emmanuel College in the University of Toronto, the texts of which were revised and augmented. It will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers alike who enjoyed Frye's earlier works or who are interested in the Bible, literature, literary theory and criticism, and religion.


18 xanthones (1-18) were isolated from the ethanol aqueous extract of Swertia mussotii. Their structures were elucidated via spectroscopic analyses including IR, UV, NMR, and MS. The nitrite scavenging activities of all the xanthones were evaluated. The results disclose that all the tested xanthones display moderate to good nitrite scavenging activity in both conditions including mimetic gastric and intestinal environment, where 18 is the most active compound with the clearance rates (%) of 26.0 ± 0.5 and 24.6 ± 0.8, respectively. The nitrite-scavenging mechanism was put forward and confirmed. A preliminary structure-activity relationship is also included here.


Exploring multiple classes of learning algorithms for those algorithms which perform best in multiple tasks is a complex problem of multiple-criteria optimisation. We use a genetic algorithm to locate sets of models which are not outperformed on all of the tasks. The genetic algorithm develops a population of multiple types of learning algorithms, with competition between individuals of different types. We find that inherent differences in the convergence time and performance levels of the different algorithms leads to misleading population effects. We explore the role that the algorithm representation and initial population has on task performance. Our findings suggest that separating the representation of different algorithms is beneficial in enhancing performance. Also, initial seeding is required to avoid premature convergence to non-optimal classes of algorithms.


In this article, the overall energy balance for Sweden and to some extent EU27 is discussed. It deals with the reduction of the total consumption in industrial, transport, and domestic sectors through more efficient vehicles, industrial processes, and buildings and individual behavior. The conclusion is that it should be relatively easy for Sweden to reach a sustainable society if the political will, in the form of policies and incentives, is present. It would also be possible for the EU27 to reach a sustainable society, although it would be more demanding (challenging?).


Governments collect and produce large amounts of data. Increasingly, governments worldwide have started to implement open data initiatives and also launch open data portals to enable the release of these data in open and reusable formats. Therefore, a large number of open data repositories, catalogues and portals have been emerging in the world. The greater availability of interoperable and linkable open government data catalyzes secondary use of such data, so they can be used for building useful applications which leverage their value, allow insight, provide access to government services, and support transparency. The efficient development of successful open data portals makes it necessary to evaluate them systematic, in order to understand them better and assess the various types of value they generate, and identify the required improvements for increasing this value. Thus, the attention of this paper is directed particularly to the field of open data portals. The main aim of this paper is to compare the selected open data portals on the national level using content analysis and propose a new evaluation framework, which further improves the quality of these portals. It also establishes a set of considerations for involving businesses and citizens to create eservices and applications that leverage on the datasets available from these portals. Keywords—Big data, content analysis, criteria comparison, data quality, open data, open data portals, public sector.


High-frequency synaptic transmission is depressed by moderate rises in the extracellular potassium concentration ([K+]o). Previous reports have indicated that depression of action potential signaling may underlie the synaptic depression. Here, we investigated the specific contribution of K+-induced action potential changes to synaptic depression. We found that glutamatergic transmission in the hippocampal area CA1 was significantly depressed by 8-10 mm [K+]o, but that GABAergic transmission remained intact. Riluzole, a drug that slows recovery from inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels (NaChs), interacts with subthreshold [K+]o to depress afferent volleys and EPSCs strongly. Thus, elevated [K+]o likely depresses synapses by slowing NaCh recovery from inactivation. It is unclear from previous studies whether [K+]o-induced action potential depression is caused by changes in initiation, reliability, or waveform. We investigated these possibilities explicitly. [K+]o-induced afferent volley depression was independent of stimulus strength, suggesting that changes in action potential initiation do not explain [K+]o-induced depression. Measurements of action potentials from single axons revealed that 8 mm [K+]o increased conduction failures in a subpopulation of fibers and depressed action potential amplitude in all fibers. Together, these changes quantitatively account for the afferent volley depression. We estimate that conduction failure explains more than half of the synaptic depression observed at 8 mm [K+]o, with the remaining depression likely explained by waveform changes. These mechanisms of selective sensitivity of glutamate release to [K+]o accumulation represent a unique neuromodulatory mechanism and a brake on runaway excitation.


