The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), enacted in 1985, provides conservation benefits and agricultural supply control through voluntary, long-term retirement of crop land. Large-scale, long-term land retirement programs produce, in varying degrees, negative effects on those businesses and economic sectors that provide agricultural inputs and services. While the effects of the CRP on agriculture are well understood, economic assessments of the market-value of conservation benefits from the program accruing to rural economies remains largely undocumented. One of the conservation benefits of the program is wildlife habitat, which has bolstered upland bird, waterfowl, and big game populations. Growing wildlife populations have contributed to increased consumptive and non-consumptive wildlife-based recreation. This study addressed the net economic effects of decreased agricultural activity and increased recreational activity associated with the CRP in six rural areas of North Dakota from 1996 through 2000. The negative effects of the CRP on agricultural revenues were based on the level of economic activity that would have occurred in the absence of the program. The net change in revenues from CRP land returning to agricultural production in the six study areas was estimated at $76 million or about $56 per CRP-acre. However, returning CRP lands to agricultural production was estimated to lower commodity prices and reduce agricultural revenues on non-CRP lands by $25.9 million. The combined effect was estimated at $50.2 million annually or $37 per CRP-acre in the study areas. The CRP affects many types of outdoor recreation; however, hunting was identified as the most influenced type of recreation in North Dakota. Recreational impacts were determined by comparing pheasant, waterfowl, and deer hunter numbers before and after the CRP, assigning the relative role the CRP has played in the change in hunter numbers, allocating a percentage of the change in hunter numbers to each study area, and applying seasonal hunter expenditure patterns to the change in hunter numbers. Average annual CRP-related hunter expenditures in the six study areas were estimated at $12.8 million or $9.45 per CRP-acre. Overall, recreational revenues averaged 26 percent of the agricultural losses. The degree to which CRP-based hunting revenues in rural areas offset agricultural losses varied throughout the state. In several cases, hunting expenditures offset a substantial portion of the agricultural losses, while in other areas, the net economic loss from the program remains high. The net economic effects of the program in western and central North Dakota were the most favorable, whereas the effects were least favorable in eastern areas of the state. In North Dakota, the net economic effect of losses in agricultural revenues and gains in hunting-based recreational expenditures indicated that several areas of the state are not as economically burdened by the CRP as previous research has suggested.


In Notes from a Colored Girl, Karsonya Wise Whitehead examines the life and experiences of Emilie Frances Davis, a freeborn twenty-one-year-old mulatto woman, through a close reading of three pocket diaries she kept from 1863 to 1865. Whitehead explores Davis's worldviews and politics, her perceptions of both public and private events, her personal relationships, and her place in Philadelphia's free black community in the nineteenth century. Although Davis's daily entries are sparse, brief snapshots of her life, Whitehead interprets them in ways that situate Davis in historical and literary contexts that illuminate nineteenth-century black American women's experiences. Whitehead's contribution of edited text and original narrative fills a void in scholarly documentation of women who dwelled in spaces between white elites, black entrepreneurs, and urban dwellers of every race and class. Notes from a Colored Girl is a unique offering to the fields of history and documentary editing as the book includes both a six-chapter historical reconstruction of Davis's life and a full, heavily annotated edition of her Civil War-era pocket diaries. Drawing on scholarly traditions from history, literature, feminist studies, and sociolinguistics, Whitehead investigates Davis's diary both as a complete literary artefact and in terms of her specific daily entries. From a historical perspective, Whitehead re-creates the narrative of Davis's life for those three years and analyses the black community where she lived and worked. From a literary perspective, Whitehead examines Davis's diary as a socially, racially, and gendered nonfiction text. From a feminist studies perspective, she examines Davis's agency and identity, grounded in theories elaborated by black feminist scholars. And, from linguistic and rhetorical perspectives, she studies Davis's discourse about her interpersonal relationships, her work, and external events in her life in an effort to understand how she used language to construct her social, racial, and gendered identities. Since there are few primary sources written by black women during this time in history, Davis's diary--though ordinary in its content--is rendered extraordinary simply because it has survived to be included in this very small class of resources. Whitehead's extensive analysis illuminates the lives of many through the simple words of one.


Over the past two decades snorkelling or diving with manta rays has become a highly sought after experience for tourists worldwide. The Coral Bay manta ray interaction industry has experienced significant growth since its inception in the early 1990s, and concerns have been raised in recent years regarding disturbance to the manta ray population, and behavioural changes due to tourist interactions. This study was a preliminary assessment of the effect of tourism interactions on Manta alfredi behaviour in Coral Bay, Western Australia. In order to identify behavioural responses or changes, the natural behaviours exhibited by manta rays in the waters of Coral Bay were identified and described, and in doing so this study was the first to describe in detail four distinct foraging behaviours that are yet to be explained in the published literature.

A total of 91 manta ray interactions were observed over a four month period to determine the frequency, form and influencing factors of short-term behavioural responses to three separate elements of the tourist interactions: the interaction with the swim group, the tour vessel and the attempt at capturing an identification photo. Behavioural responses were exhibited by manta rays during 34.1 % of interactions with swim groups (n = 91), 15.5 % of interactions with tour vessels (n = 98), and 48.1 % of manta rays exhibited a response to photo identification attempts (n = 77). Several factors were found to influence the occurrence of a behavioural response including the initial behavioural state and age class of the manta ray, the amount of surface splash, the approach strategy of the tour operator or photographer, the duration of the interaction and whether or not it was the manta ray's first interaction that day. Forms of behavioural responses ranged from immediate avoidance responses to changes in behavioural state, including the termination of feeding behaviours and departure from cleaning stations. Such responses have the potential to lead to biologically significant impacts on the population, including declines in abundance and habitat displacement. Further study is necessary to confirm these links; however as the manta ray tourism industry continues to expand, precautionary management intervention is recommended.

Responses to a tourist survey indicated high levels of visitor experience and education. A heightened perception of crowding with increasing group numbers was reported, however tourist perception of disturbance to manta rays during interactions was low. Analysis of general habitat usage identified Bateman Bay as a critical habitat for feeding, cleaning and courtship behaviour, and found that tourist interactions take place in these same critical habitat areas. Sighting demographics indicated that the majority of interactions were with resident female manta rays, further emphasising the need for management; these females are not only subjected to interactions throughout the entire year, they also are more dependent on critical habitat areas, and may be important breeding individuals within the population.

The tour operators observed in this study voluntarily adhered to the Code of Conduct for Manta Ray Interactions designed to minimise disturbance to the manta ray population. These results therefore represent the level of short-term responses induced by compliant operators. The efficiency of the code of conduct in minimising disturbance to manta rays remains unknown, since the long-term implications of short-term behavioural changes are yet to be determined, as are the compliance levels of operators not observed in this study. Given this uncertainty, it is recommended that all operators be required to adopt a mandatory code of conduct to ensure consistency across the industry that can be monitored accordingly. On-going assessment of behavioural responses along with operator compliance, and monitoring of the manta ray population is also recommended.


Under the U.S. Supreme Court's 1989 decision in Stanford v. Kentucky, the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishments clause does not shield minors 16 or 17 years of age from the death penalty. Holding, astonishingly, that Stanford is no longer the law of the land, the Missouri Supreme Court recently reversed the death sentence of a 17-year-old murderer in Simmons v. Roper. The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari to consider whether Stanford survives its own burial by the state court.


Abstract An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method was used to evaluate the relative importance of high school dropout rates and other economic factors that could explain the economic development in West Virginia, as represented by the employment rates. The empirical results revealed that an increase in the high school dropout rates and the State GDP increased the employment rates while the increase in unemployment compensation decreased employment rates. Thus, the increase in the employment rates may likely be on unskilled and low paying jobs. Introduction West Virginia has traditionally lagged behind other states by virtually any measure of human capital development, and still contains a solid block of counties with low educational attainment (Gebremedhin, Odell, 1996). The state also faces constant economic decline consistent with those found in rural areas nationwide. Despite an increase in the government expenditure on human capital formation through investment in education, West Virginia continues to have one of the nation's highest and chronic high-school dropout rates, and is among the states with the highest unemployment rates. Students are dropping out of high school without any regard for future adverse economic effects. It is reasonable to assume that the chronic high school dropout rate is closely associated with the lack of job opportunities in the state and constitute a threat to future economic development of West Virginia. Despite the increases in government expenditures on investment in education for human capital formation, one of the major social and economic problems confronting the state of West Virginia is the persistent high school dropout rate. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (USDA, 1995) the high school dropout rate in West Virginia was around 16 percent between 1993-94 compared to 11 percent at the national level in the same years. These relatively high high-school dropout figures might be a strong indicator of the future shortages in the number of students adequately prepared for entry into the labor force. This situation may create a mismatch between the types of jobs available and the skills and education of West Virginia's labor force. Bickel et al., (1991) contend that nearly 40 percent of all students dropped-out before reaching 8th grade, and only 33 percent of the West Virginia's high school graduates enrolled in college or university. In 1994, though the high school graduation rate increased, the percentage of those graduates who enrolled in colleges or universities decreased to 24 percent (Almanac of Higher Education, 1995). Comparing high school dropouts and high school graduates, studies by the Bureau of Census (1990) indicate that high school dropouts consistently have higher unemployment rates than high school graduates. For example, in 1990 about 36 percent of the high school dropouts were unemployed as compared to 21 percent of high school graduates. According to the Indiana Career and Post- secondary Advancement Center (ICPAC, 1998), in 1997 9.4 percent of high school dropouts were unemployed as compared to 5.4 percent of high school graduates and 1.7 percent of college graduates. Other studies (U S Department of Education, 1996) have also shown that high school dropouts who succeeded in finding jobs earn less money compared to high school graduates. For example, the National Center for Educational Statistics (1997) indicates that in 1987 high school dropouts earned $0.67 for every dollar a high school graduate earned; however, in 1995 high school dropouts earned only $0.48 for every dollar earned by a high school graduate. To this effect, increased investment in education, as indicated in various studies, is associated with declines in the high school dropout rate and increases in workers' skills which result in a more productive labor force that is vital for rural development and economic growth. The high rate of high school dropouts not participating in the labor force have no future perspective in terms of job opportunities, and may constitute a threat to the economic development of West Virginia. …


