For three independent samples (mean age = 12.33 years, n = 711; mean age = 10.89 years, n = 225; and mean age = 12.05 years, n = 534, respectively), young adolescents who had experienced 0, 1, 2, and multiple parenting transitions were compared on adjustment scores that were derived from self-reports of grades, health, drug abstinence, self-esteem, and self-mastery (Sample 1); peer reports of peer acceptance (Sample 2); and parent reports of well-being (Sample 3). Overall, there was qualified evidence of a negative linear relation between the number of parenting transitions experienced and adjustment. With controls for parenting transition effects, parenting practices regarding involvement and supervision accounted for unique variability in adjustment in each sample.


Wind energy as a renewable energy source attracts considerable interest in the climate change debate. The development of wind energy, however, faces a number of legal or regulatory challenges. This book provides an insight into the legal frameworks of selected countries - Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and the United States - relevant to the development of wind energy. It explores the legal traditions and systems as well as the more specific environmental and energy legislation. The book has been elaborated in an educational setting, but it is relevant to a much broader audience, including legislators, public and private decision-makers and other stakeholders involved in wind energy issues.


Graphic organizers are a way for teachers to accommodate students with disabilities such as poor memory or emotional disorders. This technique allows organization of thoughts and visual representation of relationships between ideas and facts. Indeed, poor memory affects students' reflection and retention of information while emotional disorders can cause a lack of focus in the classroom. Accommodations for students with these disabilities is important because students with emotional disorders may experience social isolation, which in turn may negatively affect their levels of academic achievement. Twenty high-achieving doctoral students participated in a teaching experience designed to introduce gifted students with learning disabilities to using de Bono thinking skills to mediate the possible negative effects of the disabilities through an arts-integrated project focused on some of the mysteries of the planet Mars. The results of this practical lesson showed that the students used their previous experiences in most cases to interpret the different photographs presented. Graphic organizers helped them organize their thought processes and the learning experience. Instruction needs to be woven tightly with the use of interactive materials and graphic organizers.


This paper introduces an algorithm for removing high frequency noise components from electrocardiograms (ECGs) based on Savitzky-Golay finite duration impulse response (FIR) smoothing filter. The peaks of R waves and the points at which Q waves end and S waves start are detected for all beats. These points are used to separate the low amplitude parts of the ECG in each beat, which are most affected by high frequency noise. The Savitzky-Golay smoothing algorithm is then applied to these parts of the ECG and the resultant filtered signals are added back to their corresponding QRS parts. The effect of high frequency noise removal on nonlinear features such as largest Lyapunov exponent and minimum embedding dimension is also investigated. Performance of the filter has been compared with an equiripple low pass filter and wavelet de-noising.


In 1987, historian Jacques Bernier estimated that despite the publication between 1876 and 1986 of a number of prominent papers, the history of medicine and health in French Canada was still in its infancy. Since then, this particular field of study has boomed. The present article examines published studies gathered according to the various themes which have been favored from 1987 to 2002 and concern the history of medicine and health in French Canada, so as to illustrate the gains of the past sixteen years. In our conclusion, we shall discuss the advancement of the history of medicine and health in French Canada in connection with the various elements suggested by historians Ludmilla Jordonova and Thomas Brown when considering the maturity of a given field of study. We shall identify a number of factors limiting its consolidation.


A combined study using neutron diffraction, inelastic neutron scattering, and first-principles calculations describe cobalt with a very low formal oxidation state of (-I) in a slightly distorted tetrahedral Co(-I)H4-complex in BaH2Mg5[Co(-I)H4]2 and in the structurally related RbH2Mg5[Co(-I)H4 Ni(0)H4]. This indicates that the electron "back donating" effect via the polarizable hydride ions to the counterions in the solid state hydrides, can be compared to more conventional "back bonding" able to reduce the oxidation state down to -I. The hydrides were synthesized by hot sintering of transition metal powders with corresponding binary alkali- and alkaline earth hydrides. In the similarly synthesized SrH2Mg2[Co(I)H5], cobalt is formally + I-valent, showing a high sensitivity to differences in the counterion framework, which can also influence electrical properties.


