The overriding concern of a multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious Malaysia has always been with inter-ethnic conflict and resolution. It is therefore little wonder that the Malaysian education system is seen arxl utilised by the State as an important social institution where certain ideas, values and symbols can be transmitted to students, the country's future generations, with the primary objective of fostering ethnic harmony in schools in particular and in the country in general. nd it is against this backdrop that this study seeks to examine what kinds of images, ideas, values and symbols that are being selected and promoted (and at the same time, excluding other items, images, ideas) in the reading materials of school students, which collectively are deemed as constructing Malaysia's 'national identity'. The textual analysis shows that the majority of these school texts tend to give heavy emphasis on Malay culture and interests, thus indicating that the construction of the 'national identity' is largely informed arid influenced by the State's policies such as the Malay-biased national culture policy and the New Economic Policy. In addition, the study also examines other related institutions such as the Ministry of Education (i.e. its Textbook Bureau) and the book publishing industry as a whole to see how they relate to the formation in the school texts of the kind of 'national identity' that is largely defined and sanctioned by the State. A group of 150 students were interviewed to ascertain their social and political consciousness. Their responses on the whole tend to suggest that the school texts are capable of creating, if not reinforcing, sub-national loyalties or ethnic sentiments among the students, the kind of consciousness that could seriously compete with arid challenge the nationalist project of creating a 'national identity'. In other words, national unity could be threatened.


Sequential model-based optimization (also known as Bayesian optimization) is one of the most efficient methods (per function evaluation) of function minimization. This efficiency makes it appropriate for optimizing the hyperparameters of machine learning algorithms that are slow to train. The Hyperopt library provides algorithms and parallelization infrastructure for performing hyperparameter optimization (model selection) in Python. This paper presents an introductory tutorial on the usage of the Hyperopt library, including the description of search spaces, minimization (in serial and parallel), and the analysis of the results collected in the course of minimization. This paper also gives an overview of Hyperopt-Sklearn, a software project that provides automatic algorithm configuration of the Scikit-learn machine learning library. Following Auto-Weka, we take the view that the choice of classifier and even the choice of preprocessing module can be taken together to represent a single large hyperparameter optimization problem. We use Hyperopt to define a search space that encompasses many standard components (e.g. SVM, RF, KNN, PCA, TFIDF) and common patterns of composing them together. We demonstrate, using search algorithms in Hyperopt and standard benchmarking data sets (MNIST, 20-newsgroups, convex shapes), that searching this space is practical and effective. In particular, we improve on best-known scores for the model space for both MNIST and convex shapes. The paper closes with some discussion of ongoing and future work.


Since Taylor's 1993 paper researchers have devoted a lot effort to estimation of monetary policy rules. Taylor showed that a simple central bank reaction function, with the interest rate as monetary policy instrument and inflation and output gap as explanatory variables, mimics the Fed funds rate pretty well during the period from 1987 to 1992. Often, the Taylor rule coefficients are interpreted as if they reflect central bank's preferences. However, this may be misleading. In this paper we show that Taylor rule coefficients are complicated terms consisting of preference parameters as well as parameters given by the structure of the economy. We illustrate our conclusion that Taylor rule coefficients cannot be interpreted as reflecting central bank preferences by estimating standard forward-looking Taylor rules for the Bundesbank, the Fed and UK and confront these with our results obtained by a multi-equation GMM approach in order to detect central bank preferences.


The unmanned swarm system (USS) has been seen as a promising technology, and will play an extremely important role in both the military and civilian fields such as military strikes, disaster relief and transportation business. As the "nerve center" of USS, the unmanned swarm communication system (USCS) provides the necessary information transmission medium so as to ensure the system stability and mission implementation. However, challenges caused by multiple tasks, distributed collaboration, high dynamics, ultra-dense and jamming threat make it hard for USCS to manage limited spectrum resources. To tackle with such problems, the machine learning (ML) empowered intelligent spectrum management technique is introduced in this paper. First, based on the challenges of the spectrum resource management in USCS, the requirement of spectrum sharing is analyzed from the perspective of spectrum collaboration and spectrum confrontation. We found that suitable multi-agent collaborative decision making is promising to realize effective spectrum sharing in both two perspectives. Therefore, a multi-agent learning framework is proposed which contains mobile-computing-assisted and distributed structures. Based on the framework, we provide case studies. Finally, future research directions are discussed.


We have recently witnessed an uptake in the number of campus related incidents. School administrations are increasingly concerned about notification systems to alert students against the incidents and to provide advice on actions that they would like the students to take. However whether students appropriately react to notifications sent by these systems are still less understood. This paper develops and validates an instrument to measure the critical factors (subjective norm, threat appraisal, message efficacy, and media richness) that motivate students to comply with the directions in the notifications. The instrument has been validated through a pretest, followed by a pilot test, finally a main field test based on the data collected from a large Northeastern university. This research attempts to inform both theory and practice, and will help develop policy suggestions on what can be done to improve compliance with emergency notifications on university campus.


Collins et al. have used advances in mass spectrometry and strategies to enrich phosphopeptides in cell extracts to enable proteomic analysis of phosphorylation events in synaptosomes isolated from mouse forebrain. Although phosphorylation events are known to be important in synaptic signaling and many have been studied, the screen suggests that traditional studies have only just scratched the surface. The authors identified almost 300 phosphorylation sites, and 92% of these were not previously described. Many proteins showed multiple phosphorylation sites (as many as 30), so the 300 sites were spread over 79 proteins, half of which were not previously shown to be phosphorylated. The authors used both screens with peptide arrays along with literature mining and bioinformatic analysis to assign kinases likely to regulate the identified sites. Most substrates appear to be targets of multiple kinases. One group of kinases appears to phosphorylate their target proteins on multiple targets, and another appears to use just one site per substrate. A relatively small number of kinases appear to account for much of the phosphorylation observed. In fact, just nine kinases appear to be sufficient to regulate more than 250 of the observed sites. The synaptic phosphoproteome, the authors conclude, reveals a highly interconnected signaling network. M. O. Collins, L. Yu, M. P. Coba, H. Husi, I. Campuzano, W. P. Blackstock, J. S. Choudhary, S. N. Grant, Proteomic analysis of in vivo phosphorylated synaptic proteins. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 5972-5982 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


We present a method for manufacturing phase plates to compensate for the wave aberration in the human eye. The wave aberration of the eye is measured in vivo by a new laser ray-tracing method and then compensated for by a phase plate placed in front of the eye. This plate is made from a gray-level single-mask photosculpture in photoresist. Two experiments were carried out, first with an artificial eye and then with a human eye: 80% compensation for the wave aberration was achieved in both cases.


Award winning writer Paul Theroux embarks on a journey that, though closer to home than most of his expeditions, uncovers some surprising truths about Britain and the British people in the '80s in "The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain". Paul Theroux's round-Britain travelogue is funny, perceptive and 'best avoided by patriots with high blood pressure...' After eleven years living as an American in London, Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise round the coast and find out what Britain and the British are really like. It was 1982, the summer of the Falklands War, the ideal time, he found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves. The result makes superbly vivid and engaging reading. "A sharp and funny descriptive writer. One of his golden talents, perhaps because he is American and therefore classless in British eyes, is the ability to chat up and get on with all sorts and conditions of British...Theroux is a good companion". ("The Times"). "Filled with history, insights, landscape, epiphanies, meditations, celebrations and laments". ("The New York Times"). "Few of us have seen the entirety of the coast and I for one am grateful to Mr Theroux for making my journey unnecessary. He describes it all brilliantly and honestly". (Anthony Burgess, "Observer"). American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his other non-fiction titles, "Riding the Iron Rooster", "The Happy Isles of Oceania", "Sunrise with Seamonsters", "The Tao of Travel", "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star", "The Old Patagonian Express", "The Great Railway Bazaar", "Dark Star Safari", "Fresh-air Fiend", "Sir Vidia's Shadow", "The Pillars of Hercules", and his novels and collections of short stories, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner "The Mosquito Coast" are available from Penguin.


Between 2007 and 2011 the number of registered voters in Turkey increased by more than ten million, partially due to population increase but mainly due to a change in the voter registration system. Together with nearly three million DP and GP supporters who deserted their parties, the new voters constituted about a quarter of the electorate who participated in the 2011 election. Through descriptive statistics at national, regional and provincial levels, the geographical, demographic, socio-economic and political characteristics of these voters are explored. Then through systems of party vote equations, estimated separately for different regions of the country, how they voted is investigated. The BDP was the main beneficiary of the rise in the registered voters, which were disproportionately located in the Central-east and South-east. This occurred at the expense of the ruling AKP. The DP and GP votes, which were concentrated in the western and central parts of the country, and the new voters in these regions moved mainly to the AKP and CHP. In central provinces, the MHP captured a slice of the new voters and former DP supporters too, but it lost a portion of its own supporters to the CHP in the West.


