Abstract In northern areas of their expanded range, information on Merriam's turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) is lacking, specifically pertaining to wintering behavior and factors associated with winter habitat selection. Forest managers need detailed quantification of the effects of logging and other management practices on wintering habitats needed by Wild Turkeys and other wildlife. Therefore, we examined winter habitat selection patterns within ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests and determined factors associated with use of farmsteads by Merriam's turkeys in the southern Black Hills, South Dakota. We radio-marked 86 female Merriam's turkeys (70 adults and 16 yearlings) and monitored them during winter (1 December–31 March), 2001–2004. Female Wild Turkeys used recently burned pine forest less than expected but selected farmsteads and stands of mature ponderosa pine (<70% overstory canopy cover, >22.9 cm diameter at breast height [DBH] trees) for foraging sites. Within forests, female Wild Turkeys selected foraging sites with less understory vegetation and visual obstruction, and larger-diameter ponderosa pine. Ponderosa pine seed abundance varied among years, and pine seeds were most abundant in stands of 30–35 cm DBH with basal area of 22–28 m2 · ha−1. Abundance of pine seeds may have influenced use of farmsteads by Wild Turkeys, more so than ambient temperatures or snow depth. In the southern Black Hills, management should emphasize open- to mid-canopy and mature-structural-stage pine stands, where seed production was greatest. During winters when mast from pine is unavailable, farmsteads likely provide nutritional supplementation and may be important for maintaining Merriam's turkey populations.


Large, high-frame-rate spatial light modulators are key components required for the realization of real-time optical processors. We report a 128 × 128 array of GaAs-based optical modulators that we hybridized to a Si integrated circuit by using In bump bonds to form a spatial light modulator. These optical modulators are composed of a series of quantum wells within an asymmetric Fabry-Perot cavity to control the optical properties. The resulting 128 × 128 element array operates in an intensity-only reflection mode at greater than 100,000 frames per second. This array interfaces to a 486-based personal computer through a standard industry standard architecture bus.


In this work, we contribute a new multi-layer neural network architecture named ONCF to perform collaborative filtering. The idea is to use an outer product to explicitly model the pairwise correlations between the dimensions of the embedding space. In contrast to existing neural recommender models that combine user embedding and item embedding via a simple concatenation or element-wise product, our proposal of using outer product above the embedding layer results in a two-dimensional interaction map that is more expressive and semantically plausible. Above the interaction map obtained by outer product, we propose to employ a convolutional neural network to learn high-order correlations among embedding dimensions. Extensive experiments on two public implicit feedback data demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed ONCF framework, in particular, the positive effect of using outer product to model the correlations between embedding dimensions in the low level of multi-layer neural recommender model.


Background: We examined the agreement between transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and intraoperative prepump transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in the assessment of left-sided regurgitant lesions and echocardiographic variables associated with grading discrepancies. Methods: The TTE and prepump TEE studies of 54 patients undergoing aortic-valve replacement for aortic stenosis were reviewed. Agreement and correlation in assessment of aortic (AR) and mitral regurgitation (MR) severity were evaluated. Results: There was no significant difference between mean TTE and prepump TEE grading of MR (0.23 ± 0.19 vs. 0.21 ± 0.15 jet area/area of the left atrium, p = 0.49), but the correlation between the two methods was weak (r = 0.40, p = 0.003), with an exact agreement of 54%. Prepump TEE tended to grade AR as more severe (mean grade 1.43 ± 0.94 vs. 1.24 ± 0.75, p = 0.058). The correlation between the two methods in AR assessment was fair (r = 0.70, p = 0.0001) with an agreement of 59%. For MR and AR grading, no significant correlations between valvular regurgitation severity and blood pressure differences between preoperative TTE and prepump TEE were found. In 17% of cases, discrepancies in identifying severe mitral or aortic valve regurgitation could have affected patient management. Conclusions: There is modest agreement in MR and AR assessment between TTE and prepump TEE. Cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and anesthesiologists must be aware of differences between these methods when using prepump TEE to guide intraoperative decisions.


With the increasing popularity of microblogging services like Twitter, researchers discovered a rich medium for tackling real-life problems like event detection. However, event detection in Twitter is often obstructed by the lack of public evaluation mechanisms such as test collections (set of tweets, labels, and queries to measure the effectiveness of an information retrieval system). The problem is more evident when non-English languages, e.g., Arabic, are concerned. With the recent surge of significant events in the Arab world, news agencies and decision makers rely on Twitters microblogging service to obtain recent information on events. In this thesis, we address the problem of building a test collection of Arabic tweets (named EveTAR) for the task of event detection. To build EveTAR, we first adopted an adequate definition of an event, which is a significant occurrence that takes place at a certain time. An occurrence is significant if there are news articles about it. We collected Arabic tweets using Twitter's streaming API. Then, we identified a set of events from the Arabic data collection using Wikipedias current events portal. Corresponding tweets were extracted by querying the Arabic data collection with a set of manually-constructed queries. To obtain relevance judgments for those tweets, we leveraged CrowdFlower's crowdsourcing platform. Over a period of 4 weeks, we crawled over 590M tweets, from which we identified 66 events that cover 8 different categories and gathered more than 134k relevance judgments. Each event contains an average of 779 relevant tweets. Over all events, we got an average Kappa of 0.6, which is a substantially acceptable value. EveTAR was used to evaluate three state-of-the-art event detection algorithms. The best performing algorithms achieved 0.60 in F1 measure and 0.80 in both precision and recall. We plan to make our test collection available for research, including events description, manually-crafted queries to extract potentially-relevant tweets, and all judgments per tweet. EveTAR is the first Arabic test collection built from scratch for the task of event detection. Additionally, we show in our experiments that it supports other tasks like ad-hoc search.


3-(3-Methylimidazolium-1-yl)propanoate (OOCEMIM), the related zwitterion of the parent ionic liquid [HOOCEMIM] [Cl], crystallises in two hydrated and one neat (AH) solid-state forms. All three forms can be produced directly in solution crystallisation experiments and their single crystal structures as well as the temperature- and moisture dependent interconversion pathways between the forms were unravelled. The OOCEMIM molecule adopts an elongated high energy conformation in both the mono- (Hy1) and dihydrates (Hy2), with water⋯OOCEMIM interactions contributing significantly to the lattice energy. A substantial conformational rearrangement of OOCEMIM is observed upon dehydration, resulting in a bent low energy conformation in the anhydrous form. Each of the three OOCEMIM solid-state forms shows a limited existence range. The anhydrous form AH can only be preserved at very dry atmospheric conditions (at 25 °C). The exposure of AH to elevated water vapour conditions results in a fast transformation to Hy1, which then transforms to Hy2 at relative humidities (RH) above 18%. Increasing the RH above 40% leads to deliquescence of the zwitterion. Hy1 and Hy2 melt at 90 °C and 61 °C (peritectic dissociation temperature), respectively, whereas AH melts and decomposes at 172 °C. The measured transformation enthalpies between the three solid-state forms, derived from differential scanning and isothermal calorimetry experiments, are in excellent agreement with the 0 K PBE-TS and PBE-D2 lattice energy differences. Knowledge about the interconversion pathways and stability ranges of the OOCEMIM solid-state forms is essential for handling the compound.


Structural health monitoring is a vastly growing field consisting of sensors embedded in or attached with the structure which respond to the strain or other stimuli to monitor the deformation in real-time. In this study, a multi-mode strain detection is carried out in composites using nanomaterial-based sensor technology. A Carbon fiber (CF) sensor was developed using unidirectional carbon filaments aligned straightly together and its sensitivity was calculated experimentally, with gauge factor (GF) in 10.2–10.8 range. Then, this CF sensor is embedded gradually at different directions i.e. 0°, +45°, 90°, −45° between the plies of composite for real-time/in-situ strain monitoring. The composite specimen was then cut in star profile, each leg demonstrating the direction of the CF sensors. These composite samples are then tested under tensile and flexural cyclic loading. There is a good reproducibility in the results and the mechanical response of composite correlated perfectly with the electrical resistance of the CF sensor. It can also be noted that the sensors, depending on their respective position, manage to faithfully reproduce the mechanical behavior of the specimen tested (traction/compression). The results established that the CF exhibited good potential as flexible reinforcement for in-situ monitoring of composites and can provide detection over large sections and unapproachable locations. This study also showed that direction and position of the sensor plays a vital role in the detection, identification (whether its tensile or compressive) and quantification of the deformation experienced by the structure under different loading conditions.


Modularity -- the attempt to understand systems as integrations of partially independent and interacting units -- is today a dominant theme in the life sciences, cognitive science, and computer science. The concept goes back at least implicitly to the Scientific (or Copernican) Revolution, and can be found behind later theories of phrenology, physiology, and genetics; moreover, art, engineering, and mathematics rely on modular design principles. This collection broadens the scientific discussion of modularity by bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, evolutionary computation, developmental and evolutionary biology, linguistics, mathematics, morphology, paleontology, physics, theoretical chemistry, philosophy, and the arts.The contributors debate and compare the uses of modularity, discussing the different disciplinary contexts of "modular thinking" in general (including hierarchical organization, near-decomposability, quasi-independence, and recursion) or of more specialized concepts (including character complex, gene family, encapsulation, and mosaic evolution); what modules are, why and how they develop and evolve, and the implication for the research agenda in the disciplines involved; and how to bring about useful cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer on the topic. The book includes a foreword by the late Herbert A. Simon addressing the role of near-decomposability in understanding complex systems.