Attachment-induced ionization instability has been experimentally observed in O2 and CF4 capacitive RF discharges using time-resolved voltage probe, Langmuir probe, optical emission and mass spectrometry measurements. This instability occurs under specific conditions of power and pressure, and produces synchronized oscillations in the kilohertz range on potentials, emission intensity and positive ion fluxes. In contrast, the SF6 plasma was observed to remain stable under all experimental conditions. This can be understood by considering attachment and ionization cross sections of these gases and applying the theoretical criterion of instability. Contrary to O2 and CF4, the attachment rate coefficient of SF6 is very high at low energy and has a negative dependence on the electronic temperature. The application of the criterion shows clearly that O2 and CF4 plasmas are unstable at low electronic temperature, and that the SF6 plasma is stable due to its particular low-energy attachment cross section.


Objective: To determine the activities and circumstances proximal to a welding related occupational eye injury, a hybrid narrative coding approach derived from two well developed classification systems was developed to categorize and describe the activity, initiating process, mechanism of injury, object and/or substance, and the use of protective eyewear from the narrative text data reported for each injury. Methods: Routinely collected workers' compensation claims over a one year period (2000) were analyzed from a large US insurance provider. An index term search algorithm of occupation, incident, and injury description fields identified 2209 potential welding related eye injury claims. After detailed review of these claims, 1353 welders and 822 non-welders were analyzed. Results: During 2000, eye(s) as the primary injured body part accounted for 5% (n = 26 413) of all compensation claims. Eye injuries accounted for 25% of all claims for welders. Subjects were mainly male (97.1%) and from manufacturing (70.4%), service (11.8%), or construction (8.4%) related industries. Most injuries were foreign body (71.7%) or burn (22.2%) and 17.6% were bilateral. Common activities include welding (31.9%) and/or grinding (22.5%). Being struck by an airborne object occurred in 56.3% of cases. Non-welders showed similar patterns except that burns (43.8%) were more frequent and more often initiated by another worker (13.9%). Conclusions: Narrative injury text provides valuable data to supplement traditional epidemiologic analyses. Workers performing welding tasks or working nearby welders should be trained to recognize potential hazards and the effective use of proper safety equipment to prevent ocular injury.


Abstract. An assessment of the accuracy of OH concentrations measured in a smog chamber by a calibrated laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) instrument has been made, in the course of 9 experiments performed to study the photo-oxidation of benzene, toluene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, para-xylene, ortho-cresol and ethene at the European Photoreactor facility (EUPHORE). The LIF system was calibrated via the water photolysis / ozone actinometry approach. OH concentrations were inferred from the instantaneous rate of removal of each hydrocarbon species (measured by FTIR or HPLC) via the appropriate rate coefficient for their reaction with OH, and compared with those obtained from the LIF system. Good agreement between the two approaches was found for all species with the exception of 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, for which OH concentrations inferred from hydrocarbon removal were a factor of 3 lower than those measured by the LIF system. From the remaining 8 experiments, an overall value of 1.15±0.13 (±1σ) was obtained for [OH] LIF / [OH] Hydrocarbon Decay , compared with the estimated uncertainty in the accuracy of the water photolysis / ozone actinometry OH calibration technique of 26% (1σ).


Summation formulas are derived for the precise calculation of certain quality parameters of the image space: (a) radius of gyration of the point spread function, (b) O'Neill's sharpness criterion, and (c) the Linfoot quality parameters. These formulas are applicable to any optical system that exists either as a design or as a fabricated object. Also, in the case of a bandwidth-limited object spectrum it is shown that the image may be exactly represented by a summation—in place of the usual convolution integral—over the object space. All derivations employ the sampling theorem.