Preface The title of the book sounds a bit mysterious. Why should anyone read this book if it presents the subject in a wrong way? What is particularly done " wrong " in the book? Before answering these questions, let me first describe the target audience of this text. This book appeared as lecture notes for the course " Honors Linear Algebra ". It supposed to be a first linear algebra course for mathematically advanced students. It is intended for a student who, while not yet very familiar with abstract reasoning, is willing to study more rigorous mathematics that is presented in a " cookbook style " calculus type course. Besides being a first course in linear algebra it is also supposed to be a first course introducing a student to rigorous proof, formal definitions—in short, to the style of modern theoretical (abstract) mathematics. The target audience explains the very specific blend of elementary ideas and concrete examples, which are usually presented in introductory linear algebra texts with more abstract definitions and constructions typical for advanced books. Another specific of the book is that it is not written by or for an alge-braist. So, I tried to emphasize the topics that are important for analysis, geometry, probability, etc., and did not include some traditional topics. For example, I am only considering vector spaces over the fields of real or complex numbers. Linear spaces over other fields are not considered at all, since I feel time required to introduce and explain abstract fields would be better spent on some more classical topics, which will be required in other disciplines. And later, when the students study general fields in an abstract algebra course they will understand that many of the constructions studied in this book will also work for general fields. iii iv Preface Also, I treat only finite-dimensional spaces in this book and a basis always means a finite basis. The reason is that it is impossible to say something non-trivial about infinite-dimensional spaces without introducing convergence , norms, completeness etc., i.e. the basics of functional analysis. And this is definitely a subject for a separate course (text). So, I do not consider infinite Hamel bases here: they are not needed in most applications to analysis and geometry, and I feel they belong in an abstract algebra course. Notes for the instructor. There are several details that distinguish this text from …


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32 Management Today Yearbook 2006
Thinking world-class:
shared leadership which is transformational
Andre Parker is chairman of the Orion
Group and a consultant in developing
world-class companies. He is working on
a doctorate on the subject. This is the
second in a series on world-class
companies.
The September issue announced a series
of articles on Thinking World-class at the
Southern Tip of Africa and that we would
be focusing on each of the characteristic of
world-class organisations over a series of
seven articles.
These researched characteristics (and
article dates of publication) were defined
as:
_ Ongoing strategising which ..


The interaction between housing prices and household borrowing in Norway is estimated in a simultaneous setting in the long and the short run. The long run dependence is analyzed within a cointegrated vector autoregression in real housing prices, real disposable household income and real household debt, conditioning on the real after tax interest rate, the number of house transactions and the volume of housing capital. We identify two cointegrating equations which determine equilibrium housing prices and household debt, respectively. The long run equations are embedded in a system of two error-correction equations which is estimated simultaneously. The model yields meaningful short and long term effects when estimated on the sample 1986q2-2008q4 and impulse responses demonstrate that there are self reinforcing feedback effects between the two variables of interest.


An experiment was set up to test how ( 1) to compare Australian and French consumer preferences to beef and (2) to see how well the MSA grading scheme could predict the eating quality of beef in France. Six muscles from 18 Australian and 18 French cattle were tested as paired samples. In France, steaks were grilled medium or rare, while in Australia medium cooking was used. In total, 360 French consumers took part in the medium cooking test, with each eating half Australian beef and half French beef and 180 French consumers tested the rare beef. Consumers scored steaks for tenderness (TE), Juiciness (JU), Flavour liking (FL) and overall liking (OL). They also assigned a quality rating to each sample: ' unsatisfactory', satisfactory everyday quality' (3*), ' better than everyday quality ' (4*) or 'premium quality ' (5*). The accuracy of the MSA weighed eating quality score (0.3TE+0.1JU+0.3FL+0.30L) to correctly predict the final ratings by the French consumers was over 70%, which is very good according to the Australian experience. The boundaries between 'unsatisfactory ', 3*, 4* and 5* were found to be ca. 38, 61 and 80, respectively. The differences between extreme classes are therefore slightly more important in France than in Australia. On average, the MSA model predicted the meat quality score relatively accurately, even though it does not have predictive equations for bull meat, with predicted scores deviating by 5 points on a 0-100 scale except for the Australian oyster blade and the French topside, rump and outside (deviating by less than 15). Overall the data indicates that it would be possible to manage a grading system in France as there is high agreement and consistency across consumers. The rare and medium results are also very similar indicating that a common set of weightings and cut-offs can be employed.


In philosophy of religion, there are few more frequently visited topics than the problem of evil, which has attracted considerable interest since the time of Epicurus (341-270 BCE). It is well known that the problem of evil involves responding to the apparent tension between 1) belief in the existence of a good, all powerful, all knowing God and 2) the existence of evil—such as personal suffering embodied in the experience of cancer. While a great deal has been written concerning abstract philosophical theories that academics use to explain the existence of evil, much less has been written about how religious lay people make sense of evil and suffering. What explanations, meanings, and perceptions do they hold concerning the religious significance of evil? What can theologians and philosophers learn from these lay experiences? Our interdisciplinary team designed an experiment to identify the religious significance that personal suffering held for a group of religious cancer sufferers. We interviewed twenty-nine self-identified evangelical Christians who had received a cancer diagnosis at some point in their lives for our experiment. Since all interviewees identified as Christians, it was expected that they would assent to belief in a theistic God. It was also expected that each interviewee would assent the existence of evil and see their cancer experience as a dramatic and personal instance of an evil event. The explicit existential threat of cancer guarantees that the individual has much at stake in the experience. Furthermore, the pain and suffering that typically accompanies either the cancer itself or cancer treatments make it a compelling example of evil experienced in a very personal way. Finally, even when successfully treated, the ongoing threat of potentially fatal recurrence looms over the sufferer for years to come. We asked 17 questions related to the religious significance of their cancer experience in each interview and coded these interviews looking for five distinct types of explanations for/meaning of evil: trusting God in mystery, free will, moral development, spiritual growth, and growth in human relationships/community. These categories were meant to correspond loosely to five philosophical responses to the existence of evil. Our interviews included several important results. First, 79% of interviewees had at least one answer that fit into the 'trust God in mystery' category of responses with 48% using this category of responses as their most frequently cited theme. This result could be interpreted as a kind of generic theodical response: God has a good, but unknown reason for allowing evil/suffering. Alternatively, another possible interpretation is that at least some of these interviewees intuited something similar to skeptical theism, since it claims that if one understands the type of God proposed by theism and possesses an accurate view of human cognitive capacities, it is apparent that there is no real tension to be resolved between theism and the existence of evil. Some of our interviewees seemed to believe not only that the answer to why evil exists is mysterious, but that they simply could not have the necessary perspective to judge what kinds of purposes God might have for allowing this painful episode in their lives. While it was unsurprising that religious sufferers would find it important to trust God in ambiguous difficult circumstances, more surprisingly, we found that 52% of our respondents did not judge that their cancer experience was at all in tension with their religious beliefs. Whereas a broad range of philosophers and theologians acknowledge that there is at least an apparent conflict between the existence of a good, all-powerful God and the existence of evil, most of our interviewees did not even perceive an apparent tension between theistic beliefs and their painful cancer experiences that would be in need of  additional reconciliation. There are at least two ways this result might be interpreted. First, our interviewees might hold additional beliefs that make the existence of evil easier for them to accept. After all, these interviewees were not 'bare theists' who held only to the existence of God, but presumably held a broad range of religious beliefs which may already serve to reconcile the existence of evil: that growing closer to God is more important than earthly life itself, that in evil in this life allows us a greater appreciation of a blessed eternity, or simply that 'God works for our good in mysterious ways.' Thus, a fully developed Christian worldview may already accommodate the existence of evil in a way not fully appreciated by philosophers. Another possible interpretation is that at least some of our interviewees were not adequately reflective to perceive the tension between their religious beliefs and their experience of suffering. There is at least some reason to doubt this explanation as an overarching interpretation of this result since our interviewees were generally well educated with the median participant holding at least a Bachelor's degree, and most were ongoing participants in a cancer support group ensuring long-term ongoing engagement with their cancer experience. A final significant finding is that a high portion of our interviewees, 83% reported specific examples of beneficial personal growth—moral, spiritual, or relational— that resulted from their cancer experience. When asked about their cancer experience's broad effect upon their lives in these areas they volunteered at least one example of a benefit they received in these areas. Depending on one's accompanying value theory and whether such benefits might have been otherwise achieved, they might provide a morally sufficient reason for the existence of suffering. Our interviewees frequently described experiencing the kind of benefits at the heart of John Hick's soul making theodicy and Eleonore Stump's 'spiritual growth' theodicy, providing at least some corroborating evidence for such views. Experiences common to our interviewees were similar to what such theodicies would predict.


