I. INTRODUCTION Since gaining independence,1 Georgia has passed through many radical political and economic changes. Thus, Georgian society is accustomed to various reforms, particularly reforms in the legal field, as a part of ordinary life.2 However, despite this familiarity with reforming political, economic, and legal systems, the universally recognized values promoted by these reforms have not yet become deeply rooted in the mentality of Georgian citizens. Because these values have not been internalized, the actual enforcement of human rights protection remains in a very fragile state.3 A change in the current social attitude toward equality and respect for diversity is critical to the further development of democracy in the country. Lacking maturity in civic awareness, Georgian society is showing symptoms of the so-called "snail syndrome." When a snail comes into contact with a strange environment, it hides in its shell and tries to protect itself from possible danger. Any unexpected confrontation with reality is necessarily associated with danger and the instinct of self-preservation kicks in. This "snail syndrome" is a primitive feeling that is also characteristic of human nature-a trait that manifests itself at both the individual and collective level. In a modern society, this primitive instinct presents itself in cautious, guarded behavior and constant preparation to cope with any possible danger. While this reaction is understandable, especially when taking into account a growing feeling of insecurity in Georgia, it is possible, and perhaps even likely, that a society exhibiting "snail syndrome" will realize its self-preservation instinct at the expense of universally recognized human values. In many cases, the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are challenged within such a regime. As part of the fight for self-preservation, a large portion of Georgian society tries to prevent the establishment of perceived potential dangers, such as Baptism, Catholicism, Lutheranism, and many other religious associations.4 This is an open affront to the right to freedom of religion and belief, but its deeper significance lies in the impact on the development of democracy and other reforms. Such actions of "self-preservation" also present an obstacle to raising civic awareness. Some Georgians believe that the idea of freedom of religion and belief, together with other universally recognized values, contributes to the degeneration of national values.5 This supposed danger to the nation's values is most often spoken of by the individuals directly or indirectly opposing the right to freedom of religion or belief.6 These people have nothing against democracy unless it implies the recognition of, and respect for, the rights of different people united under a different sign. The classical content of democracy, however, includes a recognition and respect for the rights of others and does not allow for selective adherence to democratic values. A truly democratic society cannot accept physically or verbally aggressive treatment of its people on the basis of religion or belief-which has taken place to a great extent over the years in Georgia.7 From a legal standpoint, these aggressive acts represent a classic case of hate crimes motivated by religious bias,8 and religious extremism. A number of different conditions contribute to the spread of violence, including religious-based violence, such as the misunderstanding of universally recognized principles, the application of double standards to the implements of these values in every day life, the practice of shaping democracy to fit the local context, and the groundless fear of anything different. This Article addresses the importance of properly understood and properly implemented reforms in the legal field and stresses the importance of filling the gaps in current Georgian church-state relations. …


The influence of mode nonorthogonality on the correlation function of the intensity fluctuation and of the amplitude that determines laser linewidth as well as the coherence of light is investigated. The semiclassical approach based on a time-dependent solution of the Fokker–Planck equation is used. Numerical results obtained for a distributed-feedback laser with nonvanishing end reflectivity and a complex coupling coefficient reveal the difference between the standard approach (for orthogonal modes) and the more realistic model (mode nonorthogonality included).


The contemporary Made-In-Canada (MIC) local garment system is a vast departure from what
Canada had in place 40 years ago. In the 1970's, 70% of the Canadian consumer clothing demand
was met with domestic production [Wyman, 2009]. At the time, both production capacity and
labour skills existed inside of Canada, whereas in today's market, these skills are significantly
outsourced by Canadian businesses. This shift - driven in part by the capabilities available from
globalization - has shrunk the domestic manufacturing sector in Canada, carrying with it many
long-term economic, environmental and social implications. This paper examines the MIC system as
it pertains to the garment industry; understanding how the current consumer market interest in
fashion-forward timeliness and focus on price are impacting the garment system in Canada. This
research also explores the dominant stakeholders influencing consumers' ability to make informed
choices about their garment purchases, particularly those which label themselves, Made-In-Canada.
Three findings were revealed through the research process: a) Globalization is a critical driver in
the system as deregulation made it difficult for local manufacturers to stay competitive;
b) Consumer perceptions of value are driving demand for cheap prices as they are limited by what
they see in the market; c) The MIC system in the garment industry is a 'black box' for consumers
who are challenged to make an informed choice with a lack of access to information. As a result of
this examination, the research identified emerging opportunities and interventions to assist
consumers in making choices about their MIC garments in the future. Due to scope, the
interventions identified in this paper initiate from the government, a key stakeholder, with a
emphasis on possible policy interventions.


We discuss empirical challenges in multicountry studies of the effects of firm-level corporate governance on firm value, focusing on emerging markets. We assess the severe data, "construct validity," and endogeneity issues in these studies, propose methods to respond to those issues, and apply those methods to a study of five major emerging markets -- Brazil, India, Korea, Russia, and Turkey. We develop unique time-series datasets on governance in each country. We address construct validity by building country-specific indices which reflect local norms and institutions. These similar-but-not-identical indices predict firm market value in each country, and when pooled across countries in firm fixed-effects (FE) and random-effects (RE) regressions. In contrast, a "common index" that uses the same elements in each country, has no predictive power in FE regressions. For the country-specific and pooled indices, FE and RE coefficients on governance are generally lower than in pooled OLS regressions, and coefficients with extensive covariates are generally lower than with limited covariates. These results confirm the value of using FE or RE with extensive covariates to reduce omitted variable bias. We develop lower bounds on our estimates which reflect potential omitted variable bias.An expanded working paper version of this paper is available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2359126, contains details on our governance indices and the five countries we study, and additional results, which were omitted from this paper for space reasons.A replication dataset, accompanying codebook, and replication statistical code for this article and the expanded working paper are available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2503520


In this experimental study we analyse three collective and one individual punishment rule in a public good setting. We show that under all punishment rules cooperation is stronger and more sustainable than reported from settings without punishment. Moreover, we present evidence and explanations for differences between the rules concerning punishment intensity, contribution and profit levels, as well as justice. Finally, we investigate influences crucial to participants' support for a collective rule when the individual rule is the status quo. We show that beside profit differences the degree of consent required by the collective rule is essential for the degree of support by the participants.


Current architecture uses glass even for load bearing structural elements. Typical example is perpendicularly loaded laminated glass panel as a part of balustrade, staircase, or canopy. Laminated glass is a composition of two or more glass plies bonded by polymeric interlayer which enables the shear transfer between the individual plies in a laminated panel. The shear transfer depends on the shear stiffness of a certain interlayer as a time and temperature dependent parameter. Shear stiffness in time and temperature domain can be numerically described by a discrete Maxwell model whose Prony parameters may be obtained by Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) of a particular interlayer. There are various techniques of DMTA as well as various Prony parameters fitting methods. As soon as shear stiffness given by Maxwell model is quantified, it is desirable to verify its credibility by experiment. This paper compares the experimental data from displacement-controlled four-point bending tests in various loading rates and from four point bending longterm creep experiment of double laminated glass panels with PVB interlayer Trosifol BG-R20® to the numerical analysis performed in ANSYS® 18.0. The interlayer was modelled as a viscoelastic material by two discrete Maxwell models. Prony parameters of the first Maxwell model were based on DMTA results performed on small scale specimens in single lap shear mode and Prony parameters of the second Maxwell model were based on DMTA results performed on small scale specimens in single lap shear mode and torsion mode. Results show that Maxwell model based only on single lap shear tests enabled to describe the long-term response of a panel while that based on single lap shear and torsion tests was more precise in task of displacement-controlled test. All experiments and analyses were performed at CTU in Prague.


The contiguous rain area (CRA) method for spatial forecast verification is a features-based approach that evaluates the properties of forecast rain systems, namely, their location, size, intensity, and finescale pattern. It is one of many recently developed spatial verification approaches that are being evaluated as part of a Spatial Forecast Verification Methods Intercomparison Project. To better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the CRA method, it has been tested here on a set of idealized geometric and perturbed forecasts with known errors, as well as nine precipitation forecasts from three high-resolution numerical weather prediction models. The CRA method was able to identify the known errors for the geometric forecasts, but only after a modification was introduced to allow nonoverlapping forecast and observed features to be matched. For the perturbed cases in which a radar rain field was spatially translated and amplified to simulate forecast errors, the CRA method alsoreproducedthe knownerrorsexcept when ahigh-intensity thresholdwas usedto define the CRA ($10 mm h 21 ) and a large translation error was imposed (.200 km). The decomposition of total error into displacement, volume, and pattern components reflected the source of the error almost all of the time when a mean squared error formulation was used, but not necessarily when a correlation-based formulation was used. When applied to real forecasts, the CRA method gave similar results when either best-fit criteria, minimization of the mean squared error, or maximization of the correlation coefficient, was chosen for matching forecast and observed features. The diagnosed displacement error was somewhat sensitive to the choice of search distance. Of the many diagnostics produced by this method, the errors in the mean and peak rain rate between the forecast and observed features showed the best correspondence with subjective evaluations of the forecasts, while the spatial correlation coefficient (after matching) did not reflect the subjective judgments.


