The notion of self-determination is not novel in modern international law. It stems back to the beginning of the 20th century, when world leaders in the wake of World War I realized that national peoples, groups with a shared ethnicity, language, culture, and religion, should be allowed to decide their fate - thus, to self-determine their affiliation and status on the world scene. The same idea applied later in the same century to colonial peoples, and by the 1960's, it became widely accepted that oppressed colonized groups ought to have similar rights to auto-regulate and to choose their political and possibly sovereign status. However, as decades passed by and as separatist minority groups throughout the world, operating outside of the decolonization paradigm, began challenging the concept of state territorial integrity, it became clear that the notion of self-determination had to be somehow confined. Thus, courts and scholars came up with two different forms of self-determination: internal versus external. The former potentially applies to all peoples, and signifies that all peoples should have a set of respected rights within their central state. Thus, minority groups should have cultural, social, political, linguistic and religious rights and those rights should be respected by the mother state. As long as those rights are respected by the mother state, the "people" is not oppressed and does not need to challenge the territorial integrity of its mother state. The latter applies to oppressed peoples, the ones whose basic rights are not being respected by the mother state and the ones who are often subject to heinous human rights abuses. Such oppressed peoples, in theory, have a right to external self-determination, and external self-determination signifies that such peoples have a right to remedial secession and independence. In theory, the distinction between internal v. external self-determination is easy to draw, and a scholar or a judge should have no difficulty deciding which minority groups should accrue the more drastic right to external self-determination. After all, we could simply look to the human rights record of the mother state, and if the record showed violations, we could determine that the minority group should be allowed to separate. In reality, the distinction is very difficult to draw. Numerous minority groups around the globe have been mistreated and have asserted their rights to external self-determination, only to find themselves rebuffed by the world community. On the other hand, some minority groups have found strong support in the eyes of the external actors, and have garnered sufficient international recognition to be allowed to separate. Why? What is so unique about some minority groups and about their independence quests that would justify the authorization to remedially secede? When exactly - under what circumstances - does the right to external self-determination accrue? In order to answer this complex question, this Article will discuss, in Part II, the notion of self-determination, its history and its recent applications. In Part III, this Article will describe how the theory of self-determination is linked to other international law concepts, such as statehood, recognition, sovereignty and intervention. In Part IV, this Article will focus on several case studies, to illustrate the discrepancy of results attached to the self-determination struggles by different peoples. Thus, this Article will describe the self-determination quests of East Timor, Kosovo, Chechnya, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and will show that while the first two entities achieved external self-determination, the latter three did not. Finally, in Part V, this article will argue that each self-determination seeking entity needs to meet four different criteria in order to have its quest validated by the international community. These four criteria include a showing by the relevant people that it has been oppressed, that its central government is relatively weak, that it has been administered by some international organization or group, and that it has garnered the support of the most powerful states on our planet. This Article will conclude by positing that the fourth criterion is the most crucial one: that any self-determination seeking group must obtain the support of the most powerful states, which I (and other scholars) refer to as the "Great Powers," and that it is the Great Powers' support or lack thereof that determines the fate of numerous peoples on our planet struggling to gain independence. This Article will posit that the right to external self-determination accrues for different peoples if and when the Great Powers decide to recognize those peoples' causes. Ultimately, this Article will argue that such a result is unfortunate, as it inappropriately mixes the legal with the political realms, and that any rule by the Great Powers inherently challenges the notion of state sovereignty and equality.


The Tunguska basin, eastern Siberia, contains 3.5-8 km of Late Precambrian to Triassic sedimentary and igneous rocks. Source-reservoir-seal systems are present throughout the Upper Precambrian to Permo-Carboniferous interval. Hydrocarbon generation and accumulation largely preceded the formation of the Siberian traps, a Late Permian to Middle Triassic association of effusive and explosive extrusives and intrusive dolerites. The intrusives occur mainly in Palaeozoic strata and have profoundly affected hydrocarbon accumulation. The major process is of destruction of hydrocarbon accumulations, owing to the fact that substantial volumes of the Palaeozoic basin fill has been heated to 150 degrees C plus. At lower temperatures experienced further from the contacts between the intrusions and the country rocks, organic matter thermal maturation levels may significantly exceed those related to burial alone. Water-mineral-hydrocarbon interactions in association with magmatic heating have produced a range of effects, including the generation of hydrocarbons rich in sulphur compounds such as mercaptans.


Small mammals are commonly captured in baited traps for management-related estimates of population size and species diversity. Bait preferences by species may alter their trappability, affecting abundance or diversity estimates. Here our objective was to evaluate whether the trappability of different species varied according to bait type at 3 sites in interior Alaska. Between July and August of 2011, we deployed 200 Sherman live-traps spaced 10 meters apart at each site for 5 nights, and alternated 2 commonly used baits (a peanut butter/oat mixture or oats alone). We live-captured 52 animals of 6 species at the White Mountains site, 70 animals of 4 species at the Middle Tanana site, and 40 animals of 4 species at the Brooks Range site. We then tested for differences in initial capture and recapture rates using a McNemar's test. No significant differences were observed between bait types for any variable or species. A machine-learning program, TreeNet, provided further evidence that bait type explained less variance and was less predictive of the initial capture or recapture of a species than elevation, ground cover, or shrub cover. Thus, estimates of relative abundance and species diversity should be robust across studies, although different baits than those tested may have greater effects for certain small mammal groups. Further investigation should be pursued into whether this lack of preference is a result of food limitations caused by a short growing season in higher latitudes. Table of


My interest in the field of modular production was first developed toward the end of my PhD research in 1999. I was visiting a supplier that provided seating solutions on a synchronous basis to Nissan Manufacturing UK and wanted to explore the operational dimensions of synchronous supply. What struck me at the time was that the supplier was charged with providing complex seating modules that included a variety of seating material options, plug and play electronics, lumbar support and a variety of airbag options with associated ignitors. This modular approach required the supplier to manage over 60 upstream suppliers and necessitated the development of lean operations that could deliver faultless products to Six Sigma levels. It was clear at the time of my visit that delivering on a synchronous basis was accommodated by modular production and that this method of production had implications for supply chain management, the configuration of supplier operations and the changing role played by OEMs who were increasingly seeking modular solutions in an environment characterized by high risk and low cost.

Ten years on and having written a number of papers relating to modularity and acted as reviewer for a number of modularity focussed papers it became evident to me that this was a growing field of operations and supply chain research and that this area would benefit from a special issue examining key issues and exploring future research avenues. The special issue could test or explore the growing focus upon modular strategies, the role of product architecture, the impact of modularity upon the structure of supply chains and the potential for applying modular thinking within a service sector context.

This special issue attracted 25 papers and five appear in this issue. It is fitting that the first paper of this special issue is a reflection of a Harvard Business Review paper first published in 1965 by Professor Martin Starr and often cited as the first paper to explore the power of modularity. Having read Starr's (1965) paper for my own research I decided to contact him and explain the thinking behind the proposed special issue and request his services as a reviewer. To my delight Martin Starr agreed to support this project by not only providing excellent reviews but also by submitting an update of his seminal paper. I asked Martin Starr about the impact of his paper back in 1965 and he explained what happened shortly after its publication:

[…] After the Harvard Business Review article appeared, I was invited to give a talk about modular production to the University of Western Ontario. They had a large auditorium built in theater style and my audience consisted of about ten people crowded down at the front. One of the PhD students said "you should have seen this place last evening. Betty Friedan was here to talk about her book, The Feminine Mystique." He continued, "Every seat was taken and they were standing in the back of the auditorium." It was not easy to give my talk after that introduction.

The second paper analyses the supply chain implications of modularity by exploring product performance of manufacturing within Hong Kong. The paper reports the results of a large-scale study and suggests that companies with high levels of product modularity tend to outperform companies with more traditional non-modular operations.

In the third paper, modularity is examined within the context of coordination capabilities in order to analyze how process interdependencies are managed through modularity and coordination mechanisms. The authors found that understanding which interdependencies hide potential rents and organizing transfer to appropriate such rents becomes a formidable weapon for firms competing in industries characterized by outsourcing and modularity.

Service modularity is the subject of fourth paper which focuses upon the provision of modular care and service packages for independently living elderly. The author proposes that modularity theory should distinguish between the creation of modular offerings in care provision versus their creation in goods production. Examining modularity within such a setting is clearly demanding and, in many ways, it is often more difficult to partition and design services than it is to partition and design products.

Finally, fifth paper returns to more traditional territory with an exploration of platform use within the automotive sector. The authors contend that literature relating to modularity is generally focused on the planning and design of the first generation of platform, assuming the possibility to anticipate its evolution over time. The research demonstrates that this assumption needs to be challenged especially in dynamic environments when the firm decides to re-use the platform on more than one generation. The authors demonstrated that when the platform has a long life cycle, the products developed on the platform and the platform itself co-evolves. Thus, rather than a one-step planning process the authors observe a continuous interaction between technical, marketing, economic and strategic questions during the platform lifecycle. Robertson and Ulrich's (1998) framework thus could be extended towards a continuous planning process. The smart reuse routine highlights the interplay or the co-evolution between the products and the platform.