A Digital Image-based Elasto-Tomography (DIET) system for breast cancer screening has been proposed in which the elastic properties of breast tissue are recovered by solving an inverse problem on the surface motion of a breast under low frequency (50-100 Hz) mechanical actuation. The proposed means for capturing the surface motion of the breast in 3D is to use a stroboscope to capture images from multiple digital cameras at preselected phase angles. Photogrammetric techniques are then used to reconstruct matched point features in 3D. Since human skin lacks high contrast visual features, it is necessary to introduce artificial fiducials which can be easily extracted from digital images. The chosen fiducials are points in three different colours in differing proportions randomly applied to the skin surface. A three-dimensional signature which is invariant to locally Euclidean transformations between images is defined on the points of the lowest proportion colour. The approximate local Euclidean invariance between adjacent frames enables these points to be matched using this signature. The remaining points are matched by interpolating the transformation of the matched points. This algorithm has significant performance gains over conventional gradient-based tracking algorithms because it utilises the intrinsic problem geometry. Successful results are presented for simulated image sequences and for images of a mechanically actuated viscoelastic gel phantom with tracking errors within 3 pixels. The errors in the phantom sequence correspond to less than 0.3 mm error in space, which is more than sufficient accuracy for the DIET system.


Optical nonlinearity originating in photothermal effects in guest-host liquid crystals (GHLC's), which caused self-phase modulation in the GHLC's, was characterized by use of heat-conduction analysis. The refractive-index distributions that are due to the photothermal optical nonlinearity in the GHLC's were determined by two different methods. One method (approach 1) is analytical solution of Kirchhoff's diffraction integral including the higher-order nonlinear phase distribution. Another method (approach 2) is to start by analytical solution of a heat-conducting equation. The refractive-index distributions determined from approach 1 were in good agreement with those from approach 2, and the physical origin of the higher-order optical nonlinearity caused by the photothermal effects in the GHLC's is discussed.


Introduction: This study aimed to investigate whether multiple aspects of emotion dysregulation contribute to the etiology of Food Addiction (FA); as well as to provide further evidence and clarity regarding the role of loneliness on the development of addictive behaviour towards food.
Methods: A correlational study was employed to assess associations within 162 participants which were recruited via online forums on FA and student population. The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and UCLA Loneliness Scale, and a demographic and personal information questionnaire were all completed online. A Poisson regression analysis was carried out and statistical significance was set at P <0.05.

Results: 79% of the sample endorsed a persistent desire or repeated, unsuccessful attempts to cut down or control their use of highly processed foods, while 21% met diagnostic criteria for food addiction. Poisson regression analysis demonstrated that the model predicts food addiction (P <0.001). Specifically, food addiction symptom count was positively predicted by difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviour, impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness and limited access to emotion regulation strategies (P <0.05); DERS total, nonacceptance of emotional responses and lack of emotional clarity were not significant predictors. Loneliness positively predicted food addiction (P =0.002).
Discussion and Conclusions: The findings of this research provide further evidence on the etiology of food addiction, as multiple aspects of emotion dysregulation, including difficulty in engaging in goal-directed behaviour, impulsiveness, emotional awareness and limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and loneliness were found to influence the development of an addictive behaviour towards certain types of food. Future research will need to understand possible causality between these factors and insights into the potential role addictive behaviour of food has in overeating phenomena, such as binge-eating.


. This paper presents the design and fabrication of a lightweight composite concrete slab prototype using 3D printing (3DP) of mineral foams. Conventionally, concrete slabs are standardized monolithic elements that are responsible for a large share of used materials and dead weight in concrete framed buildings. Optimized slab designs require less material at the expense of increasing the formwork complexity, required labour, and costs. To address these challenges, foam 3D printing (F3DP) can be used in construction as demonstrated in previous studies for lightweight facade elements. The work in this paper expands this research and uses F3DP to fabricate the freeform stay-in-place formwork components for a material-efficient lightweight ribbed concrete slab with a footprint of 2 x 1.3 m. For this advancement in scale, the robotic fabrication and material processing setup is refined and computational design strategies for the generation of advanced toolpaths developed. The presented composite of hardened mineral foam and fibre-reinforced ultra-high-performance concrete shows how custom geometries can be efficiently fabricated for geometrically complex formwork. The prototype demonstrates that optimized slabs could save up to 72% of total concrete volume and 70% weight. The discussion of results and challenges in this study provides a valuable outlook on the viability of this novel fabrication technique to foster a sustainable and resourceful future construction culture.