In earlier work we have demonstrated the effect that nano-emulsions have on bacterial growth, and most importantly the enhanced bacteriophage infectivity against Staphylococcus aureus in planktonic culture when phage are carried in nano-emulsions. However, the mechanisms of enhancement of the bacterio- phage killing effect are not specifically understood. This work focuses on the investigation of the possible interactions between emulsion droplets and bacterial cells, between emulsion droplets and bacterio- phages, and finally interactions between all three components: nano-emulsion droplets, bacteria, and bacteriophages. The first approach consists of simple calculations to determine the spatial distribution of the components, based on measurements of particle size. It was found that nano-emulsion droplets are much more numerous than bacteria or bacteriophage, and due to their size and surface area they must be covering the surface of both cells and bacteriophage particles. Stabilisation of bacteriophages due to electrostatic forces and interaction with nano-emulsion droplets is suspected, since bacteriophages may be protected against inactivation due to 'charge shielding'. Zeta potential was measured for the individual components in the system, and for all of them combined. It was concluded that the presence of nano-emulsions could be reducing electrostatic repulsion between bacterial cells and bacteriophage, both of which are very negatively 'charged'. Moreover, nano-emulsions lead to more favourable interac- tion between bacteriophages and bacteria, enhancing the anti-microbial or killing effect. These findings are relevant since the physicochemical properties of nano-emulsions (i.e. particle size distribution and zeta potential) are key in determining the efficacy of the formulation against infection in the context of responsive burn wound dressings—which is the main target for this work. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).


Pressure injuries are a significant health concern in all clinical settings. The current body of research on pressure injuries reported in the literature presents primarily low level evidence. The purpose of the current study was to identify and prioritize pressure injury research issues. The approach entailed evidence scoping and implementing a formal consensus process using a modified nominal group technique based on the Research and Development/University of California at Los Angeles appropriateness method. Sixteen Australian pressure injury experts participated in five consensus voting rounds in May to June 2015. From 60 initial research issues, the experts reached agreement that 26 issues are a priority for future pressure injury research. The highest priorities were strategies to assess skin and tissues, appropriate outcome measures for indicators of pressure injury healing and recurrence, heel pressure off-loading and shear reduction strategies, economic cost of pressure injuries and their management and effectiveness of skin moisturizers and barrier products. Developing a prioritized research agenda, informed by clinical and academic pressure injury experts, can assist in reducing the burden of pressure injuries by identifying topics of the highest need for further research. A web-based nominal group voting process was successful in engaging expert decision-making and has wide-reaching international appeal in facilitating cost-effective consensus methodologies. The priority list generated from this research is currently used in Australia to inform government investment in pressure injury research.


The identification of snakebite injury is uncertain, especially in the 40% of patients who do not see the offending snake, unless there are paired fang marks or typical findings of an envenomation syndrome. The differential diagnosis would include a thorn prick, spider bite or scorpion sting. Thorn pricks are not associated with the onset of progressive swelling or systemic illness within minutes. Swelling following dermonecrotic spider bites is slow in onset, whilst significant button (widow) spider bites and scorpion stings are associated with muscle spasticity which is not a feature of snakebites. 1 , 2 , 3 Keywords: snake bite; antivenom For full text, click here: SA Fam Pract 2005;47(9):48-53


Abstract This paper presents the results of an experimental work and life cycle analysis of reinforced mortar samples retrofitted with natural, and virgin and recycled polymers. The objectives of this study were to investigate the behavior of retrofitted concretes experimentally, and to compare the defined fiber reinforced concrete samples from environmental point of view using life cycle analysis. The mixtures of reinforced concretes was prepared as control mixture which includes no fibers, natural (palm) fiber reinforced mixture, virgin and recycled polypropylene (PP) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) reinforced concrete mixtures, natural fiber and virgin and recycled PP reinforced concrete mixtures, and natural fiber and virgin and recycled LDPE reinforced concrete mixtures. The experimental tests were performed to investigate the behavior of reinforced concrete samples in such a way that either durable or not. Moreover, those concrete mixtures were also compared using life cycle assessment method according to their environmental effects. Within the scope of the study, GaBi software was used for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis. Landfilling was considered as reference scenario and compared with filled recycled plastics. A quantitative impact assessment was performed for four environmental impact categories, global warming (GWP) over a hundred years, human toxicity (HTP), abiotic depletion (ADP) and acidification potential (AP) were taken into consideration during LCA. At the end of the study, according to the compressive strength tests results, it was seen that natural fiber reinforced concrete did not perform well at each testing age, and also according to the pore definition test, permeability of natural fiber reinforced concrete was higher than that of the control mixture which means that durability of natural fiber reinforced concrete against harsh environment is very low. Moreover, according to life cycle analysis, recycled polymer fibers reinforced concrete mixtures have lower environmental effect for all impact assessment categories. On the other hand, natural fiber reinforced concrete mixtures has the worst environmental effect, but when the natural fiber mixed with recycled or virgin polymers those concrete mixtures have better environmental effect.