Listening comprehension has received considerable attention in the fields of applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language pedagogy during the last two decades (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Flowerdew 1994; Rost, 1990; Underwood, 1989; Ur, 1984). Results of the large body of research have shown that listening is not a passive process, in which the listener simply receives a spoken message, but rather a complex cognitive process, in which the listener constructs the meaning using both her linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge. The importance of the listeners' cognitive and social judgements in the process of listening, in addition to the linguistic knowledge, has been especially emphasised (Rost, 1990).

Although most of the findings relevant to understanding how listening operates come from research into listening in the mother tongue, many of the conclusions have had important implications for the teaching of listening in the foreign language. It is widely recognised today that listening is an active skill, or rather, a cluster of various sub-skills, which are both learnable and teachable. Listening is regarded as an essential element of foreign language proficiency, and as such plays an important role in foreign language programmes. Various methodologies for the teaching of listening have emerged (such as Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Brown, 1991; Ur, 1984). These have had a considerable influence on course design and textbook writing, especially in terms of features of materials for teaching listening (authentic vs. constructed), types of listening tasks, ways of raising learner awareness of the listening process and effective strategies for listening, stages in listening activities, and integrating listening with other language skills. The importance that listening receives in foreign language pedagogy today is reflected at various levels: in one form or another, listening is present in syllabuses, coursebooks and teaching materials available on the market, general proficiency language exams and is even the main focus of specialised courses, such as academic listening.

However, the teaching of the listening skill has been long overlooked in English language teaching in state education in Yugoslavia. There is a lack of research and literature on the teaching of listening, and this skill is also considerably neglected in the practice of teaching English (Dimitrijevic, 1996). The development of all four language skills is outlined as one of the goals of foreign language instruction in the official national syllabus. However, a closer analysis reveals that there is no systematic approach to the teaching of listening at any level of instruction, since there are no activities or materials that specifically focus on the development of this skill. This implies that there is an underlying assumption that listening skills will develop on their own.

This gap between the state-of-the-art methodology for teaching listening and the neglect of this skill in the teaching of English in Yugoslavia was the starting point for an experimental study of listening skills among university students of English. The aim of the study was to compare the development of listening skills in two groups of first-year university students of English: one receiving systematic listening instruction during one semester and the other attending English language instruction without the listening component. The study was conducted during the winter semester of the 1995/1996 academic year at the English Department of the University of Novi Sad. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview about teaching listening, describe the experiment, present the main findings, and discuss their implications for the teaching of English at tertiary level.


Volatility forecasts crucial to many financial applications usually assume implicitly that the frequency of the data should match the forecast horizon; portfolio managers typically rely on risk models estimated using monthly data to produce monthly volatility forecasts, for example. For longer–term forecasts, this practice has two drawbacks: Volatility estimates can be based on stale data; and return events occurring within long sampling intervals are obscured, confounding estimation. Monthly volatility risk measures constructed using higher–frequency data seem to be more robust than those using low–frequency data. Microstructure effects can explain the differences in estimates.


We describe a practical video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) technique for the en bloc resection of the thymoma, thymus, and bilateral mediastinum lipid based on mediastinal pleura guidance. By taking advantage of single-lumen endotracheal tube (SLET) anesthesia and artificial pneumothorax, we acquired excellent exposure of the anterior mediastinum operative field. In addition, our limited data showed that this surgical approach might have a potential tendency on reducing the blood loss and the operative times. Moreover, no complication of phrenic nerve paralysis or signs of myasthenia gravis were observed at the 6-month follow-up.


The purpose of this paper is to present a class of particular solutions of a C(2,1) conformally invariant nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation by symmetry reduction. Using the subgroups of similitude group reduced ordinary differential equations of second order and their solutions by a singularity analysis are classified. In particular, it has been shown that whenever they have the Painlev´e property, they can be transformed to standard forms by Moebius transformations of dependent variable and arbitrary smooth transformations of independent variable whose solutions, depending on the values of parame-ters, are expressible in terms of either elementary functions or Jacobi elliptic functions.


Combined bioreaction separation studies have been carried out for the first time on a moving port semi-continuous counter-current chromatographic reactor-separator (SCCR-S1) consisting of twelve 5.4cm id x 75cm long columns packed with calcium charged cross-linked polystyrene resin (KORELA V07C). The inversion of sucrose to glucose and fructose in the presence of the enzyme invertase and the biochemIcal synthesis of dextran and fructose from sucrose in the presence of the enzyme dextransucrase were investigated. A dilute stream of the appropriate enzyme in deionised water was used as the eluent stream. The effect of switch time, feed concentration, enzyme activity, eluent rate and enzyme to feed concentration ratio on the combined bioreaction-separation were investigated. For the invertase reaction, at 20.77% w/v sucrose feed concentrations complete conversions were achieved. The enzyme usage was 34% of the theoretical enzyme amount needed to convert an equivalent amount of sucrose over the same time period when using a conventional fermenter. The fructose rich (FRP) and glucose rich (GRP) product purities obtained were over 90%. By operating at 35% w/v sucrose feed concentration and employing the product splitting and recycling techniques, the total concentration and purity of the GRP increased from 32% w/v to 4.6% and from 92.3% to 95% respectively. The FRP concentration also increased from 1.82% w/v to 2.88% w/v. A mathematical model was developed for the combined reaction-separation and used to simulate the continuous inversion of sucrose and product separation using the SCCR-S1. In the biosynthesis of dextran studies, 52% conversion of a 2% w/v sucrose concentration feed was achieved. An average dextran molecular weight of 4 millIon was obtained in the dextran rich (DRP) product stream. The enzyme dextransucrase was purifed successfully using centrifugation and ultrafiltration techniques.


Uncertainty surrounding the Bank of Canada's future policy rates is measured using implied volatility computed from interest rate options and realized volatility computed from intraday prices of interest rate futures. Both volatility measures show that uncertainty decreased following major policy actions taken by the Bank in response to the 2007–09 financial crisis. Findings also indicate that, on average, uncertainty decreases following the Bank's policy rate announcements.


This paper presents a case study of the investment banking arm of a multinational banking corporation (Invebank) which is attempting to introduce Component-Based Development (CBD). Problems were apparent in this adoption because, while CBD requires extensive knowledge sharing and collaboration, sub-cultural differences between groups within Invebank meant that this proved difficult to enact. Thus, the paper considers the complexities of sub-cultural differences in firms and provides a salutary reminder that the implementation of so-called corporate-wide integrative 'solutions' such as Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, as well as CBD, cannot, automatically, bear fruit in terms of firm performance. Further, the paper highlights the point that there is more to the issue of organizational sub-cultural differences than the oft-cited business-IT divide. The more simplistic entreaties to knowledge sharing and the nurture of collaborative cultures and consensus are also brought into question.


The work in this thesis is a physical model of air slot ramp aerators designed to eliminate cavitation in open channel spillway chute flows. The experimental work involves the use of a Laser system to measure the turbulent low structure on a spillway, ramp and jet system, and then to relate the turbulent flow structure to the rate of air entrainment in the aerator. Even though aerator model studies have been carried out for decades, this appears to be the first time that turbulence has been measured in detail, having regard both to the ability of a ramp to generate turbulence and also to the decay of turbulence in the aerator jet downstream of the ramp. An expression is found for air entrainment in the models tested at Glasgow University. It is also valid for a range of previous prototype measurements, and is valid for a range of other previous model studies. The results are also translated into a computer program for designing such structures. The model used was a rectangular cross-section perspex flume, sloping at 45 degrees, incorporating a range of ramps at different angles. A range of flow depths, flow velocities, and boundary roughness values were tested and the measurements were taken by a Laser Doppler Anemometer. The results of this work provide a clearer understanding of the physical processes which occur in aerator ramp. This includes a clear demonstration of the ability of the ramp to generate additional turbulence in the flow, increasing turbulence values by about 30% above normal boundary layer values.


The social sciences are bedeviled by terminological promiscuity.  Terms and phrases are used at one time in a certain context and later borrowed and applied in different circumstances to somewhat different phenomena. Sometimes different groups of actors or researchers simultaneously use the same term with somewhat different meanings. Such is the use of the term civil society. In this 5th Anniversary of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, it is timely to trace the evolution of the idea of civil society to its multiple guises in the present. The paper reviews the term's 18th and 19th century roots, its recent resurrection and the opposing views of civil society, including views that question its applicability to non-western settings. It then discusses prospects for developing agreed approaches to the study of civil society. To guide our thinking the paper presents a brief overview of different approaches to defining civil society taken by some of the major so-called centres for civil society in Australia and internationally. The paper concludes by reflecting on these definitional challenges as it has played out at one particular cross faculty research centre, the University of Technology, Sydney's Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre.


Autoantibodies refer to antibodies that target self-antigens, which can play pivotal roles in maintaining homeostasis, distinguishing normal from tumor tissue and trigger autoimmune diseases. In the last three decades, tremendous efforts have been devoted to elucidate the generation, evolution and functions of autoantibodies, as well as their target autoantigens. However, reports of these countless previously identified autoantigens are randomly dispersed in the literature. Here, we constructed an AAgAtlas database 1.0 using text-mining and manual curation. We extracted 45 830 autoantigen-related abstracts and 94 313 sentences from PubMed using the keywords of either 'autoantigen' or 'autoantibody' or their lexical variants, which were further refined to 25 520 abstracts, 43 253 sentences and 3984 candidates by our bio-entity recognizer based on the Protein Ontology. Finally, we identified 1126 genes as human autoantigens and 1071 related human diseases, with which we constructed a human autoantigen database (AAgAtlas database 1.0). The database provides a user-friendly interface to conveniently browse, retrieve and download human autoantigens as well as their associated diseases. The database is freely accessible at http://biokb.ncpsb.org/aagatlas/. We believe this database will be a valuable resource to track and understand human autoantigens as well as to investigate their functions in basic and translational research.