Before 2001, state and federal courts did not agree on the extent to which a property owner's regulatory takings claim should be weakened by the existence of legal restrictions on her use of the property at the time she acquired it. The Palazzolo Court addressed this doctrinal confusion but did not completely resolve it, offering six opinions that partially contradict each other. Some of this discord has persisted, with Palazzolo already cited in nearly five hundred judicial opinions, and not always consistently. This Article examines the impact Palazzolo has had on state and lower federal courts. After reviewing the law before Palazzolo and the Supreme Court's decision in that case, the Article offers suggestions as to how courts ought to interpret the contradictory opinions in Palazzolo. More specifically, cases arising at different points in the ripening process should be treated differently, and only a small subset of takings claims should benefit from Palazzolo's relaxation of the notice rule. Next the Article assesses the evidence, in an effort to determine whether courts interpreting Palazzolo have actually been following these suggestions. First, it examines the small number of claims in which an owner that probably would have lost before 2001 prevailed. It then compares these results with the far more numerous cases in which an owner that probably would have lost before 2001 still lost even after that decision. The Article closes by offering a more generalized assessment of the effects of Palazzolo. It concludes that nearly all of the courts to cite Palazzolo have heeded its requirements, but only a few cases have turned out differently than they would have before 2001. The Court's ripeness rules dictate that few landowners should benefit from the holding in Palazzolo, and only a small number actually do benefit. Lower courts understand Palazzolo, they have been applying it correctly, and they should continue to do what they have been doing.


Severe alleles of the ovarian tumor (otu) and ovo genes result in female sterility in Drosophila melanogaster, producing adult ovaries that completely lack egg chambers. We examined the developmental stage in which the agametic phenotype first becomes apparent. Germ cell development in embryos was studied using a strategy that allowed simultaneous labeling of pole cells with the determination of embryonic genotype. We found that ovo- or otu- XX embryonic germ cells were indistinguishable in number and morphology from those present in wild-type siblings. The effects of the mutations were not consistently manifested in the female germline until pupariation, and there was no evidence that either gene was required for germ cell viability at earlier stages of development. The requirement for otu function in the pupal and adult ovary is supported by temperature-shift experiments using a heat-inducible otu gene construct. We demonstrate that otu activity limited to prepupal stages was not sufficient to support oogenesis, while induction during the pupal and adult periods caused suppression of the otu mutant phenotype.


Background: Congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV) or clubfoot is one of the commonest congenital orthopaedic conditions requiring intensive treatment. A typical clubfoot consists of a deformed foot in equinus ,varus, adduction. In some cases a cavus component is also there. Tibial torsion is the angle between the transverse axes of the proximal and distal tibial articular surfaces. Controversy exists concerning the presence or absence of excessive medial or internal tibial torsion in CTEV. Materials & Methods: A cross sectional study was done of thirty consenting patients with CTEV and thirty children with injuries not involving the tibia or fibula selected by convenience sampling attending the orthopaedic clinic of a tertiary care hospital of Western Maharashtra . We measured the angular difference between the proximal and distal posterior tibial planes as defined by ultrasound scans thus minimising the error introduced by the posterior shifting of lower end fibula in the fibular notch after manipulative correction. The data was entered in excel and appropriate statistic test was applied. Results: The mean external torsion of the tibia in children with CTEV was 18 degrees (standard deviation 2.7), which was significantly less than the mean external torsion of tibia in normal children (38.13 degrees; standard deviation 9.194) (p<0.05). Conclusions: The children with CTEV have a relative tibial intorsion, as compared to normal children.