The Tyrosine kinase receptor AXL belongs to the TAM (Tyro3, AXL and Mer) family, whose members are characterized by a highly conserved kinase domain and adhesion molecule-like domains in the extracellular region. There are several reports showing AXL overexpression in cancer and its transforming potential, depicting its ability to drive tumor formation, progression and resistance to different anti-cancer agents; hence, AXL receptor is a clinically validated cancer target. Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a critical player in regulating the maturation, stability, and activity of its client proteins. HSP90 inhibition causes depletion of multiple oncogenic client proteins, leading to blockade of many key cancer causing pathways. HSP90 inhibitors that derived from geldanamycin, such as 17-AAG, have emerged as promising therapeutic agents for cancer treatment and few of them have entered clinical trials.
 In this study we show that AXL is a novel client of HSP90, as the two structurally unrelated HSP90 inhibitors Radicicol or 17-AAG, induced a time- and dose-dependent downregulation of endogenous or ectopically expressed AXL protein. Using biotin and 35S-methionine labelling of the biogenesis/trafficking receptor upon 17-AAG treatment we showed that 17-AAG induced depletion of AXL on the plasma membrane, by mediating degradation of fully glycosylated AXL receptor from internal organelles and therefore restricting its transport to the cell surface. We demonstrated that 17-AAG induced AXL polyubiquitination and subsequent degradation via proteasome. HSP90 functions in the context of a multi-protein chaperone complex. By co-immunoprecipitation experiments, interactions between AXL and the components of chaperone complex like HSP90 itself, HSP70, and Ubiquitin E3 ligase CHIP (Carboxy terminus of Hsc70 Interacting Protein) were shown to be modulated by 17-AAG treatment. By contrast to wt CHIP, the functionally inactive CHIP mutant, CHIP K30A failed to accumulate AXL polyubiquitinated species even in the presence of 17-AAG, suggesting the involvement of endogenous CHIP in 17-AAG induced AXL polyubiquitination. We could also show that, it is the intracellular domain (ICD) of AXL containing the TK domain that is crucial to acquire 17-AAG sensitivity, as the AXL ICD-deleted mutant is insensitive to 17-AAG mediated degradation. However, AXL kinase activity is not required for 17-AAG mediated AXL loss, since inhibition of kinase activity by Bosutinib did not affect AXL sensitivity to 17-AAG. Similarly, AXL kinase dead mutant was as sensitive as the wt receptor to 17-AAG induced degradation. Finally, we also demonstrated that 17-AAG induced AXL downregulation could interfere with AXL mediated biological activity, measured as activation of transcription from the AP1 promoter, suggesting a possible therapeutic approach to counteract AXL driven oncogenic activity or drug resistance. Our data convincingly clarify the molecular basis of AXL downregulation by HSP90 inhibitor 17-AAG and suggest that HSP90 inhibition in anti-cancer therapy can exert its effect through inhibition of multiple kinases, including AXL itself.


Silicon photonics has become one of the major technologies in this very information age. It has been intensively pursued by researchers and entrepreneurs all over the world in recent years. Achieving the large scale silicon photonic integration, particularly monolithic integration, is the final goal so that high density data communication will become much cheaper, more reliable, and less energy consuming. Comparing with the developed countries, China may need to invest more to develop top down nanoscale integration capability (more on processing technology) to sustain the development in silicon photonics and to elevate its own industry structure.


A total of 245 completed reports were received in this six month period, between July and December 2016, representing a much higher level of reporting than the previous six-month period, in which 190 reports were received, and again a significantly higher level than all previously recorded periods. This level of reporting shows a consistent rise since the launch of iReport.ie in July 2013.With the emergence of an emboldened racism in late 2016 associated with the American elections and Brexit, and an apparently growing anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe, it was expected that the number of reports submitted to iReport.ie would rise in this period. The increase is observable in the total figures, up to 246 from 190 for the previous period, and in an increase from 53 to 66 reports of racist media and online publications, from 79 to 98 reports of verbal abuse and an increase from 38 to 57 reports of discrimination. Levels of violence stayed relatively consistent with the previous period.Levels of trust in Gardai to address racism continue to be extremely low, and the high number of reports which indicate that the incidents are part of an ongoing pattern of racism, particularly those which have escalated to violence over a period of time, demonstrate that Garda efforts to tackle racism before it escalates need to improve. More than forty percent of all incidents reported were part of a pattern of repeated harassment.The data presented in this period highlights the very real need for effective statutory responses to racist hate incidents, support for victims, and preventative measures in the cases of repeat harassment which make up such a large part of the reports. Action is needed to address the failings in the current criminal law, in the training, supervision and accountability of members of An Garda Siochana in dealing with racism, and in the provision of statutory support for victims. Discrimination in employment, housing and service provision, and particularly in public services, must be addressed through effective publication of information about support and resolution measures, lost through the recent changes described earlier, and through training and supervision of staff in public services to prevent discriminatory treatment and abuse.


Color postcard picturing a street scene in Orange, Texas "Where business is done" A hardware company is on the left and horse-drawn carriages are on both sides of the street. Correspondence on the back reads, "Hello Murray, How are you? if you see Frank will you try to find out Mrs. Pittman's address and let me know. answer this to 411 Fourth St. Mary." It is addressed to Mrs. J.B. Murray, 1492 Forsythe St., Beaumont, Tex. It is postmarked Orange, Texas on Aug 20, 1908.


This study reports on the evaluation of a 'summer pre-school model' as an intervention measure. A 10-week program was designed to increase the school readiness of Turkish children from disadvantaged and multilingual environments by supporting their cognitive and linguistic skills during the summer prior to the start of school. The intervention consisted of a Pre-school Education Program with a special focus on Turkish language, pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills. The evaluation study was carried out on its first implementation in a southeastern province of Turkey where it was attended by bilingual six-year-olds. A pre-post, control-group, quasi experimental design was used with 92 intervention trained and 93 non-trained control children from the same neighborhoods. Compared to the control children the intervention children scored significantly higher on post-test measures of pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills, and on measures of syntactic knowledge and story comprehension. The results also revealed the importance of the educational level of the mother for progress in language skills. The findings indicate the overall short-term effectiveness of the program and of the summer pre-school model as a primary prevention strategy that aims to bring children at risk to a higher level of school readiness.


Negative equity occurs when the market value of a house is below the outstanding mortgage secured on it. As house prices fall, the number of households in negative equity tends to rise. Between the Autumn of 2007 and the Spring of 2009, nominal house prices fell by around 20% in the United Kingdom. There are no data which accurately measure the scale of negative equity. Three estimates presented in this article suggest that around 7%-11% of UK owner-occupier mortgagors were in negative equity in the Spring of 2009, although for most of those households, the total value of negative equity was relatively small. The effects of negative equity can be painful for those households concerned. Negative equity can also have implications for both monetary policy and financial stability, which are discussed in this article. These effects are likely to depend on developments elsewhere in the macroeconomy and financial system.


The transnational anti-apartheid movement was heavily motivated by the postwar emphasis on human rights and decolonisation, and challenged by Cold War politics and economic interests. The aim of this article is to examine Iceland's involvement in the anti-apartheid struggles with focus on the establishment of the unified anti-apartheid movement SAGA (Suður-Afrikusamtokin gegn apartheid), its organisation and activities. What were the motives of SAGA's activists and their subjective experiences? The political background in Iceland is outlined as well as a historical overview of anti-apartheid activities including Iceland's voting on resolutions against apartheid at UN and adoptions of sanctions against the South African regime. Iceland's involvement in the antiapartheid struggle was contradictory. During two periods Iceland voted for more radical UN resolutions than did other Western countries, including the Nordic ones. Yet, Iceland adopted sanctions against the South African regime later than the neighbours and the same applies to the establishment of a unified anti-apartheid movement. The branding of the African National Congress (ANC) as communists allowed many to ignore the human right breaches of the South African regime. Most of the activists belonged to left-wing groups or the labour movement, and the relative absence of religious organisations and the Students' Council of the University of Iceland is notable. Embedded in the transnational anti-apartheid network with particular ways of organisation and mobilisation, the activists became emotionally engaged and worked for a moral cause.


Raising the age when people became eligible to receive Medicare would provide some modest fiscal relief for the program, but the costs would shift instead to senior citizens themselves, to businesses, and to other government health programs and would increase overall national spending on healthcare, experts told a congressional briefing on 17 December.

Changing the eligibility criterion from 65 to 67 years in incremental steps would reduce net federal spending by $113bn (£70bn; €85bn) over 10 years, an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office calculated.1 And long term spending would decline by about 5%.