Abstract. Retrievals of aerosol microphysical properties (effective radius, volume and surface-area concentrations) and aerosol optical properties (complex index of refraction and single-scattering albedo) were obtained from a hybrid multiwavelength lidar data set for the first time. In July 2011, in the Baltimore–Washington DC region, synergistic profiling of optical and microphysical properties of aerosols with both airborne (in situ and remote sensing) and ground-based remote sensing systems was performed during the first deployment of DISCOVER-AQ. The hybrid multiwavelength lidar data set combines ground-based elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 355 nm with airborne High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements at 532 nm and elastic backscatter lidar measurements at 1064 nm that were obtained less than 5 km apart from each other. This was the first study in which optical and microphysical retrievals from lidar were obtained during the day and directly compared to AERONET and in situ measurements for 11 cases. Good agreement was observed between lidar and AERONET retrievals. Larger discrepancies were observed between lidar retrievals and in situ measurements obtained by the aircraft and aerosol hygroscopic effects are believed to be the main factor in such discrepancies.


Culture's role in cognition has long been established, but understanding national culture's role in cyber events currently remains an understudied research area. Michael Minkov observed that culture influences thought; even when people think they are in control, cultural biases are actually controlling their thoughts. Cultural values endure, and because they do, these cultural values leave artifacts can be revealed in thought patterns. This philosophy serves as a foundation for further work in progress on name choices by hackers. In this study, we examined 10 years' worth of Zone-H archives where hacker names that identified with national identities were analysed using Hofstede's cultural framework to determine whether culture may play a role in hacker name and name choices. The findings revealed cultural preferences in several of the six cultural dimensions. In addition, trending the results showed significant findings in two cultural dimensions: (1) masculinity versus femininity and (2) uncertainty avoidance. The results suggest that assumptions about the anonymous nature of the Internet influencing behaviours may not be universally applicable, and that culture should also be considered when evaluating cyber actor behaviours.


A great deal of attention has been paid in the literature to estimating the impacts of training programs. Much less attention has been devoted to how training agencies assign participants to training programs, and to how these allocation decisions vary with agency resources, the initial skill levels of participants and the prevailing labor market conditions. This paper models the training assignment problem faced by welfare agencies, deriving empirical implications regarding aggregate training policies and testing these implications using data from Welfare-to-Work training programs run by California counties during the 1990s. I find that county welfare agencies do not seem to follow a simple returns-maximization model in their training assignment decisions. The results show that, as suggested by political economy models, the local political environment has a strong effect on training policies. In particular, I find that going from a Republican to a Democratic majority in a county's Board of Supervisors has a strong effect on training policies, significantly increasing the proportion of welfare recipients receiving human capital development training.


Standardisation techniques are used in a very broad range of financial transactions: technical standards, model contracts, codes of conduct, accounting rules, and even experiments with alternatives to European regulations. Especially in the financial services field, where mass production and relational stability are essential, standardisation is an integral part of the existing framework and its regulation. The functions of standardisation are manifold and extend even to issues like mutual recognition. The relationship of these techniques with the legal system is a complex one, relying on a wide range of instruments such as contract provisions, explicit references in the law, default rules, good business practices, and so on. Enforcement is partly based on legal instruments, but also on the market.


Fatwa issued currently by Shari'ah scholars, committees, and muftis occasionally fall short of meeting the challenges of modern society. Ibn 'Abidin's concept of custom ('urf) and its application provide a basic guide to meet the modern challenges in its totality. The present work refers to his three works—Sharh 'Uqud Rasm al-Mufti, Nashr al-'urf fi bina ba'd al-ahkam 'ala al-'urf, and Radd al-Muhtar 'ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar (al-Ḥashiyah)—written in 13th century A.H. These works present 'urf as a practical instrument for muftis and those responsible to issue fatwa. The first work is used as an overall framework, while the other two works offer commentaries on the latter, providing details and cases of application. This work enunciates that Ibn 'Abidin identifies custom as effective in Islamic law only if it fulfills the condition to specify the legal text (takhsis al-nass), without opposing it completely. The variations of 'urf in society will only affect those legal issues that are custom-related and not directly based on nass (Qur'an and Sunnah). Moreover, all custom-related issues in manifest rulings (zahir al-riwayah) of a Legal School are subjected to change as custom changes.


Purpose

– There is an increasing interest in using information and communication technologies to support health services. But the adoption and development of even basic ICT communications services in many health services is limited, leaving enormous gaps in the broad understanding of its role in health care delivery. The purpose of this paper is to address a specific (intercultural) area of healthcare communications consumer disadvantage; and it examines the potential for ICT exploitation through the lens of a conceptual framework. The opportunity to pursue a new solutions pathway has been amplified in recent times through the development of computer-based ontologies and the resultant knowledge from ontologist activity and consequential research publishing.

Design/methodology/approach

– A specific intercultural area of patient disadvantage arises from variations in meaning and understanding of patient and clinician words, phrases and non-verbal expression. Collection and localization of data concepts, their attributes and individual instances were gathered from an Aboriginal trainee nurse focus group and from a qualitative gap analysis (QGA) of 130 criteria-selected sources of literature. These concepts, their relationships and semantic interpretations populate the computer ontology. The ontology mapping involves two domains, namely, Aboriginal English (AE) and Type II diabetes care guidelines. This is preparatory to development of the Patient Practitioner Assistive Communications (PPAC) system for Aboriginal rural and remote patient primary care.

Findings

– The combined QGA and focus group output reported has served to illustrate the call for three important drivers of change. First, there is no evidence to contradict the hypothesis that patient-practitioner interview encounters for many Australian Aboriginal patients and wellbeing outcomes are unsatisfactory at best. Second, there is a potent need for cultural competence knowledge and practice uptake on the part of health care providers; and third, the key contributory component to determine success or failures within healthcare for ethnic minorities is communication. Communication, however, can only be of value in health care if in practice it supports shared cognition; and mutual cognition is rarely achievable when biopsychosocial and other cultural worldview differences go unchallenged.

Research limitations/implications

– There has been no direct engagement with remote Aboriginal communities in this work to date. The authors have initially been able to rely upon a cohort of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people with relevant cultural expertise and extended family relationships. Among these advisers are health care practitioners, academics, trainers, Aboriginal education researchers and workshop attendees. It must therefore be acknowledged that as is the case with the QGA, the majority of the concept data is from third parties. The authors have also discovered that urban influences and cultural sensitivities tend to reduce the extent of, and opportunity to, witness AE usage, thereby limiting the ability to capture more examples of code-switching. Although the PPAC system concept is qualitatively well developed, pending future work planned for rural and remote community engagement the authors presently regard the work as mostly allied to a hypothesis on ontology-driven communications. The concept data population of the AE home talk/health talk ontology has not yet reached a quantitative critical mass to justify application design model engineering and real-world testing.

Originality/value

– Computer ontologies avail us of the opportunity to use assistive communications technology applications as a dynamic support system to elevate the pragmatic experience of health care consultations for both patients and practitioners. The human-machine interactive development and use of such applications is required just to keep pace with increasing demand for healthcare and the growing health knowledge transfer environment. In an age when the worldwide web, communications devices and social media avail us of opportunities to confront the barriers described the authors have begun the first construction of a merged schema for two domains that already have a seemingly intractable negative connection. Through the ontology discipline of building syntactically and semantically robust and accessible concepts; explicit conceptual relationships; and annotative context-oriented guidance; the authors are working towards addressing health literacy and wellbeing outcome deficiencies of benefit to the broader communities of disadvantage patients.