Do we fully utilize the results of disaster management exercises? Do we miss valuable feedback? Many different types of disaster management exercises, command post exercises, tabletop exercises, or serious games have a specific purpose. Generally each exercise is designed to meet its own particular exercise goals. Evaluation of the exercises is achieved in many different ways. Not always guidelines for exercise evaluation are present. Generally the exercise participants' performance is assessed by experienced staff members. The main purpose of the evaluation is to see whether the exercise goals are met. In this publication the authors suggest that a valuable source of information about the participants' performance in exercises remains often undiscovered. A new level of information can be unlocked by evaluating the exercise using a structured, analytical method. The method TARCK-it directly compares measured participant or team performance with the exercise goals.


It is well-acknowledged that many African economies perform well below their potential, yet there is little knowledge about the distance of these economies from their productivity frontiers. This study examines the technical efficiency of 43 African countries using the non-parametric DEA technique and the double-bootstrap approach. Technical efficiency results by income class show that the best performers in terms of technical efficiency are countries belonging to the upper middle group, followed by the lower upper middle-income countries, while the least efficient countries belong to the lower income economies. Double bootstrap and truncated regression results show that improvements in governance, promotion of FDI, and information communication technologies are major drivers of technical efficiency. This study provides direction and opportunities for African countries to increase output by improving efficiency of resource utilisation.


Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon By Mark Bostridge (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2008) (647 pages; $35 cloth) Like Cleopatra, whose infinite variety time could not make stale, Florence Nightingale continues to fascinate us. Since Sir Edward Cook's 1,000-page, two-volume biography published in 1913 there have been almost fifty further biographies: Mark Bostridge's 647-page work therefore stands in a long line. Cook's magnum opus has stood the test of time, challenged only briefly by Cecil Woodham-Smith's popularly written Florence Nightingale , published in 1950. Cook managed to strike a fine balance between sympathetic admiration for his subject and a critical approach, all the more difficult because the Nightingale heirs commissioned his work. Woodham-Smith did not footnote her work, and although she gained access to the Claydon archives, which Nightingale's executors denied Cook, she relied heavily on Cook as have most of Nightingale's biographers. Her Florence Nightingale is much more in the tradition of the hagiographies and lacks Cook's judicious critical sense. So much new information has come forward since Cook published ninety-five years ago that Bostridge's contribution is well justified. For nurses in particular this is especially relevant because Cook either was unaware of the tremendous problems at the Nightingale Training School or, more likely, considered it impolitic and possibly harmful to the struggling new profession to detail them. It took a former union organizer, Monica Baly, to make public the failings of the much respected Nightingale training when she published Florence Nightingale and the Nursing Legacy in 1988. Bostridge studies Nightingale, as the subtitle The Making of an Icon indicates, with a special interest in how the Nightingale legend and the real multifaceted historical woman interacted with each other. He points out that Nightingale's reputation as the iconic nurse was greatly helped by the secluded life she led after her famous collapse in August 1857. Her disappearance from public life made it possible to sentimentalize her as the saintly and compassionate lady whose shadow the soldiers kissed. At the same time it diminished the brilliance of her personality and intellect and her extensive work in other areas. He tells us that one of his inspirations in writing the biography was Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady who also knew how to both deny and exploit her femininity. Her career gave him insight into the political advantages and vicissitudes experienced by a woman operating in a male-dominated world. Thatcher herself admired Nightingale as a great historical figure, a lady who, she said, "had an idea, who knew what she wanted to do, and wasn't going to be put off by anyone" (pp. xxii-xxiii). Thatcher is certainly an apt comparison, but the gendered barriers she faced in the maledominated world of the late twentieth century, though significant, pale in comparison with the domestic sphere that constrained ladies of Nightingale's generation. Bostridge's Florence Nightingale is an extraordinarily scholarly work providing a wealth of detail, a good deal hitherto unknown, about Nightingale's family and network. His encyclopedic knowledge of her society helps us understand why she acted as she did, and he writes with the same sympathetic yet critical view as Cook, not glossing over her flaws. Both students of nineteenth-century nursing history and the general reader will find the new information enlightening. The book also includes a number of fascinating pictures that I for one have never seen before-for example, Nightingale's father in his forties, her mother in court dress in 1823, a photograph of Lea Hurst taken in the 1860s, Aunt Mai and Uncle Sam Smith and the Bracebridges who chaperoned and helped Nightingale in Scutari, and Mary Stanley and Sister Sarah Anne Terrot, two of the Crimean War nurses. Like Barbara Dossey, Bostridge completely accepts the D. …


