Sustainability has been described as the primary moral and economic imperative of the twenty-first century and one of the most important sources of both opportunities and risks for businesses. From an educational perspective, sustainability could be related to enhancing accurate, reliable and relevant teaching and learning in an ever-changing and evolving educational, economic and social landscape. The objective of the paper is twofold: it aims, firstly, to provide a brief overview of the higher education landscape and drivers for change in accounting education and the need for sustainable teaching and learning; and, secondly, it aims to provide evidence of the implementation of a new teaching and learning strategy in accountancy education programmes at a large SAICA-accredited residential higher education institution. This was done through a literature review and supported by empirical evidence obtained from questionnaires completed by the honours student group in chartered accountancy of the stated institution. The study found that, although initially new to students, the teaching and learning approach was well accepted and eventually created an environment conducive to teaching and learning. It was also found that students marks improved, which resulted in higher throughput rates.


To the Editor .—On reading the title "Hematologic Integrity After Intraoperative Allotransfusion" ( Arch Surg 108:831, 1974), I was very interested to see whether or not cross-species transfusion was being investigated again, but on reading the article, as well as the editorial comment about it, I see that it is not allotransfusion at all but autotransfusion. I cannot imagine any defense of choice of the prefix allo- as it means "other." With reference to grafting or transfusions the prefix allo- would suggest crossspecies transfer, the prefix homowould suggest transfer within the same species, and the prefix autowould indicate transfer in the same individual. I am certainly curious as to why Dr. Aaron and his colleagues elected to introduce a new term when "autotransfusion" is clearer semantically and has also been a part of the literature to date. Drs. Lamm and Barnhouse are, of course, correct. How the term "allotransfusion" instead of


This paper discusses the link between R&D and productivity across the European industrial and service sectors. The empirical analysis is based on both the European sectoral OECD data and on a unique micro longitudinal database consisting of 532 top European R&D investors. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the R&D stock has a significant positive impact on labour productivity; this general result is largely consistent with previous literature in terms of the sign, the significance and the magnitude of the estimated coefficients. More interestingly, both at sectoral and firm levels the R&D coefficient increases monotonically (both in significance and magnitude) when we move from the low-tech to the medium and high-tech sectors. This outcome means that corporate R&D investment is more effective in the high-tech sectors and this may need to be taken into account when designing policy instruments (subsidies, fiscal incentives, etc.) in support of private R&D. However, R&D investment is not the sole source of productivity gains; technological change embodied in gross investment is of comparable importance on aggregate and is the main determinant of productivity increase in the low-tech sectors. Hence, an economic policy aiming to increase productivity in the low-tech sectors should support overall capital formation.


The advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has revolutionized the way in which epigenetic research is conducted. Often coupled with the availability of fully sequenced genomes, millions of small RNA (sRNA) reads are mapped to regions of interest and the results scrutinized for clues about epigenetic mechanisms. However, this approach requires careful consideration in regards to experimental design, especially when one investigates repetitive parts of genomes such as transposable elements (TEs), and especially when such genomes are large as is often the case in plants. Here, to shed light on the challenges of mapping sRNAs to TEs, we focus on the 2,300Mb maize genome, of which >85% is derived from TEs. We compare various methodological strategies that are commonly employed in TE studies. These include choices for the reference dataset, the normalization of multiple mapping sRNAs, and the selection among different types of sRNA metrics. We further examine how these choices influence the relationship between sRNAs and the critical feature of TE age, and explore and contrast their effect on low copy regions (exons) and other popular HTS data (RNA-seq). Finally, based on our analysis, we share a series of take-home messages to help guide TE epigenetic studies specifically, but our conclusions may also apply to any work that involves mapping and analysis of HTS data.


This Article examines the dynamics that drive advertisers to push into new formats, and the law's ability to regulate them. I argue that it will remain possible, and constitutional, to identify advertising and subject it to prohibitions on false and misleading claims, even for ads in unconventional formats. The article also addresses the ways in which regulators were caught off-guard by these new formats. In particular, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which frees online service providers and users from liability for content generated by other users, poses some unanticipated barriers to regulating advertising. Yet despite section 230's provisions, regulators retain flexibility in many situations. The Article considers the Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC") recent revisions of its guides on testimonials and endorsements. The guidelines apply to bloggers and others who receive substantial benefits from advertisers in return for their endorsements. After exploring the First Amendment challenges posed by such situations, including questions that go to the heart of the justification for regulating commercial speech, I contend that neither section 230 nor sound policy require the FTC to ignore these new forms of communicating with potential purchasers.


In this article, I propose the assumption that we are making a technological journey, analogous in many respects to European ocean voyages of the 15th and 16th centuries (Martins, 2015a, 2017, 2018a, 2018b). Thus, I confront the technological nature of the current financial globalization and the commercial nature of European maritime expansion. Whereas the first journey resulted in the colonization of peoples and nations, in the second journey we moved, in a century and a half, to that which Edgar Morin called the "colonization of the spirit" of the entire human community (Morin, 1962). Within this context, I took into consideration the consequences, for culture, of the acceleration of the time via technology, which has mobilized human beings, "totally" (Jünger, 1930) and "infinitely" (Sloterdijk, 2010), in view of the urgencies of the present (Martins, 2010). On the other hand, I will use post-colonial studies to situate transnational and transcultural identities, by examining Portuguese-speaking communities within the context of the "battle of languages," to use an expression coined by Mozambican linguist Armando Jorge Lopes (2004). This is why I will consider "technological circumnavigation" (Martins, 2015a, 2017, 2018a, 2018b), to be undertaken by every Portuguese-speaking country, like a fight for the world's symbolic ordering (Bourdieu, 1977, 1979, 1982), where we raise hegemony language-related problems and those pertaining to political, scientific, cultural and artistic subordination (Martins, 2015b). This is, therefore an electronic journey, using sites, portals, social media, digital repositories and archives, as well as virtual museums. What's more, the viewpoint adopted is that which states a great language of cultures and thinking, such as Portuguese, likewise cannot avoid being a great language of human and scientific knowledge.


Sulforaphane (SFN) exhibits inhibitory effects in different types of cancers. However, its inhibitory effect on liver cancer remains unknown. This study aimed to determine the therapeutic potential of SFN for the treatment of liver cancer and explore the functional mechanisms underlying the inhibitory effects of SFN. Water-Soluble Tetrazolium salt (WST-1) assay was performed to assess the in vitro effect of SFN on cell proliferation in the human liver cancer cell lines, HepG2 and Huh-7. The mRNA levels of Nrf2 target genes and cell cycle-related genes were determined using quantitative RT-PCR. For assessing the inhibitory effect of SFN in vivo, we injected immortalized liver cancer cells into BALB/c nude mice as a xenograft model. SFN was orally administrated daily after tumor inoculation and continued for thirty-five days until their sacrifices. Nrf2 activation, induced by SFN, was confirmed by mRNA upregulation of HO-1, MRP2, and NQO1 in both the cell lines. Significant inhibition of liver cancer cell proliferation by SFN was shown in vitro in a dose-dependent manner by the downregulation of CCND1, CCNB1, CDK1 and CDK2. In in vivo studies, the administration of SFN significantly reduced the subcutaneous tumor burdens at the end of experiments by suppressing tumor cell proliferation, confirmed by Ki67 immunohistochemical analysis. The mRNA levels of CCND1, CCNB1, CDK1 and CDK2 were also decreased in these SFNtreated xenograft tumors. Moreover, CD34 immunostaining elucidated that the intratumoral neovascularization was markedly attenuated in the SFN-treated xenograft tumors. SFN exerts inhibitory effect on human liver cancer cells with antiangiogenic activity. The earlier version of this study was presented at the meeting of AASLD Liver Learning on Oct 2017.


RECENT high levels of interest rates have had many effects on the economy. One particularly dramatic phenomenon associated with these high interest rates is an extraordinarily high bankruptcy rate. A related observation is that during the 1970s both corporate debt-value ratios and nominal interest rates were nearly double their previous postwar values.' The purpose of this paper is to analyze the possible economic links between interest rates, inflation, corporate financial policy, and the corporate bankruptcy rate in order to explain the above associations. The primary focus is on the role of interest rates and inflation in theoretical models of corporate financial policy. The paper provides an analysis of how changes in interest rates or inflation can lead to both higher debtvalue ratios and a higher bankruptcy rate; it also gives empirical estimates of the relative importance of expected interest rates and inflation and unexpected changes in interest rates and inflation in explaining the level and composition of corporate debt.


As agents are built for ever more complex environments, methods that consider the uncertainty in the system have strong advantages. This uncertainty is common in domains such as robot navigation, medical diagnosis and treatment, inventory management,  sensor networks and e-commerce. When a single decision maker is present, the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) model is a popular and powerful choice.  When choices are made in a decentralized manner by a set of decision makers, the problem can be modeled as a decentralized partially observable Markov decision process (DEC-POMDP).  While POMDPs and DEC-POMDPs offer rich frameworks for sequential decision making under uncertainty, the computational complexity of each model presents an important research challenge.
As a way to address this high complexity, this thesis develops several solution methods based on utilizing domain structure, memory-bounded representations and sampling.  These approaches address some of the major bottlenecks for decision-making in real-world uncertain systems. The methods include a more efficient optimal algorithm for DEC-POMDPs as well as scalable approximate algorithms for POMDPs and DEC-POMDPs. Key contributions include optimizing compact representations as well as automatic structure extraction and exploitation.  These approaches increase the scalability of algorithms, while also increasing their solution quality.