This thesis reports work on the effects of added, decomposable organic
matter as a possible lime substitute on exchangeable and soil solution aluminium in
relation to phosphorus availability and growth of perennial ryegrass (lolium perenne.
L) in acid krasnozems on Tertiary basalt, North-Western Tasmania. Soil was
collected to a depth of 15 cm at three sites in a sequence of increasing elevation and
rainfall, representative of the Burnie, Lapoinya and Yolla series.
The soil materials were first screened for their suitability for later work by
determining certain basic soil properties and by measuring effects on these properties
of glasshouse incubation for four weeks of soils with organic matter added as barley
straw or lucerne chaff at rates equivalent to 0, 3.5 and 7.0 t/ha. There were significant
effects, relative to initial levels of soil parameters, in terms of reduced exchangeable
aluminium, increased available phosphorus and increased soil solution (pF2) ionic
strength, with effects due to the addition of organic matter. Differences in cation
exchange capacity sum of basic exchangeable cations, and soil reaction, were not
significant.
Because it was highest in exchangeable aluminium, lowest in available
phosphorus, and was strongly acid, Burnie soil material was used to study effects of
different rates of added barley straw or lucerne chaff on soil aluminium, phosphorus,
and soil solution ionic strength after different periods of incubation (0, 4, 8, 16
weeks), with and without added urea to bring the C/N ratio of the organic matter to a
value of 12. The pH of the soils with added organic matter was higher than the
controls, both with and without added urea, but the effect of urea on pH decreased
with time. The effect of urea on the increase of pH was obvious in the first 4 weeks
and then slightly varied from week 4 to week 8. Thereafter, the pH was on the
decline. Exchangeable aluminium was lower in soil incubated with organic matter but
differences due to rate of added organic matter were not significant, lucerne chaff had
a greater early effect but the difference versus barley straw was reduced after four
weeks. There was a sharp rise in available phosphorus measured after four weeks in
all soils with added organic matter but this was followed by a rapid fall so that levels
at the end of the experiment (16 weeks) were well below those at its commencement.
Available phosphorus of control soils decreased regularly throughout. There was little
difference in effects due to kind of organic matter. Ionic strength of soil solution
extracts (pF2) from the soils with added organic matter rose sharply and levels were
maintained in soils with added organic matter.
Burnie soil was again used to follow effects of added organic matter on
active aluminium in relation to native available phosphorus and growth of "Nui"
cultivar of perennial ryegrass. Urea was not added in this experiment. Soluble
aluminium was added as Al2(SO4)3. 14H20 after four weeks of incubation of soil
plus organic matter (Sequence (a)) and together with organic matter (Sequence (b)),
both sequences being incubated for a further four weeks before sowing of ryegrass
seed. Differences between the two sequences in effects on pH, soil solution
phosphorus (pF2), phosphorus uptake and dry matter production by the test plant
were not significant. However, there were marked effects within each sequence of
added organic matter in increasing values of each of these parameters in relation to
controls. Exchangeable and soil solution aluminium, especially monomeric
aluminium, were markedly reduced by added organic matter at all rates of aluminium
application and these effects were greater in Sequence (a) than in Sequence (b) soils.
Aluminium remaining in solution was almost wholly in organic complexed forms.
Conversely, available phosphorus was higher. Lucerne chaff was slightly but
consistently more effective than barley straw but these differences were not
significant.
Finally, Lapoinya soil from the "museum" area of Elliott Research Station
was used in a study of effects of both added organic matter and phosphorus
(KH2PO4) on soil aluminium in relation to growth of ryegrass because of its low pH,
very low level of available phosphorus and high level of active aluminium. Reduction
of exchangeable and monomeric aluminium occurred with rate of phosphorus
application, the effect being greater in the presence of added organic matter. Again,
nearly all of the soil solution aluminium was in organically complexed forms in the
presence of added organic matter. Differences between the effects of lucerne chaff and
barley straw were small but consistent, although not statistically significant, with
lucerne chaff having the greater effects. Soil reaction again increased with added
organic matter and an inverse relationship between levels of aluminium (both
exchangeable, monomeric form) and available phosphorus depended on pH. Plant
growth and phosphorus uptake and content responded by increasing sharply with rate
of phosphorus application and were further enhanced greatly by added organic matter.
Plant symptoms of aluminium toxicity/phosphorus deficiency were not evident in the
presence of added organic matter, even at the highest level of aluminium application
(100 ppm, 0.D.).
Both forms of organic matter used whether fresh or partly decomposed, gave
beneficial effects within the period of experimentation in suppressing aluminium
toxicity and enhancing growth of perennial ryegrass in the acid soils used.
Application of organic matter at practical rates may allow reduction of the quantity and
frequency of lime additions.


Background Diarrheal disease, which affects 1 in 4 people in the United Kingdom annually, is the most common cause of outbreaks in community and health care settings. Traditional surveillance methods tend to detect point-source outbreaks of diarrhea and vomiting; they are less effective at identifying low-level and intermittent food supply contamination. Furthermore, it can take up to 9 weeks for infections to be confirmed, reducing slow-burn outbreak recognition, potentially impacting hundreds or thousands of people over wide geographical areas. There is a need to address fundamental problems in traditional diarrheal disease surveillance because of underreporting and subsequent unconfirmed infection by patients and general practitioners (GPs); varying submission practices and selective testing of samples in laboratories; limitations in traditional microbiological diagnostics, meaning that the timeliness of sample testing and etiology of most cases remains unknown; and poorly integrated human and animal surveillance systems, meaning that identification of zoonoses is delayed or missed. Objective This study aims to detect anomalous patterns in the incidence of gastrointestinal disease in the (human) community; to target sampling; to test traditional diagnostic methods against rapid, modern, and sensitive molecular and genomic microbiology methods that identify and characterize responsible pathogens rapidly and more completely; and to determine the cost-effectiveness of rapid, modern, sensitive molecular and genomic microbiology methods. Methods Syndromic surveillance will be used to aid identification of anomalous patterns in microbiological events based on temporal associations, demographic similarities among patients and animals, and changes in trends in acute gastroenteritis cases using a point process statistical model. Stool samples will be obtained from patients' consulting GPs, to improve the timeliness of cluster detection and characterize the pathogens responsible, allowing health protection professionals to investigate and control outbreaks quickly, limiting their size and impact. The cost-effectiveness of the proposed system will be examined using formal cost-utility analysis to inform decisions on national implementation. Results The project commenced on April 1, 2013. Favorable approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee on June 15, 2015, and the first patient was recruited on October 13, 2015, with 1407 patients recruited and samples processed using traditional laboratory techniques as of March 2017. Conclusions The overall aim of this study is to create a new One Health paradigm for detecting and investigating diarrhea and vomiting in the community in near-real time, shifting from passive human surveillance and management of laboratory-confirmed infection toward an integrated, interdisciplinary enhanced surveillance system including management of people with symptoms. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/13941


Solar energy represents a robust and natural form of resource for environment remediation via photocatalytic pollutant degradation with minimum associated costs. However, due to the complexity of the photodegradation process, it has been a long-standing challenge to develop reliable photocatalytic systems with low recombination rates, excellent recyclability, and high utilization rates of solar energy, especially in the visible light range. In this work, a ternary hetero-nanostructured Ag-CuO-ZnO nanotube (NT) composite is fabricated via facile and low-temperature chemical and photochemical deposition methods. Under visible light irradiation, the as-synthesized ZnO NT based ternary composite exhibits a greater enhancement (∼300%) of photocatalytic activity than its counterpart, Ag-CuO-ZnO nanorods (NRs), in pollutant degradation. The enhanced photocatalytic capability is primarily attributed to the intensified visible light harvesting, efficient charge carrier separation and much larger surface area. Furthermore, our as-synthesised hybrid ternary Ag-CuO-ZnO NT composite demonstrates much higher photostability and retains ∼98% of degradation efficiency even after 20 usage cycles, which can be mainly ascribed to the more stable polar planes of ZnO NTs than those of ZnO NRs. These results afford a new route to construct ternary heterostructured composites with perdurable performance in sewage treatment and photocorrosion suppression.


extract] This well-established principle of contract law [the Rule in L'Estrange v F Graucob Ltd] is a simple one, yet its application to particular facts and circumstances is not always straightforward, as was demonstrated in the proceedings which culminated in Toll (FGCT) Pty Ltd v Alphapharm Pty Ltd. There, the High Court allowed an appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales that a carrier could not rely upon an exemption of liability clause contained in a document signed by the consignor's agent because the carrier had not done what was reasonably sufficient to give the agent notice of the clause. The central question on appeal to the High Court was whether a party who had signed a contractual document was bound by its terms in circumstances where that party had not read its contents.


The now abundant literature on the hostility of the United States towards the International Criminal Court speaks to the litany of criticisms invoked by Washington, from the vulnerability of American nationals to prosecution to such issues as the lack of trial by jury. But these so-called shortcomings are also features of the international tribunals to which the United States has accorded enthusiastic support, from Nuremberg and Tokyo to the more recent generation. Had the 1994 draft of the International Law Commission remained more or less intact, it is likely that today the United States would be a keen supporter of the Court. The distinctions between the 1994 draft and the final version of the Rome Statute unlock the mystery of United States opposition. At the heart of the changes during the four-year drafting process is the relationship between the Court and Security Council. The ILC had conceived of what was in effect a permanent ad hoc tribunal, perfectly subordinate to the Security Council and interlocked with the Charter of the United Nations. But the drafters adjusted this conception, with the result that the Court has significant independence from the Security Council, notably with respect to the triggering of prosecutions, the deferral of cases and the definition of aggression.


A core challenge for financial regulation is how best to address the inherent dynamism of finance. The financial system is engineered to change. Periods of stability, evolving macroeconomic conditions, and regulation are among the forces driving the constant shape shifting of finance. As a result, rules established at Time A often have a different substantive effect at Time B. And because efforts to reduce the cost of complying with regulatory burdens, commonly known as regulatory arbitrage, are among the forces driving this change, a static regulatory regime will tend to be inherently deregulatory.
Currently, the processes through which the law is made are ill suited to accommodate this dynamism. Frictions built into legislative and regulatory processes make it difficult to update the law even when the substantive impact of a proposed change merely replicates the originally agreed upon balance. Complicating matters further, changing market structures may make it impossible to replicate the precise balance a law had been designed to achieve. Financial regulation often entails tradeoffs among competing values and new environments and innovations may enable but also necessitate different tradeoffs.
There is no easy way to reconcile the dynamism of finance with the lawmaking processes better suited for static environments. Proscribing innovation may be warranted in some domains, but has real costs and is unlikely to be feasible as applied to the system as a whole. Nonetheless, recognizing this tension is a critical to understand why regulation has failed to achieve desired aims and why it may well fail again. This tension also helps to explain the heated debate about the scope of deregulation prior to the 2007-2009 financial crisis and its role contributing to that crisis. Only by grappling with the myriad reasons for financial innovation and the mixed impact of that innovation can we develop the common ground needed to forge a better approach.