Geometrical, electronic and magnetic properties of small AunNi- (n = 1-9) clusters have been investigated based on density functional theory (DFT) at PW91P86 level. An extensive structural search shows that the relative stable structures of AunNi- (n = 1-9) clusters adopt 2D structure for n = 1-5, 7 and 3D structure for n = 6, 8-9. And the substitution of a Ni atom for an Au atom in the ${\rm Au}^{-}_{n+1}$ cluster obviously changes the structure of the host cluster. Moreover, an odd–even alternation phenomenon has been found for HOMO–LUMO energy gaps, indicating that the relative stable structures of the AunNi- clusters with odd-numbered gold atoms have a higher relative stability. Finally, the natural population analysis (NPA) and the vertical detachment energies (VDE) are studied, respectively. The theoretical values of VDE are reported for the first time to our best knowledge.


In the article the problems of validity of police officers rights to exclusive guarantees are analysed following the principle of subject rights and duties unity. The problem of the soundness of the officer right to use the social guarantees assigned to them is discussed taking into consideration two aspects: 1) public functions performed by the police officers and 2) society solidarity to grant the officers additional social guarantees. For that aim the peculiarities of the functions performed by the police officers and their effect on the activity of the officers and the importance of the social status of the police to the society attitude towards the police activity are investigated. In the article the conclusion that the duties provided for the officers of legislative bodies and the special requirements to the officers related with their performance and certain limitations of constitutional rights applied to them suppose the officer right to exclusive social guarantees guaranteed by the state is drawn. The state recognition of the officer rights to bigger social safety is expressed in the major principles of internal service indicated in "Internal Service Statute". In this way as the state expands the officer rights safety by means of legal regulation the problem of validity of social guarantees granted to the officers is identified with social justice. Employing such a model of social policy it is possible to solve the social problems of police officers at least partially, but it is impossible to prevent social conflicts between separate public groups. In a legal state the very society can give the final answer regarding the soundness of the officer right to demand exclusive social guarantees by acknowledging these rights and demanding from the authorities to fulfill the obligations to police officers taken upon by them. Such an agreement of society may appear under corresponding social, economic and political conditions and under favourable public opinion on the work of police officers. Aiming to reveal the soundness of the social guarantees of police officers in the article the factors forming public opinion on the work of police officers and social guarantees were analysed and the status of police officers as a social group in society was revealed as well. In the article the conclusion that the reform of internal affairs system carrying out of which has been started since 1993 could not solve the problems of social safety of the officers in such a way that the state economic capability and society social interests were taken into consideration was drawn. Insufficient attention to the activity and social demands of police officers and negative expression of police behaviour created prerequisites for the consolidation of negative opinion about the officers activity in the people consciousness. The analysis of the investigation revealed that today the society is not completely prepared to recognize the right of police officers to bigger social guarantees. So a completely unacceptable situation has arisen: the society is not satisfied with the quality of the services rendered by police officers and the police officers are not socially secure and that is one of the reasons which acts against the motivation of work of high quality. One may escape such a situation only by refusing the conception of "institutional tying down" and declare in the level of law working out and realize in practice such a policy of social guarantees of officers which corresponds with their expectations.


Purpose – The paper challenges the focal firm perspective of much resource/capability research, identifying how a dyadic perspective facilitates identification of capabilities required for servitization. Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory study consisting of seven dyadic relationships in five sectors. Findings – An additional dimension of capabilities should be recognised; whether they are developed independently or interactively (with another actor). The following examples of interactively developed capabilities are identified: knowledge development, where partners interactively communicate to understand capabilities; service enablement, manufacturers work with suppliers and customers to support delivery of new services; service development, partners interact to optimise performance of existing services; risk management, customers work with manufacturers to manage risks of product acquisition/operation. Six propositions were developed to articulate these findings. Research implications/limitations – Interactively developed capabilities are created when two or more actors interact to create value. Interactively developed capabilities do not just reside within one firm and, therefore, cannot be a source of competitive advantage for one firm alone. Many of the capabilities required for servitization are interactive, yet have received little research attention. The study does not provide an exhaustive list of interactively developed capabilities, but demonstrates their existence in manufacturer/supplier and manufacturer/customer dyads. Practical implications – Manufacturers need to understand how to develop capabilities interactively to create competitive advantage and value and identify other actors with whom these capabilities can be developed. Originality/value – Previous research has focused on relational capabilities within a focal firm. This study extends existing theories to include interactively developed capabilities. The paper proposes that interactivity is a key dimension of actors' complementary capabilities.


Severe weather conditions cause enormous amount of damages around the globe. Bow echo patterns in radar images are associated with a number of these destructive thunderstorm conditions such as damaging winds, hail and tornadoes. They are detected manually by meteorologists. In this paper, we propose an automatic framework to detect these patterns with high accuracy by introducing novel skeletonization and shape matching approaches. In this framework, first we extract regions with high probability of occurring bow echo from radar images, and apply our skeletonization method to extract the skeleton of those regions. Next, we prune these skeletons using our innovative pruning scheme with fuzzy logic. Then, using our proposed shape descriptor, Skeleton Context, we can extract bow echo features from these skeletons in order to use them in shape matching algorithm and classification step. The output of classification indicates whether these regions include a bow echo with over 97% accuracy.


The paper centres on the 'patents versus patients' debate and delves into the challenges facing India's pharmaceutical sector with the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO)-Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) product patent regime. Considering the nation's commitments on international soil and the subsequent domestic legislations enacted to fulfil commitments made at international level, it explores the legitimacy behind the unification of intellectual property laws at the global level and questions the 'one shoe fits all' regime. The famous Chennai High Court decision upholding the constitutional validity of domestic patent legislation upon being challenged by a Swiss pharmaceutical corporation has been discussed. Indeed, it is not easy to manage the challenges of WTO participation, where such is the price for innovation. Towards that end, the paper attempts to offer a package of solutions to be collectively administered in order to mitigate the ills of what has now become a 'harsh' patent regime.


Cancer is already among the leading causes of death worldwide and the number of new cases is expected to rise by about 70% over the next two decades. Even though the number of new cases will rise, the survival rates are also increasing due to earlier diagnosis and/or more effective treatment. Better knowledge about the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (pharmacokinetics) of a drug and its possible correlation to treatment outcome and toxicity may contribute to increased efficacy and better tolerance of therapy. This thesis describes the characterization and quantification of the pharmacokinetics of (new) anticancer drugs, which adds new useful information to the large pool of knowledge of quantitative pharmacokinetics in cancer treatment. BioanalysisAssays for the quantification of vemurafenib, dabrafenib, trametinib, cobimetinib, and olaparib in plasma and vemurafenib in dried blood spot (DBS) samples were developed to support clinical pharmacokinetic studies of these targeted therapies. Assays for the quantification of omacetaxine and vosaroxin in plasma and urine were developed to support mass balance studies with these new chemotherapeutic agents. All quantitative bioanalytical assays were based on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Clinical pharmacologyThis thesis also describes pharmacokinetics of (new) anticancer drugs using therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical human mass balance studies. Therapeutic drug monitoring enables further investigation of the pharmacokinetics of the drug and its correlation to efficacy and toxicity in daily practice. Clinical mass balance studies are clinical phase I studies, which are performed to increase the knowledge of the pharmacokinetics, and particularly metabolism and excretion, of a drug during clinical development. Clinical pharmacology of targeted therapies To be able to use DBS sampling to determine the vemurafenib plasma concentration the relationship between plasma and DBS concentrations of vemurafenib was established. The results enabled us to collect DBS samples for clinical studies and pharmacokinetic monitoring instead of plasma samples. In a real life cohort of melanoma patients, high inter-patient variability in plasma concentrations was observed. This study also showed that approximately half of the patients were underexposed (mean plasma concentration <42 µg/mL), which indicates the need for pharmacokinetic monitoring during vemurafenib treatment.Mass balance studiesIn this thesis three mass balance studies are described of reversible protein translation inhibitor omacetaxine, quinolone derivative vosaroxin and multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib. The mass balance study and additional metabolite profiling of omacetaxine showed that omacetaxine has no main excretion route, since omacetaxine-derived compounds were found equally in urine and in feces. Vosaroxin was metabolized into ten metabolites after which it was excreted in urine and, more predominantly, in feces. The last compound that was investigated in a mass balance study was multi-targeted TKI lenvatinib. After oral administration lenvatinib was rapidly absorbed and unchanged lenvatinib was the main compound found in plasma. ConclusionThe results described in this thesis provide a better understanding of the pharmacokinetics of the investigated drugs discussed. In addition the proposed hypotheses may serve as a starting point for further research on pharmacokinetic monitoring and optimization of targeted cancer therapies.