This special issue brings together, for the first time, a collection of papers that explore the validity, scope and dimensions of modularity and modularization. Together, they demonstrate that the concept of modularity is applicable to both tangible and intangible environments and that there is plenty of scope to extend modular thinking into, as yet, untapped and unexplored areas. The current economic crisis may hasten the acceleration of modular production as manufacturers seek to reduce costs whilst maintaining quality. Similarly, an increasing number of service environments have explored modular service provision (education (with distinct modules attracting a set amount of credits and outlining clear aims and objectives), banking services (with modularized financial package options), healthcare (seeking modular solutions to capital projects, particularly building provision)) which present many possibilities to test existing concepts, tools and techniques of modularity and to extend and solidify the modular lexicon.

Desmond Doran
Guest Editor


Fifty-eight percent of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) from Qidong, China, contain an AGG to AGT mutation at codon 249 of the p53 tumor suppressor gene, a mutation that is rarely seen in HCCs from Western countries. The population of Qidong is exposed to high levels of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a fungal toxin that has been shown to induce the same mutation in cultured human HCC cells. To investigate the role of AFB1 and of these p53 mutations in hepatocarcinogenesis, normal liver samples from the United States, Thailand, and Qidong (where AFB1 exposures are negligible, low and high, respectively) were examined for p53 mutations. The frequency of the AGG to AGT mutation at codon 249 paralleled the level of AFB1 exposure, which supports the hypothesis that this toxin has a causative--and probably early--role in hepatocarcinogenesis.


BACKGROUND: Low health literacy and numeracy are significant problems facing the United States. Recent research focuses heavily on the role health literacy and numeracy play in perception of disease risk, health care costs, all-cause mortality, and access to care; however, there has been relativity little emphasis on the relationships between health literacy or numeracy with health promotion behaviors, such as nutrition or physical activity. As our nation continues to face challenges with the high prevalence of obesity and other chronic diseases, it is increasingly important to understand the role that health literacy and numeracy play in nutrition and physical activity behaviors, as well as in the prevalence and control of chronic disease. PRIMARY AIMS: The proposed research is embedded within a larger randomized-control trial, Talking Health, which is a 2-arm behavioral trial targeting residents in eight counties in southwest Virginia with sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption as the primary outcome. The primary aims of this cross-sectional study, using baseline Talking Health data, are to 1) examine correlations among health literacy and numeracy measures, namely the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), separated by reading (NVS Reading) and math (NVS Math) scores, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), and the Subjective Numeracy Scale (SNS); 2) explore the relationships between demographic factors and the NVS, REALM, and SNS scores; 3) determine the relationships between the NVS, REALM, and SNS and dietary quality [i.e. Health Eating Index (HEI) scores], physical activity behaviors, and anthropometric and biological variables (body mass index, blood pressure, fasting blood lipids, and fasting blood glucose); and 4) determine if NVS, REALM, and SNS scores predict metabolic syndrome (MetS), while controlling for relevant demographic factors. METHODS: Eligibility requirements for the study include being 18 years of age or older, having reliable access to a telephone, drinking ≥200 kilocalories of SSB per day, and being a resident of Southwest Virginia. Using previously validated instruments and standardized data collection protocol, a variety of baseline variables was collected on 264 participants. Health literacy was measured using the NVS and REALM and health numeracy was measured using the SNS. Dietary intake was measured via three 24-hour dietary recalls and HEI scores were calculated. Physical activity behaviors were assessed using the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire. Weight was measured using a calibrated digital Tanita scale (Model: 310GS), height was measured using a portable research-grade stadiometer, blood pressure measurements were made with an OMRON automated oscillometric device (Model: HEM907XL), and fasting blood samples were obtained via a finger stick and the CardioChek PA system was used to assess blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. MetS scores were iii determined based on an adaptation of the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, simple correlations (Pearson bivariate), oneway ANOVAs, and regression models. RESULTS: Of 264 enrolled participants (mean age 41.1 + 13.5 years; 92.0% Caucasian; 81.8% female; 30.6% > high school education; 42% > $15,000 annual income), 33.7% were classified as having a high probability of low health literacy or possibility of low health literacy as measured by the NVS, 19.7% had less than a high school reading level as measured by the REALM, and 45.4% had low health numeracy as measured by the SNS. Additionally, 78.8% were overweight or obese and 29.0% meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome. Nine of the ten correlations between the NVS Total, NVS Reading, NVS Math, REALM, and SNS were statistically significant (p < .01, two-tailed). NVS scores were found to be significantly different by age (F = 2.36, p = .05), race (F = 4.49, p = .03), education level (F = 20.97, p < .001), and income (F = 13.88, p < .001); while REALM scores were only significantly different by race (F = 3.74, p = .05), education level (F = 21.06, p < .001), and income (F = 6.80, p < .001). SNS scores were significantly different by gender (F = 12.40, p = .001), education level (F = 11.01, p < .001), and income (F = 14.45, p < .001). Only systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and strength training activity was found to be significantly different by health literacy and/or numeracy level; however, when controlling for hypertension medication use and/or demographic variables, only the relationship between health literacy (i.e, NVS) and strength training activity remained significant (R = 0.09, p = .01). Finally, health literacy and numeracy were not found to be predictive of metabolic syndrome while controlling for demographic variables. DISCUSSION: Although numerous demographic factors were related to baseline health literacy and numeracy levels, anthropometric/biological variables, physical activity behaviors, and diet quality did not differ by health literacy and health numeracy level, with the exception of systolic blood pressure and strength training activity. This research helps to fill the gaps in the literature surrounding the prevalence of health literacy, health numeracy, and health promoting behaviors and chronic disease among rural residents in medically underserved counties in southwest Virginia. While few cross-sectional relationships were found, future research from this RCT should examine if health literacy and health numeracy moderates or mediates intervention changes in anthropometric/biological variables, physical activity behaviors, diet quality, and metabolic syndrome scores.


Research on the effects of enterprise zones – especially state programs – has generally failed to find evidence of beneficial effects such job growth or poverty reduction. In contrast, Ham, Swenson, Imrohoro?lu, and Song (2011, hereafter HSIS) present evidence that state and federal enterprise zones (EZs) established in the 1990s substantially reduced poverty. However, their estimates of the effects of EZs in reducing poverty are badly overstated for two reasons. First, HSIS have a substantial error in their data on poverty rates by Census tract, which accounts for most of the estimated impact of state EZs that they find. Second, their estimates of the effects of federal Empowerment Zones (EMPZs) and Enterprise Communities (ENTCs) appear to be strongly influenced by selection of areas that experienced negative shocks. An estimator based on comparing federally designated zones to more-comparable areas that applied for and were rejected as zones, or became zones in the future, yields much smaller estimates than those in HSIS. And the large poverty-reduction effects of ENTCs that HSIS found are largely spurious – not surprisingly, given that ENTCs received meager benefits and had no hiring credits.


Abstract The growing participation of developing countries in multilateral trade liberalization, as well as the boom of free trade agreements that grant exclusive preferences to its members, are both closely related to what has been denominated as 'open regionalism'. Additionally, this regionalism is associated with a process of 'deep integration' that transcends free trade issues. The concepts of 'deep regionalism' and 'open regionalism' do not have a precise definition and rather refer to a range of strategic decisions which governments might resort to in the process of regional integration. The first concept refers to the degree of sovereignty in economic policies that governments are willing to sacrifice in the design and implementation of national economic policies, especially when they try to harmonize national policies at a regional scale. The second relates to the relationship that will be established with countries that are left out of a preferential trade agreement. These new elements in trade diplomacy have stimulated a wide and heterogeneous literature dealing with projects of economic integration. In fact, for the first time, this literature increasingly includes comparative analysis of regions that such as Latin America and East Asia are believed to have similar experiences in their modern economic development. Sharing this general view, this paper seeks to explore the differences and similarities among the initiatives of regional economic cooperation, as they appear in the still scarce comparative studies on the subject. This implies dealing with three fundamental questions: (1); how can this sharp rise in regional integration projects be explained? (2); What is the 'depth' of its institutional design in terms of favouring major and more complex levels of economic integration between countries? And (3); why has each project defined itself as 'open regionalism', and thereby how have they justified their compatibility with the multilateral rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO);.