As the management of HIV changes and demand for HIV health services in primary care settings increases, new approaches to engaging the general practice workforce with HIV medicine are required. This paper reports on qualitative research conducted with 47 clinicians who provide HIV care in general practice settings around Australia, including accredited HIV s100 prescribers as well as other GPs and general practice nurses. Balanced numbers of men and women took part; less than one-quarter were based outside of urban metropolitan settings. The most significant workforce challenges that participants said they faced in providing HIV care in general practice were keeping up with knowledge, navigating low caseload and regional issues, balancing quality care with cost factors, and addressing the persistent social stigma associated with HIV. Strategic responses developed by participants to address these challenges included thinking more creatively about business and caseload planning, pursuing opportunities to share care with specialist clinicians, and challenging prejudiced attitudes amongst patients and colleagues. Understanding and supporting the needs of the general practice workforce in both high and low HIV caseload settings will be essential in ensuring Australia has the capacity to respond to emerging priorities in HIV prevention and care.


It is widely acknowledged that the language we use reflects numerous psychological constructs, including our thoughts, feelings, and desires. Can the so called "noncognitive" traits with known links to success, such as growth mindset, leadership ability, and intrinsic motivation, be similarly revealed through language? We investigated this question by analyzing students' 150-word open-ended descriptions of their own extracurricular activities or work experiences included in their college applications. We used the Common Application-National Student Clearinghouse data set, a six-year longitudinal dataset that includes college application data and graduation outcomes for 278,201 U.S. high-school students. We first developed a coding scheme from a stratified sample of 4,000 essays and used it to code seven traits: growth mindset, perseverance, goal orientation, leadership, psychological connection (intrinsic motivation), self-transcendent (prosocial) purpose, and team orientation, along with earned accolades. Then, we used standard classifiers with bag-of-n-grams as features and deep learning techniques (recurrent neural networks) with word embeddings to automate the coding. The models demonstrated convergent validity with the human coding with AUCs ranging from .770 to .925 and correlations ranging from .418 to .734. There was also evidence of discriminant validity in the pattern of inter-correlations (rs between -.206 to .306) for both human- and model-coded traits. Finally, the models demonstrated incremental predictive validity in predicting six-year graduation outcomes net of sociodemographics, intelligence, academic achievement, and institutional graduation rates. We conclude that language provides a lens into noncognitive traits important for college success, which can be captured with automated methods.


In 2009 the first European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection (ESCMID) treatment guidance document for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) was published. The guideline has been applied widely in clinical practice. In this document an update and review on the comparative effectiveness of the currently available treatment modalities of CDI is given, thereby providing evidence-based recommendations on this issue. A computerized literature search was carried out to investigate randomized and non-randomized trials investigating the effect of an intervention on the clinical outcome of CDI. The Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to grade the strength of our recommendations and the quality of the evidence. The ESCMID and an international team of experts from 11 European countries supported the process. To improve clinical guidance in the treatment of CDI, recommendations are specified for various patient groups, e.g. initial non-severe disease, severe CDI, first recurrence or risk for recurrent disease, multiple recurrences and treatment of CDI when oral administration is not possible. Treatment options that are reviewed include: antibiotics, toxin-binding resins and polymers, immunotherapy, probiotics, and faecal or bacterial intestinal transplantation. Except for very mild CDI that is clearly induced by antibiotic usage antibiotic treatment is advised. The main antibiotics that are recommended are metronidazole, vancomycin and fidaxomicin. Faecal transplantation is strongly recommended for multiple recurrent CDI. In case of perforation of the colon and/or systemic inflammation and deteriorating clinical condition despite antibiotic therapy, total abdominal colectomy or diverting loop ileostomy combined with colonic lavage is recommended.


In Western society, planned public space in the form of town squares has been evident since around 500 B.C. Historically, public town squares have not been included in planning schemes of Australian urban planners and policy makers. This is particularly evident in Melbourne, until the recent development and success of Federation Square. This success has prompted a surge in the development of town squares particularly in small urban communities throughout Victoria. The historical omission of public town squares within Australia has resulted in a lack of local literature available concerning town squares and a particular lack concerning the values that communities attach to the public town square. This raises the question of, what social values can be placed on the presence of a public town square in a small urban community?

The aim of the research was to determine the significance of the values from an Australian perspective, with consideration of the historic function, meaning and purpose of the square and the significance of town squares to modern communities. To help bridge the gap in the local literature, the research included existing literature from Western Europe and North America; current Australian planning theories; and analysis and observations at an existing town square as the basis for a framework for the development of public town squares. The application of the resultant framework provided direction and guidance to accomplish the secondary goal, the development of a public town square in the small urban community of Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, including the drafting of a concept design.

It was concluded that the social, cultural and economic values that communities attach to public town squares and the historical function, meaning and purpose of the square have remained to this day important to the community. Amongst other benefits, a successful town square can improve the physical health and wellbeing of community members which is critical in today's social environment. The framework although limited by the absence of community consultation was functional and able to be used to create the desired sustainable concept design in Bacchus Marsh, a town square that would provide long lasting value to the community.


We propose a new method to model hedge fund risk exposures using relatively high frequency conditioning variables. In a large sample of funds, we find substantial evidence that hedge fund risk exposures vary across and within months, and that capturing within-month variation is more important for hedge funds than for mutual funds. We consider different within-month functional forms, and uncover patterns such as day-of-the-month variation in risk exposures. We also find that changes in portfolio allocations, rather than changes in the risk exposures of the underlying assets, are the main drivers of hedge funds' risk exposure variation.


This paper introduces triggered message sequence charts (TMSCs), a graphical, mathematically well-founded framework for capturing scenario-based system requirements of distributed systems. Like message sequence charts (MSCs), TMSCs are graphical depictions of scenarios, or exchanges of messages between processes in a distributed system. Unlike MSCs, however, TMSCs are equipped with a notion of trigger that permits requirements to be made conditional, a notion of partiality indicating that a scenario may be subsequently extended, and a notion of refinement for assessing whether or not a more detailed specification correctly elaborates on a less detailed one. The TMSC notation also includes a collection of composition operators allowing structure to be introduced into scenario specifications so that interactions among different scenarios may be studied. In the first part of this paper, TMSCs are introduced and their use in support of requirements modeling is illustrated via two extended examples. The second part develops the mathematical underpinnings of the language


Summary. Experimental and clinical studies have shown that HAp granules and powder may be successfully applied in reconstruction of bone defects. Composite HAp/PLLA biomaterial embodies good characteristics of each of these biomaterials. Differences in porosity, microstructure, compressive consistency as well as in bioresorbility of HAp/PLLA are achieved by using PLLA of different mole masses. The aim of this study was to analyse light microscopy of the tissue reaction and changes of implants made of combination of syngeneic bone fragments and HAp/PLLA biocomposites with PLLA molecule mass of 430 000 (HP2) and 50 000 (HP3). The mice were divided into 4 experimental studies, 8 animals each. Two groups underwent implantation, one group of mice was falsely operated, and one group was used for general control. Pathohistological analysis of implants was performed three months after subcutaneous implantation. Phagocytosis of HAp/ PLLA and bone was noticed on both implants' preparations. Blood vessels were also noticed, confirming the process of angiogenesis around the implants' particles. The holes around particles of biocomposites and bone fragments represented the signs of their resorption. The presence of multinuclear cells between implants' particles was observed and it was more prominent in HP3 implants. Osteogenesis is more intense in HP3 and ectopic hematopoesis is present. Our results show that designed HAp/PLLA biocomposites have good biocompatibility, their combination with bone fragments of a vital bone enables osteogenesis and hematopoesis and these processes are more prominent if PLLA biocomposite with lower molecular mass was used.


Despite their tremendous successes, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) incur high computational/storage costs and are vulnerable to adversarial perturbations. Recent works on robust model compression address these challenges by combining model compression techniques with adversarial training. But these methods are unable to improve throughput (frames-per-second) on real-life hardware while simultaneously preserving robustness to adversarial perturbations. To overcome this problem, we propose the method of Generalized Depthwise-Separable (GDWS) convolution -- an efficient, universal, post-training approximation of a standard 2D convolution. GDWS dramatically improves the throughput of a standard pre-trained network on real-life hardware while preserving its robustness. Lastly, GDWS is scalable to large problem sizes since it operates on pre-trained models and doesn't require any additional training. We establish the optimality of GDWS as a 2D convolution approximator and present exact algorithms for constructing optimal GDWS convolutions under complexity and error constraints. We demonstrate the effectiveness of GDWS via extensive experiments on CIFAR-10, SVHN, and ImageNet datasets. Our code can be found at https://github.com/hsndbk4/GDWS.


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the performance characteristics and potential clinical utility of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for enteroviral RNA in comparison to viral culture in infants under 3 months of age with meningitis. SPECIMENS AND TESTING: Specimens were obtained from a collection of cerebrospinal fluid specimens from infants under 3 months of age (excluding those in the neonatal intensive care unit) undergoing lumbar puncture at St. Louis Children's Hospital during a 12-month period. Those tested by PCR included all 27 with pleocytosis, 8 others from infants without pleocytosis but from whom an enterovirus was cultured, and 10 from infants who did not have pleocytosis and had a negative viral culture of cerebrospinal fluid. Viral cultures were performed at the discretion of physicians caring for individual patients.