But total national healthcare spending would rise by $5.7bn, said Juliette Cubanski, citing a study she coauthored at the Kaiser …


Cyberspace: a world at war. Our privacy, freedom of speech, and with them the very foundations of democracy are under attack. In the virtual world frontiers are not set by nations or states, they are set by those, who control the flows of information. And control is, what everybody wants. The Five Eyes are watching, storing, and evaluating every transmission. Internet corporations compete for our data and decide if, when, and how we gain access to that data and to their pretended free services. Search engines control what information we are allowed or want to consume. Network access providers and carriers are fighting for control of larger networks and for better ways to shape the traffic. Interest groups and copyright holders struggle to limit access to specific content. Network operators try to keep their networks and their data safe from outside or inside adversaries. And users? Many of them just don't care. Trust in concepts and techniques is implicit. Those who do care try to take back control of the Internet through privacy-preserving techniques. This leads to an arms race between those who try to classify the traffic, and those who try to obfuscate it. But good or bad lies in the eye of the beholder, and one will find himself fighting on both sides. Network Traffic Classification is an important tool for network security. It allows identification of malicious traffic and possible intruders, and can also optimize network usage. Network Traffic Obfuscation is required to protect transmissions of important data from unauthorized observers, to keep the information private. However, with security and privacy both crumbling under the grip of legal and illegal black hat crackers, we dare say that contemporary traffic classification and obfuscation techniques are fundamentally flawed. The underlying concepts cannot keep up with technological evolution. Their implementation is insufficient, inefficient and requires too much resources. We provide (1) a unified view on the apparently opposed fields of traffic classification and obfuscation, their deficiencies and limitations, and how they can be improved. We show that (2) using multiple classification techniques, optimized for specific tasks improves overall resource requirements and subsequently increases classification speed. (3) Classification based on application domain behavior leads to more accurate information than trying to identify communication protocols. (4) Current approaches to identify signatures in packet content are slow and require much space or memory. Enhanced methods reduce these requirements and allow faster matching. (5) Simple and easy to implement obfuscation techniques allow circumvention of even sophisticated contemporary classification systems. (6) Trust and privacy can be increased by reducing communication to a required minimum and limit it to known and trustworthy communication partners. Our techniques improve both security and privacy and can be applied efficiently on a large scale. It is but a small step in taking back the Web.


We present the charged-particle multiplicity distributions over a wide pseudorapidity range ($-3.4<\eta<5.0$) for pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 0.9, 7, and 8 TeV at the LHC. Results are based on information from the Silicon Pixel Detector and the Forward Multiplicity Detector of ALICE, extending the pseudorapidity coverage of the earlier publications and the high-multiplicity reach. The measurements are compared to results from the CMS experiment and to PYTHIA, PHOJET and EPOS LHC event generators, as well as IP-Glasma calculations.


Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are a promising alternative to more resource-intensive preference elicitation methods such as time trade-off (TTO), as pairwise comparisons are more amenable to online completion, which can save time and money. However, modeling DCE data produces latent utilities which are on an unknown scale. Therefore, latent utilities need to be transformed to a full health-dead scale before they can be used in quality-adjusted life year calculations. We aimed to explore transformation functions from DCE-derived latent utilities to TTO-derived health utilities. We used EQ-5D-5L valuation data from eight different countries that collected both DCE and TTO data by using a standardized protocol. Results found less variation in the function that transformed latent utilities to health utilities in the western countries than in the eastern countries. While a global transformation function is not recommended, results suggest that regional transformation functions could potentially be used to derive health utilities from DCE data. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


An unexpected presence of hydrogen in 4H-SiC was revealed by the observation of hydrogen related lines in the low-temperature photoluminescence (LTPL) spectrum after secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements. The lines were not observed before SIMS. The high-energy ions during SIMS are proposed to break the boron-hydrogen bonds. This phenomenon is observable only for a certain impurity concentration in the material due to the competition of various recombination channels during the LTPL experiment.


Background: This article explores the political impact of using gender neutral pronouns in the university classroom. Aim: We explore how the gender neutral pronoun 'they' denaturalises essentialist models of gender identity. We follow 'they' toward a consideration of the gender neutral pronoun 'it.' 'It' advances – at the same time that it problematises – the political project of non-binary communities to denaturalise gender by challenging an anthropocentric model of equal rights. Setting: We examine the latent humanism of pronoun use through our contrasting approaches to gender pronoun use in our writing courses. Methods: First we discuss the role of genderneutral pronouns in building a more inclusive classroom environment for gender non-conforming students. We then consider our respective pedagogical approaches to pronoun use. Andrew avoids pronoun use in the classroom, addressing his students by their first names instead, while Marcos makes pronoun use and gender identity a central part of his course curriculum. We then consider the pronoun 'it' from a posthumanist perspective, arguing that 'it' might help to overcome the violent legacy of humanism by building a more inclusive classroom environment for gender-nonconforming students. Results: The analysis of 'it' as a gender neutral pronoun has revolutionary potential. Deconstructing our conceptions of equal rights from a posthumanist perspective can transform higher education for the better. Conclusion: The article concludes that college educators should consider discussing the significance of the pronoun 'it.' Given its dehumanising potential, this discussion should be presented in light of the posthumanist critique of anthropocentrism, and must affirm students' existing identifications.


Using a unique data set comprised of original research of both the corporate Web sites of the Big Four—PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and EY—and their affiliated law firms, as well as archival material from the legal and accountancy press, this article documents the rise and transformation of the Big Four legal service lines since the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. Moreover, it demonstrates that there are good reasons to believe that these sophisticated players will be even more successful in penetrating the corporate legal services market in the decades to come, as that market increasingly matures in a direction that favors the integration of law into a wider category of business solutions that these globally integrated multidisciplinary practices now champion. We conclude with some preliminary observations about the implications of the reemergence of the Big Four legal networks for the legal profession.


The BSE saga in the UK provides important lessons on the role of governments in risk communication and management during crises, and on the ways in which inappropriate early responses can skew the perceptions of stakeholders, exacerbate conflicts between different interest groups and constrain the government's options for effective action. A brief discussion of the emergence of BSE in the UK cattle herd, and the accompanying policy dilemmas, prefaces an account of how policy‐makers responded to the crisis and communicated about possible risks, the effects on attitudes of stakeholders and the implications for policy. The paper shows that the UK government's risk communication tactics misrepresented the underlying science and failed to take a precautionary approach because scientific uncertainties were concealed and denied. The UK authorities claimed to be protecting public health but in practice they were more concerned to support agricultural markets and minimise state intervention and public expenditure. Regulations that were introduced were too little and too late, and were not properly enforced. Too little was invested in scientific research and the involvement of independent scientists was actively discouraged. The high degree of uncertainty in the prevailing state of knowledge was not acknowledged. Instead of adopting policies that were consistent with the available scientific evidence and understanding, the government merely promulgated the rhetoric of science‐based policy, while discounting relevant scientific evidence and discrediting scientific advice that was inconsistent with its chosen narrative. It chose a narrative of total confidence and certainty, attached to an assumption of zero risk, and then struggled to adopt forms of reasoning that would sustain that position in the face of accumulating evidence to the contrary. Implications for risk communication of adopting a more precautionary approach in such circumstances are discussed.


A survey designed by the authors was administered to social impact hub members worldwide in an effort to better understand the motivational bases of social entrepreneurs. A specific focus in this study was the relationship between entrepreneurial traits, social entrepreneurial identity, and the actual success of a social venture. The assumptions from field observations that the construct of social entrepreneurial identification (SEII) and the successful start of a social venture (SUCC) are related were confirmed when controlling for gender, family, and cultural influences. Public service motivation (PSM), paired with a strong locus of control (LoC), innovativeness (INN) and tenacity (TE) were found to be the suggested qualities of social entrepreneurs. However, managerial experience and a pro-entrepreneurial background culture were much more predictive than was SEII. This study provides an empirical foundation for future research in the area of social entrepreneurship motivation, as well as practical implications for fostering social ventures.


Epithelial cells play a role in tubercular granuloma formation and mycobacterial virulence. In tuberculosis, the tuberculous granuloma has been viewed traditionally as a host-protective structure that serves to "wall off" mycobacteria. However, recent work in the zebrafish embryo showed that mycobacteria convert the nascent granuloma into a vehicle for bacterial expansion and dissemination. Thus, intercepting granuloma formation could provide a strategy for treating tuberculosis, an urgent public health goal in light of the epidemic of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Now Volkman et al. (see the Perspective by Agarwal and Bishai) present the molecular pathway by which mycobacteria induce granulomas in zebrafish. Inhibition of this pathway attenuates infection by reducing granuloma formation, suggesting a therapeutic target for tuberculosis treatment. H. E. Volkman, T. C. Pozos, J. Zheng, J. M. Davis, J. F. Rawls, L. Ramakrishnan, Tuberculous granuloma induction via interaction of a bacterial secreted protein with host epithelium. Science 327, 466–469 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] N. Agarwal, W. R. Bishai, Subversion from the sidelines. Science 327, 417–418 (2010). [Summary] [Full Text]


All but one WTO member currently trade under one or more preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Despite the concern since the early 1990s that these agreements may be a stumbling block to multilateral trade liberalization (MTL) their numbers have risen at an increasing rate in the last 15 years. As preferential liberalization appears to become the rule rather than the exception, it is essential to ask whether there is evidence that it affects MTL. To do so we analyze recent empirical research that finds the US's and EU's PTAs were a stumbling block to their MTL in the Uruguay Round. We also propose new empirical work to answer more definitively whether PTAs are a stumbling block to worldwide MTL.


This paper presents a new framework for anytime heuristic search where the task is to achieve as many goals as possible within the allocated resources. We show the inadequacy of traditional distance-estimation heuristics for tasks of this type and present alternative heuristics that are more appropriate for multiple-goal search. In particular, we introduce the marginal-utility heuristic, which estimates the cost and the benefit of exploring a subtree below a search node. We developed two methods for online learning of the marginal-utility heuristic. One is based on local similarity of the partial marginal utility of sibling nodes, and the other generalizes marginal-utility over the state feature space. We apply our adaptive and non-adaptive multiple-goal search algorithms to several problems, including focused crawling, and show their superiority over existing methods.