Objectives In psoriatic arthritis (PsA), self-management is important for patient function and quality of life. Behaviour change can be difficult, patients could benefit from high-quality support to initiate change. Our aim was to codesign the project as theory-informed, evidence-based, patient-focused, materials supporting healthy lifestyle changes for patients diagnosed with PsA. Methods Development of the materials was overseen by a steering group of patients with PsA, psychologists, rheumatologists, a design team and researchers. First, a literature review was performed to establish the evidence base for behaviours and potential interventions in PsA, including diet, weight, alcohol, smoking, exercise, anxiety, depression and stress. An initial roundtable of patients with PsA prioritised areas and content ideas. Draft materials including a website and downloadable materials were produced. A second roundtable of patients with PsA collected feedback on the draft content and design. A third roundtable was held with patients with PsA and a fourth with clinicians to refine the materials and ensuring that they were evidence based, accessible, interesting, and helpful to initiate and maintain change. A final evaluation survey was performed to review the draft website before launching the final materials. Results 15 candidate topics were prioritised. A website and set of postcards summarising the topics were developed by the design team and refined following feedback from the roundtable groups. Conclusion This project created patient-focused resources to support behaviour change. It addresses common concerns of patients with PsA about how they may optimise their health by providing practical and brief interventions to challenge and support them to make changes.


Intimate partner violence (IPV; i.e., physical, sexual, or psychological abuse by a current or former partner) remains a public health concern with devastating personal and societal costs. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals are also vulnerable to a dimension of IPV called identity abuse (IA); that is, abuse tactics that leverage systemic oppression to harm an individual. Yet, we know little about its relative prevalence in subgroups of the LGBTQ community. This study developed and evaluated a measure of IA, and explored its prevalence in a sample of 734 sexual minority adults. The sample included women (53.1%), men (27.4%), and transgender or gender nonconforming "TGNC" (19.3%) participants. The majority of participants identified as queer or pansexual (38.7%), then gay (23.6%), lesbian (22.8%), and bisexual (13.6%). Participants completed an online survey that included measures of IA and physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. The IA items formed a unidimensional factor structure with strong internal consistency and construct validity. Nearly one fifth of the sample (16.8%) experienced past year IA and 40.1% reported adult IA. Women experienced greater exposure to IA in adulthood than men, and TGNC participants reported higher rates of IA in adulthood and in the last year compared to their cisgender counterparts. The odds of queer or bisexual participants reporting IA in adulthood were almost three times higher than gay participants, and two times higher than lesbian participants. Findings have implications for advancing assessment of partner abuse in the LGBTQ community, LGBTQ-competent clinical care, and training of practitioners.


The European Union (EU) is characterized by a large number of different emergency healthcare (EHC) systems. In this situation, a common policy for healthcare emergency handling is largely prevented and is a cause of an increase of the costs associated with such systems all over Europe. There is, hence, a need for a homogenization and integration of healthcare emergency systems in Europe. This turns out to be difficult because of the ethical, political, legal, and technological differences and peculiarities of the European scenario and the large investments that would be needed in this sector. The process of integration passes through the identification of the main functionalities-driven by the user needs in their real life conditions-along with the technologies that are best fitted for supporting them. In this paper, several aspects related to these problems are analyzed and a real case study, drawn from the project "Worldwide Emergency Telemedicine Services" (WETS), supported by the European Commission (DG-XIII), is presented. Within WETS, several pilot sites (in Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, and Iceland) consider different aspects of the integration of healthcare emergency systems with particular focus on the sharing of solutions that "traditionally" belong to different environments (i.e., land, air, and sea). The involvement of important hospitals, ship companies, airlines, and emergency health institutions allows us to devote a large part of this two-year project (1998-1999) to validate and demonstrate the results of the development phase in real-life conditions. Some more concrete details are given for the Italian pilot site, where the authors operate.