When rotavirus infects the mature villus tip cells of the small intestine, it encounters a highly polarized epithelium. In order to understand this virus-cell interaction more completely, we utilized a cell culture-adapted rhesus rotavirus (RRV) to infect human intestinal (Caco-2) and Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK-1) polarized epithelial cells grown on a permeable support. Filter-grown Caco-2 cells and MDCK-1 cells, producing a transepithelial resistance of 300 to 500 and greater than 1,000 omega . cm2, respectively, were infected from either the apical or basolateral domain with RRV or Semliki Forest virus. Whereas Semliki Forest virus infection only occurred when input virions had access to the basolateral domain of MDCK-1 or Caco-2 cells, RRV infected MDCK-1 and Caco-2 monolayers in a symmetric manner. The effect of rotavirus infection on monolayer permeability was analyzed by measuring the transepithelial electrical resistance. Rotavirus infection on filter-grown Caco-2 cells caused a transmembrane leak at 18 h postinfection, before the development of the cytopathic effect (CPE) and extensive virus release. Electrical resistance was completely abolished between 24 and 36 h postinfection. Although no CPE could be detected on RRV-infected MDCK cells, the infection caused a transmembrane leak that totally abolished the electrical resistance at 18 to 24 h postinfection. Cell viability and the CPE analysis together with immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence data indicated that the abolishment of resistance across the monolayer was due not to an effect on the plasma membrane of the cells but to an effect on the paracellular pathway limited by tight junctions. Attachment and penetration of rotavirus onto Caco-2 cells caused no measurable transmembrane leak during the first hour of infection.


Happiness research provides guidance on what academics can do to increase their satisfaction at work. Changes in external circumstances, such as salary rises, seldom have a lasting effect. More likely to improve long-term happiness levels are exercising well-developed skills, building strong relationships, helping others and cultivating mindfulness. These methods for improving well-being have some specific implications for academic life, suggesting strategies for individuals and policy-making.


Accurate soil water content measurements to considerable depth are required for investigations of crop water use, water use efficiency, irrigation efficiency, and the hydraulic properties of soils. Although the soil moisture neutron probe has served this need well, it cannot be used unattended. Newer methods, which respond to the electrical properties of soils, typically allow data logging and unattended operation, but with uncertain precision, accuracy, and volume of sensitivity. In laboratory columns of three soils, we calibrated a conventional time domain reflectometry (TDR) system for use as a reference system for a companion study of water content sensors that are used in access tubes. Measurements were made before, during, and after wetting to saturation in triplicate repacked columns of three soils: (i) a silty clay loam (30% clay, 53% silt), (ii) a clay (48% clay, 39% silt), and (iii) a calcic clay loam (35% clay, 40% silt) containing 50% CaCO3. Each 75‐cm‐deep, 55‐cm‐diameter column was weighed continuously to 50‐g precision on a platform scale. Conventional TDR measurements of water content and thermocouple measurements of temperature were made at eight depths in each column every 30 min. Accuracy of the TDR system was judged by the root mean squared difference (RMSD) between column mean water contents determined by mass balance and those determined using the Topp equation as a standard calibration. Smaller values of the RMSD metric indicated more accurate standard calibration. Although the TDR system exhibited RMSD <0.03 m3 m−3 using the Topp equation, there were differences in accuracy between the three soils, and there was some temperature dependency at the saturated end, although not at the dry end. This paralleled the temperature dependency of the soil bulk electrical conductivity (BEC). Incorporation of bulk electrical conductivity and effective frequency of the TDR measurement into the calibration model reduced the calibration RMSE to <0.01 m3 m−3 and practically eliminated temperature effects. Because the temperature effects on the TDR measurement are embedded in the BEC and effective frequency, a measurement of temperature is not needed to apply the calibration to these soils.


This chapter contextualises the position of English language studies (ELS) in higher education, and offers a view on why it is a relevant and important area of study and research in the 21st century, arguing that ELS is particularly well placed to promote informed critical reflection and has the methodological tools to interrogate complexity in an interconnected world. The position of ELS in UK universities, often tied in with English literature, is contrasted with institutions elsewhere where it may be integrated into other discipline areas such as linguistics, rhetoric, or communications, or taught as a foreign language often in combination with other subjects. Technology and power are two of the major themes in looking at current developments in ELS. Technology influences the language itself, ways of researching language, and language teaching. English and power not only examines the role of English internationally, but crucially, in an era of increasingly accessible 'information', it develops the ability to interrogate language systematically. For the future, the role of language in a wider multimodal understanding of communication provides scope for creativity and the interrogation of the concept of discrete languages in a multilingual future.


Objectives: Major depression is common in elderly patients. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a potentially effective treatment for depressed elderly patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of IPT delivered by mental health workers in primary care practices, for depressed patients 55 years of age and older identified by screening, in comparison with care as usual (CAU). Methods: We conducted a full economic evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial comparing IPT with CAU. Outcome measures were depressive symptoms, presence of major depression, and quality of life. Resource use was measured from a societal perspective over a 12-month period by cost diaries. Multiple imputation and bootstrapping were used to analyze the data. Results: At 6 and 12 months, the differences in clinical outcomes between IPT and CAU were small and nonsignificant. Total costs at 12 months were €5,753 in the IPT group and €4,984 in the CAU group (mean difference, €769; 95 percent confidence interval, −2,459 – 3,433). Cost-effectiveness planes indicated that there was much uncertainty around the cost-effectiveness ratios. Conclusions: Based on these results, provision of IPT in primary care to elderly depressed patients was not cost-effective in comparison to CAU. Future research should focus on improvement of patient selection and treatments that have more robust effects in the acute and maintenance phase of treatment.


The article examines jihad within what is loosely referred to as "the Western imagination." Through the analysis of both popular stereotypes and the broader historical context of religious antagonism and (neo)colonialism, the paper discusses both contemporary political rhetoric and a pair of liberal post September-11 political cartoons. While European and North American political leaders have often stereotyped Muslims in order to justify various "axis of evil" bandwagons and further political and economic interests throughout the Islamic Crescent, I argue here that the liberal media's critiques also often rely on fallacious embodied stereotypes. The pervasiveness of such representations has important implications for the lived realities and human rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims globally because these stereotypes mask Muslim's legitimate concerns regarding (neo)colonialism and because of the human rights abuses that result from Islamophobia.


This study we don't use any catalyst or buffer layer before the reaction by hydrothermal method was used to prepare ZnO nano rods and flowerlike. The process has taken place inside Teflon lined stainless steel autoclave with volume 50 ml (homemade). ZnO nano rods and flowerlike were successfully synthesized using ZnO nanoparticles (20 nanometer) and NaOH (concentrations 3M) was the starting materials for the chemical reaction under stirring. The suspension was transferred into a Teflon lined sealed stainless steel autoclave and kept at 90 0 C for 24 h,48 h and 72 h. The influence of the synthesis process on the morphology, the crystallinity and structural properties are studied by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), the experimental pattern of the films show that diffraction peaks can be assigned to the Wurtzite hexagonal-shaped ZnO as shown in the FE-SEM pictures, also the morphology of the films studied by atomic force microscope shows that the prepared thick films have high roughness specially for the powder prepared 46 h .


Over the past decade, states and international organizations have shifted a surprising range of foreign policy functions to private contractors. But who is accountable when the employees of foreign private firms do violence or create harm? This timely book describes the services that are now delivered by private contractors and the threat this trend poses to core public values of human rights, democratic accountability, and transparency. The author offers a series of concrete reforms that are necessary to expand traditional legal accountability, construct better mechanisms of public participation, and alter the organizational structure and institutional culture of contractor firms. The result is a pragmatic, nuanced, and comprehensive set of responses to the problem of foreign affairs privatization.


The proliferation of mobile devices and the heterogeneous environment of wireless communications have increased the need for additional spectrum for data transmission. It is not possible to altogether allocate a new band to all networks, which is why fully efficient use of the already available spectrum is the demand of the day. Cognitive radio (CR) technology is a promising solution for efficient spectrum utilization, where CR devices, or secondary users (SUs), can opportunistically exploit white spaces available in the licensed channels. SUs have to immediately vacate the licensed channel and switch to another available channel when they detect the arrival of the incumbent primary user. However, performance for the SU severely degrades if successive channel switching happens. Moreover, taking the channel-switching decisions based on crisp logic is not a suitable approach in the brain-empowered CR networks (CRNs) where sensing information is not only imprecise and inaccurate but also involves a major uncertainty factor. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy logic-based decision support system (FLB-DSS) that jointly deals with channel selection and channel switching to enhance the overall throughput of CRNs. The proposed scheme reduces the SU channel switching rate and makes channel selection more adaptable. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated using a Matlab simulator, and a comprehensive comparison study with a baseline scheme is presented. The simulation results are promising in terms of the throughput and the number of handoffs and making our proposed FLB-DSS a good candidate mechanism for SUs while making judicious decisions in the CR environment.