In this work we study the representation of death in seven adolescents. We follow longitudinally the possible changes resulting of such process. The corpus corresponds to 21compositions carried out in alternate years, by seven students of a private school in S. Paulo city, starting in the 6th. Grade of elementary school, with the reading and discussion of Death has seven heirs, and ending in the second grade of high-school. The analyses of the productions show: little influence by the literary text and the strength of the socio-cultural transmission of ideas and fantasies on death. The results also reveal that the human conflict present in the binomial natural/inevitable does not eliminate the individual and singular sense of the re-attribution of signification to collective experiences and that the denial of annihilation by means of life after death is maintained by the belief in reincarnation. The importance of school space for reflection on death is considered important.


SAFETY IN THE APPLICATION OF PHITOSANITARY PRODUCTS IN HORTICULTURAL AND FRUIT CROPS. Liliana G. Bulacio; Susana L. Giuliani; Marta S. Panelo; Irma Giolito. Acta Toxicol. Argent. (2007) 15 (1): 1-7. In intensive production systems, the improper use of phytosanitary products may affect the operator's health. The objective of this work was to determine the areas the agrochemical deposits on the worker's body, at the time of applying foliar treatments in horticultural crops of several heights and in fruit trees. It was performed in lots of Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris var cicla L.), artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.), string bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and in orange (Citrus sp.) groves. In each lot, 4 foliar applications of phitosanitary products were simulated using a backpack sprinkler and replacing the products for a phenophthaleine solution (0.5 g/l). In each application, 100 m among the crop lines were covered and before each of them, 10x 10 cm white cotton cloth patches were laid on different areas of the worker's body. At the laboratory, the residue of phenophthaleine was recovered from each patch by means of 0.1 N sodium hydroxide and it was then valued in a spectrophotometer at 540 nm. Residues detected in the front and the back of the worker's body were, respectively, in Swiss chard 1095,6 μg/cm2 and 91,02 μg/cm2, in artichoke 787,00 μg/cm2 and 404,00 μg/cm2, in string bean 197,50 μg/cm2 and 68,35 μg/cm2, in orange trees 481,70 μg/cm2 and 44,20 μg/cm2. The exposition of the whole body of the worker was demonstrated by performing treatments in conditions similar to those of these trials, validating the need of having protection elements that completely cover it.


In this article I will first briefly describe meerkats and their social behaviours and then examine the possible mechanisms by which the cooperative raised guarding behaviour of the meerkats may have evolved. I will look at the theoretical and empirical problems of applying these theoretical models to the evolution of cooperative guarding behaviour in meerkats and try to see if the evidence points conclusively to any one of the possible mechanisms examined. I will discuss kin selection, reciprocal altruism, Zahavi's handicap principle, group selection and Bednekoff's direct benefits model. Kinship selection is a gene level selection, reciprocal altruism, Zahavi's handicap principle and direct benefits model are all individual level selection models and group selection is selection at the group level so natural selection may have operated on three different levels on the trait of raised guarding. I will not make a distinction between the initial emergence and spread and the current maintenance of the behaviour. It may be sustained by the same mechanisms but this is not necessarily so and the mechanisms acting to maintain the behaviour may well be different from those that favoured its original emergence and spread.


Abstract This paper presents the results of posttest calculations of the phebus FPT2 experiment. While the exercise concentrates mainly on code-to-code benchmarking, a comparison is also made with selected experimental results. The test scenario with the appropriate initial and boundary conditions was provided by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire. For the analyses, seven severe accident analysis codes were used: ASTEC, ATHLET-CD, MELCOR, ICARE2, ICARE/CATHARE, SCDAP/RELAP5, and RELAP/SCDAPSIM. The calculations focused on the following phenomena occurring in the FPT2 bundle: thermal behavior; hydrogen production, mainly due to cladding oxidation; severe degradation of irradiated fuel; and the release of fission products, control rod, and structure materials. Using the same postdefined boundary and initial conditions, the code-data differences are typically within 10% for most parameters, and not more than 25%. More importantly, the codes were able to capture the major features of the transient evolution. Given that Phebus FPT2 exhibited almost all of the major low-pressure severe accident phenomena except for core cooling by water injection and late-phase core melt behavior in the lower head, the results engender a degree of confidence in the code predictive capability for sequences similar to FPT2.


Small regulatory RNAs have recently emerged as key regulators of eukaryotic gene expression. Here we used high-throughput sequencing to determine small RNA populations in the germline and soma of the African clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis. We identified a number of miRNAs that were expressed in the female germline. miRNA expression profiling revealed that miR-202-5p is an oocyte-enriched miRNA. We identified two novel miRNAs that were expressed in the soma. In addition, we sequenced large numbers of Piwi-associated RNAs (piRNAs) and other endogenous small RNAs, likely representing endogenous siRNAs (endo-siRNAs). Of these, only piRNAs were restricted to the germline, suggesting that endo-siRNAs are an abundant class of small RNAs in the vertebrate soma. In the germline, both endogenous small RNAs and piRNAs mapped to many high copy number loci. Furthermore, endogenous small RNAs mapped to the same specific subsets of repetitive elements in both the soma and the germline, suggesting that these RNAs might act to silence repetitive elements in both compartments. Data presented here suggest a conserved role for miRNAs in the vertebrate germline. Furthermore, this study provides a basis for the functional analysis of small regulatory RNAs in an important vertebrate model system.


Correlative microscopy is the combined use of two different forms of microscopy in the study of a specimen, allowing for the exploitation of the advantages of both imaging tools. The integrated Laser and Electron Microscope (iLEM), developed at Utrecht University, combines a fluorescence microscope (FM) and a transmission electron microscope (TEM) in a single set-up. The region of interest in the specimen is labeled or tagged with a fluorescent probe and can easily be identified within a large field of view with the FM. Next, this same area is retraced in the TEM and can be studied at high resolution. The iLEM demands samples that can be imaged with both FM and TEM. Biological specimen, typically composed of light elements, generate low image contrast in the TEM. Therefore, these samples are often 'contrasted' with heavy metal stains. FM, on the other hand, images fluorescent samples. Sample preparation for correlative microscopy, and iLEM in particular, is complicated by the fact that the heavy metals stains employed for TEM quench the fluorescent signal of the probe that is imaged with FM. The first part of this thesis outlines preparation procedures for biological material yielding specimen that can be imaged with the iLEM. Here, approaches for the contrasting of thin sections of cells and tissue are introduced that do not affect the fluorescence signal of the probe that marks the region of interest. Furthermore, two novel procedures, VIS2FIXH and VIS2FIXFS are described that allow for the chemical fixation of thin sections of cryo-immobilized material. These procedures greatly expedite the sample preparation process, and open up novel possibilities for the immuno-labeling of difficult antigens, eg. proteins and lipids that are challenging to preserve. The second part of this thesis describes applications of iLEM in research in the field of life and material science. The iLEM was employed in the study of UVC induced apoptosis (programmed cell death) of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. A novel, RNA containing body was identified in the nuclei of cells going through the various stages of the apoptotic process. Furthermore, we demonstrated the potential of iLEM in the study of Facio Scapulo Humeral Dystrophy (FSHD), the third most common form of inherited muscular dystrophy. In this study, diseased cells are identified based on the immuno-labeling of proteins associated with FSHD pathology. In the field of heterogeneous catalysis, a structural and functional characterization of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) particles was performed with iLEM. FCC particles are employed in petrochemical industry, where they catalyze the breakdown of large molecules in crude oil fractions into functional products with lower molecular weight, like gasoline. The catalytic sites in the FCC particles were selectively stained with a fluorescent probe, and next their structure was investigated with TEM. The iLEM allowed for the identification and characterization of catalytically active areas in the FCC particles. Furthermore, a unique study of the deactivation processes taking place in an industrial FCC unit was performed by analyzing a sample derived from a FCC reactor


Challenging the conventional wisdom that Americans are less engaged than ever in national life and the democratic process, "Talking Together" paints the most comprehensive portrait available of public deliberation in the United States and explains why it is important to America's future. The authors' original and extensive research reveals how, when, and why citizens talk to each other about the issues of the day. They find that - in settings ranging from one-on-one conversations to e-mail exchanges to larger and more formal gatherings - a surprising two-thirds of Americans regularly participate in public discussions about such pressing issues as the Iraq War, economic development, and race relations. Pinpointing the real benefits of public discourse while considering arguments that question its importance, "Talking Together" presents an authoritative and clear-eyed assessment of deliberation's function in American governance. In the process, it offers concrete recommendations for increasing the power of talk to foster political action.


This paper presents a critical analysis of the cultural and social constructions of aging and the aged which pervade public discourse around the growing population of elders in the U.S. Elders are socially 'othered' through processes of medicalization and categorization as an "at risk" group. Furthermore, elders are culturally constructed as unproductive and overconsumptive collective resources. As elders become increasingly central in social and political discourse surrounding health care and the division of resources, these culturally and socially constructed stereotypes have a real impact on social identity and policy decisions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of anthropology in contributing a critical perspective to the study of elders.


In this study a data set from Mediterranean mountain forests of southern Anatolia, consisting of species cover and environmental measures in 99 sample plots was analyzed with cluster analysis, indicator species analysis, MRPP, NMDS and sperman rank correlation. Results illustrated two vegetation gradients related to factor complexes of altitude-landform and parent material-land surface smoothness. Axis I of the ordination was strongly related to limestone, serpantine, conglomerate, marl from parent material group, middle slope from slope position group, concave, convex, linear and undulate from landform group, AI, AII, AIII and AIV from altitude group, and rocky and erosion pavement from land surface smoothness group. Axis II was strongly related to limestone, serpantine, smooth surface, rocky surface and AIII.