B cells have mainly been recognized for their antibody-secreting function in humoral immune responses. Lately, the focus of interest has moved to the antibody-independent functions of B cells. In that context, it has become clear that antigen presentation by B cells is critically involved in both physiologic immune responses as well as pathologic immune reaction such as autoimmune diseases. Antigen presentation by B cells is characterised by their ability to take-up, process and present antigen via MHC-II in a B cell receptor dependent and independent fashion. Furthermore, during immune responses armed helper T cells interact with B cells by expression of CD40 Ligand
(CD40L), which thereby become activated and in turn start to proliferate and differentiate.
CD40-activated B cells (CD40-B) are professional antigen-presenting cells comparable to dendritic cells (DC) exhibiting a high expression of costimulatory and MHC molecules. CD40-B cells were shown to not only prime naive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells effciently, but also expand memory T cells in vitro. Furthermore they express the full lymph node homing triad (CD62L, CCR7/CXCR4 and LFA-1) and were shown to induce T-cell chemotaxis in vitro. Recently, we demonstrated that murine CD40B cells (mCD40B) specifically migrate to secondary lymphoid organs in vivo. Importantly,
these cells are available at virtually unlimited amounts at a purity > 95% for high-dose, high-frequency vaccination considered crucial for the control of cancer. However, most B cell-based vaccines tested so far failed to induce functional and protective cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) re-
sponses in animal models in vivo.
Within this work I present the successful development of a functional murine mCD40B-based vaccination model. This model is indeed suitable to study the ability of mCD40B cells to induce protective anti-tumour responses in vivo.
We established a murine B-cell stimulation system based on potent B-cell activation maintained by co-cultivation with membrane-bound CD40 ligand and interleukin-4. By using this technique highly activated mCD40Bs expand more than 5-fold with purity above 90% within 14 days. Hence, we identifed appropriate mCD40B subsets and further characterised them on a functional level. Despite their T-cell stimulatory capacity in vitro being inferior to murine dendritic cell (mDC) subsets, we demonstrated that vaccination with antigen-loaded mCD40B effectively induces specifc CTL responses against viral and model peptide antigen in vivo. We clearly identifed injection route, cell dose and vaccination repetitions as parameters exerting dominant infuence on the effective induction of specifc T cell responses by mCD40B. Incorporating these parameters into the vaccination algorithm, I showed that mCD40B induce in vivo cytolysis of antigen-specific target cells comparable to mDC. Finally, by using tumour antigen-loaded mCD40B we successfully transferred our vaccination algorithm to preventive immunization against B16 melanoma. In summary, highly activated mCD40B cells indeed exhibit antigen-presenting capacity sufficient to induce protective anti-tumour immunity in B16 melanoma.


The gearboxes (reducing gears) built in the rotating excavators used at surface coal mines, are exposed to dynamic loads which are frequently unpredictable (stochastic) given the exploitation conditions. These gearboxes are very frequently oversized by the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the possibility of impact loads due to unpredictable working resistances the excavators run up against, can reduce the safety of the gearbox, even to the extent of breakdown of some of the constituent elements in given period till the planned overhaul. This paper presents the methodology for assessing the safety (reliability) of most unreliable gear in specific gearbox, being ascertained by the maintenance experience of the gearbox. Concerning this gearbox, the load function has been established based on experimental investigations, being presented in this paper. Regarding the most unreliable gear, the carrying capacity function has been established by means of theoretical research being displayed in the comparative diagram together with the load function. This comparative diagram helps to infer the safety of the most unreliable gear in the gearbox, i.e. the safety of the gearbox as a whole. The loading on the gearbox is a variable course of the rotating moment with the driven shaft depending on the time span during the total exploitation life of the gearbox. The carrying capacity of the gearbox is equal to the permissible temporally constant rotating moment acting on the driven shaft within a time span encompassing a number of changes in the loading on the driving shaft. The presented methodology can be applied to investigate the safety of other similar gearboxes.


Background and Objective Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal disorder, characterized by depletion of the normal lactobacillus-dominant microbiota and overgrowth of commensal anaerobic bacteria. This study aimed to investigate the composition of the vaginal microbiota in women of reproductive age (healthy women and women with BV), with the view of developing molecular criteria for BV diagnosis. Materials and Methods Vaginal samples from 163 women (79 control, 73 BV and 11 intermediate (Lactobacillary grade II flora) cases) were analyzed using 454 pyrosequencing of the hypervariable regions V3–V4 of the 16S rRNA gene and 16 quantitative bacterial species/genus-specific real-time PCR assays. Sensitivities and specificities of potential BV markers were computed using the Amsel criteria as reference standard for BV. The use of quantitative thresholds for prediction of BV, determined for both relative abundance measured with 454 pyrosequencing and bacterial load measured with qPCR, was evaluated. Results Relative to the healthy women, the BV patients had in their vaginal microbiota significantly higher prevalence, loads and relative abundances of the majority of BV associated bacteria. However, only Gardnerella vaginalis, Atopobium vaginae, Eggerthella, Prevotella, BVAB2 and Megasphaera type 1 detected at or above optimal thresholds were highly predictable for BV, with the best diagnostic accuracy shown for A. vaginae. The depletion of Lactobacillus species combined with the presence of either G. vaginalis or A. vaginae at diagnostic levels was a highly accurate BV predictor. Conclusions Quantitative determination of the presence of G. vaginalis, A. vaginae, Eggerthella, Prevotella, BVAB2 and Megasphaera type 1 as well as the depletion of Lactobacillus was highly accurate for BV diagnosis. Measurements of abundance of normal and BV microbiota relative to total bacteria in vaginal fluid may provide more accurate BV diagnosis, and be used for test-of-cure, rather than qualitative detection or absolute counts of BV related microorganisms.


Progress has been achieved recently in object detection given advancements in deep learning. Nevertheless, such tools typically require a large amount of training data and significant manual effort to label objects. This limits their applicability in robotics, where solutions must scale to a large number of objects and variety of conditions. This work proposes an autonomous process for training a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for object detection and pose estimation in robotic setups. The focus is on detecting objects placed in cluttered, tight environments, such as a shelf with multiple objects. In particular, given access to 3D object models, several aspects of the environment are physically simulated. The models are placed in physically realistic poses with respect to their environment to generate a labeled synthetic dataset. To further improve object detection, the network self-trains over real images that are labeled using a robust multi-view pose estimation process. The proposed training process is evaluated on several existing datasets and on a dataset collected for this paper with a Motoman robotic arm. Results show that the proposed approach outperforms popular training processes relying on synthetic — but not physically realistic — data and manual annotation. The key contributions are the incorporation of physical reasoning in the synthetic data generation process and the automation of the annotation process over real images.


This thesis sets out to explore how family law has come to shape and regulate the nature of the post‐divorce family, with particular reference to contemporary Australia. In so doing, it positions law as part of a broader set of behavioural, social and economic regulations through which separating families are re‐formed in the contemporary context. In considering law in this wider context, I have a particular interest in the mediation process within family dispute resolution. Here I consider how the mediation process works to steer negotiations between divorcing parents in particular directions, and in the process potentially sidelines, or silences, other emotional and personal issues deemed to be irrelevant to the desired outcome, which is increasingly construed in terms of the 'best interests of the child'.

As the site of my analysis is the private, confidential and relatively unobserved process of mediation within family dispute resolution, I have drawn together a range of sources and insights to create an imagined representation of mediation as an analytical device for the purpose of discussion throughout the thesis. This allows me to illustrate certain interpersonal dynamics of the mediation process and pinpoint particular issues for discussion.

In order to investigate the factors that have contributed to the regulation of the postdivorce family over time I draw on three major theoretical sources. First, Michel Foucault and his ideas on governmentality; second Jacques Donzelot and his work on the policing of families from the mid‐eighteenth century in France; and, third Norbert Elias's insights into the civilising process. Taken together these insights help to illuminate the often hidden but persuasive role of law, the broad social mechanisms by which separating families are regulated, how the regulation of behaviour and emotion at family breakdown relies on law working in co‐operation with the social and behavioural experts, and how our social orderliness relies on our ability to civilise our behaviour. I also rely on a range of socio‐legal interpretations of family law in developing an analytical perspective for investigating the ways in which law has operated over time and in the contemporary situation.

In the conclusion to the thesis I bring the central strands of my discussion together and consider how the process and practices of mediation within family dispute resolution 'help to shape the stories that are told' (Day Sclater, 1999a, p. 179), and in particular, the way in which certain emotional and personal issues, deemed to be officially irrelevant to the desired outcome in mediation, are potentially sidelined or silenced.


A prime case study for exploring the potentially conflicting agendas of language documentation and revitalization is Evenki, a Tungusic language spoken by approximately 5000 people living in small villages scattered throughout much of Siberia. Historically the Evenki people were nomadic herders and hunters, moving across vast regions in Siberia. As a result, there is significant dialect variation in what remains of Evenki today. This variation, coupled with attrition, poses significant issues for language documenters and language activists committed to revitalization. The present paper examines the use of Evenki in two distinct regions to investigate how practices in documentation and revitalization can mutually inform one another, with a focus on the role of sociolinguistics in determining possible outcomes. Keywords: Language endangerment in Siberia; Evenki; language activism; interface between language documentation; education and revitalization


The future growth and development of Asia - the most dynamic economic region in the world today - will have important implications for the rest of the global economy. This book offers a futuristic perspective of a wide array of developmental challenges and opportunities facing Asian economies over the next two decades. The future is approached from several different developmental paradigms including technological change and innovation, regional cooperation within Asia and between Asia and the West, poverty reduction, ethics and corruption, and environmental challenges. Future prospects for the two giant economies of China and India are also explored. By offering a comprehensive look at the medium-term future of Asia from such a wide range of different viewpoints, this fascinating book will interest economists, social scientists, politicians, international investment managers and the general public alike.


This paper analyses the consequences of heaping in duration models. Heaping is a specific form of response error typical to retrospectively collected labor force status data. Respondents round-off the spell length, when duration data is collected by episode-based questionnaires. Calendar-based questionnaires instead may lead to abnormal concentrations of the start and/or end of spells at specific calendar months. The investigation concentrates on this latter type of heaping, which Kraus and Steiner [1995] identified for the unemployment spell data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). In the special case of an exponential model heaping with a symmetric zero-mean measurement error does not bias the parameter estimate. In the Weibull model with duration dependence, however, it is proven that even such a symmetric heaping would lead to inconsistent estimation. We discuss the bias for general heaping patterns and derive from this a proposal for bias correction. In a number of simulation studies we check the theoretical results. The Monte Carlo simulations also show that an amount of heaping, that characterizes the GSOEP-West does not lead to considerably biased parameter estimates of a Weibull model. However, it clearly leads to spurious seasonal effects. Finally, some directions of future work are indicated.