Abstract: The negative outcomes of the French and Dutch referenda on the Constitutional Treaty have opened a period of profound constitutional disenchantment in relation to the EU. This impression seems confirmed by the recent Presidency Conclusions of the European Council which, although salvaging many important solutions contained in the Constitutional Treaty, explicitly sanction that "the constitutional concept … is abandoned". In the light of this context, what role could the constitutional scholarship play? How to make sense of a polity in which the claims of constitutionalism as form of power are politically unappealing though legally plausible? This article tries to respond to these questions by reaffirming functionalism as a valid analytical and normative perspective in facing the current constitutional reality of European integration. The analytical value associated with functionalism is evidenced by testing against the current context of the EU legal framework the accounts for EU constitutionalism which postulate functional equivalence between the EU and the member states. The normative potential of functionalism, then, is discussed by arguing that there may be a value worth preserving in a degree of functional discrepancy between the EU and state constitutionalism and, notably, that the transformative and civilizing dividend inherent in functionalism could still be exploited at least in certain policy-areas. Finally, the article suggests that the difficulties in accounting for EU constitutionalism in the light of state-centered constitutional theory could be regarded as symptoms of European integration marking a moment in the theoretical evolution of constitutionalism.


Species-rich grasslands have seen a drastic decline due to agricultural intensification and abandonment and this has resulted in a fragmented distribution of grassland sites. Such grasslands are highly diverse and are being managed for conservation. Long-term studies provide valuable evidence for the effective management of grasslands and this research investigated how the vegetation of species-rich grasslands in the Forest of Bowland, NW England has changed over 25 years, a period which has seen the introduction of statutory protection measures and agrienvironment schemes. The study examined change in 35 grassland sites under contrasting management using data from two different survey methods. Results showed that overall community composition had remained stable but that change had occurred in the different management types.
More detailed investigations were carried out on 14 sites which had been managed consistently as hay meadows. The meadow community had been maintained over 25 years but there were losses and gains of important species.
To investigate whether the changes in meadow plant populations were linked to the fragmented distribution of the sites an analysis of the genetic diversity within sites and gene flow between sites was carried out. Microsatellite markers were used to study the population genetics of Rhinanthus minor (Yellow Rattle), a key meadow species. It was found that there were moderate levels of genetic diversity and evidence of gene flow between the meadows, and between the meadows and
intermediate grasslands including road verges. However, there were also local patterns of 5 differentiation. A comparison was made with samples collected from meadows in Worcestershire
where there were similar levels of genetic diversity but less gene flow. These findings suggest that meadow management should be continued but should also include the wider landscape by creating or restoring other grasslands which can function as part of a network of sites.


We use a generic agent-based model to investigate cellular aggregation in response to cell-cell interactions. Cells secrete soluble chemokines that are detected by other cells which carry specific receptors for this chemokine. In a process termed 'chemotaxis' the direction of motility of cells is determined by the concentration gradient of chemokines. 'Phototaxis' relies on the detection of light by intracellular receptors. In particular, we consider the case where intercellular signalling is induced by light that is emitted by the cells themselves. While chemotaxis is a frequently analysed and modelled intercellular communication path, phototaxis is only rarely investigated. We characterize and compare the collective response of cells to these mechanisms and show that chemotaxis and phototaxis can be distinguished by the emerging aggregation profile. This result provides a guideline to differentiate between these cell-cell interactions under specific circumstances in experiment.


Study Design. Case control study. Objective. To determine complications associated with pedicle screw use and screw accuracy in children 10 years or younger. Summary of Background Data. Pedicle screws are frequently used for the treatment of spine deformity in children, but, for young patients, this is only by physician-directed use. Thus, we sought to determine the rates of screw-related complications and screw malposition in patients 10 years or younger compared with a series of matched controls greater than 10 years of age. Methods. From 2000–2011, 265 screws were placed in 33 consecutive patients undergoing a total of 35 procedures for a variety of spine deformities. Mean age at surgery was 7 years (range, 2–10) with a mean time to follow-up of 3.3 ± 2.4 years. Congenital spine deformity was the most common surgical indication. Primary outcome measures were screw-related complication or return to surgery for screw malposition. Patients were matched by diagnosis/fusion level to 66 control patients greater than 10 years of age. Available computed tomographic scans in young children were reviewed to assess screw accuracy. Results. In patients 10 years or younger, 2 out of 265 screws (0.75%) resulted in a screw-related complication. No patient required revision surgery due to screw malposition. No patients older than 10 years in the matched controls had a screw-related complication or revision surgery due to screw malposition. Computed tomograpic data was available for 10 young patients, which was compared with data from the larger cohort of 81 older children. No difference was found in the rates of severe asymptomatic screw malposition, but moderate screw malposition was more common in the younger cohort. Conclusion. In this limited series, 265 pedicle screws were placed in 33 patients 10 years or younger with 0.75% of pedicle screws resulting in a complication. The rates of screw malposition revealed on computed tomographic scan were similar to those of adolescent children. These data support the use of pedicle screws in children 10 years or younger for the treatment of complex spinal deformity. Level of Evidence: 4


The practical benefits of computational logic need not be limited to mathematics and computing. As this book shows, ordinary people in their everyday lives can profit from the recent advances that have been developed for artificial intelligence. The book draws upon related developments in various fields from philosophy to psychology and law. It pays special attention to the integration of logic with decision theory, and the use of logic to improve the clarity and coherence of communication in natural languages such as English. This book is essential reading for teachers and researchers who may be out of touch with the latest developments in computational logic. It will also be useful in any undergraduate course that teaches practical thinking, problem solving or communication skills. Its informal presentation makes the book accessible to readers from any background, but optional, more formal, chapters are also included for those who are more technically oriented.


This study aimed at investigating users' perception of the inclusion of audit committee report in corporate financial statements. Questionnaires were used to elicit information from respondents. The Chi-Square statistical tool was employed in the analysis and testing of the various hypotheses raised. It was discovered that the audit committee report does not significantly affect the quality of financial reporting although some users consider it in their decision making process. Hence, it is recommended that it should not be a compulsory report so as to reduce cost, waste and make the financial statement brief yet weighty and relevant.


Background A new pre-triage screening tool, Nature of Call (NoC), has been introduced into the telephone triage system of UK ambulance services which employ National Health Service Pathways (NHSP). Its function is to provide rapid recognition of patients who may need immediate ambulance dispatch for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and withholding dispatch for other calls while further triage is undertaken. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of NoC and NHSP in identifying patients with potentially treatable or imminent OHCA. Methods This retrospective, observational study reviewed consecutive calls to a UK ambulance service between October 2016 and February 2017 in which NOC, and then NHSP were applied sequentially. Only those calls for which a corresponding electronic Patient Clinical Record was available were included. Sensitivity and specificity of NOC and NHSP for recognition of an OHCA were determined by comparing allocated priority dispositions with an OHCA Treatment Registry (OHCATR). Results Of 96 423 calls received, 71 373 were reviewed. For 590 (0.8%) of these calls, the patients received treatment for OHCA. NOC identified 458 OHCATR patients; NHSP identified 467; together they identified 496. NoC captured 29 patients not identified by NHSP; NHSP captured 38 patients not identified by NOC. For NOC sensitivity was 77.6% (95% CI 74.1 to 80.8) and specificity 86.9% (95% CI 86.6 to 87.1). NHSP sensitivity was 79.2% (95% CI 75.7 to 82.2) and specificity 93.4% (95% CI 93.2 to 93.6). NoC and NHSP combined had a sensitivity of 84.1% (95% CI 80.9 to 86.8) and specificity of 85.3% (95% CI 85.1 to 85.6). Conclusions NoC and NHSP call categorisation each achieved similar sensitivity for the identification of OHCATR, identifying most of the same patients, but each captured unique patients. Using both methods sequentially improved accuracy. The 16% of OHCATR patients not identified by either method present a challenge to ambulance dispatch systems.


Egyptian Arabic (EA) is a stress-accent language with postlexical intonational pitch accents. This thesis investigates EA pitch accents within the autosegmental-metrical (AM) framework (Ladd 1996). The goal of the study is to identify the place of EA in the spectrum of cross-linguistic prosodic variation, and to resolve the challenge it presents to existing phonological accounts of pitch accent distribution. In a corpus of read and (semi-)spontaneous EA speech a pitch accent was found on (almost) every content word, and in the overwhelming majority of cases the same pitch accent type is observed on every word. The typological implications of EA pitch accent distribution are explored in the context of the typology of word-prosodic variation (Hyman 2001) and variation in the domain of pitch accent distribution is proposed as a new parameter of prosodic variation. A survey of EA prosodic phrasing and of the relative accentuation of function words and content words shows that the correct generalisation for EA is that there is a pitch accent on every Prosodic Word (PWd). A phonological analysis is proposed within Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolen.sky 1993), formalising the two-way relation between tone and prosodic prominence at all levels of the Prosodic Hierarchy. An experimental study suggests that alignment of the H peak in EA pitch accents varies with stressed syllable type (cf. Ladd et al 2000), and is analysed as phonological association of the pitch accent to the foot. A final experiment quantifies the prosodic reflexes of information and contrastive focus. Even when post-focal and 'given' EA words still bear a pitch accent, but there are gradient effects of focus in the form of pitch range manipulation. Independence of pitch accent distribution from information structure supports the formal analysis of EA pitch accent distribution within the phonological part of the grammar.