Apple is grown in huge areas of Balochistan province but its production is reasonably low, probably due to inadequate fertilization. A study was planned to assess the soil macronutrient status of apple orchards from ten sites of district Killa Saifullah Balochistan i.e. Saddar Killa Saifullah, Nasi, Tabli 1, Bandat Merzai, Akhtar Zai, Ali Khail, Dolat Zai, Batozai, Musafur Pur and Bazar Killa Saifullah. Soil samples were collected from five trees of each orchard at 0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm depth. The soil samples were analyzed for textural class, pH, EC (dS m-1), organic matter (%), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) contents. The results showed that the soils of Killa Saifullah district were variable in texture; the silty clay texture was at Saddar Killa Saifullah, Tabli 1, Akhtar Zai, Bazar Killa Saifullah and Ali Khail and clay loam in Nasi, Bandat Merzai, Musafirpur and Batozai at all three depths. The EC of all orchards were in normal range (below 2 dS m-1). The pH of the soils was amid 8.07 and 8.20 which indicates their alkaline nature. The maximum pH (8.20) was observed in Dolat Zai while across three depths the maximum pH (8.17) was observed at 30-45 cm depth. The organic matter content was marginal in all orchards except in orchard Dolat Zai (0. 81%) and Bazar Killa Saifullah (0.85%) where the organic matter content was low and decreased from upper to lower depths. The N was found low in all locations and soil depths. Soil phosphorus of apple orchards was in medium range at all depths except at two locations Saddar Killa Saifullah and Bazar Killa Saifullah where P content was in the range of 2.14 to 8.3 mg kg-1 so it was low. The status of soil K content was in medium to high (89.0 to 154.6 mg kg-1) in all orchards at three depths. The significantly positive correlation among organic matter and total nitrogen (r2 = 0.99), P (r2 = 0.55) and K (r2 = 0.26) revealed the role of organic matter in the availability of nutrients. Significantly negative correlation between organic matter and pH (r2 = -0.46) was observed and it showed the role of organic matter in lowering soil pH. This study suggests that the N, P fertilizers, and organic matter should be applied in adequate amounts for better apple production in Killa Saifullah distrcit of Balochistan.


With an unrivaled freshness, charm, and sense of fun, Wynton Marsalis steps forward not only as a world-renowned jazz and classical performer, but as a great teacher in the tradition of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Using wonderfully appealing examples and analogies-likening the rhythmic structures of music to playing basketball or football, teaching sonata form through a story about chasing a pet hamster through a shopping mall, drawing unprecedented and revealing connections between classical music and jazz-Wynton Marsalis makes so-called "difficult" music vivid, immediately graspable, and most of all fun. The result is the perfect book for families and schools eager to give children a strong cultural foundation without boring them-no risk of that here!-or for anyone who has ever felt interested in "serious" music only to be intimidated by its intricacies. The most popular and acclaimed jazz musician and composer of his generation, Wynton Marsalis is also one of the world's leading classical trumpet virtuosos. Throughout his career he has made room for extensive work with children and students. He is co-founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.


As a part of an apple breeding program, we have examined the pollen effect on the fruit appearance and inner quality of different apple cultivars in the Corvinus University of Budapest Department of Fruit Science. Five apple cultivars ('Golden Reinders', 'Regal Prince', 'Rewena', 'Renora', 'Idared') have been crossed by the pollen of some new and some traditional cultivars in our experiment. The measurements were carried out in the analytic and fruit examining laboratory of the Department of Fruit Science. The diameter, height and stem length were measured by digital caliper. We have also examined the squash ratio, soluble solid- and acidic content. Sugar content was calculated by a schedule released by the International Sugar Committee (ISC). From the sugar- and acidic content, we could also count the Pomona-value.
We have observed interesting effects according to some attributes in some crossing combinations with the help of statistical analysis. Crossing 'Golden Delicious' with 'Freedom', 'Prima', and 'Baujade' have resulted in smaller fruit size than other combinations. No significant differences could be observed on `Golden Reinders' fruits according to metaxenic coloration in the year of the examination. On the other hand the color modifying effect of pollen donating cultivars have manifested on the red fruits of 'Regal Prince' (Gala Must). `Freedom' as a pollen donating cultivar has resulted outstanding value in our consistency measurements. Squash ratio was the highest in combinations pollinated by 'Prima' and `Reglindis'. We have noticed balanced values when measuring inner qualities, only `Reka' has caused lower acidic content. Significant differences have been found in combinations according to the number of frivolous seeds. No frivolous seeds were found in the combinations 'Golden Reinders' x 'Freedom' and 'Idared' x 'Prima'. Almost two frivolous seeds were found in the fruits of the combination 'Renora' x 'Sovari' in average.


Abstract. In the absence of external reference position information (e.g. surveyed targets or Global Navigation Satellite Systems) Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) has proven to be an effective method for indoor navigation. The positioning drift can be reduced with regular loop-closures and global relaxation as the backend, thus achieving a good balance between exploration and exploitation. Although vision-based systems like laser scanners are typically deployed for SLAM, these sensors are heavy, energy inefficient, and expensive, making them unattractive for wearables or smartphone applications. However, the concept of SLAM can be extended to non-optical systems such as magnetometers. Instead of matching features such as walls and furniture using some variation of the Iterative Closest Point algorithm, the local magnetic field can be matched to provide loop-closure and global trajectory updates in a Gaussian Process (GP) SLAM framework. With a MEMS-based inertial measurement unit providing a continuous trajectory, and the matching of locally distinct magnetic field maps, experimental results in this paper show that a drift-free navigation solution in an indoor environment with millimetre-level accuracy can be achieved. The GP-SLAM approach presented can be formulated as a maximum a posteriori estimation problem and it can naturally perform loop-detection, feature-to-feature distance minimization, global trajectory optimization, and magnetic field map estimation simultaneously. Spatially continuous features (i.e. smooth magnetic field signatures) are used instead of discrete feature correspondences (e.g. point-to-point) as in conventional vision-based SLAM. These position updates from the ambient magnetic field also provide enough information for calibrating the accelerometer bias and gyroscope bias in-use. The only restriction for this method is the need for magnetic disturbances (which is typically not an issue for indoor environments); however, no assumptions are required for the general motion of the sensor (e.g. static periods).


We obtain scaling relationships for nonlinear attenuation of S‐waves and Love waves within sedimentary basins to assist numerical modeling. These relationships constrain the past peak ground velocity (PGV) of strong 3–4 s Love waves from San Andreas events within Greater Los Angeles, as well as the maximum PGV of future waves that can propagate without strong nonlinear attenuation. During each event, the shaking episode cracks the stiff, shallow rock. Over multiple events, this repeated damage in the upper few hundred meters leads to self‐organization of the shear modulus. Dynamic strain is PGV divided by phase velocity, and dynamic stress is strain times the shear modulus. The frictional yield stress is proportional to depth times the effective coefficient of friction. At the eventual quasi‐steady self‐organized state, the shear modulus increases linearly with depth allowing inference of past typical PGV where rock over the damaged depth range barely reaches frictional failure. Still greater future PGV would cause frictional failure throughout the damaged zone, nonlinearly attenuating the wave. Assuming self‐organization has taken place, estimated maximum past PGV within Greater Los Angeles Basins is 0.4–2.6 m s−1. The upper part of this range includes regions of accumulating sediments with low S‐wave velocity that may have not yet compacted, rather than having been damaged by strong shaking. Published numerical models indicate that strong Love waves from the San Andreas Fault pass through Whittier Narrows. Within this corridor, deep drawdown of the water table from its currently shallow and preindustrial levels would nearly double PGV of Love waves reaching Downtown Los Angeles.


People not only care about outcomes, they also value the procedures which lead to the outcomes. Procedural utility is a potentially important source of human well-being. This paper aims at introducing the concept of procedural utility into economics, and argues that it should be incorporated more widely into economic theory and empirical research. Three building blocks of a concept of procedural utility are outlined and it is suggested how procedural utility can be fruitfully integrated. Evidence from a broad range of social sciences is reviewed in order to show that procedural utility is a relevant concept for economics.


In this paper, the problem of multiple speaker localization via speech separation based on model-based sparse recovery is studies. We compare and contrast computational sparse optimization methods incorporating harmonicity and block structures as well as autoregressive dependencies underlying spectrographic representation of speech signals. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of block sparse Bayesian learning framework incorporating autoregressive correlations to achieve a highly accurate localization performance. Furthermore, significant improvement is obtained using ad-hoc microphones for data acquisition set-up compared to the compact microphone array.


This book is the first and only comprehensive monograph of the revolutionary performance artist Marina Abramovic, and thus is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the art of the last three decades. All of Abramovic's performance works from 1969 to the present time are documented in this volume by means of numerous photographs, illustrations, descriptions, and transcriptions. Comments by audience members during performances have been recorded, discussions with the artist are included, and a substantial text by a host of critics has been assembled. The artist's chronological trajectory from formal art studies in Yugoslavia to work in sound environments, video installation, and performance based around the body is followed with scrutiny. The book is a major event for this provocative performer-artist, and features essays from such notables as the curators Hans Ulrich Obrist and Chrissie lles, the critics Thomas McEvilley and Bojana Pejic, and many others.