There is little empirical evidence relating to how university administrative employees view the performance appraisal process (Analoui & Fell, 2002). The aim of this paper was to investigate administrative staff perceptions and understanding of the appraisal system using AUT University (AUT) as a case study. Areas investigated included (1) how administrative staff viewed the process, (2) did it impact on their motivation, and (3) did it help or hinder career development. The research for this paper was a partial replication of the Analoui and Fell study of appraisal systems at The University of Bradford (UK). The Analoui and Fell questionnaire and interview guide were modified to suit the AUT context. The AUT sample consisted of 543 staff members with a response rate of 20 per cent. It was found that there was no evidence that the respondents wanted the process discontinued even though comments from those who had been through a Performance and Development Review (P&DR) and Formative Appraisal (FA) indicated a range of positive and negative experiences. In terms of performance appraisal as a motivational tool, few respondents felt that the process motivated them. There was evidence that FA was beneficial in helping with career development. The stated main purposes of AUT performance appraisal is: to assist in administration (pay increase and promotion), and developmental (training) decisions, with the latter purpose being secondary. Resulting from this study recommendations are (1) the current process should be evaluated, and (2) appraisers and appraisees should undertake training prior to an appraisal. On-going research should be undertaken to find out how administrative staff in the wider NZ university sector view the process. To follow-on from the current research, a longitudinal study should be undertaken of administrative staff reactions immediately after an appraisal. Research should also be undertaken to investigate if administrative staff associate completion of the performance appraisal process which includes the setting of goals with an increased work overload.


This book provides the first coherent account of the area of analysis that involves the Heisenberg group, quantization, the Weyl calculus, the metaplectic representation, wave packets, and related concepts. This circle of ideas comes principally from mathematical physics, partial differential equations, and Fourier analysis, and it illuminates all these subjects. The principal features of the book are as follows: a thorough treatment of the representations of the Heisenberg group, their associated integral transforms, and the metaplectic representation; an exposition of the Weyl calculus of pseudodifferential operators, with emphasis on ideas coming from harmonic analysis and physics; a discussion of wave packet transforms and their applications; and a new development of Howe's theory of the oscillator semigroup.


This study examines the linguistic features of freewrites and how those features relate to human scores of freewrite quality. Freewriting is a common prewriting strategy that has received little attention by researchers, particularly in terms of the linguistic features of good and poor freewrites. To address this issue, we developed a scoring rubric to assess the qualities of freewrites and how they are correlated with linguistic features. The results showed that many linguistic features positively correlated with human scores (e.g., referential cohesion, syntactic complexity, lexical difficulty), but the only significant predictors in a regression analysis were, number of words and noun overlap. Better freewrites are longer ones with lexical overlap between sentences. While these results fail to conclusively exclude other potentially important features of higher quality freewrites, this study is a first step toward computationally defining freewrite quality.


Objective— To determine the prevalence of diabetes and its relationship to age and obesity in an urban community in Colombia. Research Design and Methods— A cluster sample of 670 adults ≥ 30 yr of age was selected from the city of Santafè de Bogotá. Classification of diabetes and IGT was according to WHO criteria. Results— Response to the survey, conducted in 1988–1989, was 71% for men and 84% for women. Prevalence of diabetes was 7% in both sexes. Prevalence of IGT was 5% in men and 7% in women. Age-standardized prevalence of diabetes in the 30- to 64-yr age range was comparable with that reported in urban Brazilians and rural Hispanics in the U.S.. Prevalence was higher than in the white population of the U.S. but lower than in several urban U.S. Hispanic communities. Some 40% of men and 30% of women with diabetes were unaware of their condition before the survey, but all those <50 yr of age were diagnosed previously. Glucose intolerance was associated with high BMI in men and with advancing age in both sexes. Conclusions— Glucose intolerance is common in this community and will likely increase in frequency in Colombians with further urbanization and population aging.


This study was carried out to develop and optimize a surface sterilization protocol for the sterilization of explants in the tissue culture of the edible mushrooms Pleurotus tuber-regium (Fr) Sing. and Auricularia auricula-judae. The explants were exposed to two sterilization agents; 70% ethanol (EtOH) and JIK® a locally produced bleaching solution containing 3.5% (w/v) sodium hypochlorite at concentrations of 2.5% (v/v) and 5.0% (v/v) with varying time intervals of one, two, five, ten and fifteen minutes. The results showed that treatment of explants with 5.0% (v/v) sodium hypochlorite solution for ten minutes preceded by 70% ethanol pre-treatment for two minutes gave the least explants contamination (0%) and highest explants survival (100%) for Pleurotus tuber-regium, while treatment of explants with 70% ethanol for one minute followed by 5.0% (v/v) sodium hypochlorite solution for five minutes, gave the highest survival rate (100%) and least explants contamination (0%) for Auricularia auricula-judae.


This paper accounts for dative/accusative alternations in several Romance languages with verbs with one complement of person, such as Catalan telefonar [DAT a la Roser ]/ telefonar [ACC la Roser ] 'to phone Roser'. Although the paper focuses on Catalan and Spanish, reference is also made to Italian Southern dialects and Asturian. Regardless of their case-marking, these complements are always Goals of unergative verbs: if dative-marked, they behave as expected; if accusative-marked, they instantiate what we call Differential Indirect Object Marking (following Bilous 2011). The two options of case-assignment are due to two different sorts of Low Applicatives, one Romance-like (the dative-assigning one) and the other English-like (the accusative-assigning one). The postulation of an Applicative Head with our apparently unergative verbs follows from analysing them as hidden transitive verbs (light verb + cognate noun).


We theoretically study the effect of polar substrates on the magneto-optical conductivity of doped monolayer graphene, where we particularly focus on the role played by surface polar phonons (SPPs). Our calculations suggest that polaronic shifts of the intra- and interband absorption peaks can be significantly larger for substrates with strong electron-SPP coupling than those in graphene on non-polar substrates, where only intrinsic graphene optical phonons with much higher energies contribute. Electron-phonon scattering and phonon-assisted transitions are, moreover, found to result in a loss of spectral weight at the absorption peaks. The strength of these processes is strongly temperature-dependent and with increasing temperatures the magneto-optical conductivity becomes increasingly affected by polar substrates, most noticeably in polar substrates with small SPP energies such as HfO$_2$. The inclusion of a Landau level-dependent scattering rate to account for Coulomb impurity scattering does not alter this qualitative picture, but can play an important role in determining the lineshape of the absorption peaks, especially at low temperatures, where impurity scattering dominates.


In this paper we consider the problem of learning an n x n kernel matrix from m(≥ 1) similarity matrices under general convex loss. Past research have extensively studied the m = 1 case and have derived several algorithms which require sophisticated techniques like ACCP, SOCP, etc. The existing algorithms do not apply if one uses arbitrary losses and often can not handle m > 1 case. We present several provably convergent iterative algorithms, where each iteration requires either an SVM or a Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL) solver for m > 1 case. One of the major contributions of the paper is to extend the well known Mirror Descent(MD) framework to handle Cartesian product of psd matrices. This novel extension leads to an algorithm, called EMKL, which solves the problem in O(m2 log n/e2) iterations; in each iteration one solves an MKL involving m kernels and m eigen-decomposition of n x n matrices. By suitably defining a restriction on the objective function, a faster version of EMKL is proposed, called REKL, which avoids the eigen-decomposition. An alternative to both EMKL and REKL is also suggested which requires only an SVM solver. Experimental results on real world protein data set involving several similarity matrices illustrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms.


The treatment of inflammatory disease is conquered by the administration of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs, which defeat the inflammatory burden and recover the disease-related symptoms. Conventional treatment strategies are characterized by limited therapeutic efficacy and the occurrence of adverse drug reactions. Therefore, the progress of novel disease-targeted drug delivery stratagems is proposed for a more effective therapy. Though numerous harmonizing and conventional treatment strategies have been assimilated into experimental and clinical practices, the pertinent molecular mechanisms are still under investigation. Hence, we invited researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles to offer solid suggestion to sustain the application of innovative drugs in prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases.

A paper in this special issue investigates the effect of Antrodia camphorata, a rare Taiwanese medicinal mushroom that is popularly known as "niu cheng zhi" in Taiwan, on inflammatory arterial thrombosis-mediated platelet activation and also the pivotal role of protein kinase C in this situation was investigated. This paper demonstrated clearly that Antrodia camphorata holds antiplatelet activity via inhibiting Ca2+, PKC cascades, and Akt signaling pathway. These alterations may reduce platelet activity and ultimately inhibit platelet aggregation. Another interesting paper in this special issue addresses the same aspect that combinative therapy of Antrodia camphorata with aspirin offers enhanced neuroprotective efficacy without increasing side effects. This paper thoroughly planned and demonstrated that Antrodia camphorata alone or combined with aspirin enhanced neuroprotective efficacy by reducing brain infarct volume, neurobehavioral score, cerebral blood perfusion, and subarachnoid and intracerebral hemorrhage incidence. This paper also showed that Antrodia camphorata alone or with aspirin did not alter the level of hemoglobin, as this treatment is safe and does not cause hemorrhagic incident. The findings of these papers suggested that Antrodia camphorata may be a potential therapeutic agent for preventing or treating thromboembolic disorders without causing any major side effects.