The generation of submicrometer-sized particles during dry sliding between stainless steel surfaces is investigated by means of a laser spectrometer for particle counting and scanning tunnelling microscopy for asperity topography characterization. It has been found that, when the submicrometer wear increases with increasing sliding distance or with an initially rougher surface, the number of particles having a submicrometer size is a power function of that size. The two wear coefficients in the power function are determined empirically for the case of stainless steel contact. Different from the generation pattern of several-micrometer particles, the generation rate of submicrometer particles continuously increases until reaching the equilibrium surface condition. The asperity topography measurement shows the micrometer-sized asperities also have subasperities whose sizes are about one order of magnitude smaller. An asperity model similar to Archard's is thus proposed for estimation of submicrometer wear. The dominant wear mechanisms are brittle fracture and plastic deformation combined with adhesion transfer. The asperity contact can be considered as a plastic-elastic deformation system with subasperities deformed plastically all the time and the micrometer asperities first deformed plastically and then deformed elastically because of the significant increase of microhardness on the soft surface in a metal pair. When the microhardness ratio between two rubbing surfaces reaches a stable value, the generation of submicrometer particles reaches the maximum rate and the wear grows steadily.


Networks provide the infrastructure of cloud computing data centers. Servers in data centers grow to respond to the growing user demands. Data center scalability and flexibility in the use of multi-port servers is a challenging issue. Heretofore, no method has been considered for scalability and flexibility issues. This paper proposes a new architecture called MooreCube that can increase network scalability and decrease network diameter as well as increase flexibility. MooreCube is a scalable and flexible architecture that each multi-port server directly connected to other servers via bi-directional links, without using any switch. Furthermore, MooreCube is a recursively defined architecture that uses Moore graph as Building Block (BB) structure and uses the hierarchical structure to meet high scalability. The paper proposes a multipath routing to increase fault tolerance and decrease links burden. MooreCube architecture compared with other switchless architectures that use reserved ports to increase scalability. The simulation results show MooreCube increase scalability and flexibility along with decrease the diameter of the network.


We investigate whether explicit representation of the urban land surface improves the simulation of the record-breaking 24-h heavy rain event that occurred over Mumbai, India on 26 July 2005 as the event has been poorly simulated by operational weather forecasting models. We coupled and conducted experiments using the Regional Atmo-5 sphere modeling system (RAMS 4.3), with and without an explicit urban energy balance model-town energy budget (TEB) to study the role of urban land – atmosphere interactions in modulating the heavy rain event over the Indian monsoon region. The impact of including an explicit urban energy balance on surface thermodynamic, boundary layer, and circulation changes are analyzed. The results indicate that even for this synopti-10 cally active rainfall event, the vertical wind and precipitation are significantly influenced by urbanization, and the effect is more significant during the storm initiation. Interestingly , precipitation in the upwind region of Mumbai city is increased in the simulation, possibly as a feedback from the sea breeze – urban landscape convergence. We find that even with the active monsoon, the representation of urbanization contributes to 15 local heavy precipitation and mesoscale precipitation distribution over the Indian monsoon region. Additional experiments within a statistical dynamical framework show that an urban model by itself is not the dominant factor for the enhanced rainfall for Mumbai heavy rain event; the combination of updated SST fields using Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) data with the detailed representation of urban heat island 20 (UHI) simulated by the TEB/urban model created realistic gradients that successfully maintained the convergence zone over Mumbai. Further research will require more detailed morphology data for simulating weather events in such urban regions. The results suggest that urbanization can significantly contribute to extremes in monsoonal rain events that have been reported to be on the rise.


In developing countries the energy problems are both widespread and serious. Lack of access to sufficient and sustainable supplies of energy impacts around 90% of the population of many developing countries. People are compelled to live without regular and good quality electricity supply. The rural population remains dependent on fuels such as animal dung, crop residues, fuel wood and charcoal to cook their daily meals. Without efficient, clean energy, people are undermined in their efforts to engage effectively in productive activities and improve their quality of life (Barnes and Floor, 1996). India is home to the largest rural population in the world with approx. 68.84% of the total population residing in rural areas (Census, 2011). In order to contribute to the overall development in India, access to modern energy and cleaner fuel for rural households is important. There is a need to bridge the access gap by expanding energy systems to meet the energy requirements of the fast growing population and mitigate the threat of climate change.
The best possible solution to the energy poverty challenges lies in the shift towards sustainable energy technologies. In the present scenario, the uncontrollable increase in use of non-renewable energies such as fossil fuel, oil, natural gas has led to fluctuation of demand and supply. This negative energy balance for decades has forced India to purchase energy from other countries to fulfill the needs of the entire country. Hence, energy access is an important component of poverty alleviation and an indispensable element of sustainable human development. Government of India has initiated numerous development programmes, focusing on providing sustainable energy solutions to rural communities often deprived of clean and uninterrupted energy supply for their daily energy requirements. The study entitled 'Renewable Energy Options among Rural Households' was conducted in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh states. The outcomes of the study provide a roadmap for future programmes promoting the use of clean, efficient and modern energy technologies, to be implemented more effectively. Findings would further benefit the primary and secondary key stakeholders involved in research and development, formulation of policies and regulations, promoting sale and purchase and provide financial assistance to future energy programmes meant to popularize the use of Renewable Energy Technologies.


Inflammatory mechanisms may be involved in atherosclerotic plaque rupture. By using a novel histology-based method to quantify plaque instability here, we assess whether lectin pathway (LP) of complement activation, a major inflammation arm, could represent an index of plaque instability. Plaques from 42 consecutive patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and the lipid core, cholesterol clefts, hemorrhagic content, thickness of tunica media, and intima, including or not infiltration of cellular debris and cholesterol, were determined. The presence of ficolin-1, -2, and -3 and mannose-binding lectin (MBL), LP initiators, was assessed in the plaques by immunofluorescence and in plasma by ELISA. LP activation was assessed in plasma by functional in vitro assays. Patients presenting low stenosis (≤75%) had higher hemorrhagic content than those with high stenosis (>75%), indicating increased erosion. Increased hemorrhagic content and tunica media thickness, as well as decreased lipid core and infiltrated content were associated with vulnerable plaques and therefore used to establish a plaque vulnerability score that allowed to classify patients according to plaque vulnerability. Ficolins and MBL were found both in plaques' necrotic core and tunica media. Patients with vulnerable plaques showed decreased plasma levels and intraplaque deposition of ficolin-2. Symptomatic patients experiencing a transient ischemic attack had lower plasma levels of ficolin-1. We show that the LP initiators are present within the plaques and their circulating levels change in atherosclerotic patients. In particular, we show that decreased ficolin-2 levels are associated with rupture-prone vulnerable plaques, indicating its potential use as marker for cardiovascular risk assessment in atherosclerotic patients.


How can politics be articulated or at least imagined by ill, impoverished and abandoned communities? This article documents how care is invoked by activist groups and local citizens in their search for ethical recognition and environmental justice in Puchuncaví, Chile. The authors argue that in a context of prolonged and systematic harm, care emerges as a way to render their suffering understandable, knowable and actionable, and thus as a mode of intervention that instantiates politics in different spaces and at several scales. At the interfaces of feminist science studies, environmental sociology and political theory, this article examines how care acts as a grammar to enunciate problems and make connections deemed irrelevant by expert apparatuses. Specifically, the authors ethnographically track the capacity of care practices to create therapeutic spaces of affective endurance and healing, and to produce new forms of sensual and ecological knowledge about beings, things and relations. These different modes of caring and being cared for, it is suggested, underline the capacity of care for the politicization of harm and suffering: to re-arrange what is visibilized, valued and problematized in the face of intractable environmental crises – a crucial objective for collectives removed from every form of politics. Care, as it is articulated here, is not a coherent and predefined programme, but a fluid and adaptable ethico-political set of practices and potentialities always concerning specific individuals facing specific problems in specific circumstances. If care is to be mobilized to craft more response-able policy, researchers should think more thoroughly about these multiple configurations of care, and the disparate ways in which they can contribute (or not) to invoke new styles and formats, new sensitivities and possibilities for policy-making.


Mobile and social media over the last decade has created significant shifts in society: how we communicate and collaborate, and in learning and teaching. This paper discusses a study that investigated how mobile social media tools and affordances could be harnessed to facilitate a student-determined learning experience (heutagogy). A design-based research (DBR) approach was utilised to analyse and investigate a set of draft design principles that was established in collaboration with a group of teachers and literature. The draft design principles guided the design of a first year course that was iteratively implemented and evaluated over 2 years with two different cohorts of students. As a key outcome of the DBR, a set of refined design principles is presented. These principles are capable of guiding other practitioners in designing and facilitating student-determined learning in authentic contexts using mobile devices, and social media affordances.


Expansion of the range of Ixodes ricinus ticks further north and to higher altitudes affects the spread of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in new territories and increases the risk of human infections. Over the past decade, the number of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases has increased in Norway and parts of the southern coast have been established as endemic. The aims of this study were to confirm the existence of TBEV endemic foci, determine the spread of TBE in different localities of Norway, review and compare relevant published records on the prevalence of TBEV in the different developmental stages and sex of the ticks. Ticks were collected from nine locations along the southern coast of Norway during June-July 2009. For the detection of TBEV-specific RNA, a real-time RT-PCR targeting a part of the 3' non-coding region of the TBEV genome was used. A total of 1542 ticks grouped in 250 pools were examined and TBEV RNA was detected in 5 pools with overall prevalence of 0.32%.