In bioinformatics it is often desirable to combine data from various measurement sources and thus structured feature vectors are to be analyzed that possess different intrinsic blocking characteristics (e.g., different patterns of missing values, observation noise levels, effective intrinsic dimensionalities). We propose a new machine learning tool, heterogeneous component analysis (HCA), for feature extraction in order to better understand the factors that underlie such complex structured heterogeneous data. HCA is a linear block-wise sparse Bayesian PCA based not only on a probabilistic model with block-wise residual variance terms but also on a Bayesian treatment of a block-wise sparse factor-loading matrix. We study various algorithms that implement our HCA concept extracting sparse heterogeneous structure by obtaining common components for the blocks and specific components within each block. Simulations on toy and bioinformatics data underline the usefulness of the proposed structured matrix factorization concept.


A graphical interface for the highly scalable OS/400 Enhancements to the powerful Work Management component Remarkable management of multiple systems OS/400 Operations Navigator is the graphical interface to manage your IBM eServer iSeries runtime environment. V5R1 Operations Navigator contains major function and interface enhancements over previous releases. This IBM Redbook presents an overview of all V5R1 Operations Navigator functions. It is the first volume in the "Managing OS/400 with Operations Navigator V5R1" series. The key enhancements include a new Work Management component; new job, message, and B2B activity monitors; and new graph history for viewing performance data. It also includes new and updated interfaces to networking capabilities like Quality of Service, Virtual Private Network, TCP/IP configuration and connection verification utilities. And it includes new and improved multiple system management of system values and user and group profiles. V5R1 Operations Navigator has also improved Windows operating systems administration and the online help. This volume focuses on installation and function navigation, and provides an overview of all V5R1 Operations Navigator functions. It also provides details on specific Operations Navigator components, most of which are essential to understanding the functions described in the other volumes of this redbook volume set.


Studying the text messages of a user such as his posts in Facebook or his tweets in Twitter can help in detecting his topics of interests. User in Social Network Systems (SNS) posts text messages about a wide diverse of topics. Posts usually written in a non-standard language, which make it not applicable to the standard Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques used to catch the relations between words in text. In many cases there are semantic relations between the contained entities of posts that can infer the interest of the user. Bag-Of-Words (BOW) based text classification techniques classify this kind of messages to a wide diverse of topics, but they fail in catching the implicit semantic relation between the contained entities. In this paper we propose a technique to discover the implicit semantic relations between entities in text messages, which can infer the interests of a user. The proposed technique based on a semantically enriched graph representation of entities contained in text messages generated by a user, a new algorithm (Root-Path-Degree) is invented and used to find the most representative sub-graph that reflects the semantic implicit interests of the user. An evaluation was done using manually annotated posts of 687 Facebook users. Precision and Recall results showed our technique performs better than the standard BOW technique.


A robust parallelized halftoning method is proposed that is insensitive to dot loss, which can be a problem with xerographic and high-resolution printing. The method uses standard clustered-dot dither for smooth image blocks but uses the rankings of dither thresholds to halftone image blocks with high spatial activity. Experiments compare the ranked dither to dither, error diffusion, and green-noise error diffusion for four-color printing using standard clustered-dot dither masks at standard angles for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black planes, respectively.


Introduction: Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) studies provide a unique platform for studying the pathophysiology of infectious diseases and accelerated testing of vaccines and drugs in controlled settings. However, ethical issues shroud them as the disease-causing pathogen is intentionally inoculated into healthy consenting volunteers, and effective treatment may or may not be available. We explored the perceptions of the members of institutional ethics committees (IECs) in India about CHIM studies. Methods: This qualitative exploratory study, conducted across seven sites in India, included 11 focused group discussions (FGD) and 31 in-depth interviews (IDI). A flexible approach was used with the aid of a topic guide. The data were thematically analyzed using grounded theory and an inductive approach. Emerging themes and sub-themes were analyzed, and major emergent themes were elucidated. Results: Seventy-two IEC members participated in the study including 21 basic medical scientists, 29 clinicians, 9 lay people, 6 legal experts and 7 social scientists. Three major themes emerged from this analysis—apprehensions about conduct of CHIM studies in India, a perceived need for CHIM studies in India and risk mitigation measures needed to protect research participants and minimize the associated risks. Conclusion: Development of a specific regulatory and ethical framework, training of research staff and ethics committee members, and ensuring specialized research infrastructure along with adequate community sensitization were considered essential before initiation of CHIM studies in India.


Today, the challenges of sustainable development require revisiting all the parameters of architectural design. According to the International Energy Agency , in 2005, 19% of the electricity produced in the world was consumed for lighting. We know that the benefits of natural photons are much better than the blue light of the fluorescent lamps, or the bad chromatic rendering of the LEDs. Daylighting is an aspect which must not be overlooked to face the challenges of sustainable development. To this is added the human dimension of natural light, as a factor of well- being and social cohesion, when it is associated with the concept of "light-space." It is not only a matter of capturing more natural light , but also a matter of distributing by giving it a spatial dimension. By lack of knowledge and data, approaches allowing to simulate the lighting level of a building take only limited account of the spatial and human qualities of natural light. This research aims to articulate natural lighting and architectural design through the analysis of major examples of architecture. Therefore , libraries of the modernist Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, located along a north- south axis, from Germany to Finnish Lapland were studied in detail. These are characterized by high quality lighting scenes, despite the low sunlight under these latitudes. The subtle play of direct and indirect lighting installs some virtual boundaries, creating static and dynamic spaces, which are favorable places for activities and intergenerational meetings, under the light. For the first time, light levels have been measured extensively in a typology of Alvar Aalto's buildings, renowned for his mastery of space and light. This approach allows to consider the design of high performance lighting devices, both from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, and proves to be a relevant point of departure for the analysis of "light-spaces".


Background Little is known about the extent to which Peruvian physicians seek to involve patients in shared decision making, or about the variation in these efforts across different settings. Objective To measure the extent to which Peruvian clinicians involve their patients in decision making and to explore the differences between clinicians' behavior in private vs. public practice. Design Videographic analysis. Participants and Setting Seven academic physicians who provided care to patients in a public and a private setting participate in this study. All the encounters in both settings were filmed on one random day of February 2012. Approach: Two raters, working independently and in duplicate used the 12-item OPTION scale to quantify the extent of physician effort to involve patients in shared decision making (with 0 indicating no effort and 100 maximum possible effort) in 58 video recordings of usual clinical encounters in private and public practice. Results The mean OPTION score was 14.3 (SD 7.0). Although the OPTION score in the private setting (mean 16.5, SD 7.3) was higher than in the public setting (mean 12.3 SD 6.1) this difference was not statistically significant (p = .09). Conclusion Peruvian academic physicians in this convenience sample barely sought to involve their patients in shared decision making. Additional studies are required to confirm these results which suggest that patient-centered care remains an unfulfilled promise and a source of inequity within and across the private and the public sectors in Peru.


Neural plasticity transcends a range of spatio-temporal scales and serves as the basis of various brain activities and physiologic functions. At the microscopic level, it enables the emergence of brain waves with complex temporal dynamics. At the macroscopic level, presence and dominance of specific brain waves is associated with important brain functions. The role of neural plasticity at different levels in generating distinct brain rhythms and how brain rhythms communicate with each other across brain areas to generate physiologic states and functions remains not understood. Here we perform an empirical exploration of neural plasticity at the level of brain wave network interactions representing dynamical communications within and between different brain areas in the frequency domain. We introduce the concept of time delay stability (TDS) to quantify coordinated bursts in the activity of brain waves, and we employ a system-wide Network Physiology integrative approach to probe the network of coordinated brain wave activations and its evolution across physiologic states. We find an association between network structure and physiologic states. We uncover a hierarchical reorganization in the brain wave networks in response to changes in physiologic state, indicating new aspects of neural plasticity at the integrated level. Globally, we find that the entire brain network undergoes a pronounced transition from low connectivity in Deep Sleep and REM to high connectivity in Light Sleep and Wake. In contrast, we find that locally, different brain areas exhibit different network dynamics of brain wave interactions to achieve differentiation in function during different sleep stages. Moreover, our analyses indicate that plasticity also emerges in frequency-specific networks, which represent interactions across brain locations mediated through a specific frequency band. Comparing frequency-specific networks within the same physiologic state we find very different degree of network connectivity and link strength, while at the same time each frequency-specific network is characterized by a different signature pattern of sleep-stage stratification, reflecting a remarkable flexibility in response to change in physiologic state. These new aspects of neural plasticity demonstrate that in addition to dominant brain waves, the network of brain wave interactions is a previously unrecognized hallmark of physiologic state and function.


PURPOSE
Breast density has shown to be an important indicator for breast cancer risk. A computational calibration study using breast-equivalent liquid phantoms in dual-energy mammography is investigated to determine its feasibility and improvement in accuracy for breast density quantification.