The objective of the presented research is to investigate methods used to calculate earth pressures against- and the stability of retaining structures.
The classical methods of calculating earth pressures are covered in detail. They are named after their creators Charles-Augustin de Coulomb and William John Macquorn Rankine. A special interest is taken in a variant of Rankine"s theory developed at Norges teknisk- naturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU) that incorporates cohesive properties of soils as well as roughness between the structure and the soil material. Both methods are then tested against each other in order to investigate if a clear link exists between the two. The methods are tested against proposed design values of earth pressure coefficients according to the design standard Eurocode 7.
Handbok 016 is a design handbook published by the Norwegian Road Administration (n. Statens vegvesen). In it is a chapter dedicated to the design of retaining structures and bridge abutments. The methods proposed to design retaining structures are used to design cantilevered structures of various heights and with various foundation- and backfill materials based on a few geometrical constraints.
The structure designs created with methods in Handbok 016 are modeled in the finite element program PLAXIS to test if the same material factors of safety could be derived that way.
The results from this study are then discussed and commented upon.%%%%Geovest-Haugland AS (norsk verkfraeðistofa)


Feminism and Documentary. Janet Walker and Diane Waldeman. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Few intellectual movements have had as much impact on post-modernist social and behavioral studies as feminism. This especially is the case with its impact on film studies. Right from the start 30+ years ago, with the street-wise beginnings of feminist writing, an academic tradition of feminism and film was shaped and has steadily pushed the boundaries of understanding film theory and experience. The exploration has looped with the post-modernist work of Lacan, Barthes, Derain, and Foucault, both nourishing them and being nourished by them. Along the way, feminist approaches have made major contributions to the discussion of film issues such as the question of putative and pro-filmic, direct cinema, voice, reflectivity, and power and victim in documentary. Feminism and Documentary is a survey of this achievement. A part of a series on feminist thought ("Visible Evidence"), this collection is an updated representation of feminist writing which explores the "thin crust of historical reality" (as the editors put it in the "Introduction") in documentary and historical studies. The "Introduction" is well worth the price of admission. In an essay richly footnoted, editors Diane Waldman and Janet Walker trace the issues and changing images of feminist thought and documentary. It includes a balanced pro and con of documentary issues raised by feminist concern with film. The pace of the introduction is pretty well maintained in the essays that follow. The articles are not solely a discussion of feminist theory, although each proceeds from a feminist perspective. They open up broad issues in historical studies such as the role of the documentary film seminar as a record of documentary thought, the sentimentalizing of the labor movement, rockamentary, sexuality and modern cultural studies, the reconstruction of memory in historical studies and film, African American documentary, taboos, and fetish in historical studies-to isolate several of the issues. In the first section, "Historicizing the Documentary," there is an engaging dialogue between documentary and feminism. Paula Rabinowitz's "Sentimental Contracts" uses the works of Michael Moore (Roger and Me) and Barbara Kopple (esp. American Dream) to explore a labor movement which has lost its guts in genderized dreams of sentimentality. Alexandra Juhasz's "Bad Girls Come and Go" is about the borders and "danger places" of sexuality in contemporary times, the shaping of anger and desire in transgression "video," and the "taboo" areas of historical situation (popularized by Camille Paglia, among others). The collection of articles under "Filmmaker and Subject: Self/Other" includes essays on African American feminist documentary, rockamentary, and a cross-cultural filmmaker's account of making a documentary in feminist and ethnic space. …


During late July and early August of 2010, a serious disease of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) resembling Cylindrocladium black rot (CBR) was found in Longyan City, Fujian Province of Eastern China. Aboveground symptoms were chlorosis and yellowing of leaves, a black rot of the basal stem and pegs, and wilting of the vines. Underground plant parts (including pods, pegs, taproots, and hypocotyls) were blackened and rotted. Orange-to-reddish spherical fruiting bodies appeared on the lesions of the basal stems and pegs of peanut. Disease incidence was approximately 20%. A fungus was consistently isolated from the edge of lesions on potato dextrose agar (PDA) amended with streptomycin and incubated at 25°C. The fungus produced white-to-pale buff mycelia with a yellowish brown pigment. Optimum growth of the fungus on PDA was at 25 to 30°C. Conidiophores were borne laterally on a stipe that terminated in a hyaline, globose vesicle measuring 5.5 × 10.9 μm in diameter. Conidia were hyaline, cylindrical, rounded at both ends, slightly wider at the base than at the apex, with one to three septa (mostly one septa), and measured 27.3 to 70.9 × 4.1 to 8.2 μm. Orange-to-reddish perithecia were readily formed in old cultures. The perithecia were subglobose to oval or obovate and measured 215.6 to 609.4 × 309.4 to 496.9 μm. The asci were hyaline, clavate, thin walled, long stalked, with each containing eight ascospores. Ascospores were hyaline, falcate, had one septum, and measured 27.3 to 54.5 × 4.1 to 6.8 μm. The fungus was identified as Cylindrocladium parasiticum Crous, M.J. Wingfield, & Alfenas (teleomorph Calonectria ilicicola) (1,2). The beta-tubulin gene fragment was amplified using the T1/Bt2b primers (3) and sequenced. The sequences of three isolates (GenBank Accession Nos. JF343965, JF429656, and JF429657), when compared with existing sequences in GenBank, had 95 to 99% sequence identity with Calonectria ilicicola (GenBank Accession Nos. AY725643 and AY725639). Pathogenicity tests were conducted by first culturing the fungus on wheat kernels for 2 weeks. Inoculated kernels were then used as inoculum and mixed with sterilized soil in a proportion of 1:20 by weight in plastic pots (10 × 9 cm). Noninoculated wheat kernels were mixed with sterilized soil in the same proportion and served as the control. Two-week-old peanut seedlings (cv. Yueyou No. 7) were transplanted into inoculated or noninoculated pots. There were five plants per pot and each treatment was replicated four times. The plants were incubated in a greenhouse at 25 ± 2°C. All of the treated plants exhibited typical basal stem and root rot symptoms of CBR 2 weeks after inoculation, while all of the control plants remained healthy. C. parasiticum was reisolated from the diseased plants. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CBR on peanut in Fujian Province in Eastern China. The disease has been previously reported in Guangdong Province in Southern China but is not known elsewhere (4). This pathogen may pose a serious threat to peanut production in China, where peanut is an important crop. References: (1) D. K. Bell and E. K. Sobers. Phytopathology 56:1361, 1966. (2) P. W. Crous et al. Mycol. Res. 97:889, 1993. (3) P. W. Crous et al. Can. J. Bot. 77:1813, 1999. (4) R. Pan et al. Plant Pathol. 58:1176, 2009.


With this report I am describing a US-German project that was worked on from 1983-1992 and which, from today's point of view, seems to be worth revisiting in its essential points. The general goal of the project was to provide analytical support to decisions on the conventional defense capability of the NATO armed forces in Central Europe and the political-strategic debate on deploying medium-range nuclear missiles. An important aspect was the consideration of the paradoxical situation of a possible use of tactical-nuclear battlefield weapons with the associated escalation risks and the hoped-for deterrent effect in the strategic area. One of the foundations was the analytical use of quantitative simulation models and methods that were already relatively mature at the time for the reproducible calculation of a conventionally conducted attack of the Warsaw Pact with a likely focus on Central Europe. The main results were the type of cooperation and the structure of the analyses, the evidence of the usefulness of simulation models and, last but not least, the development of common goals, especially in phases of great upheaval such as the end of the Soviet system. A R T I C L E I N F O : RECEIVED: 05 APR 2021 REVISED: 29 APR 2021 ONLINE: 07 MAY 2021 K E Y W O R D S : European conflict, military threat, simulation, international cooperation, military deterrence, soft deterrence, NATO defense planning, conflict modelling, nuclear armament, armaments planning, confidence building Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0


BACKGROUND: Combined spinal-epidural (CSE) analgesia is widely used for delivering labor analgesia. Epidural volume extension (EVE) involves the injection of fluid into the epidural space compressing the dural sac, causing cephalad shift of the cerebral spinal fluid. Our hypothesis was that EVE with 10 mL normal saline during CSE would increase the sensory block height at 15 minutes after intrathecal injection. We expected EVE to decrease pain scores, decrease analgesia onset time, and decrease motor block compared with performing CSE without EVE (NEVE). METHODS: We randomly assigned 60 healthy term laboring nulliparous parturients with cervical dilation <5 cm to receive CSE either with EVE of 10 mL normal saline through the Tuohy needle before catheter insertion or CSE NEVE. Intrathecal analgesia consisted of 2 mg plain bupivacaine and 10 &mgr;g fentanyl (1 mL total). A blinded researcher assessed sensory dermatome level, analgesia, and motor blockade at regular intervals for 30 minutes. The primary outcome measure was the median peak sensory dermatome level at 15 minutes. RESULTS: Fifty-four parturients were analyzed. There was no significant difference in peak sensory dermatome levels at 15 minutes (median difference, 1 dermatome level; 95% confidence interval of median difference, 0 to 2; P = 0.22) and 30 minutes (median difference, 0 dermatome level; 95% confidence interval, −2 to 2; P = 0.76). There was no difference in the time to peak dermatome, minimum pain score, or the time to minimum pain score between groups. CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant difference between groups with regard to sensory dermatome level or pain scores when using EVE compared with NEVE. Our study demonstrates that addition of EVE does not offer superior analgesia when using a CSE technique for parturients requesting labor analgesia.