Aflatoxins, produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus, contaminate maize grain and threaten human food and feed safety. Plant resistance is considered the best strategy for reducing aflatoxin accumulation. Six maize germplasm lines, TZAR101–TZAR106, were released by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture-Southern Regional Research Center (IITA-SRRC) maize breeding collaboration for use in African National Programs and U.S. maize breeding programs. The present investigation was conducted to evaluate aflatoxin reduction by these lines in a U.S. environment. As germplasm lines, resistance was demonstrated by the lines tested in 2010 and 2014 trials. In 2010, TZAR106 was among the lines with the lowest toxin accumulation, and in 2014, along with TZAR102, supported low aflatoxin. When evaluated as single cross hybrids in 2012, 2013 and 2014, several crosses involving IITA-SRRC lines accumulated low toxin. In 2012, TZAR103 × HBA1 was one of 4 lines with the lowest concentration of aflatoxin. In 2014, five IITA-SRRC hybrids were among the lowest with TZAR102 × Va35 and TZAR102 × LH132 being the two lowest. Results demonstrate significant aflatoxin reduction by IITA-SRRC lines in a U.S. aflatoxin-conducive environment (at Mississippi State University). Further testing in different locations and environments is needed to further evaluate the potential usefulness of these germplasm lines.


Over the last two decades, the Internet has established itself as part of everyday life. With the recent invention of Social Media, the advent of the Internet of Things as well as trends like "bring your own device" (BYOD), the needs for connectivity rise exponentially and so does the need for proper cyber security. However, human factors research of cyber security in private contexts comprises only a small fraction of the research in the field. In this study, we investigated adoption behaviours and trust in cyber security in private contexts by measuring - among other trust measures - disposition to trust and providing five cyber security scenarios. In each, a person/agent recommends the use of a cyber security tool. Trust is then measured regarding the recommending agent. We compare personal, expert, institutional, and magazine recommendations along with manufacturer information in an exploratory study of sixty participants. We found that personal, expert and institutional recommendations were trusted significantly more than manufacturer information and magazine reports. The highest trust scores were produced by the expert and the personal recommendation scenarios. We argue that technical and professional communicators should aim for cyber security knowledge permeation through personal relations, educating people with high technology self-efficacy beliefs who then disperse the acquired knowledge.


Teachers are the focal point for institutionalizing sustainable educational reform. The pivotal point of educational reform revolves around the opportunities for professional growth of teachers. For many schools, the implementation of professional learning communities is serving as the road map for creating opportunities for effective professional growth.
This qualitative study was designed to investigate teachers' perceptions of professional learning communities as opportunities for substantiated ongoing and effective professional growth. The study's methodology applied the use of focus groups, individual interviews, and participant observations. The findings endorsed that the teachers involved in this study did perceive professional learning communities as a framework and foundation for promoting and sustaining ongoing, effective professional growth.


This paper aims to provide a fast multicast algorithm among a set of distributed proxies to enable the creation of realistic audio for networked games. We assume that each proxy is responsible for a group of clients. The proxy receives the audio packets from its clients and multicasts this audio to every other proxy that requires this audio for any of its attached clients. In crowded virtual environments, the number of multicast trees could be quite large and these undergoes continuous change as the avatars move in and out of each others hearing range. To reduce the effect of overhead traffic caused by a large number of unicast flows, we propose the use of (i) coordinate-based clustering of the servers to reduce the number of packet replications required at each server; and (ii) a recursive multicast tree construction with minimal control overhead and reconfiguration complexity. We present simulation results for a crowded networked environment and evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithm in terms of path delay in comparison with the shortest unicast delay paths.


On-chip coherence directories of today's multi-core systems are not energy efficient. Coherence directories dissipate a significant fraction of their power on unnecessary lookups when running commercial server and scientific workloads. These workloads have large working sets that are beyond the reach of on-chip caches of modern processors. Limited to capturing a small part of the working set, private caches retain cache blocks only for a short period of time before replacing them with new blocks. Moreover, coherence enforcement is a known performance bottleneck of multi-threaded software, hence data-sharing in optimized high-performance software is minimal. Consequently, the majority of the accesses to the coherence directory find no sharers in the directory because the data are not available in the on-chip private caches, effectively wasting power on the coherence checks. To improve energy-efficiency for future many-core systems, we propose TurboTag, a filtering mechanism to eliminate needless directory lookups. We analyze full-system traces of server and scientific workloads and find that over 69% of accesses to the directory find no sharers and can be entirely avoided. Taking advantage of this behavior, TurboTag achieves a 58% reduction in the directory's dynamic power consumption.


Multiple binding sites for the transcription factors MAZ and Sp1 within the adenovirus type 5 major late promoter have been identified by DNase I protection studies. In the proximal region of the promoter, both MAZ and Sp1 interact with GC-rich sequences flanking the TATA box. Two MAZ binding sites are centered at -18 and -36 relative to the transcriptional initiation site. Sp1 bound only to the -18 GC-rich sequence. Several sites of interaction were also evident in the distal region of the promoter. Both MAZ and Sp1 interacted with a sequence centered at -166, and MAZ bound weakly to an additional site centered at -130. Overexpression of MAZ or Sp1 activated expression from the major late promoter in transient expression assays. Mutational analysis of the GC-rich sequences in the major late promoter suggested that a primary target of MAZ activation is the GC-rich sequences flanking the TATA sequence, whereas Sp1 requires the distal GC-rich sequence elements to stimulate gene expression. This activation is enhanced by the adenovirus E1A protein, and evidence for interaction between E1A and both transcription factors was obtained by using an immunoprecipitation assay. Activation by MAZ and Sp1 also was observed in transfection studies using the complete adenovirus type 5 genome as the target. Increased levels of late mRNA from both the L1 and L5 regions were observed when MAZ or Sp1 expression plasmids were transfected with viral DNA. Unexpectedly, activation of the major late promoter by MAZ and Sp1 was detected irrespective of whether the viral DNA could replicate.


The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is a charismatic, high-profile species whose conservation needs are commonly perceived to be incompatible with logging. However, koala biology and the results of chronosequence studies elsewhere suggest that this species may tolerate a degree of habitat alteration caused by logging. In this study, 30 koalas, five in each of six areas available for logging within a mixed white cypress pine (Callitris glaucophylla)–Eucalyptus forest in north-western New South Wales, were radio-tracked for one year during 1997–1998 to determine their movements, home-range sizes and tree preferences. Five months after the study began, three of these areas were logged selectively for sawlogs and thinnings of the white cypress pine, a tree that is important to koalas for daytime shelter. This removed about one-quarter of the stand basal area, but the eucalypt component was unaffected. The remaining three areas were left undisturbed as controls. Radio-tracking continued in all six areas for another seven months. Koalas continued to occupy all or part of their previous home-ranges after selective logging, and home-range sizes remained similar between logged and unlogged areas. Home-ranges for both sexes overlapped and were ~12 ha for males and 9 ha for females. Koala survival and the proportions of breeding females were similar in logged and unlogged areas. The principal food trees of the koala were red gums, mainly Eucalyptus blakelyi and E. chloroclada, and the pilliga box (E. pilligaensis), none of which were logged in this study. These results suggest that selective logging for white cypress pine does not appear to adversely affect koala populations and that koalas may not be as sensitive to logging as previously thought. Further work is required to determine thresholds in the level of retention of koala food trees in logging operations.


Objective To develop and validate a photographic method aimed at making assessment of dietary intake in school canteens non-obstrusive, practical and feasible. Methods The study was conducted in two elementary schools representing two different school canteen systems; main dish being served by canteen staff (Iceland), and complete self-serving (Sweden). Food items in serving and leftovers were weighed and photographed. Trained researchers estimated weights of food items by viewing the photographs and comparing them with pictures of half and full reference portions with known weights. Plates of servings and leftovers from 48 children during five school days (n = 448 plates) and a total of 5967 food items were estimated. The researchers' estimates were then compared with the true weight of the foods and the energy content calculated. Results Weighed and estimated amounts correlated across meals both in grams and as total energy (0.853–0.977, p<0.001). The agreement between estimated energy content in school meals was close to the true measurement from weighed records; on average 4–19 kcal below true values. Organisation of meal service impacted the efficacy of the method as seen in the difference between countries; with Iceland (served by canteen staff) having higher rate of acceptable estimates than Sweden (self-serving), being 95% vs 73% for total amount (g) in serving. Iceland more often had serving size between or above the half and full reference plates compared with Sweden. Conclusions The photographic method provides acceptable estimates of food and energy intake in school canteens. However, greater accuracy can be expected when foods are served by canteen staff compared with self-serving.