Trace element analysis based on laser ablation and selectively excited radiation (TABLASER) is proposed as a new and reliable microultratrace technique for quantitative in situ element analysis. Measurements of trace quantities of chromium in samples of NBS standard reference steel, doped skim milk powder, and doped flour have been undertaken. A linear 45 degrees slope dependence of signal vs concentration that extends beyond 1% in the case of chromium was observed. Although the present sensitivity limit is in the ppm range, improved overlap between the probing dye laser beam and the wave of atomized material combined with a better design of the optical system could reduce the detection limit of the TABLASER to the ppb range. This would correspond to an absolute detection limit of about 10(-16) g. An important feature of this new technique is its relative freedom from chemical matrix effects, which suggests the possibility of a universal calibration curve for all elements irrespective of the substrate matrix in which they are contained. This technique is also adaptable to multielement analysis.


The present work investigates the potential energy savings coming from a careful and detailed local energy policy. The paper analyzes and assesses from technical, economic and environmental viewpoints different initiatives in the energy sector aimed at increasing energy efficiency in end-uses and reducing overall carbon emissions. The results are based on energy planning for five Italian urban areas sized at about fifty thousand inhabitants. The analysis has been developed with the aim of reaching generally applicable criteria suitable for evaluating the local energy policy contribution to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. Several initiatives for the private and public sectors have been considered, such as: (i) the introduction of combined heat and power generation based on useful thermal demand, suitable for the industry and service sectors (swimming pools, large distribution organizations); (ii) generation of electricity from renewables (solar energy, biomass); (iii) thermal insulation of private and public buildings, such as schools; (iv) introduction of micro-combined heat and power generation in the residential sector. For each solution the primary energy reduction and the consequent reduction in GHG emissions have been evaluated and a feasibility analysis has been developed in order to assess the profitability of the investment. Great attention has been paid to the public sector, which has an important role in providing leadership and driving changes in other sectors; furthermore, a rational use of energy combined with the exploitation of country-based incentives is able to reduce the public administrative expenditure. The results show that local energy policy can give an important contribution to gas emission reduction targets, and underline the fundamental role of public sector initiatives.


An exact and very general Lagrangian-mean description of the back effect of oscillatory disturbances upon the mean state is given. The basic formalism applies to any problem whose governing equations are given in the usual Eulerian form, and irrespective of whether spatial, temporal, ensemble, or 'two-timing' averages are appropriate. The generalized Lagrangian-mean velocity cannot be defined exactly as the 'mean following a single fluid particle', but in cases where spatial averages are taken can easily be visualized, for instance, as the motion of the centre of mass of a tube of fluid particles which lay along the direction of averaging in a hypothetical initial state of no disturbance. The equations for the Lagrangian-mean flow are more useful than their Eulerian-mean counterparts in significant respects, for instance in explicitly representing the effect upon mean-flow evolution of wave dissipation or forcing. Applications to irrotational acoustic or water waves, and to astrogeophysical problems of waves on axisymmetric mean flows are discussed. In the latter context the equations embody generalizations of the Eliassen-Palm and Charney-Drazin theorems showing the effects on the mean flow of departures from steady, conservative waves, for arbitrary, finite-amplitude disturbances to a stratified, rotating fluid, with allowance for self-gravitation as well as for an external gravitational field. The equations show generally how the pseudomomentum (or wave 'momentum') enters problems of mean-flow evolution. They also indicate the extent to which the net effect of the waves on the mean flow can be described by a 'radiation stress', and provide a general framework for explaining the asymmetry of radiation-stress tensors along the lines proposed by Jones (1973).


My diploma is about sneakers and sustainability. Sustainability in the clothing and apparel industry is something I've been interested in for a long time. I chose to work with sneakers mainly because I saw that many have done service design projects on clothes and sustainability before but of all I have read I haven't seen many projects that deal with the shoe part of that industry, especially not the sneakers and how we may consume them in a more sustainable way. I began preparing for my diploma by attending shoe making classes in Chile two years ago. I enrolled in a semester-long master's program in product design where I focused on how to design a as sustainable sneaker as possible. In the summer, I worked closely with Repairable, a start-up specializing in clothing repair. Through mapping out their services and redesigning their website, I received an insider's view on the repair culture in Oslo and gained some valuable contacts. I chose to focus on service design for my diploma thesis because I enjoyed working with the methods I learned during the service design semesters at AHO. I wanted to show how I personally use service design methodologies in my own work as I dedicate a full semester to a service design project for the first time. I've known for a while before I started that I wanted to pursue service design. I believe in prototyping services quickly and pushing my work outside the classroom as much as possible. I also wanted to create as many sketches and prototypes as I could, knowing that they wouldn't be perfect and polished, but could offer me insight. This is because I believe that we can never know how our designs will work before we test it out in context with real, non-biased users.


The Mid North Sea High is a broad, approximately east-trending structural high that extends from the coast of the Scottish Borders region to the UK North Sea median line. Recently acquired seismic reflection profiles were used to map isopach patterns of the Chalk Group (Upper Cretaceous and lowermost Paleocene), of the combined Montrose and Moray groups (Paleocene and lowermost Eocene), and of the lower Stronsay Group (lower Eocene) in UK Quadrants 38 and 39, on the eastern Mid North Sea High. In an anomalous and undrilled part of this area, the Chalk Group thins over an area broadly centred on a long lived, buried, NNW-trending structural high with a core largely comprised of Devono-Carboniferous sediments. In contrast, the combined Montrose and Moray groups and the lower Stronsay Group sediments thicken over the buried high. We informally name the buried high the α Ridge. Signal processing techniques were applied to the original stack sections to help clarify the geometry of seismic reflections, especially from within the Chalk Group and Palaeogene successions of the anomalous zone, and to interpret deep erosion at the top of the Chalk Group that probably occurred in Danian times. The area of deeply eroded Chalk was subsequently buried beneath an anomalously thick Palaeogene succession. The area of eroded Chalk is more extensive than the α Ridge and extends northwards beyond the survey area. From a regional perspective, the processes that may have controlled the observed depositional pattern are discussed. It is considered whether rapidly changing tectonic stress may have caused local 'Laramide' (mid Paleocene–Danian) uplift and erosion of the α Ridge and its immediately surrounding area, swiftly followed by enhanced subsidence (inversion) and deposition in the mid Paleocene (Danian), or whether the stratal pattern is better explained by the infilling of a large erosional hollow; mechanisms involving the local halokinesis and/or dissolution of Zechstein salt are discounted. We conclude that additional seismic and palaeogeographical information is required to fully test the models proposed in this paper.


Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have become a gold standard this is due to their wide spread across the human genome, small amplicon sizes, biallelic and significant differences in their allele frequencies among various ethnic groups. The combination of these markers into a large multiplex have further increased their power of discrimination, thereby aiding the possibility of individual classification into a specific population and identification based on ethnicity. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies has been accepted to type these SNP markers. Many markers could be incorporated into a single multiplex kit for forensic analyses. One of the commercially available kits for ancestry inference is the HID Ion AmpliSeq Ancestry Panel (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). This comprises a total of 165 autosomal SNPs, including 55 markers from Kidd's panel and 128 markers from Seldin's set with some of the markers overlapping. In this study, the Ancestry Informative Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (AISNPs) using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies was assessed to provide biogeographic information for three Middle Eastern populations (UAE, Oman, Yemen,) and two Indian subcontinent populations (India, and Pakistan) for forensic purposes. A population genetics study was also conducted. 414 buccal swabs samples were collected from healthy, unrelated volunteers who gave an informed consent. These included samples from UAE (n=224), Omani (n=74), Yemeni (n=56), Indian (n=29), and Pakistani (n=30) samples. The samples were assessed using the 165 Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs) in the HID Ion AmpliSeq™ Ancestry Panel and sequenced on the Ion PGM™ and Ion S5™ platforms. Sequencing on both platforms generated high coverage and read length with over 99% aligned accuracy. The primary sequencing analysis of DAT files was performed on the Torrent Suite™ Software Version 4.4.3 and Version 5.2.1 (Thermo Fisher Scientific. Biogeographic ancestry assignments for the five populations indicated that most samples were designated to South-West Asian origin. All Indian samples were reported to have Asian ancestry. Arlequin software was used to perform population genetic analyses. A few significant departures from HWE (p<0.05) were observed in some samples. However, upon Bonferonni correction, all markers were in HWE except rs4984913, rs2702414 & rs6464211 SNPs It was also confirmed that the Middle Eastern populations are genetically close, and it is difficult to distinguish them using the 165 AISNPs though the Indian subcontinent populations could be clearly separated from the Middle Eastern populations. However, the current population databases included in the Thermo Fisher and Illumina software's need to be enhanced with appropriate databases from world populations. This study has contributed to these efforts and has successfully developed and analysed three Middle Eastern and two Indian sub-continent population databases for 165 AISNPs for the first time.


Analysis is an essential part in the Enterprise Architecture Management lifecycle. An in-depth consideration of the architecture obtains its strengths and weaknesses. This provides a sound foundation for the future evolution of the architecture as well as for decision-making regarding new projects. Current literature provides a large number of different analysis approaches, targeting different goals and utilizing different techniques. To provide a common interface to analysis activities we studied the corresponding literature in previous research. Based on these results we develop a language for the definition of EA analyses as well as an execution environment for their evaluation. To cope with the high variety of meta models in the EA domain, the framework provides a uniform and tool independent access to analysis activities. Additionally it can be used to provide an EA analysis library, where the architect is able to select predefined analyses according to his specific requirements.


Solid-state lighting is currently based on blue light-emitting diodes combined with wavelength downconversion via phosphors. Replacing the phosphors with quantum dots has a number of potential advantages, including narrowband and size-tailorable emission spectra. Here, we point out another advantage: the ability to perform real-time tuning of chromaticity of solid-state lighting by altering quantum dot absorption or emission wavelengths and oscillator strengths using electric fields. We discuss a possible architecture for such a solid-state lamp, and the chromaticity ranges that could be obtained for given ranges of absorption or emission wavelength and oscillator strength changes.