Recent improvements in effectiveness and accuracy of the emerging field of automated deception detection and the associated potential of language technologies have triggered increased interest in mass media and general public. Computational tools capable of alerting users to potentially deceptive content in computer–mediated messages are invaluable for supporting undisrupted, computer–mediated communication and information practices, credibility assessment and decision–making. The goal of this ongoing research is to inform creation of such automated capabilities. In this study we elicit a sample of 90 computer–mediated personal stories with varying levels of deception. Each story has 10 associated human deception level judgments, confidence scores, and explanations. In total, 990 unique respondents participated in the study. Three approaches are taken to the data analysis of the sample: human judges, linguistic detection cues, and machine learning. Comparable to previous research results, human judgments achieve 50–63 percent success rates, depending on what is considered deceptive. Actual deception levels negatively correlate with their confident judgment as being deceptive ( r = -0.35, df = 88, ρ = 0.008). The highest-performing machine learning algorithms reach 65 percent accuracy. Linguistic cues are extracted, calculated, and modeled with logistic regression, but are found not to be significant predictors of deception level, confidence score, or an authors' ability to fool a reader. We address the associated challenges with error analysis. The respondents' stories and explanations are manually content–analyzed and result in a faceted deception classification (theme, centrality, realism, essence, self–distancing) and a stated perceived cue typology. Deception detection remains novel, challenging, and important in natural language processing, machine learning, and the broader library information science and technology community.


Acinetobacter baumannii is a prevalent nosocomial pathogen with a high incidence of multidrug resistance. Treatment of infections due to this organism with colistin, a last-resort antibiotic of the polymyxin class, can result in the emergence of colistin-resistant strains. ABSTRACT Acinetobacter baumannii is a prevalent nosocomial pathogen with a high incidence of multidrug resistance. Treatment of infections due to this organism with colistin, a last-resort antibiotic of the polymyxin class, can result in the emergence of colistin-resistant strains. Colistin resistance primarily occurs via modifications of the terminal phosphate moieties of lipopolysaccharide-derived lipid A, which reduces overall membrane electronegativity. These modifications are readily identified by mass spectrometry (MS). In this study, we prospectively collected Acinetobacter baumannii complex clinical isolates from a hospital system in Pennsylvania over a 3-year period. All isolates were evaluated for colistin resistance using standard MIC testing by both agar dilution and broth microdilution, as well as genospecies identification and lipid A profiling using MS analyses. Overall, an excellent correlation between colistin susceptibility and resistance, determined by MIC testing, and the presence of a lipid A modification, determined by MS, was observed with a sensitivity of 92.9% and a specificity of 94.0%. Additionally, glycolipid profiling was able to differentiate A. baumannii complex organisms based on their membrane lipids. With the growth of MS use in clinical laboratories, a reliable MS-based glycolipid phenotyping method that identifies colistin resistance in A. baumannii complex clinical isolates, as well as other Gram-negative organisms, represents an alternative or complementary approach to existing diagnostics.


MMnST в период госпитализации.The aim of the study is to evaluate the frequency of occurrence of leukocytosis and its prognostic value for the course and outcome of myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. Material and Methods. The study included 245 patients aged 61,2 years, who were on treatment at the Department of Emergency Cardiology with diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation. Results. Leukocytosis (white blood cell levels of more than 10*109/L) was observed in 34,7% of patients. The presence of leukocytosis was associated with increased incidence of congestive heart failure class IV at Killip, ventricular fibrillation and lethal outcomes during hospitalization. There were no significant differences in the incidence of adverse events in the long-term period between the patients with leukocytosis and with normal level of white blood cells. Conclusion. Increased levels of white blood cells (more than 10*109/L) in patients with myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation is associated with a significantly increase relative risk of cardiogenic shock (Odds ratio 5,2, 95% Cl, 1,7-15,8, p=0.001), ventricular fibrillation (Odds ratio 8,5, 95% Cl, 1,9-38,3, p=0.001) and death during hospitalization (Odds ratio 2,47, 95% Cl, 1,87-38,4, p=0,03). The level of white blood cells on admission to hospital may be used as one of the additional factors predicting the risk of patients with myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation during hospitalization.


This conceptual article analyzes the use of strategic communication by the terrorist group ETA, whose goal (for a period of 60 years) was to gain independence for the Basque region from Spain. It argues that the use of strategic communication management techniques, including assassinations and kidnappings, was successful in generating fear and led to political change. It created a spiral of silence whereby people who opposed not only terrorism but Basque nationalist ideology were less willing to express their ideas even under a democratic regime. This case study shows ETA's social and political fabric supported the fear strategy almost as much as its criminal activity.


This study examines the role of physico-chemical mass transfer processes on the rate of biotransformation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds released from non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) coal tar present at residual saturation within a microporous medium. A simplified coupled dissolution-degradation model is developed that describes the concurrent mass transfer and biokinetic processes occurring in the system. Model results indicate that a dimensionless Damkohler number can be utilized to distinguish between systems that are mass transfer limited, and those that are limited by biological phenomena. The Damkohler number is estimated from independent laboratory experiments that measure the rates of aqueous phase dissolution and biodegradation of naphthalene from coal tar. Experimental data for Stroudsburg coal tar imbibed within 236μm diameter silica particles yield Damkohler numbers smaller than unity, indicating, for the particular system under study, that the overall rate of biotransformation of naphthalene is not limited by the mass transfer of naphthalene from coal tar to the bulk aqueous phase. There is a need for investigation of mass transfer for larger particles and/or other PAH compounds, and study of microbial rate-limiting phenomena including toxicity, inhibition and competitive substrate utilization.


This article explores the organizational characteristics and distinctive settings of the labour process of home-based garment work in the context of embedded control and consent relations in local garment productions in Turkey. Using Turkey as the case example of a garment export country in the global economy, the article explores the nature and organization of home-based piecework at the micro level within a broader global garment production chains perspective. Conducted in two Turkish cities, the study analyses the different cultural backgrounds of female workers and two distinct types of work, namely hand stitching and machine sewing of garments. The findings highlight the relationship between the cultural backgrounds of workers and the different types of work they undertake with control and consent practices as well as the patriarchal societal structure and relations in the context of local labour control regimes.


This article is prompted by a Chinese criminal provision governing the impartiality of arbitration. The goals of the article are to critically examine the criminal statute created by the provision and to put forward some proposals for reform, which can be employed to resolve the tension that exists between arbitrator impartiality and deference to arbitration. Although the provision appears to eliminate the abuse of arbitral power, it may raise more questions than it resolves. This article explores the problems and undertakes a comparative analysis of the corresponding United States provision as well as an analysis of some cultural and traditional elements influencing the criminal statute in China. Ultimately, this article argues that the concerns can be addressed by fine-tuning the rule in order to keep a balance between the previous two conflicting values. Borrowing from U.S. experience, this article proposes a mechanism of judicial interpretation. When contemplating the judicial interpretation, four aspects need to be taken into consideration: private prosecution, criminal liability for the neutral arbitrator, civil liability, and a detailed definition of the criminal provision. Considering these aspects of judicial interpretation will ensure that China can retain the benefits of arbitration without sacrificing impartiality.


IIASA celebrated its twentieth anniversary on May 12-13 with its fourth general conference, IIASA '92: An International Conference on the Challenges to Systems Analysis in the Nineties and Beyond. The conference focused on the relations between environment and development and on studies that integrate the methods and findings of several disciplines. The role of systems analysis, a method especially suited to taking account of the linkages between phenomena and of the hierarchical organization of the natural and social world, was also assessed, taking account of the implications this has for IIASA's research approach and activities.

This paper is one of six IIASA Collaborative Papers published as part of the report on the conference, an earlier instalment of which was Science and Sustainability, published in 1992.

When policy advisors come to appreciate that real uncertainty will affect the application of their recommendations they usually respond in one of two ways: (1) They may say that there are many possibilities, and then prepare a scenario for each; knowing the options advances the policy maker a little but his real decision making is not advanced, and on that he is left without advice. (2) They say that the uncertainties are so great that action had better be delayed until more is known; this recommendation for inaction is often very attractive to a policymaker, especially if getting more knowledge will mean waiting to enact some unpopular measure until a successor takes over the office.

Since there are no situations in which data is complete and exact, what can be done? That question is specially relevant to environmental decisions. At least policy can avoid what is called the prisoners' dilemma, where two people making rational decisions independently, i.e., each not knowing what the other will decide, can put themselves into a worse condition than if they make certain decisions that from the individual viewpoint are irrational, and much worse than if they participate in a collective decision. French indicative planning, now less favored than it was, aims to spread knowledge to each enterprise in an industry of what the competitors are intending, in the hope that that that will mean better decisions all around. A special case is what economists call externality, where a piece of common property is exploited by independent individuals, solitary choosers. One of the questions is whether the prisoner's dilemma and externalities can be handled by dissemination of information alone, or whether some form of compulsion is required, for example compulsion in the form of required pollution permits. These would give those who choose to buy them a marketable permission to exploit, and it can be shown that the outcome is economically superior to any instruction from above.