ABSTRACT The Antarctic Peninsula is the largest of twelve micro-continental fragments between southern South America, East Antarctica, and New Zealand. Their original positions and movement history following Gondwana breakup are poorly constrained. Recent work on the Antarctic Peninsula fore-arc/arc/back-arc suggests it consists of two suspect terranes that originated elsewhere and collided with the Pacific margin of Gondwana in the Cretaceous. This study reviews provenance models for three laterally extensive, kilometers-thick sedimentary units in the Antarctic Peninsula using previous studies, and new sandstone detrital modes and chemistry. 1) The Trinity Peninsula Group accretionary complex (Triassic) was possibly derived from a glaciated continental margin and may consist of several accreted tracts. The deformed, quartzose View Point and Legoupil formations were eroded from a deeply eroded, stable continental margin containing an old arc and mature quartzose sandstones, with provenance ages suggesting sources in north Patagonia and local Antarctic Peninsula basement. The weakly deformed and more feldspathic Hope Bay Formation was derived from an eroded arc, possibly the early Permian arc of the North Patagonian massif. 2) The LeMay Group accretionary complex (middle Triassic-middle Cretaceous) is dominated by arkoses derived from an eroded continental margin of Carboniferous and Permian age, possibly in the Marie Byrd Land sector, with several belts of volcanilithic sandstones representing episodes of arc magmatism. The youngest part of the LeMay Group contains abundant metamorphic detritus derived from basement uplifted during mid-Cretaceous terrane docking. 3) The Latady Formation in the southern Antarctic Peninsula has a completely different petrology, comprising mature sublitharenites ( 190 Ma) of Gondwanan provenance, deposited in restricted rift basins. Younger volcanic litharenites (180 Ma) are dominated by REE-enriched low Eu/Eu* rhyolitic material, eroded from silicic calderas associated with Gondwana breakup. Abundant dacitic to andesitic detritus in the youngest LF (160-145 Ma) was derived from a contemporaneous arc, possibly on the Thurston Island block, as the Latady evolved into a back-arc basin.


The current paper presents auto-ethnographic reflection of my experience of teaching on the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) programme. I begin by setting the context with some biographical information before going on to describe and reflect on my experiences teaching and assessing on this programme. I reflect on presenting myself to the students, and the process of developing trust with them. I further consider how my story seemed to impact on the students, but how being part of the process also impacted on me and my own experiences. Being mindful of the responsibility an AMHP carries, which can be life changing, is something all professionals will be aware of; the importance of Service Receivers being part of their training is critical so they can understand the impact their decisions can have on individual people.


When the baht plunged to unprecedented depths, dragging with it the Southeast Asian miracle, it signalled not only the end of a decade of prosperity but also the beginning of an era of insecurity. The crisis has forced governments in the region to postpone crucial defense and infrastructure projects and limited their capacities to deliver basic social services. It has also led to political instability and strained diplomatic relationships in some countries, and caused tension in the region. Currency devaluation and bigger oil bills are pushing states to searchfor alternative fuel sources, including China, which has become more aggressive in asserting its claims to disputed territories believed to be rich sources of oil. The growing presence of the Chinese military in the region despite the region-wide recession will also be the object of security concerns for years to come. In order to find solutions to the financial crisis and its effects on regional security, Southeast Asian countries are urged to seek economic and political cooperation through the Asian Regional Forum (ARF) and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) and perhaps survive the crisis without growing too insecure.