Gathered together, the poems of Frank Bidart perform one of the most remarkable transmutations of the body into language in contemporary literature. His pages represent the human voice in all its extreme registers, whether it's that of the child-murderer Herbert White, the obsessive anorexic Ellen West, the tormented genius Vaslav Nijinsky, or the poet's own. And in that embodiment is a transgressive empathy, one that recognises our wild appetites, the monsters, the misfits, the misunderstood among us and inside us. Few writers have so willingly ventured to the dark places of the human psyche and allowed themselves to be stripped bare on the page with such condor and vulnerability. Over the past half century, Bidart has done nothing less than invent a poetics commensurate with the chaos and appetites of our experience. Half-Light encompasses all of Bidart's previous books, and also includes a new collection, Thirst, in which the poet austerely surveys his life, laying it plain for us before venturing into something new and unknown. Here Bidart, finds himself a "Creature coterminous with thirst," still longing, still searching in himself, one of the "queers of the universe." Visionary and revelatory, intimate and unguarded, Bidart's collected works are a radical confrontation with human nature, a conflict eternally renewed and reframed, restless line by restless line.


Aims: To describe a technique for posterior lamellar keratoplasty donor preparation. Methods: In an experimental study eight human donor research corneas were mounted onto an artificial anterior chamber and deep stromal pockets dissected. Four corneas were mounted in the standard endothelial side down orientation and dissected using standard instruments (group 1). Another four corneas were mounted endothelial side up and dissected using a flat spatula (group 2). Trephined lamellar graft thickness was assessed by ultrasound pachymetry. The grafts were also analysed using vital staining of the endothelium and standard histological preparation. Results: Achieved posterior graft thickness was 118 (SD 32) μm (group 1) and 92 (23) μm (group 2) (p = 0.324). Percentage of devitalised endothelial cells was 0.86% (1.48%) (group 1) and 3.9% (2.9%) (group 2) (p = 0.185). The dissections using both harvesting techniques remained in plane and were smooth. Conclusions: A blunt spatula and endothelium side up orientation on an artificial anterior chamber can be used to create posterior lamellar dissections without compromising endothelial cell number or planarity when compared to standard endothelium side down harvest.


In k-means clustering, we are given a set of n data points in d-dimensional space R/sup d/ and an integer k and the problem is to determine a set of k points in Rd, called centers, so as to minimize the mean squared distance from each data point to its nearest center. A popular heuristic for k-means clustering is Lloyd's (1982) algorithm. We present a simple and efficient implementation of Lloyd's k-means clustering algorithm, which we call the filtering algorithm. This algorithm is easy to implement, requiring a kd-tree as the only major data structure. We establish the practical efficiency of the filtering algorithm in two ways. First, we present a data-sensitive analysis of the algorithm's running time, which shows that the algorithm runs faster as the separation between clusters increases. Second, we present a number of empirical studies both on synthetically generated data and on real data sets from applications in color quantization, data compression, and image segmentation.


Hydropeaking is a common phenomenon of water courses that are affected by peak energy production of hydro power plants. It may cause severe impacts on the biodiversity of a stream. In fact, due to hydropeaking fishes, macroinvertebrates and aquatic plants undergo a major stress and frequently they are not able to survive these frequent water level fluctuations. In this paper a case study is presented where several mitigation measures for an affected river are evaluated. Abiotic indicators representing the hydropeaking phenomenon and responsible for an impaired biodiversity are calculated and compared. Furthermore a cost-benefit analysis of the mitigation measures is carried out allowing to define the measures to be realized. Facing the challenge of a holistic approach the study is embedded in a project with public participation of all concerned stakeholders addressing also the need of flood protection and ecologically sound river restoration.


A growing body of studies shows that self-perceptions of health status are linked to the determination of help-seeking for health care. For help-seeking regarding health care self-care has been portrayed as the basic or primary level of health care. There is an affirmation that self-care contributes to the prevention of chronic illness and the maintenance of functional health. However, little is known about the impacts of self-perceptions of health status on self-care behavior. The purposes of the present study were to identify the range of self-care coping strategies adopted by an elderly population to deal with functional status limitations, and to explore the influences of self-perceptions of health status on various self-care behaviors.
The data were drawn from the National Survey of Self-Care and Aging: Baseline, 1990-1991. The survey included a national probability sample of 3,485 noninstitutionalized Medicare beneficiaries. A conceptual model had been formulated to explore the relation between self-perceptions of health status and self-care behaviors (i.e., changes in behavior, changes in environment, use of special devices, use of over the counter medications and doing nothing), controlling demographic characteristics, socioeconomic resources, and decrements in functional status. Stepwise multiple regression and logistic regression analyses were preformed to examine the influences of self-perceptions of health status on self-care coping strategies.
The findings show that a large proportion of respondents does engage in some types of self-care activities to deal with their everyday chronic conditions. Only a small proportion of the elderly opts for the self-care of "doing nothing" (8.2%). Self-perceptions of health status were positively related to changes-in-behavior self-care. And respondents who perceived poor health status were more likely to use non-prescribed medications, compared with those who felt their health was good. These findings contribute to the understanding of the benefits of positive health perceptions by showing that they are connected to some self-care behaviors that are linked to health.


BACKGROUND: Background:  Acoustic emission from structures subject to external loads can be monitored to detect internal damage before destruction occurs. It is hypothesised that deformation of soft tissue will emit acoustic signals which may aid early detection of deep tissue injury, particularly in the lower limb amputee population. No previous studies have applied this method to biological soft tissue.
OBJECTIVE: To determine if skeletal muscle tissue produced measurable acoustic emission during dynamic tensile loading with the aim to establish a reliable biomarker for lower limb prosthetic socket fit quantification and prosthetic health.
STUDY DESIGN: Experimental study design.
METHODOLOGY: In this research article, Sus scrofa domesticus (pork) muscle and Gallus gallus domesticus (chicken) muscle specimens (10mm width x 45mm height x 4mm depth) were submerged into saline baths while an Instron testing machine applied displacement controlled tensile loads. Time stamped, load, displacement and acoustic signal (hydrophone) data was collected.
FINDINGS: The pork muscle was tested to failure being subject to tensile load. Prior to failure, no peaks were found in the amplitude or frequency of the acoustic signal to indicate that either tissue deformation or failure was occurring.  Data gathered during chicken muscle testing was inconclusive.
CONCLUSIONS: Results displayed that tensile testing of pork intercostal muscle produced tissue deformation and failure with no detectable change in the amplitude or frequency of the background sound during tensile loading. The other specimens failed before reaching the same levels of tensile load. Further studies are required in order to address the numerous limitations of this study.
LAYMAN'S ABSTRACT
Humans are made of biological material, some are hard such as the skeleton and some are soft as in muscles. When the soft tissue are under a too high stress condition, such as in diabetic patients, we talk about deep tissue injury. It has been proven that deep tissue injury negatively impacts the affected persons' quality of life, through a reduction in mobility and ability levels. Deep tissue injury is additionally very costly to health care systems worldwide. Unfortunately, those with lower limb dysvascularity (in particular, amputees with limb loss secondary to dysvascularity and/or neuropathy) are at heightened risk of further damage from deep tissue injury.  Therefore, this study ultimately aims to be used as a basis in order to determine if, at some stage, it would be possible to detect tissue that was 'at risk' of developing deep tissue injury.
ARTICLE PDF LINK: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/article/view/30354/23004
How to cite: Buis A, Guarato F, Law J, Ralston Z, Courtney A. A feasibility study to investigate if there is a correlation between soft tissue deformation and acoustic emission. Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1, No 5, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v1i1.30354


Abstract. The Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) is a database for the central storage of the worldwide measured energy fluxes at the Earth's surface, maintained at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). This paper documents the status of the GEBA version 2017 dataset, presents the new web interface and user access, and reviews the scientific impact that GEBA data had in various applications. GEBA has continuously been expanded and updated and contains in its 2017 version around 500 000 monthly mean entries of various surface energy balance components measured at 2500 locations. The database contains observations from 15 surface energy flux components, with the most widely measured quantity available in GEBA being the shortwave radiation incident at the Earth's surface (global radiation). Many of the historic records extend over several decades. GEBA contains monthly data from a variety of sources, namely from the World Radiation Data Centre (WRDC) in St. Petersburg, from national weather services, from different research networks (BSRN, ARM, SURFRAD), from peer-reviewed publications, project and data reports, and from personal communications. Quality checks are applied to test for gross errors in the dataset. GEBA has played a key role in various research applications, such as in the quantification of the global energy balance, in the discussion of the anomalous atmospheric shortwave absorption, and in the detection of multi-decadal variations in global radiation, known as global dimming and brightening . GEBA is further extensively used for the evaluation of climate models and satellite-derived surface flux products. On a more applied level, GEBA provides the basis for engineering applications in the context of solar power generation, water management, agricultural production and tourism. GEBA is publicly accessible through the internet via http://www.geba.ethz.ch . Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.873078 .