RESULTS
PCR was positive for enteroviral RNA on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens from 11 of 12 patients with definite or probable enteroviral meningitis, as well as on 6 of 13 with possible enteroviral meningitis, and was negative on all 10 with absence of pleocytosis and negative enteroviral cultures. CSF viral cultures were negative in 6 of the patients in whom PCR was positive. Viral cultures had minimal impact on patient management. In contrast, under study assumptions, PCR could have saved an average of 1.2 days of hospitalization per patient in the 27 patients with CSF pleocytosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Enterovirus PCR performed on CSF is a sensitive and specific method for the diagnosis of enteroviral meningitis. This method has the potential for improving the accuracy of diagnosis in young infants and for saving costs by allowing earlier diagnosis and discharge from the hospital when clinically appropriate.


Two studies focused on attachment‐style differences in people's social skills. Study 1 had a sample of 237 students who completed questionnaires assessing their own attachment styles and social skills (based on Riggio's six dimensions of social skill). Study 2, which focused on partner‐reports, used data from 258 couples to determine whether people's perceptions of a partner's social skill would vary based on the partner's self‐reported attachment style. The results revealed attachment‐style differences in various social skills across self‐and partner‐reports; however, these differences were generally less robust for partner‐reports. Differences in self‐reported social skill were consistent with Bartholomew's two‐factor conceptualization of attachment. Dismissive and fearful individuals rated themselves as relatively antisocial and unexpressive, in line with their negative models of others; preoccupied and fearful individuals rated themselves as overly sensitive, in line with their negative models of self. Preoccupied individuals were also perceived as the most socially sensitive by their partners, and across all the analyses, secures were ostensibly the most socially skilled.


The Epstein-Barr virus BZLF2 gene encodes a glycoprotein that associates with gH and gL and facilitates the infection of B lymphocytes. In order to determine whether the BZLF2 protein recognizes a B-cell-specific surface antigen, a soluble protein containing the extracellular portion of the BZLF2 protein linked to the Fc portion of human immunoglobulin G1 (BZLF2.Fc) was expressed from mammalian cells. BZLF2.Fc was used in an expression cloning system and found to bind to a beta-chain allele of the HLA-DR locus of the class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Analysis of amino- and carboxy-terminal deletion mutants of the BZLF2.Fc protein indicated that the first 90 amino acids of BZLF2.Fc are not required for HLA-DR beta-chain recognition. Site-directed mutagenesis of an HLA-DR beta-chain cDNA and subsequent immunoprecipitation of expressed mutant beta-chain proteins using BZLF2.Fc indicated that the beta1 domain, which participates in the formation of peptide binding pockets, is required for BZLF2.Fc recognition. The addition of BZLF2.Fc to sensitized peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro abolished their proliferative response to antigen and inhibited cytokine-dependent cytotoxic T-cell generation in mixed lymphocyte cultures. Flow-cytometric analysis of Akata cells induced to express late Epstein-Barr virus antigens indicated that expression of BZLF2 did not result in reduced surface expression levels of MHC class II. The ability of BZLF2.Fc to bind to the HLA-DR beta chain suggests that the BZLF2 protein may interact with MHC class II on the surfaces of B cells.


During the 57th NABE annual meeting, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard discussed the orthodox view of current monetary policy, which emphasizes that the FOMC's objectives have essentially been met while monetary policy settings remain far from normal. He also discussed three challenges to that view, which relate to strict inflation targeting, low real interest rates and globalization. He noted that the orthodoxy suggests a prudent policy of returning policy settings to more normal levels gradually over time, providing plenty of monetary accommodation during the transition to guard against macroeconomic risks.


Finding solutions that effectively conserve natural areas while simultaneously protecting the sustenance rights of resource stakeholders is a considerable challenge for ecosystem managers and scientists. In complex ecosystems like tropical coral reefs, the problem of management is further confounded by an inadequate understanding of how ecosystem function will respond to changes in environmental or management conditions. Given this uncertainty, managers are looking at ways to support and enhance the natural buffering capacity of ecosystems in the face of change, i.e. ecosystem resilience. Human use of natural areas can profoundly modify this resilience, particularly in the developing tropics, where a large proportion of the population depends directly on natural areas for daily sustenance. In these areas, developing and implementing effective management solutions requires a close understanding of both ecosystem processes and the factors affecting human interactions with the ecosystem.
This study examined the processes of ecosystem change after a major mass mortality of coral in the Lakshadweep Islands and the consequences that changes in resource use and policy have had on the recovery potential of these reefs.
The Lakshadweep Islands are a group of atolls in northern Indian Ocean. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) of 1998 resulted in anomalous sea surface temperatures (SSTs) that caused extensive coral mortality in the reefs. I studied the patterns of recovery of coral and fish communities on outer reefs on three atolls, Agatti, Kadmat and Kavaratti from 2000 to 2003. Corals showed a mixed pattern of recovery: sites on the eastern aspects of islands showed little recovery of coral cover, while sites on the west showed a rapid increase in coral cover. This difference between aspects appears to be a function of the degree of exposure of these sites to seasonal monsoonal storms, and differences in the long-term stability of coral settlement substrate between aspects. Genera of coral that showed the most significant gains represented two very different life history strategies. Porites and Goniastrea were generally more resistant to bleaching stress. In contrast, Acropora was highly susceptible to bleaching, but recovered very quickly from disturbances by recruiting in large numbers, and sustaining high growth rates once established.
Fish communities in coral reefs are naturally very variable, but there were noticeable trends in fish assemblages after bleaching in the Lakshadweep. Species richness and diversity increased from 2000 to 2003 at all sites. Herbivorous fishes such as surgeonfish and parrotfish were very abundant in post-bleached reefs, representing up to 70% of all trophic guilds in the reef in 2000. The dominance of herbivores declined with time as coral took over from algal turf in many reefs. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis of fish communities indicated that fish assemblages were moving towards increasing similarity with time, possibly approaching a post-disturbance equilibrium.
I interpret the recovery of Lakshadweep's reefs to disturbance within the conceptual framework of catastrophe theory. Catastrophe theory has been effectively used in several other ecosystems as a phenomenological model of ecosystem change, and the applicability of the two-factor cusp catastrophe is a useful conceptual model of reef responses to disturbance. This theory suggests that in the face of global warming, managers and scientists many need to invest their energies in understanding uncertainty on the one hand while managing for resilience on the other.
Biotic studies in the reefs of the Lakshadweep indicated that although the fine-scale patterns of recovery are variable, the reefs appear to be highly resilient after coral mortality. The current pattern of resource use practised in the Lakshadweep contributed in part to this high resilience. Despite being among the most densely populated locations in India, with over 2200 people/km2, for most of the year the human population of the Lakshadweep do not depend on the reef for food. This situation largely results from a development initiative started by the Fisheries Department in the 1960s which actively converted reef fishers to pelagic tuna fishing with a series of subsidies and training programmes. This initiative was implemented solely to enhance economic development of the islands, but it has inadvertently released reefs from a potentially large resource extraction pressure. Thus local regulations have played an important if inadvertent role in controlling marine resource use in the Lakshadweep.
The Lakshadweep case study has important lessons for resource conservation in the developing tropics. The coral reefs of the Lakshadweep apparently possess considerable resilience in the face of catastrophic coral mortality. One of the major contributors to this resilience was the relatively low level of fishing pressure on these reefs, despite high human population densities. The policy change that was responsible for a shift away from reef fishing was designed primarily as a developmental activity, but it had significant, but completely unintended positive consequences for the resilience of the reef. The Marine Protected Area (MPA) is the principal tool currently used to manage the vanishing diversity of threatened ecosystems like coral reefs. While MPAs may still be the most effective solution in marine conservation, MPAs are often difficult and expensive to establish and maintain. It is even more difficult to get local communities to reconcile with a loss of access to resource areas. The Lakshadweep example suggests that there may be alternative paths to enhance ecosystem resilience that are perhaps as effective in achieving conservation goals. It is not often that ecosystem conservation and human development can pull in the same direction, but when they do, this synergy should be encouraged and supported.


Taiwan's semiconductor industry has had a profound influence on both domestic economics and the global IT industry. To enhance its competitiveness and expand its global impact, the Taiwan government commenced the National Program for Intelligent Electronics (NPIE) in 2011 to promote technological innovation of medical electronics, green electronics, vehicular (car) electronics, conventional computer, communication, and consumer electronics, the so-called "MG+4C" applications. The government allocated a budget of $430 million over 5 years to facilitate technology development, advanced research, talent cultivation, industry promotion, and international collaboration. By coordinating with government agencies, research institutions, universities, and corporations, the NPIE develops an integrated framework of academia and industry in Taiwan. It also emphasizes the enhancement of product verification, regulations, and participation in international alliances and standards. By transferring academic results to industry in emerging MG+4C applications, it is expected that the NPIE will contribute to the global semiconductor community, energize Taiwan's IC industry, and create innovative products and intelligent systems for better life and better environment.


This paper describes the design and evaluation of NFriendConnector, a prototype application that allows for better integration between online and offline social networks. Online social networks are currently used to maintain and strengthen existing real-life social connections, rather than establishing ties that exist only online. However, users incur significant time and search related costs in replicating a naturally occurring social interaction using a social networking site (SNS). Therefore, there exists a gap between initiating social contact in real-life versus initiating social contact via an online social network. Using the design science paradigm, our research addresses this gap by introducing NFriendConnector. This application allows users to map their offline interactions, as and when they take place, onto their SNS presence, therefore making it possible to complement offline social interactions with SNS profile information. The prototype is implemented using Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones and Facebook. We evaluate the prototype in an experimental setting using expectation confirmation theory (ECT) as the theoretical framework. Findings show that NFriendConnector was able to satisfy users, therefore indicating a successful design exercise. We discuss the implications of this research in the context of current developments in online social networking.