This special issue also published an inspiring paper that has investigated the mechanisms of the inhibitory effects of andrographolide, a most active and critical constituent isolated from the leaves of Andrographis paniculata in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) exposed to a proinflammatory stimulus, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). This mechanistic study proposed that andrographolide can benefit the treatment of vascular inflammatory diseases, and andrographolide-mediated inhibition of NF-κB activity in TNF-α-stimulated VSMCs may occur through the JNK-Akt-p65 signaling cascade, an IκBα-independent mechanism. In addition, an interesting piece of work in this special issue examined the effect of an ethanolic extract of Sanguis draconis, a kind of dragon's blood resin that was obtained from Daemonorops draco (Palmae), on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) under high-glucose stimulation. This paper showed that Sanguis draconis attenuated high-glucose induced cell toxicity, nitrite, lipid peroxidation, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation in HUVEC. This treatment method abolished phosphorylation of ERK 1/2, NF-κB, VCAM-1, and E-selectin, and it seems to block the breakdown of PARP-116 kDa protein. Furthermore, this paper found that Sanguis draconis increased the expression of Bcl-2 and decreased Bax protein expression. The results of this paper suggest that Sanguis draconis may have a therapeutic potential in vascular inflammation due to the decreased levels of oxidative stress, apoptosis, and PARP-1 activation. Overall, we expect that this special issue grants progressive awareness to upsurge the therapeutic significance for drug development to treat or prevent inflammatory diseases.

Duen-Suey Chou

Joen-Rong Sheu

Philip A. Thomas

Muniyan Sakthivel


This work applies an advective-dispersive framework to simulate utility-wide residential water consumption using the analogy of a continuum transport process. In this context, the advective-dispersive process describes how changes in real water price and seasonal weather variability influence water consumption distribution, which ultimately governs mean and total water consumption values. Water consumption response is measured using histogram data optimally fit using parametric probability density functions (PDF) that have consistent parametrization over the entire observation period. Median statistic denotes advection and prescribes location of the measurement-space PDF, while standard deviation combined with standard-score PDF denotes dispersion which provides the measurement-space PDF with scale and shape. Combining location, scale, and shape components produces a measurement-space PDF that represents the solution to advective-dispersive transport phenomena. We use a Taylor series expansion of the statistics that define the PDF along with curvilinear regression to develop constitutive relationships that define how location, scale, and shape of the PDF respond to price and weather information. This results in a fully parametrizing advective-dispersive process represented by a partial differential equation that provides a tool for anticipating the probability that households will experience water poverty or use excess amounts as price, weather, and policy considerations change through time. This approach is conducive to automation when combined with smart water metering.


Project Summary This study is being done to test one aspect of how paying attention to one's dreams may influence our waking lives. The idea was inspired by research linking the brain processes involved in long-term memory storage to qualities of dreaming, as well as the potential for learning in lucid dreams. It is hypothesized that the more conscious one is of one's dreams and dream world, the better one will be at learning. In order to test this, the dreaming ability of 300 Cal Poly students will be analyzed via dream questionnaires with the purpose of seeing if any correlation exists between their variation in dreaming and their variation in grade point average (GPA). Dreaming will be assessed in terms of dream recall frequency and dream intensity. Data analysis will be done via three regression analyses, which will be made with respect to (1) dreaming intensity and GPA, (2) dream recall frequency and GPA, and (3) total dream score and GPA. Furthermore, an experimental group (n=25) of students will listen to a weekly dream education podcast as well as keep a daily dream journal for three quarters. A control group (n=25) will listen to weekly podcasts on random topics pertaining to dreams, but with no content about how to better improve their dreaming abilities and will be instructed to keep a journal about daily thoughts and occurrences. Both groups will retake the dream questionnaire and submit their new GPA at the end of each quarter, for a total duration of three quarters. Change in dreaming abilities as well as change in grade point average will be measured via one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) for each group and each factor (GPA and total dream score). The experiment will cost $500 and will be completed in under a year on campus at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. The expected results will be used as evidence supporting the implementation of dreaming as a core subject in the nation's school system. B 82.731 biology 117 Foreward I designed the following experiment for my senior project proposal class one year ago. It was my best attempt at the time to question the relationship I had observed between dreams and learning. Much has changed since that time, so my hope is that readers keep in mind the most basic thing I am questioning , which is the potential of …


Skyrocketing mobile data demands caused by increasing adoption of smartphones, tablet computers, and broadband-equipped laptops will soon swamp the capacity of our nation's wireless networks, a fact that promises to stagnate a $1 trillion slice on the nation's economy. Among scholars and policymakers studying this looming "spectrum crisis," consensus is developing that regulators must swiftly reclaim spectrum licensed to other industries and reallocate those rights to wireless providers. In this interdisciplinary piece, we explain in succinct terms why this consensus is wrong. With data demands increasing at an exponential rate, spectrum reallocation plans that promise only linear growth are destined to fail. What regulators should focus on, instead, are policies that encourage the sluggish incumbents presently dominating the wireless industry to roll out new networking technologies (like tiered network architectures, cognitive radio, and multicell MIMO) that could allow exponential increases in spectral efficiency.


Steam reforming of methane is a versatile technology for hydrogen production in oil refinery and fuel cell applications. Using natural gas is a promising method to produce rich-hydrogen gas. Ni@yolk–ZrO2 catalyst is used to study steam reforming of methane under various GHSVs, steam-to-carbon (S/C) ratio, and its recyclability. The catalyst was characterized using a combination of XRD, TEM, AAS, TPR, TPH, TGA, BET, XPS, and Raman techniques. The catalyst is evaluated on time stream and identify its anti-agglomeration property and coking mechanism. From the characterization of TEM and XPS establish the information of Ni particles mobility in the catalyst, which active metal particle size was controlled under the yolk–shell structure framework. Furthermore, the results from TGA, TPH, and Raman analysis of the used Ni@yolk–ZrO2 catalyst showed the characteristic of inhibiting formation of highly ordered carbon structure.


In North America, most domestic waste produced is disposed in landfills. These sites generate leachate and gas, mainly CH4 and CO2, which are harmful for the environment if not properly controlled. The design of active landfill gas recovery systems is based in large part on the radius of influence of vertical pumping wells. This parameter is commonly estimated empirically. This study presents results of numerical simulations of the radius of influence of gas recovery wells for different site conditions. The simulations were performed with the TOUGH2‐LGM simulator. In the simulation scenarios, the radius of influence was defined in relation to several factors: the waste thickness, the generation rate of CH4 gas in the waste, and CH4 concentration in the recovered landfill gas. The results are presented in the form of general graphs that are not site‐specific. The adequacy of the results still needs to be validated against field measurements. On the basis of simulation results, a systematic approach is proposed for the design of landfill gas recovery systems, and this approach is illustrated with a hypothetic example. This approach should guide landfill managers and engineers in the design of landfill gas recovery systems. The simulations only considered cases where landfills are open to the atmosphere, which are representative of most operating conditions. The results thus do not apply to post‐closure conditions usually involving an impermeable cover built on top of the waste.


Chouliaras, G. and Rasmussen, T-M., 1988. The application of the magnetotelluric impedance tensor to earthquake prediction research in Greece. Tectm5pfrysics, 152: 119-135. Continuous short period (0.1-3600 s) measurements of the magnetotelluric field components were conducted simultaneously at two sites in Greece for a period of 5 weeks. The estimation of the impedance tensor elements from X-hr windows of recorded data, at each station, is found to describe the local electromagnetic induction with great accuracy, The computation of the residual electric field, obtained as the difference between the observed and estimated inductive part of the electric fields, clearly improves the detection of any local electric field anomaly. This method was used in an attempt to detect precursory seismic electrical signals @ES) that have been reported to precede earthquakes in Greece. The results indicate the success of this method in resolving ambiguities about the nature of the reported SES, i.e. whether it has an external or internal source. Although during the recording period no large earthquake occurred, five with a magnitude of between ML = 4.0 and M, = 4.3 occurred within a radius of 150 km from one of the stations. The magnetotelluric recordings and the computed residual electric fields far the time intervals reported to contain the SES precursors to these events were analysed in some detail. In two of the cases it was found that the sources could not be related to earthquake processes. In the other three cases the nature of the source of the suspected SES, although electric, could not be established with certainty. These results indicate that for earthquakes of small magnitude (M,s4.3) or of large epicentral distance (r 2 100 km), the detection of a SES is extremely difficult.


Abstract In accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, the applicant Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board submitted a request to the competent national authority in the United Kingdom to modify the existing maximum residue level (MRL) for the active substance epoxiconazole in beetroots. The data submitted in support of the request were found to be sufficient to derive a MRL proposal for beetroots. Adequate analytical methods for enforcement are available to control the residues of epoxiconazole in the commodities under evaluation at the validated limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.01 mg/kg. Based on the risk assessment results, EFSA concluded that the short‐term and long‐term intake of residues resulting from the use of epoxiconazole according to the reported agricultural practice is unlikely to present a risk to consumer health. However, the residue definition for risk assessment was set on a provisional basis, pending the outstanding issues on the overall consumer assessment of the triazole derivative metabolites (TDMs). The reliable end points, appropriate for use in regulatory risk assessment are presented.