Although a positivist, I take more of an inclusive approach than my fellow panelists, and I apply Jules Coleman's theory of incorporationism in order to propose and explain a conceptual model for the sources of international law. Here, I will explain why inclusive legal positivism provides the most appropriate theory for conceptualizing the sources of international law in a contemporary world and outline some features of the structural model I set forth in my paper. I attend to two levels simultaneously: arguing in a favor of a wider notion of sources in international law induced from the criteria set out in the secondary rules, which may be regime-specific (secondary rules lex specialis); and suggesting a model in which the secondary rules (as well as primary rules)--both lex specialis and lex generalis--are unified by a meta rule, the rule of recognition, which has normative foundations. INTRODUCTION The basis of the model lies on the notion of secondary rules of international law that define the criteria for the sources of law. I acknowledge that there may be different sets of secondary rules, rather than one set that applies across the board to all the sub-disciplines and regimes in international law. There are, however, some general secondary rules, most notably--but not exclusively--those arising from Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The formulation of secondary rules as lex generalis and lex specialis sets out a pluralist approach to the processes of law formation, and the rule of recognition brings a normative unity in the international legal system. I use the term "secondary rules" as referring to the rules that set out the criteria of sources. Taking, for example, the definition of customary international law: practice supported by opinio juris sets out how custom is formed, and hence forms the secondary rules lex generalis for the source of custom. In addition to these general secondary rules, novel or unorthodox interpretations of an existing source, or new criteria for either an existing or new source of international law--often as regime-specific--can then contribute to creating secondary rules lex specialis. In addition to the issue of conceptualizing the sources of international law in an accurate and analytical manner, the argument here relies on inclusive positivism in the sense that moral (or other extra-legal considerations) may determine the formal legality of the rules. In other words, the rule of recognition may--but does not need to--incorporate the principle of morality: hence, applying the basic notion of inclusive positivism of "no necessary connection" between law and morality. This is apparent in international law and is, I argue, the most practically and conceptually accurate description of social facts in the international legal system. It is possible to locate the rule of recognition, notwithstanding past refusals to accept that such a rule would exist in international law. (1) It is beyond the focus here to discuss in depth the very nature of the rule of recognition, and I rely on Coleman's notion that the rule of recognition is both a social rule and a normative rule. (2) INCLUSIVE POSITIVISM AND SOME PARAMETERS OF A MODEL FOR A SOURCES THEORY Jules Coleman rejects Wil Waluchow's view that inclusive positivism best provides for the descriptive accuracy of law, (3) referring to rules that incorporate some moral conditions (e.g., "due process"; "cruel and unusual"). (4) Rules and principles containing similar moral language appear in abundance in international law. It is not for the reason of providing descriptive accuracy, but interpretive accuracy that inclusive positivism trumps competing theories, because it "provides the best comprehensive understanding of legal practice." (5) By this Coleman means that inclusive positivism best explains the interpretation of moral language in law application--again, something quite inescapable in international law. …


Enzyme-deantigenic equine bone (EDEB) and anorganic bovine bone (ABB) are two xenografts made non-antigenic through different processing methods. This study aimed to characterize them for the presence of native bone collagen and other proteins and to compare their histomorphometric outcome when they were used to graft post-extractive sockets. The records of 46 patients treated with EDEB (n = 22) or ABB (n = 24) and followed-up for at least four months after delayed implant placement, were retrospectively collected. Samples of EDEB and ABB were analyzed using Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis for the presence of collagen and other proteins. For histomorphometric analysis on bone specimens, newly formed bone and residual biomaterial percentages were calculated. Results of the present study show that EDEB contains type I bone collagen in its native conformation, while no proteins were detected in ABB. Grafting EDEB resulted in a significantly greater quantity of newly formed bone and less residual biomaterial. Our findings suggest that the manufacturing process can greatly affect the graft behavior and a process preserving collagen in its native form may favor bone tissue regeneration.


We present cosmological parameters derived from the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation observed at 148 GHz and 218 GHz over 296 deg2 with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) during its 2008 season. ACT measures fluctuations at scales 500 < ℓ < 10, 000. We fit a model for the lensed CMB, Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ), and foreground contribution to the 148 GHz and 218 GHz power spectra, including thermal and kinetic SZ, Poisson power from radio and infrared point sources, and clustered power from infrared point sources. At ℓ = 3000, about half the power at 148 GHz comes from primary CMB after masking bright radio sources. The power from thermal and kinetic SZ is estimated to be , where . The IR Poisson power at 148 GHz is (Cℓ = 5.5 ± 0.5 nK2), and a clustered IR component is required with , assuming an analytic model for its power spectrum shape. At 218 GHz only about 15% of the power, approximately 27 μK2, is CMB anisotropy at ℓ = 3000. The remaining 85% is attributed to IR sources (approximately 50% Poisson and 35% clustered), with spectral index α = 3.69 ± 0.14 for flux scaling as S(ν)∝να. We estimate primary cosmological parameters from the less contaminated 148 GHz spectrum, marginalizing over SZ and source power. The ΛCDM cosmological model is a good fit to the data (χ2/dof = 29/46), and ΛCDM parameters estimated from ACT+Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) are consistent with the seven-year WMAP limits, with scale invariant ns = 1 excluded at 99.7% confidence level (CL) (3σ). A model with no CMB lensing is disfavored at 2.8σ. By measuring the third to seventh acoustic peaks, and probing the Silk damping regime, the ACT data improve limits on cosmological parameters that affect the small-scale CMB power. The ACT data combined with WMAP give a 6σ detection of primordial helium, with YP = 0.313 ± 0.044, and a 4σ detection of relativistic species, assumed to be neutrinos, with Neff = 5.3 ± 1.3 (4.6 ± 0.8 with BAO+H0 data). From the CMB alone the running of the spectral index is constrained to be dns/dln k = −0.034 ± 0.018, the limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio is r < 0.25 (95% CL), and the possible contribution of Nambu cosmic strings to the power spectrum is constrained to string tension Gμ < 1.6 × 10−7 (95% CL).


The paper focuses on a design of in-situ real time system self-tests of a measurement system. The approach is based on principles of system modelling, pattern identification and validation with several methods presented. These involve several of the aspects of test signals and the design principles are illustrated in two case studies, one in the time domain and the second in the frequency domain. The paper also highlights the significance of rapid prototyping tools. The analysis can be useful as a methodological guide in designing smart sensors with an in-build self-test function.


Used to establish confidence in the correctness of evolving software, regression testing is an important, yet costly, task. Test case prioritization enables the rapid detection of faults during regression testing by reordering the test suite so that effective tests are run as early as is possible. However, a distinct lack of information about the regression faults found in complex real-world software forced prior experimental studies of these methods to use artificial faults called mutants. Using the Defects4J database of real faults, this paper presents the results of experiments evaluating the effectiveness of four representative test prioritization techniques. Since this paper's results show that prioritization is susceptible to high amounts of variance when only one fault is present, our experiments also control the number of real faults and mutants in the program subject to regression testing. Our overall findings are that, in comparison to mutants, real faults are harder for reordered test suites to quickly detect, suggesting that mutants are not a surrogate for real faults.


Emotiv is getting ready to launch its innovative brain-computer interfacing (BCI) technology. The company has developed a special headset, called EPOC, and highly sophisticated software that can translate a person's emotions, cognitive thoughts and facial expressions into digital outcomes. Emotiv wants the technology to be adopted by mainstream consumers and is leaning towards the video game market as its primary initial target. However, it needs to decide whether to continue efforts to convince one of the big three console makers (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) to enable the EPOC on their platform or to settle for the PC gaming market. Alternatively, the company could have chosen a number of different markets to focus on (such as medical, military, market research). A host of additional marketing decisions (pricing, channels, bundling a demo game) need to be made. The case allows students to grapple with the issues of: selecting a target application for the launch of an innovation; determining the importance of having a big name partner for the launch by an unknown start-up; considering the wisdom of taking a B2C rather than B2B approach with a novel technology; using analogous products to forecast demand and sales for a new technology.Learning Objective:To analyze the launch strategy of a completely novel technology: selection of target application and target market; importance of big name partners for consumer adoption; forecasting adoption pattern.


We cast the query by example spoken term detection (QbE-STD) problem as subspace detection where query and background subspaces are modeled as union of low-dimensional subspaces. The speech exemplars used for subspace modeling are class-conditional posterior probabilities estimated using deep neural network (DNN). The query and background training exemplars are exploited to model the underlying low-dimensional subspaces through dictionary learning for sparse representation. Given the dictionaries characterizing the query and background subspaces, QbE-STD is performed based on the ratio of the two corresponding sparse representation reconstruction errors. The proposed subspace detection method can be formulated as the generalized likelihood ratio test for composite hypothesis testing. The experimental evaluation demonstrate that the proposed method is able to detect the query given a single example and performs significantly better than a highly competitive QbE-STD baseline system based on template matching.


The random demodulator is a recent compressive sensing architecture providing efficient sub-Nyquist sampling of sparse band-limited signals. The compressive sensing paradigm requires an accurate model of the analog front-end to enable correct signal reconstruction in the digital domain. In practice, hardware devices such as filters deviate from their desired design behavior due to component variations. Existing reconstruction algorithms are sensitive to such deviations, which fall into the more general category of measurement matrix perturbations. This paper proposes a model-based technique that aims to calibrate filter model mismatches to facilitate improved signal reconstruction quality. The mismatch is considered to be an additive error in the discretized impulse response. We identify the error by sampling a known calibrating signal, enabling least-squares estimation of the impulse response error. The error estimate and the known system model are used to calibrate the measurement matrix. Numerical analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of the calibration method even for highly deviating low-pass filter responses. The proposed method performance is also compared to a state of the art method based on discrete Fourier transform trigonometric interpolation.