Problems related to Dioxins contamination in Southern Vietnam are until now still a hot newsreel and controversy subject in international conferences as well as in many articles. The adverse effects of Dioxins residue from chemicals used by U.S. Army during the Vietnam War (Ranch Hand Operation 1961 to 1971) have caused many consequences not only to Vietnamese ecosystem and people but also to the U.S army veterans that participated in the war at that period as reported in many scientific reports. In Vietnam, since 1980 many studies have been carried out in collaboration with overseas scientists and laboratories on Dioxin contamination levels as well as its influences on ecosystem and human health. However, regardless of many efforts, up to now the problem of Dioxin contamination and its consequences is not yet completely and appropriately solved. There is still relative high Dioxins residue in the areas named as "hot spot" in Southern Vietnam and its contamination is causing the adverse effects on local residents. Nowadays, studies on this subject are relatively difficult to perform due to many factors: over 30 years passed; land use disturbance; degradation and transfer of dioxin into biological food web; population emigration; etc.. In addition, a lack of related documents and military secrets also contributed to this. With the support of SDC in frame of a collaboration project between Vietnam and Switzerland, we have carried out the research named "Sources and Fate of PCDDs and PCDFs in rural and urban ecosystem and food chains of South-Vietnam". Our research has examined integratelly the PCDD/Fs sources with special regard on the PCDD/Fs source from the war, but also consider the others possible sources such industrial and municipal combustions, agricultural used chemicals, etc. The selected locations for our research have been set up based on collected document from Division 10-80 and Office 33 (two responsible organizations for Dioxins and related problems in Vietnam): CamLo District – QuangTri Province; DaNang City; MaDa Forest and BienHoa City (BienHoa Airforce Base and BienHung Lake) – DongNai Province; and industrial zone – Thu Duc – Hochiminh City. Seventeen 2,3,7,8-PCDD/Fs congeners have been chosen for our research due to their high toxicities. Soil, sediment, municipal waste incinerator (MWI) bottom ash, fish tissue, and human adipose are selected as the matrices to examine the PCDD/Fs residue. The result showed that even after more than 30 years, the PCDD/Fs concentration based on i-TEQ value (especially for 2,3,7,8-TCDD) is still higher than guideline values in some countries: very high i-TEQ value in cultivate soil of CamLo district and DaNang City. For the area named "hot spot" such BienHoa Airforce Base and BienHung Lake, the i-TEQ value and 2,3,7,8-TCDD concentration in soil and sediment are superior than values proposed by Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) and U.S Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA). The PCDD/Fs concentration in fish tissue of BienHung Lake (catfish and snake-head) is superior in comparison with European Council (EC) standard. The dioxin contamination risk for local resident health is very high due to the lack of information and inconsiderable attention of responsible organizations about this problem. As BienHoa was selected as a case-study for PCDD/Fs transfer in food chain, using statistic methods (cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis - PCA), we have showed a high similarity of PCDD/Fs profiles pattern between BienHoa Airforce Base soils, BienHung Lake sediments and fish tissue. The similarity in PCDD/Fs relative i-TEQ profiles between MWIs bottom ash and soil of industrial zone ThuDuc proves that industrial and municipal combustions are responsible sources for PCDD/Fs in the soil of such these zones. However in comparison with the sites contaminated by Agent Orange (A.O)/Dioxin, the PCDD/Fs contamination level in the industrial soil is lower and mainly dominated by PCDFs than PCDDs. The result also showed comparables i-TEQ values in BienHoa residents with inhabitants of industrial countries, however Vietnam is only developing and agricultural country. Beside that, 2,3,7,8-TCDD has been detected in many tested cases. 2,3,7,8-TCDD is the most toxic compound and related to the A.O/Dioxins from the war, unfortunately we have not enough data to assess the relationship between A.O/Dioxin residue and these samples. To find out this relationship it is necessary an integrated large-scale investigation. Result of our research serves as a base for set-up a reference laboratory for PCDD/Fs and dioxin-liked compounds research in the South of Vietnam. At present time, a small laboratory for PCDD/Fs analysis has been installed in IER and serves as a member of VietNam Dioxin Research Network.