METHODS
A computational model simulates a dual energy mammography system which is equipped with a tungsten anode x-ray tube and acquires dual energy images at 28 kVp with a 50 μm rhodium filter and 49 kVp with a 300 μm copper filter. Liquid phantoms, consisting of mixtures of water (H2O), glycerol (C3H6O3) and isopropyl alcohol (C3H6O) were used to simulate the X-ray attenuation properties of breast tissues. Calibration was accomplished with the simulated dual energy signals from the liquid phantoms using a rational polynomial function. The accuracy of liquid phantom calibration was tested with different phantom configurations of various thicknesses (2-8 cm) and densities (0%-100%), along with simulated glandular and adipose tissues. The performance of the liquid phantom calibration was compared to standard CIRS plastic phantom calibration by evaluating the errors in breast density quantification in simulated breast tissues.

RESULTS
Simulation results indicate that a mixture of liquid materials based on hydrogen, carbon and oxygen can be used to create glandular and adipose equivalent phantoms. For glandular and adipose tissues H2O, C3H6O3 and C3H6O percentages were estimated to be 42.68%, 22.62%, 34.69% and 0.11%, 16.37%, 83.51%, respectively. RMS errors for thicknesses were smaller (0.063 mm for glandular and 0.072 mm for adipose) using liquid phantoms than the results reported with CIRS phantoms. RMS errors for variable glandular densities were 1.93%.

CONCLUSION
The results of this work indicate that a proper selection of liquid mixtures can be used as breast equivalent calibration phantoms in dual-energy mammography, which may potentially improve the accuracy in dual energy breast density quantification.


Based upon the present projections for the offshore petroleum industry, many of our future engineering graduates will find employment related to Arctic Offshore activities. In an effort to introduce the general subject of cold regions engineering to our engineering students at Texas A&M University, a new three credit engineering course entitled Arctic Offshore Engineering was developed. The course was offered for the first time during the fall '84 semester. The motivation for developing the course, the selection of course topics, the role and participation of industry and the experiences gained from offering such a contemporary course are discussed.


Argos, a secreted protein, was identified as an inhibitor of Drosophila epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (DER) signaling. Klein et al. report an unexpected mechanism of action for Argos. In surface plasmon resonance and ultracentrifugation experiments, Argos interacted not with the receptor, but with the ligand Spitz. When added to the medium of cultured cells transfected to express the DER, Argos inhibited DER tyrosine phosphorylation stimulated in response to Spitz. DER activation was detected if Spitz was added to the cells prior to the addition of Argos. However, preaddition of Argos or simultaneous addition of Argos and Spitz prevented DER activation. These results all are consistent with Argos serving as a ligand sink, preventing Spitz from binding and activating the receptor. Similar to the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist Noggin, which is also a ligand sink inhibitor, Argos appeared to associate with heparan sulphate proteoglycans on the cell surface. The EGF ligand (Spitz) is now one of several ligands whose activity is limited through the actions of a sequestering antagonist (Argos). D. E. Klein, V. M. Nappi, G. T. Reeves, S. Y. Shvartsman, M. A. Lemmon, Argos inhibits epidermal growth factor receptor signalling by ligand sequestration. Nature 430, 1040-1044 (2004). [Online Journal]


Public opinion polls show that the American public strongly supports the development of large-scale solar power facilities. Yet, often with renewable energy development, when specific developments are proposed, they are met with local opposition. In the past, many scholars relied upon explaining such opposition in terms of a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard). However, NIMBYism is criticized as an overly simple, incorrect, and pejorative characterization of opposition. Yet, while some criticize NIMBY explanations, other research demonstrates that distance indeed matters. Research also demonstrates that place attachment, socio-demographic characteristics, and project-related characteristics also matter. Our study integrates these different factors to better understand the nature of support for large-scale solar developments. Specifically, we consider visual impact of large-scale solar facilities and what effects distance between different types of land and the proposed solar facility might have on public support. Therefore, we examine proximity but not just proximity to one's residence but rather to different types of land. Our data are from a 2013 telephone survey (N = 695) from six Southern Californian counties (Inyo, Kern, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura), selected based on existing and proposed solar developments in those areas and available suitable land. Findings suggest that the visual impact of largescale solar facilities does matter for support and that preference for buffer sizes, and thus proximity of proposed large-scale solar facilities, do change depending on the type of land being considered. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Imagine a global marketplace in which private citizens could freely swap their citizenship. Participants might agree on a pure one-for-one trade or a swap with a cash payment on one side of the deal. What might the implications of such a citizenship market be? This Article explores the possibilities in terms of individual rights and economic efficiency.
The United States already comes close to selling citizenship—by prioritizing investors who bring capital with them and by pursuing reforms to quantify would-be migrants' potential economic contributions. Other governments go further, issuing a passport in return for a cash payment. Yet these government-directed systems can make no meaningful claims of maximizing human rights or economic efficiency.
By contrast, a free market for citizenship would recognize that individuals ought to be able to define their own place in the world rather than have their place in the world prescribed for them by the state or allocated to them by accident of birth. In this way, a citizenship market could be seen as advancing individual rights. Moreover, from a law-and-economic standpoint, a free-market regime for individual trading would have straightforward economic efficiency gains: People would strike mutually advantageous deals such that citizenship would be put in the hands of those who could make the most productive use of it.
There are well-placed objections to a citizenship market, and this Article imagines and considers many. In wrestling with the idea of a citizenship market, this Article aims to contribute to thinking about immigration law, law-and-economics scholarship, and the multidisciplinary open-borders literature.


Cadmium is a heavy metal dangerous for the environment and for the human health, with well shown carcinogenic potentiality. Many studies have related the professional exposure of the Cadmium with human pulmonary, prostatic and renal tumors, and it would be a role also in the tumors of the liver, of the hemopoietic system, of the bladder and of the stomach. The aim of the current study is to examine in normal and neoplastic fibroblasts culture cells the modifications induced by the Cadmium at cellular level, in particular on the cytoskeleton, responsible not only of the intracellular transport of vesicles and cell organules, but also of their positioning and of the cellular integrity. Two fibroblastic cellular strains, normal (FG) and neoplastic (SGS/3A), have been incubated in a 5 microM Cadmium acetate added medium for 1, 8, 24 hours and studied by indirect immunofluorescence methods, particularly for the following proteins: Actin, Tubulin and Vimentin. The observations show in normal and neoplastic fibroblasts comparables modifications and anomalies of cytoskeletal shape. In both the cases the cellular morphology suffers drastic modifications, gradually evolving through intermediary shapes: from triangular and spindle-shaped in the normal fibroblasts to irregular, star-shaped, and globular in the neoplastic ones. The Cadmium action on the morphology of the normal and tumoral cells changes according to the time of incubation, producing structural alterations of the cytoskeletal. The modifications that start to be observable at the first hour of incubation are more evident after the eighth hour of exposure, reaching the maximum expression at the twenty-fourth hour, often with reduction of the total volume of the cells and loss of their ability to adhere to the substratum. Such modifications can be related to great alterations of the cellular membrane, producing the change of shape and the progressive partial separation from the substratum. The intermediary filaments seem to be less sensitive, from a morphological but not functional point of view, to the action of the Cadmium in comparison to the Actin and the microtubules that, on the contrary, seem to lose their proper morphological characteristics.


One fundamental issue in today's Online Social Networks (OSNs) is to give users the ability to control the messages posted on their own private space to avoid that unwanted content is displayed. Up to now, OSNs provide little support to this requirement. To fill the gap, in this paper, we propose a system allowing OSN users to have a direct control on the messages posted on their walls. This is achieved through a flexible rule-based system that allows users to customize the filtering criteria to be applied to their walls, and a Machine Learningbased soft classifier automatically labeling messages in support of content-based filtering.


Author(s): Darch, Peter; Borgman, Christine L. | Abstract: What motivates the building of databases by scientific collaborations? In this paper, we argue that not only are databases being built to support scientific work per se, but also with the intention of performing a variety of social functions. To explore this, we present findings from a longitudinal ethnographic case study of a large, multidisciplinary, distributed scientific project studying subseafloor microbial life. A critical element of this project's Data Management Plan is the construction of a data portal. We found a range of factors motivating not only the very construction of this portal, but also the inclusion of particular features. In addition to scientific factors relating to improved curation and accessibility of diverse and scarce data, we argue that the building of the portal is also motivated by social factors. One such factor is the attempt to build a community of domain researchers to endure beyond the end of this project in 2020. Another motivation is the possibility of using the portal as a tool to demonstrate the productivity of the project's scientific domain in negotiations about the allocation of scarce and valuable ocean drilling cruise resources amongst multiple, competing scientific domains. Considering the social factors, in addition to scientific factors, that motivate the construction of scientific databases enriches accounts of how these databases are built.


Human zinc (Zn) deficiency is a widespread condition prevalent in people consuming grain and legume based diets. Dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are frequently the major protein source in such diets. One way to reduce the incidence of Zn deficiency may be through the development of high Zn dry beans. Large variation for dry bean seed Zn concentration exists, which would aid in the development of Zn-rich cultivars. The objectives of this study were to determine the inheritance of seed Zn levels in navy bean and to measure seed phytic acid (PA) levels in relationship to seed Zn concentration as an indicator of Zn bioavailability. A high seed Zn cultivar 'Voyager' and a low seed Zn cultivar 'Albion' were used to create the F2 and backcross populations that were field grown in 1999 and 2000. Seed Zn was measured in both years and seed phytic acid was measured in 1999. The results of this experiment suggest that a single dominant gene controls the high seed Zn concentration in the Voyager/Albion cross. In addition, phytic acid levels between the parent cultivars used in this study showed little variability and there was no strong correlation between seed Zn and PA concentrations. The development of dry bean cultivars with increased seed Zn levels should be possible through breeding.