Professor Krasovskii provides some models, simple in form but sophisticated in substance, that show the nature of the problem of uncertainty in decision making, and how at least in theory it can he dealt with.


Abstract. The response of clouds to sudden decreases in the flux of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) – Forbush decrease events – has been investigated using cloud products from the space-borne MODIS instrument, which has been in operation since 2000. By focusing on pristine Southern Hemisphere ocean regions we examine areas where we believe that a cosmic ray signal should be easier to detect than elsewhere. While previous studies have mainly considered cloud cover, the high spatial and spectral resolution of MODIS allows for a more thorough study of microphysical parameters such as cloud droplet size, cloud water content and cloud optical depth, in addition to cloud cover. Averaging the results from the 22 Forbush decrease events that were considered, no statistically significant correlations were found between any of the four cloud parameters and GCR, when autocorrelations were taken into account. Splitting the area of study into six domains, all of them have a negative correlation between GCR and cloud droplet size, in agreement with a cosmic ray – cloud coupling, but in only one of the domains (eastern Atlantic Ocean) was the correlation statistically significant. Conversely, cloud optical depth is mostly negatively correlated with GCR, and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean domain that correlation is statistically significant. For cloud cover and liquid water path, the correlations with GCR are weaker, with large variations between the different domains. When only the six Forbush decrease events with the largest amplitude (more than 10% decrease) were studied, the correlations fit the hypothesis slightly better, with 16 out of 24 correlations having the expected sign, although many of the correlations are quite weak. Introducing a time lag of a few days for clouds to respond to the cosmic ray signal the correlations tend to become weaker and even to change sign.


This title presents a landmark debate on the occupation of Tibet and the movement for independence. This unprecedented dialogue between a dissenting Chinese intellectual and Tibet's outstanding national historian breaks taboos on both sides of the decades-long conflict. Wang Lixiong and Tsering Shakya begin with a consideration of some of the bitter paradoxes of Tibet's history under Communist rule. Wang locates their roots in the confrontation of an alien bureaucracy and fear-stricken religion, whereas Shakya portrays an anti-colonial struggle carried out in the name of nationalism and in defense of cultural autonomy. Both writers then confront China's recent crackdown on the newly invigorated resistance movement, offering insightful critiques of the Chinese occupation - and providing a compelling vision of what must now be done.


Foliage from the tropical leguminous tree, Sesbania sesban, is toxic to rumen protozoa in vitro, due to materials present in a saponins-containing extract of the foliage (Newbold et al. 1997). Suppression of protozoal numbers in vivo when S. sesban is added to the diet is either transient or non-existent, however, even though washed protozoa remain sensitive to S. sesban in vitro (Newbold et al. 1997, Odenyo et al. 1997). A possible reason is that saponins are metabolised in rumen fluid (Makkar and Becker 1997). The aims of this study were to determine if the antiprotozoal effect of different accessions of S. sesban was related to their saponins composition, and if conversion of saponins to their sapogenin derivatives was a possible cause of the loss of the antiprotozoal effect in vivo.


The percentage of the world's population living in urban areas is projected to increase in the next decades. Big cities are heterogeneous environments in which socioeconomic and environmental differences among the neighborhoods are often very pronounced. Each individual, during his/her life, is constantly subject to a mix of exposures that have an effect on their phenotype but are frequently difficult to identify, especially in an urban environment. Studying how the combination of environmental and socioeconomic factors which the population is exposed to influences pathological outcomes can help transforming public health from a reactive to a predictive system. Thanks to the application of state-of-the-art spatially enabled methods, patients can be stratified according to their characteristics and the geographical context they live in, optimizing healthcare processes and the reducing its costs. Some public health studies focusing specifically on urban areas have been conducted, but they usually consider a coarse spatial subdivision, as a consequence of scarce availability of well-integrated data regarding health and environmental exposure at a sufficient level of granularity to enable meaningful statistical analyses. In this paper, we present an application of highly fine-grained spatial resolution methods to New York City data. We investigated the link between asthma hospitalizations and a combination of air pollution and other environmental and socioeconomic factors. We first performed an explorative analysis using spatial clustering methods that shows that asthma is related to numerous factors whose level of influence varies considerably among neighborhoods. We then performed a Geographically Weighted Regression with different covariates and determined which environmental and socioeconomic factors can predict hospitalizations and how they vary throughout the city. These methods showed to be promising both for visualization and analysis of demographic and epidemiological urban dynamics, that can be used to organize targeted intervention and treatment policies to address the single citizens considering the factors he/she is exposed to. We found a link between asthma and several factors such as PM2.5, age, health insurance coverage, race, poverty, obesity, industrial areas, and recycling. This study has been conducted within the PULSE project, funded by the European Commission, briefly presented in this paper.


The World Goes Pop explores the contemporaneous engagements with a spirit of pop throughout the globe, concentrating not only on the relatively well-covered activity in the US, UK and France but also on developments throughout Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. From the late 1950s onwards, numerous artists and movements with a Pop aesthetic developed throughout these continents, including Nouveau realisme, Neo Dada, New Figuration, Equipo Cronica, and Cronica de la Realidad and Saqqakhaneh or Spiritual Pop, as well as such singular figures as Oyvind Fahlstrom, Keiichi Tanaami, and Erro. These artists and movements differed from one another due to their geographies as much as to their exposure to centralised or marginal cultural manifestations, and they were informed by their respective traditions, social and political movements. This unique book offers an opportunity to examine the origins and socio-political side of Pop, including pop and the political representation; pop and the new sexual politics; pop and the mass; seriality, distribution and the role of print production.Featuring six newly-commissioned essays from a wide range of international contributors, and produced in close collaboration with the artists involved, The World Goes Pop is the first book to rely on primary sources to re-evaluate Pop art throughout the globe.


The population over 60 years old is growing rapidly in Norway and in many other countries, and researchers often focus on elderly people and various diseases. This article examines the healthy elderly who are active in their daily lives to understand their motivation and knowledge about food and meals. The method used was CurroCus® group interviews, or fast focus groups. Nine CurroCus® groups were conducted, lasting for 37 to 56 minutes (average = 45 minutes). Altogether, 76 persons participated, ranging in age from 60 to 87 years; participants were predominantly female (>80%). The article discusses two areas: motivation and knowledge regarding food and meals. The collected empirical data were recorded, transcribed, and entered into NVivo 11.0. Interviews were analysed using a grounded theory approach. The results show that the respondents are concerned with six main areas: food intake, purchasing pattern, meal knowledge, community, service experience, and sensory triggers. The main contribution of this article is increased insights into healthy older adults' interpretation of their motivation for healthy food and inspiring meals based on their extensive knowledge of the topics discussed. Future research will require more knowledge of various loneliness strategies and their effects. Government responsibility should focus on older people's nutrient intake in the near future. Different sensory stimuli must be investigated in order for more people to help avoid malnutrition.


Assessing US Rogue Behavior Like many other terms of political discourse, the term "rogue state" has two uses: a propagandistic use, applied to assorted enemies, and a literal use that applies to states that do not regard themselves bounded by international norms. Logic suggests that the most powerful states should fall into this category unless internally constrained, an expectation that history confirms. Though international norms are not rigid, there is a measure of agreement on general guidelines. In the post-World War II period, these norms are partially codified in the UN Charter, in International Court of Justice (ICJ) decisions, and in various conventions and treaties. The US regards itself as exempt from these conditions, increasingly so since the Cold War ended, leaving US dominance so overwhelming that pretence can be largely dropped. This stance has not gone unnoticed. The newsletter of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) observed in March 1999 that "international law is today probably less highly regarded in our country than at any time" in the century; the editor of the professional journal has warned of the "alarming exacerbation" of Washington's dismissal of treaty obligations. The operative principle of this disregard was articulated by Dean Acheson in 1963 when he informed the ASIL that the propriety of a response to a challenge to US "power, position, and prestige" is "not a legal issue." International law, he had observed earlier, is useful "to gild our positions with an ethos derived from very general moral principles that have affected legal doctrines." But the United States, he concluded, is not bound by these codes. Acheson was referring specifically to the Cuba blockade. Cuba has been one of the main targets of US terror and economic warfare for 40 years, even before the secret March 1960 decision to overthrow the government. The Cuban threat was identified by Arthur Schlesinger, who described the "falling-dominoes or "virus" effect and noted that Castro's ideology might stimulate the "poor and underprivileged" elsewhere. There was a Cold War connection: "the Soviet Union hovers in the wings, flourishing large development loans and presenting itself as the model for achieving modernization in a single generation." Unsurprisingly, the US assault on Latin America became considerably harsher after the USSR disappeared from the scene. Its behavior has been nearly universally condemned: by the UN, the EU, the Organization of American States (OAS), and its judicial body, the Inter-American Judicial Court (IAJC), which ruled unanimously that the measures violated international law, as did the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Few doubt that they would also be condemned by the WTO, but Washington has made it clear that it would disregard any WTO ruling, keeping to the rogue-state principle. Protecting Our Friends To mention another illustration of contemporary relevance, when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, it was ordered to withdraw at once by the UN Security Council, but to no avail. The reasons were explained in the 1978 memoirs of UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who recalled, "The United States wished things to turn out as they did, and worked to bring this about. The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. This task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success." He goes on to report that within two months some 60,000 people had been killed. The numbers reached about 200,000 within a few years thanks to increasing military support from the United States, which was joined by Britain as atrocities peaked in 1978. Their support continued through 1999, as Kopassus commandos, armed and trained by the United States, organized "Operation Clean Sweep" from January 1999, killing 3000-5000 people by August according to credible Church sources, later expelling 750,000 people, 85% of the population, and virtually destroying the country. …