Solar radiation management (SRM) could quickly offset global warming caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Because SRM would have global side effects, it raises not only technological but also political and social concerns. Therefore, SRM research should be accompanied by a global debate that incorporates public perception and concerns into the development and governance of the technology. Our paper provides insight into public perception and explores its underlying patterns using a survey conducted in Germany. The data reveal a differentiated picture. Laboratory research on SRM is broadly approved, whereas field research is much less approved. Immediate deployment is largely rejected. The acceptance of the technology is associated with the belief that climate change is a severe problem and that humans will eventually be able to control nature. It is also determined by the levels of trust in scientists and firms. Among the strongest objections against the technology is the belief that humans should not manipulate nature in the way SRM would. The actual public perception of SRM will, however, evolve along with the ongoing debate between the public, experts, and policymakers.


A new allotropic form of carbon occurs in shock-fused graphite gneisses in the Ries Crater, Bavaria. The assemblage in which it occurs consists of hexagonal graphite, rutile, pseudobrookite, magnetite, nickeliferous pyrrhotite, and baddeleyite. Electron-probe analyses indicate that the new phase is pure carbon. It is opaque and much more strongly reflecting than hexagonal graphite. Measurement of x-ray diffraction powder patterns leads to cell dimensions a = 8.948 � 0.009, c = 14.078 � 0.017 angstroms, with a primitive hexagonal lattice.


Pregnancy related low back pain is a common complaint among pregnant women. It can potentially have a negative impact on their quality of life. The aim of this article is to present a current review of the literature concerning this issue.By using PubMed database and low back pain, pelvic girdle pain, pregnancy as keywords, abstracts and original articles in English investigating the diagnosis treatment of back pain during pregnancy were searched and analyzedLow back pain could present as either a pelvic girdle pain between the posterior iliac crest and the gluteal fold or as a lumbar pain over and around the lumbar spine. The source of the pain should be diagnosed and differentiated early.The appropriate treatment aims to reduce the discomfort and the impact on the pregnant womans quality of life. This article reveals the most common risk factors, as well as treatment methods, which may help to alleviate the pain. Some suggestions for additional research are also discussed.


We argue that we should see a negative relationship between the share of risky assets in the default fund of a defined contribution (DC) pension plan and the average plan member age if trustees design the default fund in line with predictions from the life-cycle portfolio choice theory. Adoption of the default fund should be low in DC plans with high member age dispersion if default funds are indeed designed for the average plan member and members become aware of this. From analyzing a panel data set of Australian DC pension plans, we obtain results that are consistent with both hypotheses.


In recent times, rapid advances in the field of information technology have enabled firms selling information products (for example, in the form of a CD) to provide subscription services using remote servers. Making the product vs. service decision involves a trade-off. Online subscription offerings are perceived to be of lower quality because of data security and network reliability issues but can reduce or even eliminate the credible commitment (of prices) problem typically faced by firms selling durable products. We model an infinite horizon game between two symmetric firms that choose the design architecture i.e. product or service (and consequent contracting scheme: selling or subscription) and then set prices to optimize profits. The perceived quality loss enables firms to differentiate based on design architecture/contracting scheme and make positive profits. Further, the firm that sells a product makes higher profit than the firm that offers a subscription service. However, as the discount factor increases, the presence of a seller leads to a credible commitment problem for both firms leading to a reduction in prices. The results offer an explanation for the persistence of firms selling products rather than services. Further, a firm offering a subscription service may be subject to price pressure due to the price commitment issues of a competing seller. We also extend our insights to other settings: one involving asymmetric firms and the other involving different discount rates for product quality and producer / consumer surplus.