Gac fruit, Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng, also known as baby jackfruit or sweet gourd, is one of the traditional fruits in Vietnam. Studies report that extraordinarily high levels of carotenoids, especially βcarotene and lycopene, are found in Gac fruit aril, the brightly coloured flesh covering the seeds. Gac fruit also contains significantly high levels of α-tocopherol (vitamin E) and of fatty acids. It is very important therefore, to preserve or enhance these constituents in processed Gac fruit products, particularly the high levels of carotenoids and the associated antioxidant activity. Dried Gac powder is usually the dried aril component having the high concentration of nutrients and colour. The aim of this study is to investigate the ratios of antioxidant supplementation such as vitamin C and vitamin E into the mixture of Gac and carrier. The result shows that vitamin C at content of 2000 ppm (according to weight of wet material) supplemented into the mixture of Gac and carrier gives the highest total carotene content.


IMPORTANCE
Data on the long-term cognitive outcomes of patients with PARKIN-associated Parkinson disease (PD) are unknown but may be useful when counseling these patients.

OBJECTIVE
Among patients with early-onset PD of long duration, we assessed cognitive and motor performances, comparing homozygotes and compound heterozygotes who carry 2 PARKIN mutations with noncarriers.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Cross-sectional study of 44 participants at 17 different movement disorder centers who were in the Consortium on Risk for Early-Onset PD study with a duration of PD greater than the median duration (>14 years): 4 homozygotes and 17 compound heterozygotes (hereafter referred to as carriers) and 23 noncarriers.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale Part III (UPDRS-III) and Clinical Dementia Rating scores and neuropsychological performance. Linear regression models were applied to assess the association between PARKIN mutation status and cognitive domain scores and UPDRS-III scores. Models were adjusted for age, education, disease duration, language, and levodopa equivalent daily dose.

RESULTS
Carriers had an earlier age at onset of PD (P < .001) and were younger (P = .004) at time of examination than noncarriers. They performed better than noncarriers on the Mini-Mental State Examination (P = .010) and were more likely to receive lower scores on the Clinical Dementia Rating (P = .003). In multivariate analyses, carriers performed better than noncarriers on the UPDRS-III (P = .02) and on tests of attention (P = .03), memory (P = .03), and visuospatial (P = .02) cognitive domains.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
In cross-sectional analyses, carriers demonstrated better cognitive and motor performance than did noncarriers with long disease duration, suggesting slower disease progression. A longitudinal follow-up study is required to confirm these findings.


Phytoplasmas have been detected and characterized by molecular methods in coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) for the first time in Malaysia. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were used to determine whether a phytoplasma is associated with a yellow decline disease in different coconut ecotypes including Malayan Red Dwarf (MRD), Malayan Yellow Dwarf (MYD) and Malayan Tall (MT) palms. No amplification products were visible from symptomatic samples in first round PCR using phytoplasma universal primer pair P1/P7, but nested PCR with primer pairs R16F2n/R16R2 and fU5/rU3 resulted in amplification of products of approximately 1.2 kb and 890 bp respectively, from 8 out of 20 MRD, 9 out of 12 MYD and 12 out of 12 MT symptomatic palms tested. Sequence analysis of the 16S rDNA PCR products determined that the phytoplasma strain associated with coconut yellow decline (CYD) in MRD and MT ecotypes belongs to the 'Candidatus Phytoplasma cynodontis' (16SrXIV) group of phytoplasmas. The phytoplasma derived from MYD presented high levels (97%) of homology with the sequences of the 'Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii' (16SrVI) group. The virtual RFLP analyses also confirmed that MRD and MT CYD belongs to the 'Ca. Phytoplasma cynodontis group (16SrXIV), whilst MYD CYD does not belong to the identified groups based upon 16S rDNA virtual RFLP analysis.
Nested R16F2n/R16R2 PCR products from 6 spear leaves and 2 inflorescences from MRD palms showed high sequence similarity to the 16S rRNA gene from coconut chloroplasts, with a similar size (approximately 1.3 kb), and a further 5 R16F2n/R16R2 PCR products from MRD infloresences showed high sequence similarities to Bacillus spp. and Bacillus megaterium 16S rRNA gene sequences. These Bacillus PCR products also showed a similar RFLP profile to that obtained from the CYD phytoplasma when the restriction enzyme EcoRI was used. Trunk borings were the most reliable source of DNA for phytoplasma detection in coconuts using 16S rRNA gene primers, since there is less co-amplification of PCR products from other organisms when compared to spear leaves and inflorescences.
Real-time PCR using TaqMan probe was developed for sensitive, quantitative and rapid detection of coconut yellow decline (CYD) phytoplasma which is not related to the identified phytoplasma groups. Primers and probe were designed from the highly conserved 16S rRNA gene of CYD phytoplasma. The CYD primers were designed to amplify CYD phytoplasmas in genomic DNA extracts prepared from symptomatic MYD and MRD coconut ecotypes. The selected primers amplify specifically a target 112-bp fragment from the 16S rRNA gene region. The real-time PCR assay reliably detected the CYD phytoplasma in DNA from symptomatic MYD and MRD coconut palm ecotypes with the qCYD 16S probe. The result also shows that the concentration of the pathogen is typically low.


During urban expansions around 1600 a new neighborhood, Vlooienburg, was created in the rapidly growing city of Amsterdam. This new district was not just inhabited by local people, but also by immigrants coming from different European countries. Among those immigrants there were Sephardic Jewish people, who had fled from the Iberian Peninsula due to the persecution perpetrated by the Spanish Inquisition. By studying the archaeological finds that have been recovered from cesspits at Vlooienburg, an attempt is made to gain more knowledge about the composition of different cultural, religious and social identities living together in this area. As a part of the study of the material culture from Vlooienburg, this paper will present a case study that explores the possible relationships between the mobility of Portuguese ceramics and the presence of Portuguese immigrants. The paper will examine the distribution of different Portuguese wares to establish whether there were significant differences in how these ceramics were acquired and used within seventeenth century households in Amsterdam. The main result of this study is the remarkable link between Portuguese coarse cooking wares and the presence of immigrant households.


In the pre-vaccination era, rubella was regarded as only a mild exanthematous acute viral infection of children. The devastating effects of the disease were first identified in the early 1940s by an Australian ophthalmologist, and further confirmed during the 1962-65 rubella pandemic in Europe and the United States. They result from the transmission of the virus by infected pregnant women to their fetus. The resulting congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) comprises a lengthy list of abnormalities. The most common ones are deafness, ocular and cardiac defects and mental retardation. The objective of rubella vaccination, to which France has subscribed, is the elimination of CRS.


Using an ordinary least square regression, this paper evaluates some of the determining factors of the Swedish retail diversity. Particular emphasis has been put on the relation between a municipality size as an effect for diversity of the retailing industry. With the research question: "Does the size of municipalities in Sweden impact the diversity in the supply of retailing?" The analyzed dataset is compiled of all of the 289 Swedish municipalities during a seven year period, from 2004 to 2010. The dataset has also been divided up into Urban and Rural to look further into the relationship. Results show that larger locations do offer wider and more diverse retailing as well as prove the importance of other factors, such as industry well-being and productivity, employment in the sector, and "municipality dynamics", such as the resident to non-resident ratio, population concentration and, perhaps the most intuitive factor, purchasing power – average wage.


A new technique, using beam broadening effects, has been developed to measure the aspect sensitivity of atmospheric clear air VHF radar echoes. It uses the relatively broad antenna beam of the vertical-pointing antenna of the new Chung-Li stratospheric-tropospheric radar (25°N, 120°E). The aspect sensitivity measurement using this method is straightforward and free from convolution effects introduced by the finite width of the antenna beam pattern. The observed results agree very well with other measurements. The authors propose a turbulent layer model to explain the aspect sensitivity of the echoes. In this model, anisotropic turbulence is confined to a very thin (few meters) region at the boundary of a turbulent layer. This region is responsible for the aspect sensitivity of the echoes obtained from the vertical direction. The isotropic echoes obtained from the oblique beam arise from the isotropic turbulence embedded in the center of the layer, with 30–300 m in vertical extent. We show in an appendix that the magnitude of the partial reflection coefficient is much more sensitive to the shape, length scale, and smoothness, than to the slope of the refractive index profile. Therefore the functional shape of the refractive index profile is very important for estimating the reflection coefficient. Large errors can be made when assuming, for simplicity, nonphysical profiles. For partial reflecting mechanisms to be important, steplike discontinuities, confined within length scales of the order of a meter, would be required.


Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms that can grow in different environments (sea water, fresh water, waste water soil, rocks…) and under various conditions (Light, pH, temperature, salinity…). During their phases of growth, they produce a variety of metabolites such as lipids, proteins and carbohydrates in large amounts over a short period of time. These metabolites can be processed into both biofuels and other useful bioproducts. Microalgal lipids can be converted to biodiesel via process called transesterification. The use of biodiesel will decrease the emission of harmful gases, which can help in reducing the greenhouse effects and global warming. It is nontoxic, biodegradable and has the potential to replace the conventional diesel fuel. The microalgal lipids extract can also constitute a natural source of active compounds offering a variety of nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications. In the Algae Technologies Program at Qatar University, a Culture Collection of Cyanobacteria and Microalgae (QUCCCM) has been built and maintained in the liquid nitrogen. This culture collection contains more than 200 strains isolated during different periods of the year and from various places in Qatar. In this work we present the results of 8 marine green algae belonging to 3 different microalgal major groups: Chlorocystis sp., Nannochloris sp and Tetraselmis sp. The strains collected from different Qatar coastal places were screened for their growth rate, amount of total lipids as well as their Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAMEs) profiling. Culture was done in liquid F/2 medium at 300 C for a period of 15 days, after which algae were harvested for the determination of total lipids. A one step transesterification process was used to derivitize the intrinsic lipid into fatty acid methyl esters and the individual components were identified against known standards. The fatty acid profiling was obtained using a GC-FID. The comparative analysis of the QUCCCM isolates growth rate showed that Nannochloris sp. is the fastest growing isolate with a maximum value of 1.013 day-1. In terms of lipid contents, the results indicate a variety of the amounts. Nannochloris sp. showed the highest amount of total lipid (28.5%) followed by Chlorocystis sp. isolates with a total lipid amount of (19.5–21.5%) and later comes the Tetraselmis sp. strains with a total lipid content of (17.8–20.3%). The GC analysis showed a diverse range of FAMEs produced. All the strains screened contains the important FAMEs suitable for biodiesel production (C14, C16 and C18). The good growth rate of these strains along with their lipid content and profile make them competitive for a viable algal biofuel technology comparing to the terrestrial oil crops which need longer time to grow and present lower amount of lipids (Weyer et al., 2010). In addition, we observed the presence of the omega-3 and 9 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), such as eicosapentaenoic (EPA, 20:5 n-3), docosahexaenoic (DHA, 22:6 n-3) and Nervonic Acid (C24:1 n-9) acids, which have a high commercial value and are known for their beneficial effects on human health. Microalgae, Lipid, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester, Biodiesel, LC-PUFAs.


The European Commission is undertaking a legal modernisation initiative in order to facilitate small and medium-sized enterprises in unlocking their full potential as active players on the Single Market, being also the backbone of the Union's economy. The flagship of this initiative is going to be a novel European legal form the European Private Company (EPC) or as it is known the Societas Privata Europea (SPE). Designed as an instrument to do business in the Single Market the SPE aims to be transparent, flexible and offer a strong label everywhere. As with the Societas Europea, there are certain gaps in the SPE Statute, which prompt for the application of national laws. This could result in 27 different SPE forms in the EU, which leads to financial implications regarding the formation and day-to-day operations of the company. A detailed exploration of the corporate finance issues is followed by plausible solutions based on corporate governance theories.


The paper studies the dynamics of firm growth and the firm size distribution in the pharmaceutical industry from 1950 to 2003. Growth dynamics are studied in the context of how the size composition of firms changes, how innovation patterns (patents) change, and how location leads to growth differentials among US firms. It is found that the growth advantage of small pharmaceutical firms increases after the 1980s as small firms become more active in patenting and their patenting activities become more 'persistent'. Location is found to affect growth differences only for the most innovative firms (i.e. for non innovative firms, location does not matter). For this group of firms, California firms which are much smaller in size, yet more active and persistent in patenting are found to grow significantly faster than their counterparts in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Tri-State region. The bimodal shape of the firm size distribution is found to emerge towards the end of the 1970s precisely when a new division of labor between large and small firms sets in. Implications of location dynamics for firm growth and the non-gaussian behavior of the size distribution are highlighted.


Paraffin sections (4 μ m thickness) of formalin-fixed human pancreases and isolated human islets were treated with 0.05% pronase for antigen retrieval. HS and Col18 HSPG core proteins were detected immunohistochemically using 10E4 anti-HS (US Biological/Amsbio) and anti-Col18 (Santa Cruz), respectively, with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated rabbit anti-mouse Ig (Dako). Background staining was checked using the corresponding isotype control Ig instead of the primary antibody. 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole (AEC) was used as the chromogen. For morphometry, stained sections were imaged using a light microscope with attached camera (Olympus BX41). Image J software with color deconvolution plugin was used for the quantitative analysis of the %


In an electrographic model of seizures in the hippocampal slice, both of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonists 2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid and 5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo(a,d)cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate (MK-801) prevented the progressive development of seizures but did not block previously induced seizures. Thus, a process dependent on the NMDA receptor-ionophore complex establishes a long-lasting, seizure-prone state; thereafter the seizures depend on non-NMDA receptor-ionophore mechanisms. This suggests that there is an important distinction between epileptogenesis and seizure expression and between antiepileptogenic and anticonvulsant pharmacological agents.


A questionnaire to assess attitude towards information and communication technology (ICT) and experience with it is developed and evaluated. With 30 items user attributes are collected on six factors. With this questionnaire, individual users can be clustered in accordance with an existing ICT taxonomy. A revised version is proposed after the validation of the first questionnaire. This screening instrument is meant to complement existing methods of assessing competency with technology. Furthermore, the possibility to classify users within the ICT taxonomy provides additional means to analyze data from interaction experiments and to screen prospective participants for usability tests and scientific experiments.


This essay argues that American literary naturalism engages with the Anthropocene at the moment it began to be visible, the turn of the twentieth century, and specifically identifies the role of finance in precipitating the crisis. Frank Norris's The Octopus (1901) and The Pit (1903) offer a case study of a naturalist Capitalocene aesthetics, one capable of capturing global capitalism's destructive planetary agency. As a student at the University of California at Berkeley, Frank Norris was exposed to Joseph LeConte's influential theory of the Psychozoic era, a proto-Anthropocene theory from 1877 that named a new unit of geologic time in light of humanity's status as a transformative planetary force. Norris adapted this theory into a critique of a rapidly globalizing capitalism's effects on the planet and the natural world, particularly the structures of agricultural capitalism in which complex financial transactions led to destructive wheat monocultures. This critique anticipated the Capitalocene, a contemporary offshoot of the Anthropocene theory arguing that capitalism (rather than humanity per se) is responsible for the present planetary crisis. The vehicle of Norris's critique is his multimedia landscape descriptions, which invoke and subvert Romantic landscape aesthetics through painterly language and visual paradox. At the center of this aesthetics is a contradiction in individual and collective agency that is also central to life and art in the Capitalocene: confronted with an anthropogenic landscape that is both destroyed and made sublime by the structures of capitalism, individual viewers both feel powerless in the face of the force it represents and feel themselves implicated in its creation, despite different levels of responsibility.


We present a comprehensive study of the strain and temperature-sensing characteristics of single-mode-multimode-single-mode (SMS) structures based on the modal interference of guided modes of graded index multimode fiber (MMF) section spliced in between two single-mode fibers. A detailed theoretical study of the structures in terms of the refractive index distribution, effect of dopant and their concentrations, and the variation of core diameter has been carried out. Our study shows that for the SMS structure with a GeO2-doped MMF there exists a critical wavelength on either side of which the spectrum shows opposite spectral shift with a change in temperature/strain, whereas for structures with a P2O5-doped MMF it shows monotonic red shift with increasing temperature/strain. It has been found that the critical wavelength shifts toward higher wavelengths with decreasing ldquoqrdquo value/doping concentration. Using different MMFs, both the red and blue spectral shifts have been observed experimentally. It has also been found that the SMS structure has higher sensitivity toward this critical wavelength. The study should find application in designing strain-insensitive high-sensitive temperature sensors or vice versa.


We present a new framework for semi-supervised learning with sparse eigenfunction bases of kernel matrices. It turns out that when the cluster assumption holds, that is, when the high density regions are sufficiently separated by low density valleys, each high density area corresponds to a unique representative eigenvector. Linear combination of such eigenvectors (or, more precisely, of their Nystrom extensions) provide good candidates for good classification functions. By first choosing an appropriate basis of these eigenvectors from unlabeled data and then using labeled data with Lasso to select a classifier in the span of these eigenvectors, we obtain a classifier, which has a very sparse representation in this basis. Importantly, the sparsity appears naturally from the cluster assumption. Experimental results on a number of real-world datasets show that our method is competitive with the state of the art semi-supervised learning algorithms and out-performs the natural base-line algorithm (Lasso in the Kernel PCA basis).


Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is a widely exploited web site vulnerability. In this paper, we present a new variation on CSRF attacks, login CSRF, in which the attacker forges a cross-site request to the login form, logging the victim into the honest web site as the attacker. The severity of a login CSRF vulnerability varies by site, but it can be as severe as a cross-site scripting vulnerability. We detail three major CSRF defense techniques and find shortcomings with each technique. Although the HTTP Referer header could provide an effective defense, our experimental observation of 283,945 advertisement impressions indicates that the header is widely blocked at the network layer due to privacy concerns. Our observations do suggest, however, that the header can be used today as a reliable CSRF defense over HTTPS, making it particularly well-suited for defending against login CSRF. For the long term, we propose that browsers implement the Origin header, which provides the security benefits of the Referer header while responding to privacy concerns.