Abstract Predation is thought to be one of the main structuring forces in animal communities. However, selective predation is often measured on isolated traits in response to a single predatory species, but only rarely are selective forces on several traits quantified or even compared between different predators naturally occurring in the same system. In the present study, we therefore measured behavioral and morphological traits in young-of-the-year Eurasian perch Perca fluviatilis and compared their selective values in response to the 2 most common predators, adult perch and pike Esox lucius. Using mixed effects models and model averaging to analyze our data, we quantified and compared the selectivity of the 2 predators on the different morphological and behavioral traits. We found that selection on the behavioral traits was higher than on morphological traits and perch predators preyed overall more selectively than pike predators. Pike tended to positively select shallow bodied and nonvigilant individuals (i.e. individuals not performing predator inspection). In contrast, perch predators selected mainly for bolder juvenile perch (i.e. individuals spending more time in the open, more active), which was most important. Our results are to the best of our knowledge the first that analyzed behavioral and morphological adaptations of juvenile perch facing 2 different predation strategies. We found that relative specific predation intensity for the divergent traits differed between the predators, providing some additional ideas why juvenile perch display such a high degree of phenotypic plasticity.


We investigate some of the mechanical design factors of wafers and the effect on strength. Thin, solid, pre-stressed films are proposed as a means to improve the bulk mechanical properties of a wafer. Three-point bending was used to evaluate the laser scribe density and chemical processing effect on wafer strength. Drop and strike tests were employed to investigate the edge bevel profile effect on the mechanical properties of the wafer. To characterize the effect of thin films on strength, one-micron ceramic films were deposited on wafers using PECVD. Coated samples were prepared by cleaving and were tested using four-point bending. Film adhesion was characterized by notched four-point bending. RBS and FTIR were used to obtain film chemistry, and nanoindentation was used to investigate thin film mechanical properties. A stress measurement gauge characterized residual film stress. Mechanical properties of the wafers correlated to the residual stress in the film.


Hotter years are associated with lower economic output in developing countries. We show that the effect of temperature on labor is an important part of the explanation. Using microdata from selected firms in India, we estimate reduced worker productivity and increased absenteeism on hot days. Climate control significantly mitigates productivity losses. In a national panel of Indian factories, annual plant output falls by about 2% per degree Celsius. This response appears to be driven by a reduction in the output elasticity of labor. Our estimates are large enough to explain previously observed output losses in cross-country panels.


Graphene receives enormous attention owing to its distinctive physical and chemical prosperities. Growing and transferring graphene to different substrates have been investigated. The graphene growing on the copper substrate has an advantage of low solubility of carbon on the copper which allow us to grow mostly monolayer graphene. Graphene sheet of few centimeters can be transferred to 300nm silicon oxide and quartz crystal pre-deposited with metal like Cu and Ru. Characterization of the graphene has been done with Raman and contact angle measurement and recently quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has been employed. The underpotential deposition (UPD) process of Bi on Ru metal surface is studied using electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) and XPS techniques. Both Bi UPD and Bi bulk deposition are clearly observed on Ru in 1mM Bi (NO3)3/0.5M H2SO4. Bi monolayer coverage calculated from mass (MLMass) and from charge (MLCharge) were compared with respect to the potential scanning rates, anions and ambient controls. EQCM results indicate that Bi UPD on Ru is mostly scan rate independent but exhibits interesting difference at the slower scan. Bi UPD monolayer coverage calculated from cathodic frequency change (ΔfCathodic) is significantly smaller than the monolayer coverage derived from integrated charge under the cathodic Bi UPD peak when scan rate is at least 5 mV/s. XPS is utilized to explore the detailed chemical composition of the observed interfacial process of Bi UPD on Ru.


The intent of this study was to evaluate the Guide on the Side (GotS), an online learning tool developed by the University of Arizona Libraries, and a screencast tutorial for teaching information literacy and database searching skills. Ninety undergraduate students were randomly assigned into three groups: group 1 completed a GotS tutorial; group 2 viewed a screencast presenting identical content; and a control group. Each group completed an identical 16-item post-test. An analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences between the control group and both treatment groups; however, there was no statistical difference between treatment groups. Limitations of the study and future research areas are also discussed.