With the development of positioning technology, movement data has become widely available nowadays. An important task in movement data analysis is to mine the relationships among moving objects based on their spatiotemporal interactions. Among all relationship types, attraction and avoidance are arguably the most natural ones. However, rather surprisingly, there is no existing method that addresses the problem of mining significant attraction and avoidance relationships in a well-defined and unified framework.

In this paper, we propose a novel method to measure the significance value of relationship between any two objects by examining the background model of their movements via permutation test. Since permutation test is computationally expensive, two effective pruning strategies are developed to reduce the computation time. Furthermore, we show how the proposed method can be extended to efficiently answer the classic threshold query: given an object, retrieve all the objects in the database that have relationships, whose significance values are above certain threshold, with the query object. Empirical studies on both synthetic data and real movement data demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method.


We demonstrate the integration of waveguide-coupled germanium photodiodes onto passive silicon waveguide circuits by means of transfer printing. This involves the release of the photodiodes from the silicon-on-insulator source wafer by underetching the buried oxide layer while protecting the back-end stack. Tethers were formed to keep the released photodiode coupons in place. Coupons were then transfer printed to a silicon photonic target wafer with an alignment accuracy better than ±1 μm. 0.66 A/W waveguide-referred photodiode responsivity at 1550 nm was obtained. High-speed measurements yielded open eye diagrams at 40 Gb/s.


Abstract—In this paper, a review of different mathematical models which can be used as prediction tools to assess the time to crack reinforced concrete (RC) due to corrosion is investigated. This investigation leads to an experimental study to validate a selected prediction model. Most of these mathematical models depend upon the mechanical behaviors, chemical behaviors, electrochemical behaviors or geometric aspects of the RC members during a corrosion process. The experimental program is designed to verify the accuracy of a well-selected mathematical model from a rigorous literature study. Fundamentally, the experimental program exemplifies both one-dimensional chloride diffusion using RC squared slab elements of 500 mm by 500 mm and two-dimensional chloride diffusion using RC squared column elements of 225 mm by 225 mm by 500 mm. Each set consists of three water-to-cement ratios (w/c); 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and two cover depths; 25 mm and 50 mm. 12 mm bars are used for column elements and 16 mm bars are used for slab elements. All the samples are subjected to accelerated chloride corrosion in a chloride bath of 5% (w/w) sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. Based on a prescreening of different models, it is clear that the well-selected mathematical model had included mechanical properties, chemical and electrochemical properties, nature of corrosion whether it is accelerated or natural, and the amount of porous area that rust products can accommodate before exerting expansive pressure on the surrounding concrete. The experimental results have shown that the selected model for both one-dimensional and two-dimensional chloride diffusion had ±20% and ±10% respective accuracies compared to the experimental output. The half-cell potential readings are also used to see the corrosion probability, and experimental results have shown that the mass loss is proportional to the negative half-cell potential readings that are obtained. Additionally, a statistical analysis is carried out in order to determine the most influential factor that affects the time to corrode the reinforcement in the concrete due to chloride diffusion. The factors considered for this analysis are w/c, bar diameter, and cover depth. The analysis is accomplished by using Minitab statistical software, and it showed that cover depth is the significant effect on the time to crack the concrete from chloride induced corrosion than other factors considered. Thus, the time predictions can be illustrated through the selected mathematical model as it covers a wide range of factors affecting the corrosion process, and it can be used to predetermine the durability concern of RC structures that are vulnerable to chloride exposure. And eventually, it is further concluded that cover thickness plays a vital role in durability in terms of chloride diffusion.


Mesenchymal stem-cell is a pluripotent cells that can be differentiated into many kinds of cells (1) and have abilities to differentiated into mature cell, secreted cytokines, and releasing many kinds of protein functioned in body body regulation (2). However, the therapeutic effect of stem cell arise from their secreted factor such as growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, and metabolits which acts as biologic regulator in the autocrine and paracrine body function (3). Secreted factors of mesenchymal stem cells known as secretome or mesenchimal stem cell conditioned medium (MSC-CM) have therapeutic effect for antiapoptosis, angiogenic, immunomodulatoric, and chemoattraactive activity (4). Mesenchymal stem cell conditioned medium used as the replacement agent for cell therapy because it contains no cells and save for used in different individual (5).Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DMT1) is a disorder characterized by destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic β-cell that progressively leads to insulin deficiency and resultant hyperglycemia. Insulin deficiency can lead to progressive metabolic derangement, with worsening hyperglycemia, ketoacidosis, starvation, and death (6). Glucagon is a hormone produced by pancreatic α cells. Glucagon releases by the pancreas to raise the concentration of glucose in the bloodstream when the concentration of glucose in the bloodstream too low (7). Glucagon worked in opposite with insulin, which lowers the extracellular glucose level, while insulin works to increase the extracellular glucose level (8). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of MSC-CM on the structural and functional regeneration of pancreatic α and β cells in Wistar rat (Rattus norvegicus) induced with type 1 diabetes mellitus. The datas in this study will completes the information about the effect of MSC-CM on pancreatic cells regeneration, which has been presented in previous study (9).


This study was carried out to determine the effects of different irrigation intervals and water amounts on yield and quality parameters of cut chrysanthemum. Spray cut chrysanthemum (cv. 'Bacardi') plant was used as a plant material. Class A pan was placed in the greenhouse to determine the amount of irrigation water values. Irrigation treatments consisted of three irrigation intervals (I1: 2-, I2: 4-, and I3: 6-day) and four crop-pan coefficients (kcp1: 1.20=T1, kcp2: 0.90=T2, kcp3: 0.60=T3, and kcp4: 0.30=T4). The irrigation water amounts applied to the experimental treatments ranged from 249.7 to 517.9 mm, and seasonal evapotranspiration ranged from 340.9 to 560.5 mm. Different irrigation water amounts and irrigation intervals had statistically significant effects on flower stem length, stem diameter, stem weight, the number of flowers, the vase life and root length of chrysanthemum. Stem length varied between 52.36-79.81 cm, stem diameter varied between 4.62-7.69 mm, stem weight varied between 32.48-123.61 g and root length varied between 18.88-24.22 cm. The optimum irrigation scheduling was T1I1, in which the longest flower stem and the highest stem weight were obtained.


Colour therapy is a vibrational medicine based on Einsteinian and Quantum Physics theories using colour vibrational energies to rebalance the body's subtle energies to create states of holistic well-being. It is thought that vibrational medicines affect the resonation of the body's cells and organs through the body's ability to absorb and emit electromagnetic energies through the skin. In epidemiological studies the effects of these invisible energies, environmental electromagnetic energies and nutritional and chemical changes in the body and are of particular research interest (Gerber1). Positive energies are considered to work in harmony with the body. However there are harmful energies, or negative energies that create imbalances which are thought to result in physical illness. Also when the body is subjected to prolonged and excessive amounts of a frequency it is thought to eventual act as a negative energy (a type of electromagnetic pollution) first affecting psychological and emotional health followed by physical illness or disease (dis-ease). The application of coloured fabrics to the skin is a method used to allow the body to absorb the required frequency to rebalance the energy system. Given that the colour frequencies of fabrics can be used to alter energies to heal the body then it must be possible for the reverse to happen. This paper contemplates vibrational energy theories in relation clothing to support the hypothesis that the colours we wear may affect our health.


Empirical research relevant to legal issues is common in other disciplines, and is once again growing more common in the legal academy. Such research, however, varies widely in theoretical and methodological rigor, and at times yields widely different results. Such disparate findings may bring into question the usefulness of such empirical research, and may render it suspect in the eyes of practitioners, courts, and policy-makers. One approach to helping address such concerns is meta-analysis - the quantitative, rather than simply narrative review of empirical research. Meta-analysis synthesizes the relevant empirical literature, statistically summarizing the results of all empirical work in a particular area; and also identifies moderator variables, aspects of the various studies that might have influenced their findings. In this article I explain the importance of the meta-analytic approach, discussing what it is, why it is useful to members of the legal system, and the straightforward way of conducting a meta-analysis. This primer should be useful to legal academics, policy-makers, courts, and practitioners.


Forecasts of 10-day average inflow into the Ertan hydropower station of the Yalong river basin are needed for seasonal hydropower operation. Medium-range inflow forecasts have usually been obtained by Auto-Regressive-Moving-Average (ARMA) models, which do not utilize any precipitation forecasts. This paper presents a simple GFS-QPFs-based rainfall - runoff model (GRR) using the 10-day accumulated Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts from the Global Forecast System (GFS-QPFs) run at the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In this study, 10-day accumulated GFS-QPFs over the Yalong river basin are verified by first using a three-category contingency table. Then this paper presents the results from a proposed hydrological model using 10-day accumulated GFS-QPFs. Results show that inflow forecast errors can be reduced considerably, compared with those from the currently used ARMA model by both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Finally, simulations of medium-range hydropower operation are also presented using the historical data and forecasts of 10-day average inflows into the Ertan dam during May to September 2006 to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed hydrological model using the GFS-QPFs. The simulations demonstrate that the use of GFS-QPFs has improved reservoir inflow predictions and hydropower operation of the Ertan hydropower station in the Yalong river basin during the wet season.