The aim of the present study was to evaluate the ability of the peptide dendrimers to facilitate transdermal delivery of antioxidants, silibinin, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Drug–peptide dendrimer complexes were prepared and evaluated for their ability to permeate across the skin. The data revealed the ready formation of complexes between drug and peptide dendrimer in a molar ratio of 1:1. In vitro permeation studies using excised rat skin and drug–peptide dendrimer complexes showed highest values for cumulative drug permeation at the end of 12 h (Q12), with corresponding permeability coefficient (Kp) and enhancement ratio values also determined at this time point. With silibinin, 3.96-, 1.81-, and 1.06-fold increase in skin permeation was observed from silibinin–peptide dendrimer complex, simultaneous application of silibinin + peptide dendrimer, and pretreatment of skin with peptide dendrimer, respectively, in comparison with passive diffusion. With EGCG, 9.82-, 2.04-, and 1.72-fold increase in skin permeation was observed from EGCG–peptide dendrimer complex, simultaneous application of EGCG + peptide dendrimer, and pretreatment of skin with peptide dendrimer, respectively, in comparison with passive diffusion. The present study demonstrates the application of peptide dendrimers in effectively delivering antioxidants such as EGCG and silibinin into the skin, thus offering the potential to provide antioxidant effects when delivered via appropriately formulated topical preparations.


Objective: This article forms part of the findings of a thesis titled, The management of burn wounds by nurses. The purpose was to describe current practice to identify strengths, weaknesses and gaps in this regard.

 Design: A qualitative, descriptive research design was used.

 Subjects and setting: The population included nurses providing care to patients admitted to a burn unit.

 Outcome measures: Semi-structured interviews were selected for data collection. Data collection took place from August to October 2012 and from April to June 2013. Data saturation was achieved after eight interviews.

 Results: The description of current practice identified strengths, weaknesses and gaps in current practice with regard to the management of burn wounds from the participants' perspective.

 Conclusion: The interviews augmented the findings of structured observation. Certain hypotheses were proved and disproved, for example, that wound care is ritualistic as the same words were repeated by nurses to describe certain phenomena. Heating cleaning solutions and hand washing were identified as areas that needed development. Participants' responses suggested a need for training, following assessment and diagnosis. The tissue, infection and inflammation, moisture balance and edge of wound (TIME) framework was not adopted for the management of burn wounds. The nursing process and the TIME framework were not used during documentation, which indicates a need for a more structured approach to reporting. These results indicate that guidelines on the management of burn wounds by nurses are required.


Abstract. This study presents the analysis of island induced gravity waves observed by an airborne Doppler wind lidar (DWL) during SALTRACE. First, the instrumental corrections required for the retrieval of high spatial resolution vertical wind measurements from an airborne DWL are presented and the measurement accuracy estimated by means of two different methods. The estimated systematic error is below −0.05 m s−1 for the selected case of study, while the random error lies between 0.1 and 0.16 m s−1 depending on the estimation method. Then, the presented method is applied to two measurement flights during which the presence of island induced gravity waves was detected. The first case corresponds to a research flight conducted on 17 June 2013 in the Cabo Verde islands region, while the second case corresponds to a measurement flight on 26 June 2013 in the Barbados region. The presence of trapped lee waves predicted by the calculated Scorer parameter profiles was confirmed by the lidar and in situ observations. The DWL measurements are used in combination with in situ wind and particle number density measurements, large-eddy simulations (LES), and wavelet analysis to determine the main characteristics of the observed island induced trapped waves.


In Dennison Bridge, Inc. v. Resource Energy, L.L.C., the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Seventh District found that the reasonableness of a delay in repairing a well created a question of fact in the termination of an oil and gas lease for non-production. The court reversed a grant of summary judgment to the oil and gas company for an 18-month delay. The court discussed, but did not adopt, a bright line time for when a delay is reasonable or not, preferring to examine the facts of the case. The court further affirmed its prior decision rejecting the argument that the lease was void for being a perpetual lease. The case will be used by both producers and landowners in future cases involving non-production and lease terminations. The decision comes from the pivotal Seventh Appellate District which is the intermediate appellate court for the counties in Ohio that are heavily involved in the oil and gas industry including Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson, Mahoning, Monroe, and Noble counties.


The notion of "community outreach" can be complicated for academic libraries, because both "community" and "outreach" can have multiple meanings. While many academic libraries have a mission or administrative mandate to engage with local and regional communities, these initiatives are not always backed with material support, adequate staffing, or equal distribution of responsibilities within the library. Thus, it can be difficult for academic libraries to engage in community outreach while still serving the core constituency of the institution: students, faculty, and staff. In response to this issue, this paper discusses various strategic planning models that can be used to plan for community outreach initiatives within academic libraries, featuring a case study of a health information literacy outreach event planned and executed by a team of librarians from the Research, Outreach, and Instruction department within UNC Greensboro's University Libraries. Additionally, the authors of the paper propose a framework for determining the return on investment and feasibility of outreach opportunities, which is in turn applied to the case study.


The aim of the article was to explore the narrative of Hester, a black South African woman, who is living with secondary infertility. The perspective is that of post-foundational practical theology, feminist theology and social constructionist narrative methodology. Fertility, as one of the most intimate areas of human existence, lies at the heart of life itself. Within the African tradition, motherhood is seen as almost sacred. Despite Hester's multiple identities, one which is that of adoptive mother, the absence of biological children causes her to be regarded as a 'childless' woman. That identity not only disproportionately defines her, but also stigmatises her as shameful and an outsider. Within the traditional African worldview being healthy (including being fertile) is seen as being in harmony with the societal order and systemic, spiritual and religious environment. Hester's social construction of her 'self' is that of helplessness, reflected in her near illiteracy, low economic status, socio-cultural position and lack of skills. Her childlessness reinforced her helplessness. Her 'woundedness' was perpetuated by the fact that she could not share her painful story openly. In the article Hester's story is presented as a poem, titled : 'the thing that doesn't want to come out'. The article concludes with Hester's reconstruction of 'self' as a woman, although poor, also blessed.


The corrosion of reinforced concrete structures is a major issue in the UK and
worldwide from both a structural view and maintenance management aspect. Early
detection of this degradation process will provide the owner with the optimum
number of repair options whilst minimising repair costs. This paper reports on the
new non-destructive corrosion detection technique for reinforced concrete –
AeCORR, specifically targeted towards detecting active corrosion damage occurring
within the concrete during the very early stages of the degradation process. An
overview of the technique is provided together with a recent case study.


JON MILLS Treating Attachment Pathology Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson, 2005, 388 pages (ISBN 0-7657-0132-4, CDN$40.02 Paper, 0-7657-0130-8, CDN$89.31 Cloth) Reviewed by TREVOR R. OLSON and MICHAEL Wm. MACGREGOR Many books written on attachment pathology focus on the assessment and treatment of children, and provide very little information on attachment difficulties found in adults and adolescents. Jon Mills' Treating Attachment Pathology addresses this neglected area by exploring attachment disorders and psychopathology in adults. As such, Mills' work is a welcome addition to the literature. It goes beyond simply linking adult psychopathology to early attachment difficulties. Mills' work provides a theoretical framework for understanding attachment from a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic perspective and then uses this theoretical framework to discuss the aetiology and treatment of adult disorders. Mills aims to make Treating Attachment Pathology accessible to the expert and novice alike. He does this by extensively reviewing the literature for the expert (e.g., conceptualizations of the self, borderline conditions, etc.), and by making the literature accessible to the novice by providing case examples. Mills himself, however, acknowledges that at times the literature and language is "dense and esoteric." To counteract this Mills makes extensive use of case examples and thereby makes complex and theoretically dense concepts accessible. This is one of the real strengths of Mills' book and it is done with great skill. Mills divides Treating Attachment Pathology into three sections: "Theoretical and Diagnostic Considerations," where he introduces psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and attachment theory and research (pp. 3-92); "Treatment Perspectives" where he examines specific aspects of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy for attachment disordered patients (pp. 95-276); and "Extended Case Studies," where the reader is given an opportunity to consider the previously presented information in lengthy case examples (pp. 279-339). The first section of Treating Attachment Pathology begins with an exploration of the unconscious and prelanguage origins of attachment. Mills also explores issues such as early attachment classification, biological and emotional components of attachment, relationality, and intersubjectivity. Mills' philosophical background is clearly evident in Chapter One as he takes the reader through a review of past and present attachment conceptualizations and classifications. Although the material is at times philosophical and "dense," this chapter provides a foundation upon which Mills builds his conceptualization of attachment pathology and how it relates to adult psychopathology. For example, Mills discusses how attachment pathology results in structural deficit of the self due to the incorporation of toxic introjects. Mills continues to lay the foundation for his understanding of attachment pathology in Chapter Two, where he discusses his theory of the infantile mind. In this chapter, Mills provides an excellent summary of his theory of the infantile mind (pp. 42-43). He also addresses the defensive evolvement of the infant and highlights the works of Object Relations psychologists such as Klein, Bion, and Fairbairn. Through the use of case examples, Mills helps the reader better understand the material presented. This is one of the strengths found throughout Mills' book and as indicated above, helps makes the material accessible to the novice. In the third chapter, Mills cogently argues that attachment pathology often results in personality organization at the borderline level. He further goes on to argue that this borderline organization helps account for the polysymptomatic presentation seen in patients with attachment pathology (i.e., dysregulated affect, complaints directed towards others, interpersonal difficulties, disturbed self-representations, impulsive behaviours, confusion over interpreting inner experiential states, developmental histories marked by absence and loss). …


The effect of exposure to eye images on various behaviors has been explained as a response to an invalid cue of observation. This interpretation has been supported by an experiment showing that a short exposure to eye images increased dictator game generosity, but a long exposure did not. We attempted to conceptually replicate that finding with a different dependent variable, and found no effect of short or long exposure to eye images on moral condemnation. Thus, we failed to replicate previous work showing an effect of eye images on condemnation and therefore these results do not inform the invalid cue hypothesis. We found that women condemned more strongly than men and discuss this finding in light of functional theories of moral condemnation.