An observational study of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the Irish Sea was
carried out using AVHRR visible band and beam attenuation data. The satellite data
consisted of a total of 165 AVHRR images covering the period between January 1982
to August 1988. The beam attenuation data were obtained from a summer and a winter
mooring deployments at two sites in Liverpool Bay.
The satellite imagery has shown that the surface reflectance due to suspended sediments
varies throughout the Irish sea. The imagery has also shown that the reflectance
undergoes a seasonal variation. The magnitude of this variation was assessed
throughout the Irish Sea using a statistical model. The maximum reflectances occur
early in the year and the minimum in the summer.
The spatial distributions of the mean and amplitude of the annual variation have been
shown to exhibit similar patterns. In some parts of the Irish Sea the surface reflectance
was clearly seen to respond to the spring-neap tidal cycle.
The spatial distribution of the annual mean is controlled by the availability of tidal
turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). It was also shown that the availability of tidal TKE
exerts a control on the seasonal variation and its spatial distribution. It is suggested that
a further control is needed to explain the dependency of the seasonal variation on tidal
TKE: a possibility is the seasonal availability of sediments.
The beam attenuation data have provided further evidence of the seasonal variation of
SPM concentrations at two sites in Liverpool Bay. An important finding from the
in-situ data was the contribution of the wind to the seasonality of SPM concentrations
in shallow waters.


Experimental detection and validation of miRNAs is a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive process. Computational methods for miRNA gene detection are being developed so that the number of candidates that need experimental validation can be reduced to a manageable amount. Computational methods involve homology-based and ab inito algorithms. Both approaches are dependent on positive and negative training examples. Positive examples are usually derived from miRBase, the main resource for experimentally validated miRNAs. We encountered some problems with miRBase which we would like to report here. Some problems, among others, we encountered are that folds presented in miRBase are not always the fold with the minimum free energy; some entries do not seem to conform to expectations of miRNAs, and some external accession numbers are not valid. In addition, we compared the prediction accuracy for the same negative dataset when the positive data came from miRBase or miRTarBase and found that the latter led to more precise prediction models. We suggest that miRBase should introduce some automated facilities for ensuring data quality to overcome these problems.


Mediterranean‐African countries (MACs) face a major water crisis. The annual renewable water resources are close to the 500 m3/capita threshold of absolute water scarcity, and water withdrawals exceed total renewable water resources by 30%. Such a low water availability curbs economic development in agriculture, which accounts for 86% of freshwater consumption. The analysis of the current situation of wastewater treatment, irrigation, and water management in MACs and of the research projects targeted to these countries indicates the need for 1) an enhanced capacity to analyze water stress, 2) the development of water management strategies capable of including wastewater reuse, and 3) development of locally adapted water treatment and irrigation technologies. This analysis shaped the MADFORWATER project (www.madforwater.eu), whose goal is to develop a set of integrated technological and management solutions to enhance wastewater treatment, wastewater reuse for irrigation, and water efficiency in agriculture in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. MADFORWATER develops and adapts technologies for the production of irrigation‐quality water from drainage canals and municipal, agro‐industrial, and industrial wastewaters and technologies for water efficiency and reuse in agriculture, initially validated at laboratory scale, to 3 hydrological basins in the selected MACs. Selected technologies will be further adapted and validated in 4 demonstration plants of integrated wastewater treatment and reuse. Integrated strategies for wastewater treatment and reuse targeted to the selected basins are developed, and guidelines for the development of integrated water management strategies in other basins of the 3 target MACs will be produced. The social and technical suitability of the developed technologies and nontechnological tools in relation to the local context is evaluated with the participation of MAC stakeholders and partners. Guidelines on economic instruments and policies for the effective implementation of the proposed water management solutions in the target MACs will be developed. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:447–462. © 2018 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC)


Expression of organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATP) transporters can be modified with potential incidence in cancers, yet they have not been considered in melanoma. Here, we demonstrate transcriptional and protein expression of OATP members in human melanoma cell lines with sodium‐independent organic anion uptake activity. Importantly, uptake of different organic anions over 24 h led to a common resistance signal to apoptotic cell death, induced further by cisplatin in 24 h. The mechanism is not dependent on the transport of cisplatin by the OATP, as it is not an OATP substrate. The resistance signal was modulated by PKC, disclosing it as signal mediator. This study suggests that OATP, which can be constantly activated by endobiotics, may contribute to melanoma chemotherapeutic resistance, thereby justifying the development of OATP targeting strategies.