Determination of the critical level of training data, and investigation of targeting
the time of image acquisition to specific crop growth cycles, will increase the
efficiency of remote sensing data analysis, for recognition of poppies and
pyrethrum. The objective of this project, was to determine whether the amount of
training data (critical sample size) contributed significantly to classification, using
three methods of analysis of two season's data for, poppy and pyrethrum crops, on
the North West Coast of Tasmania and to investigate the timing of image
acquisition. Distinction between class types was not an objective of the study.
Eight Landsat 5 TM, two SPOT XS and three SPOT XI images were acquired
between 02 July 1997 and 28 March 1999.
Observations of the spectral response of poppies showed that, Landsat TM bands
one, two, three and five in November and January, provided significantly
different, peak pixel values for the poppy crop. SPOT XS band two in February
also provided peak pixel values for poppies. The spectral response of pyrethrum
indicated that an increase in pixel value for the January Landsat TM data in bands
five and seven was distinct, as was the peak in SPOT XI band three during
December.
A principal component analysis, (PCA) was carried out separately on each image.
For all Landsat TM imagery, over 98.482% of variance was contained within the
first three principal components. Similarly, for all SPOT XI data, over 99.189% of
variance was contained within the first three principal components. When SPOT
XS data was analysed, the first and second components accounted for over
98.909% data variance.
The merged spectral response patterns generated from the automatic internal
average relative reflectance (AIARR), normalised difference vegetation index
(NDVI) and PCA images by an unsupervised, iterative self-organising data
analysis technique (ISODATA) for the poppy and pyrethrum AOIs, provided the
input for a supervised classification. As the AIARR, NDVI and PCA data were
normally distributed, and the spectral response patterns were parametric, a
maximum likelihood parametric decision rule was selected.
The amount of training data had a significant effect on the contribution to
classification for the three analysis methods, over two season's data for each of
the crop types.
To achieve a classification accuracy of 90% for poppies, the acquisition of
Landsat data in either November or January, required a PCA with 80% of the total
poppy area used as training (calibration) data. To achieve a classification accuracy
of 96% for poppies, the acquisition of SPOT XI data in either October or
December, required a NDVI analysis with 50% of the total poppy area used as
training (calibration) data.
For pyrethrum, a classification accuracy of 80% was achieved by acquiring
imagery in the post harvest and dormancy stage (late February to October), using
a PCA method and 90% of the total amount of data available for training. When
imagery was acquired in late December or early January, using 40% of the total
amount of pyrethrum data for training contributed, on average, to the
classification of 87% of the crop, when analysed using the NDVI method.
The findings of this research showed that the choice of the training set (quality
and quantity) had an influence on the success of a classification approach as well
as the choice of image analysis technique. Timely acquisition of imagery was
shown to be required to achieve a satisfactory level of contribution to
classification from training data of poppies and pyrethrum.


During constant sea state conditions, longshore current velocities were monitored continuously for fifteen minute periods separated by fifteen minute periods separated by fifteen minute intervals. Three ducted impellor flowmeters were placed at equally spaced vertical positions through the water column. Sequential measurements were made with similar vertical current meter arrays at different locations across the surf zone. Simultaneous measurements of wave height, period and celerity were made at stations placed at equal intervals from the outer surf zone to the beach. The fifteen minute continuous records were subjected to spectral analysis. This analysis showed that the major power associated with fluctuations in the longshore current velocity field occurs in two major frequency bands. A significant spectral peak was coincident with the breaker period of the incident wave field, 4.2 seconds and, another dominant signature occurred at 78.8 seconds. Attenuation with depth of both the steady and fluctuating components of the longshore current flow field was relatively small. The maximum observed velocities for each station and each vertical current meter position varied from 90 to 150 percent above the observed mean longshore current velocity. However, at each station, variation of the means with depth was not appreciable and thus supports the results from time and space averaged theories of vertical uniformity in longshore currents, away from the boundary layer. Results from the field investigation of Wood and Meadows (1975) indicated that the steady state components are dominated by the fluctuating portions of the flow field. Therefore, time averaging of conservation equations in longshore current theory is a physically inappropriate procedure. In order to evaluate the magnitude of the unsteady components, a close examination of surf zone dynamics was made. The most obvious contribution to unsteadiness in longshore currents arises from the longshore component of the maximum horizontal particle velocity. However, the magnitude of observed current fluctuations is too large to be completely accounted for by this component. Spectral peaks at longer periods appear to be related to modes of edge wave phenomena. The long period spectral signature of 78.8 seconds is in direct agreement with the calculated period for a zero mode edge wave in shallow water.


ABSTRACT: This paper summarises the experimental results of a counter-intuitive seismic retrofit strategy – Selective Weakening, targeted at improving the seismic performance of poorly detailed (pre-1970) exterior beam-column joints, a critical weakness of non-ductile reinforced concrete frames. The retrofit interventions investigated comprised of: a) selectively weakening the beams (reducing joint shear demand) and/or b) adding external post-tensioning to the beam-column joints (adding horizontal confinement and axial force to the joint) with the aim to change the local inelastic mechanism of the external joints. This would result in improved global displacement, ductility and energy dissipation capacities without significant increase in demand of foundation strength, typical of strengthening retrofit. Extending from previously presented preliminary experimental results, a comprehensive test matrix and its results are presented herein. Nine 2/3-scaled exterior beam-column joints subassemblies – as-built and retrofitted were constructed and tested to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed retrofit strategy. Parameters considered in the tests were the levels of external post-tensioning forces, locations of beam weakening, the presence of column lap-splice and the presence of cast-in-situ slab and transverse beams. Experimental results have indicated that joint shear and column lap-splice failures can be prevented or mitigated using a Selective Weakening retrofit approach, leading to the targeted seismic performance. This research is part of the six-year NZ FRST national project on "Seismic retrofit solutions for NZ multi-storey buildings".


A new primary load design method for elevated temperature service has been developed. Codification of the procedure in an ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III Code Case is being pursued. The proposed primary load design method is intended to provide the same margins on creep rupture, yielding and creep deformation for a component or structure that are implicit in the allowable stress data. It provides a methodology that does not require stress classification and is also applicable to a full range of temperature above and below the creep regime. Use of elastic-perfectly plastic analysis based on allowable stress with corrections for constraint, steady state stress and creep ductility is described. This approach is intended to ensure that traditional primary stresses are the basis for design, taking into account ductility limits to stress re-distribution and multiaxial rupture criteria.


The scientific literature on logging after wildfire is reviewed, with a focus on environmental effects of logging and removal of large woody structure. Rehabilitation, the practice of planting or seeding after logging, is not reviewed here. Several publications are cited that can be described as "commentaries," intended to help frame the public debate. We review 21 postfire logging studies and interpret them in the context of how wildfire itself affects stands and watersheds. Results of this review are summarized in 16 major conclusions at the end of the text, most of which are based on results of no more than a handful of studies. The review is followed by an annotated bibliography and an index. Copies of all papers reviewed here are held by the Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute, at the Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Research Station, La Grande, Oregon.


The vast area of prairie of the United States has long been known as the \feeding grounds\ for herbivorous animals. In the past, the standard of living of the people of grassland regions has been measured largely by the ability of the native ranges to produce ·vegetation sufficient to maintain economical livestock production. It has become apparent that if our desired living standard is to be maintained, we must direct our efforts toward a program by the most rapid and efficient means possible, which will bring economic stability to the seventeen million acres of grassland in the Great Plains region. Need for improving and conserving the grasslands, the nation I s meat basket, has brought forth much information on pasture management; yet more practical data are in great demand. Maximum livestock gains can be secured only if the pastures are maintained at high economical production. ' his can not be accomplished without a knowledge of the problems at hand, and, as far as is possible, their solution. Forage production in the Great Plains varies greatly with topography·, climatic factors , and soil types . Soil types appear to have a decided bearing upon the value of vegetation produced. If the problems of production, maintenance, utilization, etc., on different soil types are to be solved, research on comparable locations must be undertaken. Many pastures have become infested with annual grasses which have caused the operators to become concerned. It is possible, however, that many of the owners have not learned the true value nor the control of 2 these invaders . These problems have brought to light the need for study of pastures in the Dakota Sandstone formations. This thesis is a report of the study of basal cover, composition, yields, consumption, and chemical composition of the vegetation on an average pasture in the Dakota sandstone formation of central Kansas. It is the hope of the author that this information will prove beneficial both to t he land owners and the conservationist.