Aeration can circulate waters by disrupting thermal density differences associated with stratification, allowing homogenization of temperature, oxygen, and other physicochemical characteristics within the water body. Use of lake and pond destratification as a management tool has been increasing in recent years, yet data are limited regarding its effects on fish communities. This case study examines the response of a largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) population to destratification in a 2.4-ha pond over nearly a decade. Biomass (35.8–42.8 kg ha–1 ) and density (51–93 fish ha–1 ) of stock-sized (≥200 mm TL) largemouth bass were consistently low prior to installation of the system; however, biomass tripled (129.8 kg ha–1 ) and density quadrupled (334 fish ha–1 ) 3.5 years after system initiation and remained high for the duration of the study. In contrast, mean weight and mean relative weight (Wr) of fish declined continuously following population expansion, suggesting that population biomass had exceeded carrying capacity. Although this study was limited to a single waterbody, the rapidity and magnitude of observed changes following years of relative stability suggests that continuous destratification increased carrying capacity for largemouth bass in this case study. These findings may have applications to other ponds characterized by anoxic hypolimnions, and more research on the effects of destratification in small impoundments is warranted. If destratification can increase standing biomass twoor three-fold, while greatly reducing the risks of oxygen-related fish kills, the cost of these systems could be more easily justified by managers of ponds and small lakes.


Cold-water coral (CWC) reefs are heterogeneous ecosystems comprising numerous microhabitats. A typical European CWC reef provides various biogenic microhabitats (within, on and surrounding colonies of coral species such as Lophelia pertusa, Paragorgia arborea and Primnoa resedaeformis , or formed by their remains after death). These microhabitats may be surrounded and intermixed with non-biogenic microhabitats (soft sediment, hard ground, gravel/pebbles, steep walls). To date, studies of distribution of sessile fauna across CWC reefs have been more numerous than those investigating mobile fauna distribution. In this study we quantified shrimp densities associated with key CWC microhabitat categories at the Rost Reef, Norway, by analysing image data collected by towed video sled in June 2007. We also investigated shrimp distribution patterns on the local scale ( Paragorgia arborea microhabitat (43 shrimp m −2 , SD = 35.5), live Primnoa resedaeformis microhabitat (41.6 shrimp m −2 , SD = 26.1) and live Lophelia pertusa microhabitat (24.4 shrimp m −2 , SD = 18.6). In non-biogenic microhabitat, shrimp densities were −2 . CWC reef microhabitats appear to support greater shrimp densities than the surrounding non-biogenic microhabitats at the Rost Reef, at least at the time of survey.


Under the leadership of Raul Castro, Cuba has embarked on a series of changes that have focused on internal institutional reforms and their impact on the Cuban economy. These reforms have proven perplexing both for their ambitions and their limits. The usual explanations prove disappointing. This paper suggests that no consideration of these reforms can be complete without a study of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), especially in comparative perspective. The thesis of this essay is that ideology is decisively important in any discussion of "reform" in Cuba. Western analysts have sought to subsume ideological issues within "transition" arguments — that ideological issues will evaporate once Cuba makes the jump from a Marxist-Leninist planned economy model to a Western oriented free market democracy. This essay argues that the inverse provides a more useful basis of analysis: that transition arguments are necessarily subsumed within ideological arguments. The ideological basis of state organization provides the key to understanding the likelihood of the success and direction of reforms to any of the sectors of state policy. The PCC's now quite mature ideological framework has helped shape and constrain the organization and operation of the Party. That ideological framework also shapes and constrains all efforts to "reform" or develop Cuba's economic, social or political model. Yet the tensions created by these contradictions between PCC ideology and the conditions of Cuba need not lead invariably to a choice between Marxist-Leninist and Western style democratic state organization. After the Introduction, Section II, considers the centrality of ideology to the 'problem' of Cuba. In Section III, the essay examines the consequences for Cuba of the choice, made by its vanguard party, to follow a distinct path toward the articulation and application of Marxism-Leninism in the organization and exercise of power. Section IV then connects the ideological path of Cuban Marxism-Leninism tio state practice. With a focus on the possibilities and constraints of the reform efforts since Raul Castro assumed power. Section V then focuses on the alternative to ideology and economic reform offered through Chinese Party and state practice. Section VI then unpacks the consequences of ideological possibilities by considering Cuban approaches in the shadow of the Chinese alternative. Lastly, Section VII weighs the consequences of the quality of the transition that is coming to Cuba, one that need not lead Cuba away from Marxist-Leninism and a Party-State system. Each is considered in turn in light of the essay's thesis: Variations in Marxist ideology matter (no monolithic communist ideology), sustainable economic reform is possible within a Marxist Leninist State-Party system, and that ideological systemic ossification in Cuba, as in the United States, can lead to crisis and paralysis. It is in that context that one considers the questions: does the Chinese model provide a framework for Cuba? Is it too late for reform of the Cuba CP? If reform is possible, what should be its objectives and strategies?


The J-PARC project has been conducted jointly by JAERI and KEK since 2001. This paper reports an overview and current status of the project. The high intensity proton accelerator consists of a 400 MeV Linac, a 3 GeV synchrotron and 50 GeV synchrotron to deliver MW level pulsed proton beam to experimental facilities. The MW proton power will provide an advanced scientific experimental research complex aiming at making breakthroughs in materials and life science with neutron and muon, nuclear and elementary physics, etc. Regarding the project being close to its completion in 2008, this paper describes the overview of J-PARC project with emphasis of the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility, in which the MW pulsed neutron and muon sources, are placed to provide high quality neutron and muon beams to the world wide users.


Typically user interface (UI) requirements are elicited in the late development phase because users try to use the software in this phase. UIs strongly reflect user experience (UX), which indicates the experience obtained using the software and includes usability, comfort, and satisfaction. Practical software must have a high UX. However, if the UI requirements are elicited in the late development phase, all requirements may not be realized, which may result in a low UX. To prevent this, UX requirements must be elicited in the early development phase. Herein a method is proposed to integrate requirements documents, such as requirements specifications, use case diagrams, and scenarios, and UX requirements. First, UX elements, which should be elicited as requirements and their description strategies, are defined based on the survey results of various papers and books. Second, use case diagrams and scenarios are generated from the described UX requirements. Because software is implemented based on use case diagrams and scenarios, gaps between the described requirements and use case diagrams and scenarios must not exist. Finally, developers customize the generated use case diagrams and scenarios. Hence, the proposed method reduces omissions in the UX requirements, realizing software with a high UX.


We explore the effects of different boundary conditions and coupling schemes on the response of a particle detector undergoing uniform acceleration in optical cavities. We analyze the thermalization properties of the accelerated detector via nonperturbative calculations. We prove nonperturbatively that if the switching process is smooth enough, the detector thermalizes to the Unruh temperature regardless of the boundary conditions and the form of the coupling considered.


We study the impact of a mixed capitation model known as the Family Health Organization (FHO) on selected quality and quantity outcomes relative to an enhanced fee-for-service model known as the Family Health Group (FHG) among primary care physicians in Ontario, Canada. Using a panel of administrative data that covers one year before and two years after the FHO model was introduced in 2007, we find that physicians in the FHO model provide about 6 percent fewer services and visits per day, but are between 8 and 15 percent more likely to achieve preventive care bonuses for senior flu shots, toddler immunizations, pap smears, and mammograms compared to physicians in the FHG model. These results are largely consistent with the hypothesis that the mixed payment model may reduce quantity and improve quality of health care relative to the fee-for-service model. We also find that the FHO physicians have lower referral rates and enroll patients of similar complexity compared to the FHG physicians.


This report examines more than 100 programs through which the federal government spends money on children and calculates the amount spent on children under three. These first time expenditure estimates provide a place to start in gauging the priority the nation places on investing in very young children and in comparing expenditure patterns to researchers? findings about investments that work. For example, despite extensive child development research underscoring the importance of quality early care and education programs for infants and toddlers, especially those in poverty, just 7 percent of federal funding for children between birth and age 2 went toward these efforts in 2007.


Increasingly prominent ecological and environmental problems in the world, as well as the scarcity of fossil energy, are promoting the rapid development of clean energy investment, the CDM is a effective method to solve this problem. CDM is an important cooperation system between developed and developing countries for protecting environment and energy under the Tokyo Protocol. It is also the only system involving developing on account of the uncertainty of the Kyoto Protocol and the ambiguity of CDM, so it will meat so many restrictive actors during the process, this thesis will study this problem and reveal the reasons to direct clean development mechanism's operation.


The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing; the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.


Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) pose a major threat to the public health of the United States. American Indians are disproportionately affected by STIs, including chlamydia and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Roosevelt County, which lies within the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana, has consistently reported chlamydia rates two to five times higher than national rates. Community leaders from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation partnered with researchers from Montana State University to address the reservation's sexual and reproductive health needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the heterosexual relationship factors that were associated with condom use intentions for STD and HIV prevention in a purposive sample of American Indian men, ages 18 to 24, living on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. A community based participatory research (CBPR) approach was used for this study. A non-probability sample of American Indian men (n=122) were recruiting using consecutive and snowball sampling techniques. Study hypotheses were tested using Pearson's chi-squared and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis for bivariate associations and multinomial logistic regression for multivariate associations. Variables examined for their association with condom use intentions included age, educational attainment, relationship type, relationship duration, relationship commitment, condom use communication, condom use decision making, control of condom use, and negative partner reaction to condom use. Results indicated that American Indian men were less likely to use condoms for disease prevention as their age and their relationship commitment increased. Factors resulting in an increased likelihood of future condom use included high participation in the condom use decision making process and female control over condom use. Culturally relevant sexual risk prevention programs that work towards changing the perception of condoms in committed relationships and that engage men in sexual health decision making could help reduce the disproportionate burden of sexually transmitted disease carried by young American Indians living on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.