When calcite is precipitated from a water film on top of a stalagmite to its surface, the carbonate in the solution and consequently also the carbonate in the calcite deposited becomes enriched in the heavy isotopes 18O and 13C (Hansen et al. 2016; Dreybrodt & Scholz 2011; Romanov et al. 2008). This isotope signal is added to the isotope imprint resulting from climate variability. Therefore a physical model of the evolution of the isotope composition of carbonate in a water film, either flowing down the surface of the stalagmite at high drip rates or stagnant, when the drip rate is low, is necessary to discriminate the climate signal from the signal resulting from physical processes in the cave. Currently two models are proposed. In the first one (Scholz et al. 2009) one assumes that the isotope evolution can be described by a Rayleigh distillation process (Mook 2000) where during the entire process of precipitation the fractionation factor for carbon or oxygen, respectively remains constant. In another model one assumes that precipitation is a uni-directional non-equilibrium process, where the constants in the rate equations are slightly different for the light and the heavy isotope (Dreybrodt 2008; Dreybrodt & Scholz 2011). Results from these models have been compared for various scenarios by Scholz et al. (2009), Dreybrodt and Scholz (2011), Dreybrodt and Deininger (2014) and Dreybrodt and Romanov (2016). Differences of opinion clearly exist in the research community regarding which of these models best represents reality. In this letter I discuss the meaning of the Rayleigh equation for precipitation of calcite under equilibrium conditions and for precipitation of calcite governed by uni-directional rate equations.


The application of nanoscale materials and structures, usually ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm), is an emerging area of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles for applications such as catalysis, electronics, textiles, environmental protection, and biotechnology is an area of constant interest. Recently, an awareness of general sanitation, contact disease transmission, and personal protection has led to the development of antimicrobial textiles. The development of antimicrobial cotton fabrics using Copper oxide nanoparticles has been investigated in this present work. The Copper nanoparticles were prepared by wet chemical method and were directly applied on to the 100% cotton woven fabric using pad-dry-cure method. The antibacterial activity of the finished fabrics was assessed qualitatively by agar diffusion and parallel streak method, quantitatively by percentage reduction test. The topographical analysis of the treated fabric and untreated fabric were studied and compared. The results show that the finished fabric demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against S. aureus in both qualitative and quantitative tests. The SEM analysis revealed the embedding of Copper nanoparticles in treated fabrics. The wash durability study of the treated fabric was also carried out and found to withstand up to 25 wash cycles.


Experimental and ab initio computational methods are employed to conclusively show that ScN is a semiconductor rather than a semimetal; i.e., there is a gap between the N $2p$ and the Sc $3d$ bands. Previous experimental investigators reported, in agreement with band structure calculations showing a band overlap of 0.2 eV, that ScN is a semimetal while others concluded that it is a semiconductor with a band gap larger than 2 eV. We have grown high quality, single crystalline ScN layers on MgO(001) and on TiN(001) buffer layers on MgO(001) by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputter deposition. ScN optical properties were determined by transmission, reflection, and spectroscopic ellipsometry while in-situ x-ray and ultraviolet valence band photoelectron spectroscopy were used to determine the density of states (DOS) below the Fermi level. The measured DOS exhibits peaks at 3.8 and 5.2 eV stemming from the N $2p$ bands and at 15.3 eV due to the N $2s$ bands. The imaginary part of the measured dielectric function ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{2}$ consists of two primary features due to direct X- and \ensuremath{\Gamma}-point transitions at photon energies of 2.7 and 3.8 eV, respectively. For comparison, the ScN band structure was calculated using an ab initio Kohn\char21{}Sham approach which treats the exchange interactions exactly within density-functional theory. Calculated DOS and the complex dielectric function are in good agreement with our ScN valence-band photoelectron spectra and measured optical properties, respectively. We conclude, combining experimental and computational results, that ScN is a semiconductor with an indirect $\ensuremath{\Gamma}\char21{}X$ bandgap of $1.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3\mathrm{eV}$ and a direct X-point gap of $2.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3\mathrm{eV}.$


We identify the impact of the 2003 Kenyan Free Primary Education (FPE) programme on gender imbalances in the number of students graduating from primary school and achievement on the primary school exit examination. Our identification strategy exploits temporal and spatial variations in the pre-programme dropout rates between districts in a difference-in-differences strategy. We find that the programme boosted primary school completion rates of both boys and girls, but had a larger effect for boys, thereby increasing the gender gap in graduation. Additionally, the programme led to a widening of the achievement gap in government schools. Overall, FPE increased educational access, but did not close gender gaps, suggesting that complementary programmes that specifically target girls may be necessary to reduce these gaps. Copyright 2012 , Oxford University Press.