Hydrogen sulfide is synthesized endogenously in mammals and has been shown to have both physiological and pathological functions. So far there has been little agreement as to the actual levels of endogenous sulfide under physiological or pathological conditions; this is partly due to the complexity involved in measuring free sulfides due to H2S volatility, oxidation, reactivity and the presence of bound labile sulfur in tissues. In this report we describe a method of measuring free tissue sulfides using a zinc sulfide precipitation and wash method. It is an indirect method that measures the sulfide difference between samples prepared at pH 9 and pH 6, assuming that at pH 9 free sulfides would be retained in solution, while at pH 6 free sulfides would volatilize during sample preparation. Using this approach we were able to measure appreciable amounts of free sulfides in mouse: lung, pancreas, liver and kidney at 0.036 + 0.006, 0.082 + 0.009, 0.215 + 0.016 and 0.323 + 0.031 nmole per mg of tissue respectively (n = 6).


In this paper, we present a simple, distributed algorithm for frequency control and optimal economic dispatch of power generators. In this algorithm, each generator independently adjusts its power-frequency set-points of generators to correct for generation and load fluctuations using only the aggregate power imbalance in the network, which can be observed by each generator through local measurements of the frequency deviation on the grid. In the absence of power losses, we prove that the distributed algorithm eventually achieves optimality, i.e., minimum cost power allocations, under mild assumptions (strict convexity and positivity of cost functions); we also present numerical results from simulations to compare its performance with traditional (centralized) dispatch algorithms. Furthermore, we show that the performance of the algorithm is robust in the sense that, even with power losses, it corrects for frequency deviations, and, for low levels of losses, it still achieves near-optimal allocations; we present an approximate analysis to quantify the resulting suboptimality.


The project described here seeks to answer questions regarding the role increased nitrogen (N) deposition is playing in enhanced carbon (C) sequestration in temperate mid-latitude forests, using detailed measurements from an AmeriFlux tower in southern Indiana (Morgan-Monroe State Forest, or MMSF). The measurements indicate an average atmosphere-surface N flux of approximately 6 mg-N m(-2) day(-1) during the 2000 growing season, with approximately 40% coming from dry deposition of ammonia (NH3), nitric acid (HNO3), and particle-bound N. Wet deposition and throughfall measurements indicate significant canopy uptake of N (particularly NH4+) at the site, leading to a net canopy exchange (NCE) of -6 kg-N ha(-1) for the growing season. These data are used in combination with data on the aboveground C:N ratio, litterfall flux, and soil net N mineralization rates to indicate the level of potential perturbation of C sequestration at this site.


Objectives: This study aimed to compare one repetition maximum (1RM) power clean performances, performed from the floor, the knee and from mid-thigh, to determine the differences between variations. Design and Methods: Using a within subjects repeated measures design, healthy male subjects (n=12; height 1.83 ± 0.08 m; body mass 92.17 ± 13.18 kg; age 21 ± 3.69 years), performed each variation of the power clean on two separate occasions to determine reliability of each assessment. A repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc analysis was used to compare performances between each variation. Results: Power clean from the floor (93.75 ± 16.53 kg) resulted in significantly greater loads lifted than the power clean from the knee (87.92 ± 16.85 kg, p=0.04, Cohens d = 0.35) and the mid-thigh power clean (87.33 ± 16.43 kg, p=0.02, Cohens d = 0.53). There was no significant difference between the power clean from the knee and mid-thigh power clean (p>0.05, Cohens d = 0.15). Coefficient of determination between the power clean and the power clean performed from the knee (R2 = 0.923) and mid-thigh power clean (R2 = 0.923) were high. Conclusion: From the findings of this study, when maximal load is required, the power clean from the floor permits the use of the greatest load, which can be used to predict the 1RM of the other variations. Moreover, when determining changes in performance in each variation of the lift, changes ≥6.14%, ≥7.18% and ≥7.66% for the power clean, power clean from the knee and power clean from mid-thigh, respectively, can be considered meaningful changes.


Parallel or incremental versions of an algorithm can significantly outperform their counterparts, but are often difficult to develop. Programming models that provide appropriate abstractions to decompose data and tasks can simplify parallelization. We show in this work that the same abstractions can enable both parallel and incremental execution. We present a novel algorithm for parallel self-adjusting computation. This algorithm extends a deterministic parallel programming model (concurrent revisions) with support for recording and repeating computations. On record, we construct a dynamic dependence graph of the parallel computation. On repeat, we reexecute only parts whose dependencies have changed.
 We implement and evaluate our idea by studying five example programs, including a realistic multi-pass CSS layout algorithm. We describe programming techniques that proved particularly useful to improve the performance of self-adjustment in practice. Our final results show significant speedups on all examples (up to 37x on an 8-core machine). These speedups are well beyond what can be achieved by parallelization alone, while requiring a comparable effort by the programmer.


I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and piece, a city with free ports that hummer with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still. 1


We report two cases which highlight the fact how poor communication leads to dangerously poor health outcome. We present the case of a 50-year-old woman recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis from Southern Nepal presented to Patan hospital with multiple episodes of vomiting and oral ulcers following the intake of methotrexate every day for 11 days, who was managed in the intensive care unit. Similarly, we present a 40-year-old man with ileo-caecal tuberculosis who was prescribed with anti-tubercular therapy (ATT) and prednisolone, who failed to take ATT due to poor communication and presented to Patan Hospital with features of disseminated tuberculosis following intake of 2 weeks of prednisolone alone. These were events that could have been easily prevented with proper communication skills. Improvement of communication between doctors and patients is paramount so that life-threatening events like these could be avoided.


Britain's 1981 Education Act stimulated a partial migration of pupils from special to mainstream schools. The onus has since been on teachers to meet the needs and capitalise on the capabilities of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream school settings. The research analysed learning support assistant (LSA) and special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) views on inclusion in physical education (PE). Individual interviews were conducted with 12 LSAs and 12 SENCOs working in mainstream schools in North-West England. Open, axial and selective coding was performed on interview transcripts to identify reoccurring themes. The research found that SENCOs and LSAs considered PE to be an inclusive subject, the conceptualisation of which was left to them. However, developing PE provision that met the needs and optimised the capabilities of pupils with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and supporting pupils with SEND during team games and competitive sports, were identified as key challenges to inclusion in PE. This may be of concern to some educationalists given that these types of curriculum activities have recently been repositioned at the heart of PE in England. A key challenge for all those involved in educating pupils with SEND in PE, especially teachers and LSAs, is to plan and teach team games and competitive sports in ways that meet the needs of and stretch all pupils, in particular those with ASD.


The Indonesian Government has empowered communities that are living adjacent to forests, but at the same time, protection forests are highly encroached by the local community. In response, our study aims at formulating strategies of community empowerment in protection forest management. Data collection through participatory observation, questionnaire surveys, interviews, and focused group discussions were conducted in the surrounding communities of protected forest areas in Sumbawa District, Indonesia. A combination of descriptive, participatory, and explorative approaches were used for data analysis. The knowledge of local communities on protection forest conservation was found to be on an average level, while their attitudes towards conservation were assessed as being on a higher level. Community empowerment programs implemented by the government were shown to have no significant effect on knowledge improvement, but they were more effective in changing the community's attitudes regarding protection forest management. Local communities were shown to be willing to conduct conservation activities as well as looking for cash income. Therefore, our study suggested that community empowerment programs should link forest conservation with income opportunities for local people, such as implementing conservation agriculture (e.g. agroforestry), partnerships in the production and sale of non-timber forest products, and be conducting clearly reward and punishment for communities.


Through the analysis of trends in South Africa's higher education enrollment of Southern African Development Community (SADC) citizens over the years, the study investigates the extent to which the country has strategically marketed its educational services and positioned itself as the educational hub of Southern Africa. The analysis reveals that South African universities' export of higher education services has been modeled in line with three of the four modes of supply identified in World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The three modes that the country has utilized are: (i) cross-border supply, (ii) consumption abroad, and (iii) commercial presence, and as a result of that, it has become the educational hub of southern Africa. The study found out that South Africa can act as the educational hub of Southern Africa. It has been found out that it is competent in most education attraction factors. It has the highest number of public universities in Southern Africa. South Africa universities dominated the top ten highly rated Universities in Africa. In terms of factors that lead to internalisation of higher education South Africa Universities offers international recognized academic qualifications. South Africa in general is highly rated in terms of local availability of research and training institutions, quality of scientific research institutions quality of overall infrastructure and institutions. The study further provides some policy suggestions as to how best South Africa and SADC countries can improve their respective higher education laws, regulations and strategies in order to attract more foreign students into their respective universities. Some of the possible regulations to enhance enrolment of regional citizens in the universities of member states includes: (i) allowing students on study permit to also work in the country of study whilst studying without having to get a separate work permit, (ii) harmonizing recognition of educational qualifications across the region thus making it easier for potential students from one regional country to apply and be accepted at a university in another country, and (iii) introduction (or increasing) of flexibility in studies for instance, through block release where students come for a limited period for face-to-face tuition whilst distance and online learning constitute a larger proportion of the qualification tuition.