A stable democratic society is unthinkable if its citizens oppose the principles of self-governance. Yet, recent studies suggest that citizens of consolidated democracies increasingly turn their backs on this system of government. Nonetheless, the evidence is mixed and mainly focuses on attitudes toward democracy as a generic concept, while less is known about mass support for the liberal variant of democracy. This study contributes to this debate by 1) analyzing citizen attitudes toward core elements of liberal democracy in addition to direct measures of democratic support and 2) separating age, period, and cohort effects. We investigated the development of democracy-related attitudes in probability-based samples collected in Germany from 1982 through 2018. Although Germany's Eastern region can be considered a likely case of democratic deconsolidation, the analysis did not provide evidence for a decline in support of democracy as a generic concept or its fundamental principles in West or East Germany.


Universities are increasingly emphasising and utilising close ties with industry and industry professionals to keep up with the changing role of universities in society, from centres of learning to centres training graduates to be job-ready. This study investigates the effect of the utilisation of guest lecturers, specifically practicing industry professionals, and the related impact of limited small group discussion and continuity between lectures on undergraduate student learning. Two hundred and seventeen students were surveyed, 38 prior to and 179 after the addition of five full-cohort tutorials to the unit curriculum. These tutorials were added to assess the impact of tutorials on students' perceptions of the unit for future implementation of small group tutorials. The survey investigated student perceptions of the benefits of a lecture/tutorial style unit and those of a seminar series style unit. It was found that students recognise the importance of both industry professionals as lecturers and small group discussion in tutorials, which are not always compatible. As a result, recommendations for a compromise between the two unit formats are given, in order to take advantage of the benefits of both styles of teaching for student learning. This study has implications for any subject with close ties to industry, where a seminar series from a diverse range of professionals may be seen as a more desirable way to introduce undergraduate students to the subject area.


In December 2019, the first cases of a novel coronavirus infection were diagnosed in Wuhan, China. Due to international travel and human-to-human transmission, the virus spread rapidly inside and outside of China. Currently, there is no effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19, therefore research efforts are focused on the rapid development of vaccines and antiviral drugs. The SARS-CoV-2 Mpro protease constitutes one of the most attractive antiviral drug targets. To address this emerging problem, we have synthesized a combinatorial library of fluorogenic substrates with glutamine in the P1 position. We used it to determine the substrate preferences of the SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 proteases, using natural and a large panel of unnatural amino acids. The results of our work provide a structural framework for the design of inhibitors as antiviral agents or diagnostic tests.


This paper describes the functioning of a broad-coverage probabilistic top-down parser, and its application to the problem of language modeling for speech recognition. The paper first introduces key notions in language modeling and probabilistic parsing, and briefly reviews some previous approaches to using syntactic structure for language modeling. A lexicalized probabilistic top-down parser is then presented, which performs very well, in terms of both the accuracy of returned parses and the efficiency with which they are found, relative to the best broad-coverage statistical parsers. A new language model that utilizes probabilistic top-down parsing is then outlined, and empirical results show that it improves upon previous work in test corpus perplexity. Interpolation with a trigram model yields an exceptional improvement relative to the improvement observed by other models, demonstrating the degree to which the information captured by our parsing model is orthogonal to that captured by a trigram model. A small recognition experiment also demonstrates the utility of the model.


This article makes an effort to identify conceptual categories abstracted from the history of abortion case law in the United States, with the ultimate goal of building a conceptual constitutional framework that is more or less detached from the particularities of the legal system that created it. The result is then used to evaluate the unprecedented ruling by the Mexican Supreme Court in 2008 to decriminalize abortion. The study is divided into five sections. Section I asks why women should be allowed to have abortions. The answer to this question justifies the existence of the right to choose, which involves interests, rights, principles and values. Sections II and III consider how the State should regulate abortion procedures by presenting a detailed regulatory scheme born out of various concepts of United States jurisprudence. Section IV offers some general conclusions on American case law. Finally, Section V focuses on the decriminalization of abortion in the Mexico City Criminal Code. It offers an exercise in comparative law that gives a detailed account of the content of the newly reformed statute and its constitutional challenge in the Mexican Supreme Court, analyzing it through the newly constructed looking glass.


When the Bonn stage was closed after the death of Elector Max Friedrich in 1784, the director of its theatre company, Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann, decided to leave the city to further his career elsewhere in the Rhinelands. During the next few years, he was kept informed about developments in Bonn by two of his erstwhile colleagues, Christian Gottlob Neefe and Nikolaus Simrock, whose correspondence paints a vivid picture of musical life in the city during the later 1780s. The new Elector, Maximilian Franz, permitted a visiting troupe to perform during Carnival each year, but repeatedly delayed the decision to re-establish a resident troupe. In 1787 Christoph Brandt, a singer in the Bonn Hofkapelle, attempted a home-grown initiative, perhaps to test the market for a new permanent company. Although this failed almost immediately, a single, well-attended public rehearsal of Monsigny's Le Déserteur was given, in which Johann van Beethoven made what was probably his last stage appearance. In a letter dated 14 May 1787, Simrock rated his performance 'zimlich gut'. In the event, a new Bonn troupe was not recruited until 1789, when it featured the young singer Magdalena Willmann. Neefe and his musical colleagues were relieved finally to be able to resume their theatrical careers.


We employed the SERENDIP III system with the Arecibo radio telescope to search for possible artificial extraterrestrial signals. Over the four years of this search we covered 93% of the sky observable at Arecibo at least once and 44% of the sky five times or more with a sensitivity of ~3E-25 W/m2. The data were sent to a 4 million channel spectrum analyzer. Information was obtained from over 1E+14 independent data points and the results were then analyzed via a suite of pattern detection algorithms to identify narrow band spectral power peaks that were not readily identifiable as the product of human activity. We separately selected data coincident with interesting nearby G dwarf stars that were encountered by chance in our sky survey for suggestions of excess power peaks. The peak power distributions in both these data sets were consistent with random noise. We report upper limits on possible signals from the stars investigated and provide examples of the most interesting candidates identified in the sky survey. This paper was intended for publication in 2000 and is presented here without change from the version submitted to ApJS in 2000.


Automating semantic matching of attributes for the purpose of information integration is challenging, and the dynamics of the Web further exacerbate this problem. Believing that many facets of metadata can contribute to a resolution, we present a framework for multifaceted exploitation of metadata in which we gather information about potential matches from various facets of metadata and combine this information to generate and place confidence values on potential attribute matches. To make the framework apply in the highly dynamic Web environment, we base our process on machine learning when sufficient applicable data is available and base it otherwise on empirically observed rules. Experiments we have conducted are encouraging, showing that when the combination of facets converges as expected, the results are highly reliable.


Complexity, as a theoretical background has made it easier to understand and explain the features and dynamic behavior of various complex systems. As the common theoretical background has confirmed, borrowing the terminology for design from the natural sciences has helped to control and understand urban complexity. Phenomena like self-organization, evolution and adaptation are appropriate to describe the formerly inaccessible characteristics of the complex environment in unpredictable bottomup systems. Increased computing capacity has been a key element in capturing the chaotic nature of these systems. A paradigm shift in urban planning and architectural design has forced us to give up the illusion of total control in urban environment, and consequently to seek for novel methods for steering the development. New methods using dynamic modeling have offered a real option for more thorough understanding of complexity and urban processes. At best new approaches may renew the design processes so that we get a better grip on the complex world via more flexible processes, support urban environmental diversity and respond to our needs beyond basic welfare by liberating ourselves from the standardized minimalism. A complex system and its features are as such beyond human ethics. Self-organization or evolution is either good or bad. Their mechanisms are by nature devoid of reason. They are common in urban dynamics in both natural processes and gas. They are features of a complex system, and they cannot be prevented. Yet their dynamics can be studied and supported. The paradigm of complexity and new design approaches has been criticized for a lack of humanity and morality, but the ethical implications of scientific or computational design processes have not been much discussed. It is important to distinguish the (unexciting) ethics of the theory and tools from the ethics of computer aided processes based on ethical decisions. Urban planning and architecture cannot be based on the survival of the fittest; however, the natural dynamics of the system cannot be impeded on grounds of being "non-human". In this paper the ethical challenges of using the dynamic models are contemplated in light of a few examples of new architecture and dynamic urban models and literature. It is suggested that ethical challenges in computational design processes could be reframed under the concepts of responsibility and transparency. Keywords—urban planning, architecture, dynamic modeling, ethics, complexity theory.