Today's youth inhabit new digital spaces that seem foreign to many adults. These spaces offer unprecedented opportunities for inter- personal connection, but community can break down when people are emboldened by anonymity through pathways that are fast and highly public. Interested in how teens and adults view these ethically charged issues, our three partner organizations – Common Sense Media, the GoodPlay Project, and Global Kids – convened a three-week long series of online conversations with more than 150 parents, teachers, and teens. Our analysis of these conversations revealed that adults exhibited stronger and more consistent patterns of moral and ethical thinking than youth, who tended to show greater concern for the personal consequences of their online actions. These findings suggest that adults have an important role to play in helping teens to become responsible digital citizens.


In L2 acquisition, knowledge of derivational morphology and the combinatory properties of affixes and bases in the L2 has a positive effect on learners' receptive and productive vocabulary. This chapter presents a learner-corpus study of affixation in the writing of EFL learners of diverse L1 backgrounds, focusing on various manifestations of cross-linguistic influence (CLI). The data suggest manifold effects of CLI such as overgeneralization and back-formation which predominantly affect non-native affixes and occur in all learner groups irrespective of the L1. However, there are also inter-group differences with Spanish and Italian learners showing comparatively strong interference effects in terms of foreignizing.


Although he is well known for his literary contributions, the connection between Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and art has been largely neglected. A remarkably visual writer, Dickens grew out of a tradition where illustrations formed a significant part of both serial and book. He had long and close friendships with several artists, including Clarkson Stanfield, Daniel Maclise, Frank Stone, and William Powell Frith. He also admired the art of the Old Masters, which he viewed and commented on both in London and during his tours of Europe. Published on the bicentenary anniversary of Dickens's birth, this book explores his artistic opinions and views by analyzing his own words as well as his use of art in his work. His tastes are manifest not only in his novels, but also in his magazine Household Words. The contributors explore how Dickens and his writing influenced Victorian artists who depicted scenes from his novels or drew inspiration from his subjects and characterizations.


A Smith Motor is a three phase induction motor that has shunt capacitors parallel to its induction coils. The shunt capacitors provide balance and allow the motor to operate using a single phase power supply. Preliminary studies show that the Smith Motor is more efficient than a single phase induction motor powered by a single phase power supply, but less efficient than a three phase induction motor powered by a three phase power supply. The Smith Motor's advantage is its ability to operate from a single phase power source instead of having a three phase power source installed. Its limitation to operate properly for varying loads is its disadvantage. One way to solve this problem is to develop a control system that can change the capacitors to correspond with the different sets of loads. The three phase induction motor will be tested in order to calculate proper shunt capacitor values for the Smith Motor. Then the Smith Motor will be tested for its efficiency, power factor, winding current, and winding voltage at various loads. The data will be utilized in order to construct a control system (a switch) that changes the capacitor values. This will allow the Smith Motor to operate in a more balanced state for varying loads.


Abstract: The identification of new collections of fossil plants from the Green River formation of middle Eocene age made it necessary to reexamine the megascopic types of the Green River flora. This study resulted in the reassignment of some species and the rejection of such species as were based on fragmentary, indefinable specimens. The recent collections yielded 22 new species. Exclusive of the microscopic forms of thallophytes and pollens, the flora now numbers 135 megascopic species that are considered to be recognizable and distinctive. The new elements found in the flora do not alter the previously expressed opinion that the megascopic Green River flora lived in a warm-temperate well-watered environment.


The past decade saw the rise of the British National Party, the country's most successful ever far-right political movement, and the emergence of the anti-Islamic English Defence League. Taking aim at asylum seekers, Muslims, "enforced multiculturalism" and benefit "scroungers", these groups have been working overtime to shift the blame for the nation's ills onto the shoulders of the vulnerable. What does this extremist resurgence say about the state of modern Britain? Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with key figures, such as BNP leader Nick Griffin, Daniel Trilling shows how previously marginal characters from a tiny neo-Nazi subculture successfully exploited tensions exacerbated by the fear of immigration, the War on Terror and steepening economic inequality. Mainstream politicians have consistently underestimated the far right in Britain while pursuing policies that give it the space to grow. Bloody Nasty People calls time on this complacency in an account that provides us with fresh insights into the dynamics of political extremism.


Antioxidants have been shown to increase vasodilation, increasing vascular distensibility and decreasing blood pressure (BP) in individuals with elevated BP; therefore an additive effect would be expected when combined with exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential additive effects of an acute aerobic exercise bout paired with two weeks of anti-oxidant supplementation on post-exercise BP in middle-aged pre-hypertensives. Methods: 18 middle-aged subjects were randomly assigned to either the supplement or the placebo group in double-blinded fashion. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), Augmentation Index (AIx), central and peripheral pulse wave velocity (cPWV and pPWV, respectively) were assessed pre- and post-exercise prior to and following 2 weeks of supplementation in a double-blind design. Results: Following two weeks of supplementation, there was a significant decrease in SBP (132.2 ± 5.4 pre-supplementation to 124.9 ± 5.4 post-, p < 0.05) and MAP (100.2 ± 2.2 pre-supplementation to 94.6 ± 4.4 post-, p < 0.05). No significant differences were shown in DBP, AIx, cPWV, or pPWV. Conclusion: Two weeks of multi-flavonoid supplementation elicited a significant decrease in SBP and MAP in the treatment group with no changes in vascular parameters.


BACKGROUND
Most youth are not meeting physical activity guidelines, and schools are a key venue for providing physical activity. School districts can provide physical activity opportunities through the adoption, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies. This paper reports results of a 2009 survey of California school governance leaders on the barriers and opportunities to providing school-based physical activity and strategies to promote adoption of evidence-based policies.

METHODS
California school board members (n = 339) completed an 83 item online survey about policy options, perceptions, and barriers to improving physical activity in schools.

RESULTS
Board members' highest rated barriers to providing physical activity were budget concerns, limited time in a school day, and competing priorities. The key policy opportunities to increase physical activity were improving the quantity and quality of physical education, integrating physical activity throughout the school day, supporting active transportation to/from school, providing access to physical activity facilities during nonschool hours, and integrating physical activity into before/after school programs.

CONCLUSIONS
Survey findings were used to develop policy resources and trainings for school governance leaders that provide a comprehensive approach to improving physical activity in schools.


Multi-gas approaches to climate change policies require a metric establishing 'equivalences' among emissions of various species. Climate scientists and economists have proposed four kinds of such metrics and debated their relative merits. We present a unifying framework that clarifies the relationships among them. We show, as have previous authors, that the global warming potential (GWP), used in international law to compare emissions of greenhouse gases, is a special case of the global damage potential (GDP), assuming (1) a finite time horizon, (2) a zero discount rate, (3) constant atmospheric concentrations, and (4) impacts that are proportional to radiative forcing. Both the GWP and GDP follow naturally from a cost–benefit framing of the climate change issue. We show that the global temperature change potential (GTP) is a special case of the global cost potential (GCP), assuming a (slight) fall in the global temperature after the target is reached. We show how the four metrics should be generalized if there are intertemporal spillovers in abatement costs, distinguishing between private (e.g., capital stock turnover) and public (e.g., induced technological change) spillovers. Both the GTP and GCP follow naturally from a cost-effectiveness framing of the climate change issue. We also argue that if (1) damages are zero below a threshold and (2) infinitely large above a threshold, then cost-effectiveness analysis and cost–benefit analysis lead to identical results. Therefore, the GCP is a special case of the GDP. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change uses the GWP, a simplified cost–benefit concept. The UNFCCC is framed around the ultimate goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations. Once a stabilization target has been agreed under the convention, implementation is clearly a cost-effectiveness problem. It would therefore be more consistent to use the GCP or its simplification, the GTP.


A geometric framework for understanding multi-category classification is introduced, through which many existing 'all-together' algorithms can be understood. The structure enables parsimonious optimisation, through a direct extension of the binary methodology. The focus is on Support Vector Classification, with parallels drawn to related methods.

The ability of the framework to compare algorithms is illustrated by a brief discussion of Fisher consistency. Its utility in improving understanding of multi-category analysis is demonstrated through a derivation of improved generalisation bounds.

It is also described how this architecture provides insights regarding how to further improve on the speed of existing multi-category classification algorithms. An initial example of how this might be achieved is developed in the formulation of a straightforward multi-category Sequential Minimal Optimisation algorithm. Proof-of-concept experimental results have shown that this, combined with the mapping of pairwise results, is comparable with benchmark optimisation speeds.


Microorganism disruption using ultrasound treatment is the focus of this thesis. There has been aboard spectrum of theoretical and experimental work on microorganisms disruption methods undertaken in the past. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding on the actual reason of microorganism disruption using ultrasound. The reported literature in the microorganisms and cell disruption research field indicates that shock wave and shear effects occur together in typical ultrasound processing systems and may both contribute to microorganism disruption. However the question of whether the real cause of disruption is shock and/or shear remains unanswered.

To address this issue, two independent mechanical devices – a shock apparatus and a shear apparatus were developed for this study. An ultrasound apparatus operated in a batch configuration was also used for microorganism disruption.

The ultrasound work includes a detailed experimental characterisation of processing conditions associated with the ultrasound treatment. The heat transfer through the ultrasound chamber and the suspension mixing during the ultrasound treatment was evaluated using theoretical and experimental approaches. It was found that one second was sufficient to have complete suspension mixing in the ultrasound chamber and 13.5% of the total ultrasound energy was lost to the surroundings as heat. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was selected as a sample microorganism in this study, and a log reduction of 4 was achieved when ultrasound treatment was used.