This article explores the Arctic policies of three of the littoral states of the Arctic Ocean (Russia, the United States and Canada), with special attention to that of the Russian Federation to confirm its status as the Arctic regional power. The fact that Russia - not the US - is the hegemon suggests particular courses of action. Using structural theory as the lens, Canada has two choices: it can either bandwagon with the US against a (supposedly) aggressive Russia or balance with a group of periphery states against Russia. Neither is the preferred choice for various reasons, including a reluctant US Arctic player and the special relationship Canada has with the US. Rather, a Canadian Arctic policy grounded in liberal realism would continue to ensure that Canada had the capabilities to monitor the Arctic and provide search and rescue support in cooperation with its Arctic allies (at the very least to share costs), while recognizing that Russia, by virtue of economic imperative, will try to dominate Arctic discussions. Canada's goal, therefore, must be to maximize Canadian interests, accommodate Russia and the US (when it is in its interest to do so) and keep political attention fixed on the Arctic.


Outsourcing may well be a tool for increasing the efficiency of Japanese agriculture. However, outsourcing is not frequently used by Japanese farmers in their day-to-day management. This has resulted in a weakly developed market for agricultural contracting services. In order to take a closer look at the reasons for making use of outsourcing, a comparative study was carried out between the agricultural contracting sector in Japan and that in the Netherlands, where agricultural outsourcing is a regular practice. In the Netherlands, especially small, diversified farms that lack sufficient labour tend to outsource agricultural work; in Japan, the situation is far less clear. Cultural factors possibly play an important role.


A novel, to our knowledge, liquid-crystal panel suitable for real-time holographic purposes has been prepared. A nematic liquid-crystal layer sandwiched between photoconducting polymeric layers, when exposed to a sinusoidal light-intensity pattern, shows efficient formation of refractive-index gratings. The unique feature of the presented panel is its ability to switch energy from beam to beam in a manner similar to the charge-diffusion-controlled photorefractive effect. In a two-wave-mixing experiment multiple orders of diffraction are present, and a very high two-beam coupling-gain ratio (2.5) and a net exponential gain coefficient of ? = 931 cm(-1) have been measured. This gain was achieved in samples biased by a dc external electric field and tilted with respect to the beam-incidence bisector at 45 degrees . The time constants for grating formation and erasure in the studied system are functions of the applied voltage and can be made as short as a few milliseconds under favorable conditions. The mechanism of beam coupling is linked with an electric-field-driven reorientation of the nematic director as a result of a spatially modulated space-charge field created by light in a photoconducting poly(3-octyl)thiophene polymeric layer.


Manuel Quintín Lame (1880-1967) was an indigenous peasant leader in southern Colombia who wrote profusely about law and justice, mostly petitions to authorities, but also open letters about land rights for his followers and sympathizers. He demanded collective land rights for the remaining indigenous peoples, based on a creative interpretation of existing statutory law, on a strategic use of neo-scholastic jurisprudence and on his own reported visions and hallucinations. Lame's lawyering de-territorialized legal expertise by claiming to be both indigenous and a lawyer, performing that authority in tandem with appeals to poetry and emotion. In his alternative vision, the social contract is not a pact among equals, but instead a fragile armistice between an invading army and a vanquished people, justified in their disobedience by the very theory he challenges. Can Lame ́s writings be read today as jurisprudence, in the intriguing mode of a minor jurisprudence? Perhaps: he is certainly speaking from a minor location, from a situated, historical subordinate position that uses the dominant language of law, its ideas and canon, not to represent or speak-for a group, but instead to destabilize the complacency of the majority, and suggest alternatives. This journal article is available in Law Text Culture: http://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol21/iss1/5 76 0000Law Text Culture Vol 21 2017 Manuel Quintín Lame: Legal Thought as Minor Jurisprudence


The pH-related characteristics of 4-thiothymidine and its stability during prolonged exposure, at room temperature, to a neon lamp emitting in the 400–700 nm wavelength range were investigated by different spectroscopic techniques (UV-Vis, FTIR-ATR, 1H-NMR) and by ElectroSpray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS). The evaluation of the nucleoside photostability was performed as a control, with the perspective of studying its reactivity under the same conditions but in the presence of visible light-absorbing photosensitizers, able to generate reactive oxygen species. The comparison between UV-Vis spectra recorded at different pH values in the 7–12 range suggested the presence of an equilibrium related to the deprotonation of the N3–H group of 4-thiothymidine, with a pKa estimated to be close to 9. Some effects of the deprotonation occurring at alkaline pH were observed also in FTIR-ATR spectra, the main feature being the appearance of a band related to CN stretching, interpreted with the assumption of a partial double bond character by C2–N3, N3–C4 and C2–O− bonds, as a consequence of negative charge delocalization on the pyrimidine ring. As for photostability, UV-Vis, FTIR-ATR and NMR measurements suggested the generation of thymidine as a by-product but only after a prolonged (48 hours) irradiation time, whereas no significant alteration occurred in a shorter time range (1–2 hours), i.e. the one that will be considered in future studies involving the presence of photosensitizers. The nucleoside stability up to 2 hours of irradiation was confirmed by ESI-MS analyses; furthermore, on the other hand, the latter indicated the presence of three additional by-products, besides thymidine, after 48 hours of irradiation. In particular, an hydroxylated form of 4-thiothymidine and two dimeric species, characterized by S–S and S–O covalent bridges between two 4-thiothymidine and a 4-thiothymidine and a thymidine molecule, respectively, were detected.


The failure of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009 to effectively reach a global agreement on emission reduction targets, led many within the developing world to view this as a reversal of the Kyoto Protocol and an attempt by the developed nations to shirk out of their responsibility for climate change. The issue of global warming has been at the top of the political agenda for a number of years and has become even more pressing with the rapid industrialization taking place in China and India. This book looks at the effects of climate change throughout different regions of the world and discusses to what extent cleantech and environmental initiatives such as the destruction of fluorinated greenhouse gases, biofuels, and the role of plant breeding and biotechnology. The book concludes with an insight into the socio-religious impact that global warming has, citing Christianity and Islam.


Abstract The detection of the plastic limit of clays is subject to human error. Several attempts have been made to correlate across studies the geotechnical properties of fine-grained soils (water content, liquidity index, shear strength, etc.). Based on the premise that the liquidity index and water content ratio can be correlated directly, an alternative method to obtain indirectly the plastic limit is suggested here. The present study investigated 40 natural clayey samples of various mineralogies and origins and other publicly available data, where Atterberg limits and undrained shear strength values obtained with the vane shear tests were given. The liquidity index and water-content ratio correlate very well for defined undrained shear strength values of the clays. Solving the liquidity index equation for the plastic limit, estimated plastic limit values obtained by the liquidity index/water-content ratio relationship were compared with laboratory plastic-limit values. Preliminary results based on 62 values show an exponential trend with a multiple regression coefficient of 0.79. The data need to be confirmed on a larger database, however.


BACKGROUND
Information about elderly breast cancer patients' outcome is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the treatment outcomes in women aged 70 and above with specific analysis on prognostic clinicopathological features and treatment modalities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This retrospective study examined breast cancer patients between 1st January 1994 and 31st December 2004 in UMMC. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and comparisons between groups using the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate analysis on prognostic factors were carried out using the Cox's proportionate hazard model for patient demographics, and tumour and treatment factors.

RESULTS
One hundred and thirty six patients were identified, with a median age at diagnosis of 75 years. Most had at least one co-morbidity (61.8%). Only 75.0% had a good performance status (ECOG 0-1). Mean tumour size was 4.4 cm. Primary tumour stages (T stages) 3 and 4 were present in 8.1% and 30.1% of patients respectively, and 30.9% had stage III and 8.8% had stage IV disease based on overall AJCC staging. ER positivity was 58.1%. PR status was positive in 30.1%. Surgery was performed in 69.1% of the patients and mastectomy and axillary clearance were the commonest surgical procedures (50.7%). Some 79.4% of patients received hormonal therapy, 30.1% radiotherapy and only 3.6% chemotherapy. Non-standard treatment was given to 39.0% of patients due to a variety of reasons. The cumulative 5 years overall, relapse free and cause specific survivals were 51.9%, 79.7% and 73.3% respectively. Performance status, T3-4 tumour, presence of metastasis, tumour grade and ER status were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. For cause specific survival they were T4 tumour, presence of metastasis and ER status.

CONCLUSION
The 5 years overall survival rate was 51.9% and 41.8% of deaths were non-breast cancer related deaths. Low survival rate was related to low life expectancy in this population. Locally advanced disease, metastatic disease and high ER negative rates play a major role in the survival of elderly breast cancer patients in Malaysia.


This chapter examines stylistic variation in the non-standard use of non-finite detached constructions, when the non-finite form does not refer to the subject of the main verb. Various kinds of 'deviation' from the standard in this particular area of syntax are illustrated and discussed in connection with register. Participles and gerunds show greater variation according to register than infinitives, even though, on the whole, non-standard participles are far less frequent than non-standard gerunds or infinitives. Finally, it is argued that some non-standard non-finite forms may contribute to a sort of hybridization of the spoken and written codes.