A mechanical model of an axial piston-type machine with a so-called wobble plate and Z-shaft mechanism is presented. The overall aim is to design and construct an oil-free piston expander demonstrator as a first step to realizing an advanced and compact small-scale steam engine system. The benefits of a small steam engine are negligible NOx emissions (due to continuous, low-temperature combustion), no gearbox needed, fuel flexibility (e.g., can run on biofuel and solar), high part-load efficiency, and low noise. Piston expanders, compared with turbines or clearance-sealed rotary displacement machines, have higher mechanical losses but lower leakage losses, much better part-load efficiency, and for many applications a more favourable (i.e., lower) speed. A piston expander is thus feasible for directly propelling small systems in the vehicular power range. An axial piston machine with minimized contact pressures and sliding velocities, and with properly selected construction materials for steam/water lubrication, should enable completely oil-free operation. An oil-free piston machine also has potential for other applications, for example, as a refrigerant (e.g., CO2) expander in a low-temperature Rankine cycle or as a refrigerant compressor. An analytical rigid-body kinematics and inverse dynamics model of the machine is presented. The kinematical analysis generates the resulting motion of the integral parts of the machine, fully parameterized. Inverse dynamics is applied when the system motion is completely known, and the method yields required external and internal forces and torques. The analytical model made use of the "Sophia" plug-in developed by Lesser for the simple derivation of rotational matrices relating different coordinate systems and for vector differentiation. Numerical solutions were computed in MATLAB. The results indicate a large load bearing in the conical contact surface between the mechanism's wobble plate and engine block. The lateral force between piston and cylinder is small compared with that of a comparable machine with a conventional crank mechanism. This study aims to predict contact loads and sliding velocities in the component interfaces. Such data are needed for bearing and component dimensioning and for selecting materials and coatings. Predicted contact loads together with contact geometries can also be used as input for tribological rig testing. Results from the model have been used to dimension the integral parts, bearings and materials of a physical demonstrator of the super-critical steam expander application as well as in component design and concept studies.


Abstract Televideo cybersex provides a unique example of the ways meanings are instantiated, identities constructed, and relationships negotiated across different semiotic modes. This article explores the role of verbal messages in these multimodal exchanges, examining the specific interactional functions they perform. Text, it is argued, plays a rather unique role in this particular kind of interaction. Unlike ordinary face-to-face conversation, in which the body (posture, gestures, gaze) usually plays more of an ancillary role, in televideo cybersex, the bodily performance is primary, with verbal messages functioning to contextualize physical actions. Text is used to help increase the sense of 'presence' participants feel, to regulate the rhythm of the unfolding interaction, to help manage the orderly exchange of information, and to create narrative frames within which bodily displays can be interpreted and made coherent.


A formamide molecule is allowed to form a CH···O H-bond with a glycine dipeptide in both its C5 and C7 internal conformations. As this intermolecular H-bond is elongated, the contraction of the CH covalent bond is monitored, as is its vibrational stretching frequency and intensity, along with NMR chemical shifts of the atoms involved in the H-bond. The degree of shortening of the CH bond becomes progressively smaller as the proton acceptor is moved further away, as does the blue shift of the CH stretching frequency, and the chemical shift of the bridging proton. These changes are monotonic and regular enough that experimental evaluation of CH bond length or blue shift or proton NMR chemical shift may be used to accurately predict the energetics of the H-bond for any particular geometry. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010


Natural language is one of the most intuitive ways to express human intent. However, translating instructions and commands towards robotic motion generation and deployment in the real world is far from being an easy task. The challenge of combining a robot's inherent low-level geometric and kinodynamic constraints with a human's high-level semantic instructions traditionally is solved using task-specific solutions with little generalizability between hardware platforms, often with the use of static sets of target actions and commands. This work instead proposes a flexible language-based framework that allows a user to modify generic robotic trajectories. Our method leverages pre-trained language models (BERT and CLIP) to encode the user's intent and target objects directly from a free-form text input and scene images, fuses geometrical features generated by a transformer encoder network, and finally outputs trajectories using a transformer decoder, without the need of priors related to the task or robot information. We significantly extend our own previous work presented in [1] by expanding the trajectory parametrization space to 3D and velocity as opposed to just XY movements. In addition, we now train the model to use actual images of the objects in the scene for context (as opposed to textual descriptions), and we evaluate the system in a diverse set of scenarios beyond manipulation, such as aerial and legged robots. Our simulated and real-life experiments demonstrate that our transformer model can successfully follow human intent, modifying the shape and speed of trajectories within multiple environments. Codebase avail-able at: https://github.com/arthurfenderbucker/LaTTe-Language-Trajectory-TransformEr.git.


In order to fight collusive behaviors, the best scenario for competition authorities would be the possibility to analyze detailed information on firms' costs and prices, being the price-cost margin a robust indicator of market power. However, information on firms' costs is rarely available. In this context, a fascinating technique to detect data manipulation and rigged prices is offered by an odd phenomenon called Benford's Law, otherwise known as First-Digit Law, which has been successfully employed to discover the ``Libor Scandal'' much time before the opening of the cartel settlement procedure. Thus, the main objective of the present paper is to apply a such useful instrument to track the price of the aluminium traded on the London Metal Exchange, following the allegations according to which there would be an aluminium cartel behind. As a result, quick tests such as Benford's Law can only be helpful to inspect markets where price patterns show signs of collusion. Given the budget constraints to which antitrust watchdogs are commonly subject to, a such price screen could be set up, just exploiting the data available, as warning system to identify cases that require further investigations.


Subgroups of the B cell malignancies are known to be associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, especially in immunocompromised patients. These are fatal and refractory to conventional antineoplastic therapy. B cells are usually post-mitotic cells and even mitogen activated or transformed B cells have shown relative resistance against viral mediated gene transfer. To address this issue, we employed a replication-defective herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) to mediate gene transfer into EBV-transformed B cells. The virus expresses the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) and the E. coli lacZ reporter genes and is designated T0Z.1. We used the lymphoblastoid cell line SWEIG as a model for human EBV-related B cell malignancy. This cell line was established by in vitro EBV infection of primary human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. When SWEIG cells were infected with T0Z.1, X-gal staining revealed lacZ expression in more than 20% cells even at multiplicity of infection (MOI) as low as 1 and the expression persisted for at least one week. Ganciclovir (GCV) administration after T0Z.1 infection effectively decreased the number of the infected tumor cells in a dose-responsive manner. Viral toxicity was analyzed by cell proliferation assay (MTS assay) and found to be little even at 10 MOI infection. Three MOI of the virus yielded maximum antineoplastic effect and more than 50% tumor cells were killed by HSV-TK/GCV. These results suggest the potential utility of replication-defective HSV-1 for the treatment of EBV-related B cell malignancies.


It seems not so very long ago that an easy strategy for libraries to open up content was to let people roam the stacks. Many library users did and still do think of library and information content as books and journals and, more recently, audiovisual and other non-book formats. These materials were located in physical facilities and library users looked for them using first card catalogs and then online catalogs. How things have changed. Within a generation, a significant amount of content became digital and is now being delivered in a myriad of formats. As content has moved digital, there are as many ways to make content open as there are kinds of content. Technologies exist to mix and mash, morph and merge content to bring new ideas together. Bibliographic information and metadata are pushed and pulled through Internet and Web technologies that are now part of the library user's daily life. However, that same Internet has made it possible for content to become less accessible. Barriers of cost and firewalls can prevent library users from obtaining necessary information. Content can be so fragmented that it is difficult to find. Digital therefore doesn't necessarily mean easily available. The research library is still challenged to find ways to bring its collections and users together. This issue of RLI focuses on several strategies now being deployed by institutions and individuals to increase the amount of content that is open and available to the research library community and by extension the larger world. Research libraries may have a role to play in all of these strategies, but it is important to note that the drivers to open up content often are others in the scholarly and research community as well. The strategies discussed in this issue RLI 269 1


This paper examines External Debts Management Strategies in developing economies and its implications on some key economic indices using Nigeria as a case study. This work has adopted both the content analysis and the empirical approach. Data for this study were basically secondary data. The quantitative data for analysis were gathered from the statistical bulletins/releases of relevant government agencies like the Debt Management Office, Central Bank and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. The qualitative information was sourced via textbooks, and scholarly journal publications accessed through the internet. Data were analysed using the Linear Regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The linear regression showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the size of External Debts and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Capital Expenditure, External Reserves and Exports. However, the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) reveals a negative correlation between External Debts and the variables studied. The study attributes this anomaly to mismanagement of credit facilities, unfavourable loan terms characterized by capitalization/compounding of interests, weak economic base, poorly co-ordinated statistics on loans and overdependence on foreign aids among others. This development has led to poor performance of almost all the key economic indices of the country resulting in dearth of infrastructural development, very weak real sector, and high unemployment rate and so on. The paper recommends that developing economies should manage credits better by appropriating the funds to sectors that would ensure diversification of their economic base. Nigeria should pursue deliberate policy that will encourage a virile productive sector, place less emphasis on external borrowings as most of the credits are given under very unfavourable credit conditions and their repayments erode the much needed funds for economic development. The various governments should see external borrowings as a last resort and when contracted must be employed to finance only self- sustaining projects that will stimulate real sector and other factors of production needed to engender sustainable economic development.


Abstract:Governance in Africa is in a state of transition, or some would say, suspension. Two powerful trends vie for dominance. One is the longstanding organization of African politics and states around autocratic personal rulers; highly centralized and overpowering presidencies; and hierarchical, informal networks of patron-client relations that draw their symbolic and emotional glue from ethnic bonds. The other is the surge since 1990 of democratic impulses, principles, and institutions. From the experience of a small but growing number of better-functioning African democracies, we know that the continent is not condemned to perpetual misrule. The challenge now is for international donors to join with Africans in demanding that their governments be truly accountable.