The laws governing gun possession are changing rapidly. In the past two years, federal courts have wielded a revitalized Second Amendment to invalidate longstanding gun carrying restrictions in Chicago, the District of Columbia and throughout California. Invoking similar Second Amendment themes, legislators across the country have steadily deregulated public gun carrying, preempting municipal gun control ordinances in cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Cleveland. These changes to substantive gun laws reverberate through the constitutional criminal procedure framework. By making it lawful for citizens to carry guns even in crowded urban areas, enhanced Second Amendment rights trigger Fourth Amendment protections that could radically transform American policing. Evidence of handgun possession – whether from a tip or observation – is increasingly an inadequate justification for a Fourth Amendment stop; officers will struggle to articulate legal grounds for temporarily disarming citizens during face-to-face encounters; and the promise of gun detecting technology as an alternative to invasive investigative techniques, such as pretextual arrests and frisks, may be squelched. Whether observers view these implications as beneficial, disastrous or something in between, one thing is clear: courts, policymakers and academics must begin to address the dramatic Fourth Amendment implications of an expanding Second Amendment "right to remain armed."


The color of a print is affected by ink spreading and lateral light scattering in the substrate, making printed dots appear larger. Characterization of physical and optical dot gain is crucial for the graphic arts and paper industries. We propose a novel approach to separate physical from optical dot gain by use of a high-resolution camera. This approach is based on the histogram of microscale images captured by the camera. Having determined the actual physical dot shape, we estimate the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the paper substrate. The proposed method is validated by comparing the estimated MTF of 11 offset printed coated papers to the MTF obtained from the unprinted papers using measured and Monte Carlo simulated edge responses.


Production, commercial, technical, organizational and social aspects must be managed simultaneously for a construction project to be successfully delivered. However, most management approaches in construction are technically-oriented methodologies that largely neglect central social aspects related to people's behaviour. Lean construction research has likewise focused more on technical and commercial aspects than on social aspects. Recent research in the domain has aroused interest in various social aspects, such as the language-action-perspective, people development, culture and transformation, and integral theory. Yet little research has been pursued to understand the interactions between lean construction thinking and the social dynamics within construction project organizations. To begin to bridge this gap, the latent synergy and feedback loops between lean construction practices and social dynamics variables such as trust, goal setting and power distance in construction are discussed in this paper. The interplay between lean construction tools and the social dynamics variables is illustrated through an example based on the Last Planner System (LPS). We argue that lean tools work better when the environment is less autocratic, the team is more integrated, and the levels of trust between project team members are higher. In this organizational environment power-distance is decreased. Lean and goal setting also seem to interact positively and motivate the team.