To enable the fast growth of the floating offshore wind industry, simulation models must be validated with experimental data. Floating wind model-scale experiments in wind–wave facilities have been performed over the last two decades with varying levels of fidelity and limitations. However, the turbine controls in these experiments have considered only limited control strategies and implementations. To allow for control co-design, this research focuses on implementing and experimentally validating more advanced turbine control actions and strategies in a wind–wave basin for a 1:70-scale model of the International Energy Agency's wind 15 MW reference wind turbine. The control strategies analyzed include torque control, collective pitch control, and transition region control (setpoint smoothing). Our experimental and numerical results include the effects of varying rotor speeds, blade pitches, and wind environments on the turbine thrust and torque. Numerical models from three different software tools are presented and compared to the experimental results. Their ability to effectively represent the aero-dynamic response of the wind turbine to the control actions is successfully validated. Finally, turbine controller tuning parameters based on the derivatives of thrust and torque are derived to allow for improved offshore wind turbine dynamics and to validate the ability of modeling tools to model the dynamics of floating offshore wind turbines with control co-design.


It has been reported that the dizziness or vertigo in about 10 to 30 patients visiting an otolaryngologist is of psychiatric origin. Since otolaryngologists are not familiar with the treatment for these patients, such treatment is usually not adequate. The clinical entity of chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) is one of psychiatric dizziness proposed by Staab and Ruckenstein. Fourteen percent (40/285) of patients were diagnosed as having psychiatric dizziness in Hino Municipal Hospital last year. Among them we had 7 cases with CSD. We report herein on the result of the clinical examinations and pharmacological treatment. In most of the cases, subjective symptoms were significantly improved after the pharmacological treatment with SSRIs (Serotonin reuptake inhibitors). From these results, CSD is important clinical entity treatable by otolaryngologist with SSRIs. To prescribe SSRIs, it is important to know the common adverse reactions associated with SSRIs. These include gastrointestinal symptoms including nausea and activation syndromes especially in early stage of treatment. CSD is an important clinical entity, which should be diagnosed and is treatable by otolaryngologists.


Background There is substantial disagreement about whether gluten-free foods should be prescribed on the NHS. We aim to describe time trends, variation and factors associated with prescribing gluten-free foods in England. Methods We described long-term national trends in gluten-free prescribing, and practice and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) level monthly variation in the rate of gluten-free prescribing (per 1000 patients) over time. We used a mixed effect poisson regression model to determine factors associated with gluten-free prescribing rate. Results There were 1.3 million gluten-free prescriptions between July 2016 and June 2017, down from 1.8 million in 2012/13, with a corresponding cost reduction from £25.4m to £18.7m. There was substantial variation in prescribing rates among practices (range 0 to 148 prescriptions per 1000 patients, interquartile range 7.3 to 31.8), driven in part by substantial variation at the CCG level, likely due to differences in prescribing policy. Practices in the most deprived quintile of deprivation score had a lower prescribing rate than those in the highest quintile (incidence rate ratio 0.89, 95% confidence interval 0.87-0.91). This is potentially a reflection of the lower rate of diagnosed coeliac disease in more deprived populations. Conclusion Gluten-free prescribing is in a state of flux, with substantial clinically unwarranted variation between practices and CCGs. Strengths and weaknesses of the study We were able to measure the prescribing of gluten-free foods across all prescribing in England, eliminating bias. We also removed seasonal variation by aggregating savings over 12 months. As well as gluten-free prescribing variation at practice and CCG level, we have described long-term prescribing trends at national level, back to 1998. Using the available data, we were unable to look at gluten-free prescribing at prescriber level, or investigate factors associated with prescribing to individual patients


Why does the contemporary backlash against globalization in the United States have such a substantial authoritarian character? We argue that sustained economic decline has a negative effect on the social identity of historically dominant groups. These losses lead individuals to be more likely to want to enforce social norm conformity—that is, adopt more authoritarian values— as a way to preserve social status and this effect is greater the larger the size of other groups in the population. Central to our account is the expectation of an interactive effect of local economic and demographic conditions in forging value responses to economic decline. The article evaluates this argument using an original 2017 representative survey in the United States. We find that individuals living in relatively diverse regions facing more intense competition from Chinese imports have more authoritarian values. We further find that the greater effect of globalization-induced labor market decline in more diverse areas is also evident for vote choice in the 2016 Presidential election.


Lethal interactions between carnivorans (interspecific killing) may influence their population dynamics, behavior, and other important aspects of their ecology. In this study, I expand upon previous research on the broad-scale patterns of interspecific killing in Carnivora (Palomares & Caro 1999, Donadio & Buskirk 2006) with a greatly expanded dataset (inclusion of scat and stomach data and more intensive sampling of the literature), and suggest avenues for future research. While like previous studies, I found a positive effect of relative body size between killer species and killed species on the likelihood of forming a killing interaction, I failed to find evidence that this effect had a body size ratio threshold above which interactions become less common, suggesting a greater role of non-competitive killing than previously believed. I also found evidence for a positive influence of range overlap and dietary overlap on species interactions, but found mixed effects of phylogeny. This study suggests that our previous understanding of the broad-scale dynamics interspecific killing in Carnivora was, due to limited sampling, incomplete in scope. Incidental killing, whereby killing interactions occur as a byproduct of opportunistic lethal encounters caused by the hyperpredatory behavior of carnivorans, has a number of interesting implications for our understanding of interspecies aggression, including research on intraguild predation and its effects.


This paper challenges two cliches that have dominated the macroeconometric debates in India. One relates to the neoclassical view that deficits are detrimental to growth, as they increase the rate of interest, and in turn displace the interest-rate-sensitive components of private investment. The second relates to the assumption of "stationarity"--which has dominated the statistical inference in time-series econometrics for a long time--as well as the emphasis on unit root–type testing, which involves detrending, or differencing, of the series to achieve stationarity in time-series econometric models. The paper examines the determinants of rates of interest in India for the periods 1980-81 and 2011-12, using the maximum entropy bootstrap (Meboot) methodology proposed in Vinod 1985 and 2004 (and developed extensively in Vinod 2006, Vinod and Lopez-de-Lacalle 2009, and Vinod 2010 and 2013). The practical appeal of Meboot is that it does not necessitate all pretests, such as structural change and unit root–type testing, which involve detrending the series to achieve stationarity, which in turn is problematic for evolutionary short time series. It also solves problems related to situations where stationarity assumptions are difficult to verify--for instance, in mixtures of I(0) and nonstationary I(d) series, where the order of integration can be different for different series. What makes Meboot compelling for Indian data on interest rates? Prior to interest rate deregulation in 1992, studies to analyze the determinants of interest rates were rare in India. Analytical and econometric limitations to dealing with the nonvarying administered rates for a meaningful time-series analysis have been the oft-cited reason. Using high-frequency data, the existing attempts have focused on the recent financially deregulated interest rate regime to establish possible links between interest rates and macroeconomic variables (Chakraborty 2002 and 2012, Dua and Pandit 2002, and Goyal 2004). The results from the Meboot analysis revealed that, contrary to popular belief, the fiscal deficit is not significant for interest rate determination in India. This is in alignment with the existing empirical findings, where it was established that the interest rate is affected by changes in the reserve currency, expected inflation, and volatility in capital flows, but not by the fiscal deficit. This result has significant policy implications for interest rate determination in India, especially since the central bank has cited the high fiscal deficit as one of the prime constraints for flexibility in fixing the rates.


Indigenous forests are an integral part of rural communities in Africa, and they are socioecologically managed and conserved by customary laws. Most of these forests are important reserves of cultural and ecological values, although they are threatened by modern economic and political developments and often by foreign religious intrusion. Based on this background the Thathe sacred forest in the Zoutpansberg mountains of the Northern Province, in South Africa, was chosen for investigation. The perceptions and conservation attitudes of the rural communities living around the forest were investigated. In addition, the contribution of the traditional ethics of the local people to forest biodiversity management were also assessed. The extent to which the rural communities attach consumptive and/or non-consumptive values to the Thathe forest was examined for insight to the survival of the forest into the future. Data collection included a field survey, interviews with key informants, structured and semi-structured interviews, and a documentary survey (documents or records such as monthly or annual reports of an institution like the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) about its activities, and government gazettes). Responses of 201 interviewees from around the Thathe forest were analysed. Data was arranged by age, sex, educational background and area of residence. The majority of the respondents (76.6%) across the gender categories regarded the forest as sacred, while 20.4 felt it is an area of conservation importance. A strong cultural link between the local people and the forest is inferred from these positive attitudes! in spite of a history of forced removals of the surrounding communities from the Thathe-Vondo forest area. The attitudes of the people around the forest are wide-spread and consistent across the tribal areas. Nevertheless, cultural usage of the forest has waned in recent years (a consequence of restrictions on access to the forest) and few people (13.4%) actively use it for cultural rituals. Based on the research findings it is imperative that an attempt is made to reconcile the local people and the government institution managing indigenous forests and policing forestry in general (DWAF). The relevance of conventional conservation principles must be brought to the attention of the local people! and these ought to be integrated with cultural methods of forest resource management and conservation. This will serve as a foundation for sustainable indigenous forest resource management in Thathe forest.