The trade-off between the optical obscuration and kinetic overpotentials of electrocatalyst films patterned onto the surface of tandem light-absorber structures in model photoelectrosynthetic water-splitting systems was investigated using a 0-dimensional load-line analysis and experimental measurements. The electrocatalytic performance of the catalyst at high current densities, normalized to the electrocatalyst surface area, is an important factor in the dependence of the optimal solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency, ηSTH,opt, on the filling fraction (fc) of the patterned catalysts, because even under conditions that produce minority-carrier current densities of ∼10 mA cm−2 at the solid/liquid interface, the current density at catalyst-bearing sites can be >1–2 A cm−2 in low filling-fraction films. A universal current-density versus potential relationship, up to current densities of 10 A cm−2, was obtained experimentally for the hydrogen-evolution reaction (HER) using patterned Pt ultramicroelectrode (UME) arrays with a range of filling fractions and disc diameters. The ηSTH,opt of system designs that utilize patterned electrocatalysts located on the illuminated side of tandem photoabsorbers was then evaluated systematically. The maximum STH conversion efficiency, ηSTH,max, using a hypothetical electrocatalyst that was optically transparent but which nevertheless exhibited a current-density versus potential behavior that is characteristic of the most active Pt films measured experimentally regardless of their optical obscuration, was 26.7%. By comparison, the maximum ηSTH,opt of 24.9% for real patterned Pt electrocatalyst films closely approached this ideal-case limit. The performance and materials utilization of the patterned electrocatalysts and of the uniformly coated electrocatalysts on tandem photoabsorbers were also compared in this study. Hence, patterned electrocatalysts with very low filling fractions can provide a potentially promising path to the realization of efficient large-scale photoelectrolysis systems while minimizing the use of scarce noble metals.


Shaped laser pulses offer a powerful tool to manipulate molecular quantum systems. Their application to chemical reactions in solution is a promising concept to redesign chemical synthesis. Along this road, theoretical developments to include the solvent surrounding are necessary. An appropriate theoretical treatment is helpful to understand the underlying mechanisms. In our approach we simulate the solvent by randomly selected snapshots from molecular dynamics trajectories. We use multi target optimal control theory to optimize pulses for the various arrangements of explicit solvent molecules simultaneously. This constitutes a major challenge for the control algorithm, as the solvent configurations introduce a large inhomogeneity to the potential surfaces. We investigate how the algorithm handles the new challenges and how well the controllability of the system is preserved with increasing complexity. Additionally, we introduce a way to statistically estimate the efficiency of the optimized laser pulses in the complete thermodynamical ensemble.


Chronic inflammation negatively impacts all physiological functions, causing an array of degenerative conditions including diabetes; cancer; cardiovascular, osteo-articular, and neurodegenerative diseases; autoimmunity disorders; and aging. In particular, there is a growing knowledge of the role that gene transcription factors play in the inflammatory process. Obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes represent multifactorial conditions resulting from improper balances of hormones and gene expression. In addition, these conditions have a strong inflammatory component that can potentially be impacted by the diet. It can reduce pro-inflammatory eicosanoids that can alter hormonal signaling cascades to the modulation of the innate immune system and gene transcription factors. Working knowledge of the impact of how nutrients, especially dietary fatty acids and polyphenols, can impact these various molecular targets makes it possible to develop a general outline of an anti-inflammatory diet that offers a unique, nonpharmacological approach in treating obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Several important bioactive dietary components can exert their effect through selected inflammatory pathways that can affect metabolic and genetic changes. In fact, dietary components that can modulate glucose and insulin levels, as well as any other mediator that can activate nuclear factor-kB, can also trigger inflammation through common pathway master switches.


The genus Vigna (L.) Walp is a large cosmopolitan leguminous genus comprising
both cultivated and wild species. Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. (Cowpea) is an
important food legume that is widely cultivated in the tropics, but its production and
storage are hampered by insect pests. The present study evaluated the intra-and
inter-specific morphological variabilities among 20 accessions of six Vigna species,
comprising wild and cultivated species. The species are Vigna unguiculata (L.)
Walp, V. vexillata (A. Richard), V. oblongifolia (A. Richard), V. ambacensis
(Baker), V. luteola (Jacq.) (Bentham) and V. racemosa (G. Don) (Hutch and
Dalziel). Thirty-one morphological characters involving qualitative and quantitative
vegetative and reproductive traits were used for the evaluation. Multivariate
analysis such as Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC), Principal Component
Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were employed to evaluate the intra and
inter specific variabilities. The paired-sample T test indicated significant differences
among the 20 accessions (p#0.000, df = 19) in their morphometric traits. The
relative significant correlation observed among some traits such as pod length,
number of locules per pod and number of seeds per pod indicated their closeness
and potential for genetic improvement of cowpea. The PCA showed that
reproductive traits such as days to 50% flowering (0.984), days to 50% ripe pod
(0.993), number of pods per peduncle (0.340) and 100-seed weight (0.132) are the
major traits that accounted for the variations among the species. The UPGMA using
the average (between groups) segregated the 20 accessions into two main clusters,
cluster I (comprising mainly wild Vigna species) and cluster II (comprising both
wild and cultivated species). The taxonomic affinities and genetic diversity among
the species are of great importance in the utilization of the species for food and
nutrition, fodder for ruminant animals, cover crop for rotational farming and more
importantly genetic improvement of cowpea.


Submit your manuscript here: http://www.dovepress.com/international-journal-of-nanomedicine-journal The International Journal of Nanomedicine is an international, peerreviewed journal focusing on the application of nanotechnology in diagnostics, therapeutics, and drug delivery systems throughout the biomedical field. This journal is indexed on PubMed Central, MedLine, CAS, SciSearch®, Current


African-American Texans expressed ethnic as well as regional pride by their efforts to participate in the 1936 celebration of the state's centennial. Business and educational leaders, primarily from the AfricanAmerican community in the Dallas area, lobbied the state legislature and Centennial officials to ensure proper representation of their race. Their efforts were manifest in the erection of the Hall of Negro Life Building— an exhibit displaying the progress of African-Americans in Texas and throughout the nation1—and the unprecedented participation of African-American performers at the third National Folk Festival held from the 14th through the 21st of June 1936 at the Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. The significance of their actions went beyond the Centennial era. Indeed, Texas Civil Rights leader A. Maceo Smith recalled that, for many African–American Texans, the Centennial "was the kickoff of the real Civil Rights thrust in Texas."2


Vol. 106 No. 3/4 Page 1 of 6 ABSTRACT Base-station–based cooperative communication is an asynchronous cooperative communication system. The challenge therein is to estimate the relative delay between the transmitters in the system. A channel and delay estimation algorithm based on the distributed Alamouti scheme has been previously discussed for the asynchronous cooperative system. The algorithm only makes accommodation for positive delay, that is, when data from Transmitter one always arrives at the receiver before data from Transmitter two. In reality, the data from Transmitter one does not always arrive at the receiver before data from Transmitter two in the asynchronous cooperative system, because of the constantly changing mobile environment in the system. This paper extends the algorithm to accommodate both positive and negative delays, which is when the data from Transmitter one arrives at the receiver before or after data from Transmitter two, in a Rayleigh block flat-fading channel. Simulation results show that the Cramér–Rao lower bound for channel and delay estimation is achieved for different delay values. The symbol error rate performance is also achievable compared to the channel and the delay is known at the receiver.


It is essential that a person suffering from a mental disorder can talk about his experience in a calm, supportive and unconditional atmosphere. This condition is the basis for all standards of care and should be the first thing that any mental health professional offers. Currently, the recommendations of mental health guidelines, including those for psychotic spectrum disorders, promote the association of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. The therapeutic combination that includes psychotropic medication and psychotherapy is considered to be the best practice, because it was proven to be more substantial in helping the patient achieve both a remission of symptoms and offering them the skills needed to overcome possible social problems associated with a chronic psychiatric illness. For patients with treatment-resistant symptoms, psychotherapy is a second option to improve psychopathology. Psychotherapy does not aim to cure mental illness, but to aid the "recovery" process. Psychotherapy contributes to the well-being of the patient, especially from a social perspective, as it helps to restore a normal life. The article presents recommendations for non-pharmacological, evidence-based interventions included in the UK's most recent specialist guidelines.


This article focuses on an analysis of the perception of danger in a sample of conservative Evangelical Christian sermons and Thai Forest Tradition dhamma talks. Through the analysis of keywords, frames, conceptual metaphors, and patterns of agency in the use of metaphor, it seeks to explore how one Christian believer and one Buddhist practitioner conceptualize their ways of being religious. We argue that this specific set of dhamma talks has a primary focus on an individual actively progressing within the practice of meditation while interacting with elements that may be beneficial or harmful to that progress. In contrast, this particular sample of sermons has a primary focus on two groups or categories of people, fallen sinners and true Christians, and their strictly defined hierarchical relationship to God. Aspects of this relationship are often defined in terms of power, fear, and danger, with shifting intersections between active behavior and being acted upon by greater forces or powers. We conclude that a cognitive linguistic approach to analyzing perceptions of danger within a specified genre of religious discourse can be useful in producing a picture of how an individual religious believer within a particular context and moment in time views reality, their position within it, and their progression through it.


Disturbances originating in one control loop of a large industrial plant can propagate far from the source, giving rise to plant-wide oscillations. The underlying interactions among the different control loops make it hard to identify the origin of such large scale disturbances. This paper studies the application of the convergent cross mapping (CCM) based technique to isolate the source of a plant-wide disturbance. The proposed scheme exploits the cause and effect relationships among the affected variables to find the source of disturbance. The states of the causative factors are estimated from the effect variable and the directionality of information flow is established using the correlation between the original and estimated signal. The method is applied to the industrial case study and is shown to be effective in isolating the disturbance origin.