To determine how the yeast cell wall disrupts using a shock treatment, a finite element model was developed and the simulation results showed that von Mises stress generated due to dynamic external pressure loading was concentrated at the bottom part of the cell wall of the yeast. A vertical gas gun was commissioned to apply a dynamic load on a water-filled tube. To understand the relationship between the dynamic stress and the microorganism behaviour when subjected to external pressure, a plastic bag full of yeast suspension was placed at the bottom of the tube. The result showed that the yeast disruption rate using the shock wave treatment was relatively modest when an external shock loading pressure of around 115 MPa was used.

In the case of shear stress treatment, analysis of the intense turbulent flow region of the apparatus combined with the experimental results demonstrated that when the energy dissipation rate in the turbulence region is high and the eddies are smaller than the size of the cell, the likehood of yeast disruption is high. The microorganism mechanical properties combined with the calculated energy dissipation rate were used to simulate the yeast disruption efficiency using shear stress. The results showed that a maximum yeast log reduction of 4 was achieved with the shear apparatus in the absence of pressure rise.

The specific energy required for yeast disruption in these three mechanical methods was evaluated and a comparison was made with two relevant conventional methods: homogenizer and Ultra High Temperature (UHT) treatments.

It was found that the specific energy required to achieve a log reduction of 2.5 was 108 MJ/kg in the case of shear and around 0.905 MJ/kg in the case of ultrasound. In the case of shock treatment, the maximum log reduction achieved was 0.57 which required 0.00477 MJ/kg. Therefore, on the assumption that log reduction is proportional to the specific treatment energy, for a 1 log reduction, 0.008 MJ/kg is required for the shock treatment, 0.46 MJ/kg is required for the ultrasound treatment, and around 48 MJ/kg is required for the shear treatment. These results show that shock wave treatment requires less specific energy to achieve the same yeast log reduction as the shear or ultrasound treatment. This implies that the cause of microorganism disruption using ultrasound is shock wave energy.

Additional work in the finite element simulation and shock treatment apparatus is recommended to extend this study to different microorganisms and cells.


The present study examined the personal constructs that people employ to construe behavior. It was hypothesized that personal constructs and the self-concept facilitate the processing of personally and socially relevant information. It was hypothesized that the more central a construct is, as measured by the Role Construct Repertory Grid (Kelly, 1955), the more efficient it would be in encoding information. To the extent that the 'self' is more central or elaborate than specific personal constructs, it was expected to be superior in processing information. -- The levels of processing paradigm (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) was employed. Subjects performed various operations on trait adjectives and the degree of elaboration produced in memory was inferred from the level of memory performance. In Experiment I, subjects performed five tasks with trait adjectives. These were: (1) a structural task; (2) a phonemic task; (3) a noncentral construct-reference task; (4) a central construct-reference task; and (5) a self-reference task. Incidental recall for the trait adjectives was assessed following a retention interval. The construct and self-reference tasks produced significantly higher recall than the structural or phonemic tasks. Recall for these two latter tasks was not significantly different. Recall for adjectives in the self-reference task was superior to recall for adjectives in the noncentral but not the central construct-reference task. There was no significant difference between recall for adjectives in the central and noncentral construct-reference tasks. -- The second experiment was similar to the first except that the phonemic task was excluded and recognition rather than free-recall was measured to asses memory performance. The construct and self-reference tasks produced superior recognition to the structural task. Recognition for the self-reference task was superior to that for both the central and noncentral construct-reference tasks. There was no significant difference in recognition level between the central and noncentral construct -reference tasks. -- The results of the two experiments converged to demonstrate that reference to personal constructs and the 'self' are efficient mnemonic strategies for processing the personally and socially relevant information. It was demonstrated that the 'self' is generally more efficient than specific personal constructs in processing relevant information. At the same time, reference to personal constructs was almost as effective as self-reference in facilitating the encoding of relevant information.


ABSTRACT Iran in the 1970s was host to an array of electronic music and avant-garde arts. In the decade prior to the Islamic revolution, the Shiraz Arts Festival provided a showcase for composers, performers, dancers and theater directors from Iran and abroad, among them Iannis Xenakis, Peter Brook, John Cage, Gordon Mumma, David Tudor, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Merce Cunningham. A significant arts center, which was to include electronic music and recording studios, was planned as an outgrowth of the festival. While the complex politics of the Shah's regime and the approaching revolution brought these developments to an end, a younger generation of artists continued the festival's legacy.


Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) are interesting materials because they exhibit considerable recoverable strain (up to 10%) and fast response time (higher than 1 kHz). MSMAs are comprised of martensitic variants with tetragonal unit cells and a magnetization vector that is innately aligned approximately to the short side of the unit cell. These variants reorient either to align the magnetization vector with an applied magnetic field or to align the short side of the unit cell with an applied compressive stress. This reorientation leads to a mechanical strain and an overall change in the material's magnetization, allowing MSMAs to be used as actuators, sensors, and power harvesters. This paper presents a phenomenological thermodynamic-based model able to predict the response of an MSMA to any two-dimensional (2D) magneto-mechanical loading. The model presented here is more physical and less empirical than other models in the literature, requiring only three model parameters to be calibrated from experimental results. In addition, this model includes evolution rules for the magnetic domain volume fractions and the angle of rotation of the magnetization vectors based on thermodynamic requirements. The resulting model is calibrated using a single, relatively simple experiment. Model predictions are compared with experimental data from a wide variety of 2D magneto-mechanical load cases. Overall, model predictions correlate well with experimental results. Additionally, methods for calibrating demagnetization factors from empirical data are discussed, and results indicate that using calibrated demagnetization factors can improve model predictions compared with the same model using closed-form demagnetization factors.


Oxycodone is a potent medicinal opioid analgesic to treat pain. It is also addictive and a main cause for the current opioid crisis. At present, the impact of oxycodone on coordinated brain network activities, and contribution of the mu opioid receptor (MOR) to these effects, is unknown. We used pharmacological magnetic resonance imaging in mice to characterize MOR-mediated oxycodone effects on whole-brain functional connectivity (FC). Control (CTL) and MOR knockout (KO) animals were imaged under dexmedetomidine in a 7Tesla scanner. Acquisition was performed continuously before and after 2 mg/kg oxycodone administration (analgesic in CTL mice). Independent component analysis (data-driven) produced a correlation matrix, showing widespread oxycodone-induced reduction of FC across 71 components. Isocortex, nucleus accumbens (NAc), pontine reticular nucleus, and periacqueducal gray (PAG) components showed the highest number of significant changes. Seed-to-voxel FC analysis (hypothesis-driven) was then focused on PAG and NAc considered key pain and reward centers. The two seeds showed reduced FC with 8 and 22 Allen Brain Atlas-based regions, respectively, in CTL but not KO mice. Further seed-to-seed quantification showed highest FC modifications of both PAG and NAc seeds with hypothalamic and amygdalar areas, as well as between them, revealing the strongest impact across reward and aversion/pain centers of the brain. In conclusion, we demonstrate that oxycodone reduces brain communication in a MOR-dependent manner, and establish a preliminary whole-brain FC signature of oxycodone. This proof-of-principle study provides a unique platform and reference data set to test other MOR opioid agonists and perhaps discover new mechanisms and FC biomarkers predicting safer analgesics.


The study of consciousness has advanced rapidly over the last two decades. And yet there is no clear path to creating models for a direct science of human experience or for integrating its insights with those of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. In Inner Experience and Neuroscience, Donald Price and James Barrell show how a science of human experience can be developed through a strategy that integrates experiential paradigms with methods from the natural sciences. They argue that the accuracy and results of both psychology and neuroscience would benefit from an experiential perspective and methods. Price and Barrell describe phenomenologically based methods for scientific research on human experience, as well as their philosophical underpinnings, and relate these to empirical results associated with such phenomena as pain and suffering, emotions, and volition. They argue that the methods of psychophysics are critical for integrating experiential and natural sciences, describe how qualitative and quantitative methods can be merged, and then apply this approach to the phenomena of pain, placebo responses, and background states of consciousness. In the course of their argument, they draw on empirical results that include qualitative studies, quantitative studies, and neuroimaging studies. Finally, they propose that the integration of experiential and natural science can extend efforts to understand such difficult issues as free will and complex negative emotions including jealousy and greed.


The present study describes breeding and wintering abundances, distributions, and seasonal occurrences of shorebirds (waders) in the Gediz Delta (Izmir-Turkey). Breeding abundance and distribution, and wintering abundance data were collected by carrying out breeding bird surveys in 2002 and 2006, and waterbird censuses between 1990 and 2007, respectively. Seasonal occurrences were determined using 432 different observations corresponding to 5043 different records between 1990 and 2007. Thirty-eight wader species were observed with a weekly average of 22.5 ± 4.0. Breeding evidence was obtained for 9 species in 2002 and 8 species in 2006. Average number of waders identified during yearly mid-winter waterbird census was 8731 ± 2530, corresponding to 42.2 ± 25.9% of the whole wintering wader population in Turkey. During the present study 11 species were encountered in internationally significant numbers. The Gediz Delta is one of the key sites in the Western Palearctic region for breeding, wintering, and migrating waders.