IMPORTANCE
The effectiveness of robotic therapy in stroke rehabilitation has been established by many studies, and occupational therapists should consider using robotics in their clinical practice. However, little is known about occupational therapy practitioners' experience using robotics.

OBJECTIVE
To explore occupational therapists' perceptions of the mechanisms and outcomes of occupational therapy using robotics with chronic stroke patients.

DESIGN
Qualitative study with semistructured focus group interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

SETTING
Hospitals and institutions in Japan in which occupational therapists used robotics in their clinical practice.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-seven occupational therapists with experience in using robotics with chronic stroke patients as a self-training method that involved repetitive movements of a paralyzed upper extremity. Participants were interviewed in nine focus groups.

RESULTS
Five themes-(1) body function, (2) values, (3) performance skills, (4) occupational performance, and (5) participation-and 12 subthemes were identified on the basis of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (3rd ed.). Participants indicated that robotics improved patients' body function and promoted a desire for independence, which resulted in improved occupational performance and participation in their desired occupations.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Occupational therapists regarded robotics as an adjunct to other therapy, which improved patients' body function and promoted their desire for independence. What This Article Adds: Findings from this research provide insights into using robotics to enhance occupational therapy practice.


Principles of Environmental Physics: Plants, Animals, and the Atmosphere, 4e, provides a basis for understanding the complex physical interactions of plants and animals with their natural environment. It is the essential reference to provide environmental and ecological scientists and researchers with the physical principles, analytic tools, and data analysis methods they need to solve problems. This book describes the principles by which radiative energy reaches the earth's surface and reviews the latest knowledge concerning the surface radiation budget. The processes of radiation, convection, conduction, evaporation, and carbon dioxide exchange are analyzed. Many applications of environmental physics principles are reviewed, including the roles of surface albedo and atmospheric aerosols in modifying microclimate and climate, remote sensing of vegetation properties, wind forces on trees and crops, dispersion of pathogens and aerosols, controls of evaporation from vegetation and soil (including implications of changing weather and climate), and interpretation of micrometeorological measurements of carbon dioxide and other trace gas fluxes.

 Presents a unique synthesis of micrometeorology and ecology in its widest sense

 Deals quantitatively with the impact of weather on living systems but also with the interactions between organisms and the atmosphere that are a central feature of life on earth

 Offers numerous worked examples and problems with solutions

 Provides many examples of laboratory and field measurements and their interpretation

 Includes an up-to-date bibliography and review of recent micrometeorological applications in forestry, ecology, hydrology, and agriculture


A new wave of applications of the dynamic Leontief model brought into the forefront the singularity problem of the capital matrix. In these applications the singularity of the capital matrix is a common occurrence which complicates the solution of the model. In the singular case the model cannot be transformed in a direct forward recursive form. The method presented in this paper determines the length of a backward system (τ). Several applications stop at observing singularity while referring to the theoretical possibility of the solution. In particular, the singularity of the capital matrix played a prominent role in Brody's extensive contributions to the input-output literature but he never ventured into the details of its various solutions. We demonstrate that a number of papers dealing with the Leontief model with singular capital matrix based their solutions on similar regularity assumptions. Our formulation in this paper offers a brief overview of the approaches that can be followed in a wide range of applications confronting with the singularity problem.


An unusual feature of the social scientific study of religious terrorism is the erasure of religiosity as a significant motivational factor. This article systematically delineates and criticizes the presence of this peculiar interpretive preference, demonstrating that it is methodologically suspect and theoretically and empirically unhelpful. There are two parts to the critique. Part I (this article), discusses three foundational aspects of the argument: (1) it delineates ten conditions of the critique, to avoid predictable misunderstandings; (2) it specifies three methodological reasons for considering the motivational claims of religious terrorists as potentially important and valid data; and (3) it surveys the history of the study of religious terrorism to identify some extra-methodological influences that may have truncated the analysis of the religious motivations for religious terrorism. Part II (the next article), examines three types of arguments commonly used to minimize the role of religiosity in motivating religious terrorism. Identifying the arguments by the primary interpretive errors they rely on, some arguments (1) mistakenly treat the religious background and knowledge of homegrown jihadists as a sound indicator of their religiosity; others (2) inappropriately apply a modern Western normative conception of religion to homegrown jihadists; and some arguments (3) rely on an overly dichotomized conception of the relationship of social processes and ideology in the process of radicalization. The critique ends with consideration of alternative perspectives, offering a more refined conception of the role of ideology, and more specifically religiosity, in the determination of the actions of religious terrorists.


Titanium intermetalides (TiAl and Ti3 Al) and alloys on theirs bases applies in air — and spacetechnology and automobile industry.
Physical and mechanical properties there alloys is better, then at classical Ti — or Ni — alloys, that are utilized in aeroplanes and rocets.
Alloys, based on TiAl and Ti3Al, are made with utilization vacuum — arc, plasma — arc, induction- garnisage, magnetoperating electroslag melting, electron — beam melting with intermediate capacity, electroslag melting in inert atmosphere under «active» fluxes with metallic calcium, induction melting in muchsectional crystallizator and cold crucible, argon — arc melting with unexpended tungsten electrode in copper watercooling crucible.
For connection of the details, that were made from these alloys, there were used welding by pressure, contact, electron — beam, diffusion welding.
Alloys, based on titanium aluminide, have essential defects — high brittleness and low plasticity, viscosity and resistance thermal impact strength.
Autors a lot of articles explaines these descriptions by structural special features of titanium aluminides and alloys on their bases, but does not consider possibilities of the influence by oxygen nitrogen, hydrogen admixtures.
In literature information about methods of determination gaseous admixtures (O, N, H) contents in titanium aluminides and alloys on their bases are absented.
Methods of determination oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen contents in titanium aluminides on analysers TC436, RO316, TN114, RH402 are created. Parameters of these methods are described in this article (temperatures of heating on graphite crucibles, times, masses of analytical samples).


The sulfur isotopic composition of seawater sulfate (δS) has varied significantly throughout the Phanerozoic and is related to variability in Earth's sulfur and carbon cycles. During the Early Eocene (~55 Ma to 45 Ma) the δS composition of seawater sulfate increased from +18‰ to +22‰ and has remained largely invariant over the last 34 Ma. The two principal hypotheses invoked to explain this positive excursion are: (1) a rapid increase in the flux of weathering-derived sulfate and an increase in sulfate concentrations, coupled with a compensatory increase in pyrite burial, or (2) an increase in the pyrite burial flux due to an expansion in the volume of anoxic waters. A clear understanding of this significant change in seawater sulfate chemistry is hampered by the relatively low temporal sampling resolution of data that reflect seawater sulfate δS during this period, and potential problems with the preservation of primary signals. Here, we use δS analysis of carbonate associated sulfate (CAS) from IODP Expedition 342, Newfoundland Drifts to test the pattern observed in marine barite δS records (Paytan et al., 1998) and to increase the temporal resolution of the δS isotope curve through the Eocene excursion. Despite the broad variability in the CAS record, these new data largely confirm the magnitude and timing of change observed in the Paytan et al. (1998) marine barite δS records, but the magnitude of the excursion is higher in the CAS record. Additionally, we observe a series of anomalous δS values that appear to the result from oxidation of S-depleted pyrite during CAS extraction or incorporation of S-enriched sulfate during authigenesis. These depleted or enriched values in the CAS record correlate with a lower concentration of CAS, suggesting that such samples are more susceptible to contamination of non-CAS sulfur during either extraction or original precipitation. We also performed δS analyses on pore-water sulfate to better constrain possible influences from pore-water sulfate on CAS δ S. These pore-water sulfate data indicate that microbial sulfate reduction is ongoing at sub-seafloor depths, yielding enriched pore-water sulfate values with depth. But, we observe no strong correlation between pore-water and CAS δS, suggesting that pore water sulfate contamination may not be the mechanism causing enriched CAS δS values. Our data do not provide a clear consensus between the two proposed mechanisms for this excursion, weatheringderived sulfate or an increase volume of anoxic waters; a surge in volcanically derived sulfur associated with sea-floor spreading offers an alternative mechanism for generating this positive excursion. USING THE SULFUR CYCLE TO CONSTRAIN CHANGES IN SEAWATER CHEMISTRY DURING


The Hydrological modeling System is designed to simulate the rainfall-runoff processes of watershed systems. In this paper, a continuous simulation based hydrological model is developed through a distributed hydrological modeling approach for the Musi river basin, India using space inputs, soil type and slopes. The basin is geographically located between 17° 58' N to 16° 38'N latitude and 77° 46'E to 79° 48' E longitude. The hydrologic modeling approach includes rainfall-runoff modeling; sensitivity analysis has been carried out using through SWAT CUP Sequential Uncertainty domain parameter fitting (SUFI-2) algorithm for most sensitive parameterization of stream flow. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generated from Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Cartosat-1 of 30m resolution, land use/land cover derived from the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-P6) AWiFS data, and soil textural data obtained from National Bureau of Soil Sciences and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP) of the study area are used in the modeling.