The study of teacher education generally, including that conducted by Wilson, Floden, and Ferrini-Mundy (2002 [this issue]), begs for analyses from a minority perspective. Specifically, their analysis fails to incorporate in a substantive manner the problem of unequal power relations between a dominant Anglo research and policy establishment and the diverse and often disempowered communities about whom they frequently write. Taken together, advances in minority scholarship alongside the fact of changing demographics in a prevailing context of culturally chauvinist schooling suggest, as I propose here, a need for scholarship on teacher education that is increasingly centered on these developments and issues. My goal here is to suggest, therefore, the utility of key constructs like additive schooling and culturally relevant pedagogy to guide a refashioning of schools, teacher preparation programs, evaluation research of teacher quality, and ultimately, education policy itself. Cloaked in the language of "objective" social science, Florio-Ruane (2002 [this issue]) aptly critiques the nomological approach as privileging the method and language of social policy while portraying teaching as causally related to student learning. A complex view of teaching and learning is not only desirable but necessary given the conditions created by a predominantly Anglo teaching force in increasingly poor and minority inner-city schools throughout our nation. This complex perspective needs to be grounded in an understanding of majority-minority relations, where issues of race, class, gender, culture, and language are viewed as central to the mission of teacher education. Although a lack of attention to diversity issues is probably in some measure due to its lack of centrality in most teacher preparation programs, researchers are no less responsible to the communities served by the schools that they study. Not to address majority-minority relations is to participate in the reproduction of social inequality. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF MINORITY SCHOLARSHIP Much scholarship on minority youth points to the central role of culturally relevant, politically aware teaching in urban, minority education (Delgado-Gaitan, 1991, 1996; Delpit, 1995; Foster, 1995; Henry, 1998; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999; Vasquez, Pease-Alvarez, and Shannon, 1994). For this to occur, teacher education and teaching need to be evaluated in terms of their commitment to social justice. The research framework for evaluating teacher education programs and outcomes needs to be expanded beyond "objective" data like students' test scores (regressed on a multiplicity of teacher preparation variables) to include the extent to which schools promote success in terms valued by the communities that they serve. (1) To move in this direction, every single practitioner needs to possess the intellectual capital that enables him or her to distinguish between teaching that is culturally relevant and politically aware and that which is culturally subtractive and politically unaware (Bartolome, 1994; Valenzuela, 1999). The central paradigm war in teacher education evaluation research is therefore not between quantitative and interpretive methods but rather between their ideological underpinnings, regardless of method. In Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring (Valenzuela, 1999), I make the case that schools and teaching are fraught with cultural and political content even if unbeknownst to the teachers themselves. Specifically, I argue that in Texas, a culturally neutral perspective on teaching is untenable because the existing educational framework inscribed in Texas education policy is "culturally subtractive." That is, if schools are in compliance with state law, their function is not to promote bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism in an additive fashion but rather to subtract Mexican American children's culture, language, and community-based identities. …


In search for a potent agent, 3-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole 3a with the chalcone scaffold (E)-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-3-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one 2a was synthesized to design 3-(4-nitrophenyl)-1-substituted phenyl-5-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole 4a-e and 3-(4-nitrophenyl)-N-substituted phenyl-5-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamide 5a-e. IR, 1H NMR and mass spectral analysis, confirmed the structure of compounds. All compounds evaluated for in vitro anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. Among the series, compound 3a and 5b found to possess potent anticancer activity against breast carcinoma (MCF7). The data for antioxidant activity revealed that, compound 4b and 5c exhibited significant 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity as compared to the standard drug ascorbic acid. Compounds 2a, 4d and 5b showed excellent nitric oxide radical scavenging activity. While, compounds 2a, 4e, 5a, 5b and 5c showed pronounced superoxide radical scavenging activity, However all the compounds tested for H2O2 radical scavenging activity were devoid of activity. Additionally, compounds 4b, 4d, 4e and 5b showed good anti-inflammatory activity.


Although much has been written about the testing and evaluation of language students, few books have dealt with the much broader issue of measuring the success of language programs. Filling a critical gap in the literature of applied linguistics, Language Program Evaluation provides teachers, researchers, and administrators with a complete introduction to both qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of their programs. Through a careful blend of theory, research, and practice, the author presents a testing model that is specifically tailored to the concerns of language education programs and which can be adapted to different contexts and updated as teaching and learning situations evolve. He proposes a shift from purely quantitative studies which consider only end-of-program achievement gains to ones that include an investigation of program process using qualitative, naturalistic methods.


During evolution, the increased influence of a direct cortical–motoneuronal system in parallel with a more specialized hand function might have replaced phylogenetically older systems that organized locomotor movements. However, recent research indicates that interlimb coordination during human locomotion is organized in a way similar to that in the cat. During locomotion, corticospinal excitation of upper‐limb motoneurons is mediated indirectly, via propriospinal neurons in the cervical spinal cord. This allows a task‐dependent neuronal linkage of cervical and thoracolumbar propriospinal circuits controlling leg and arm movements during human locomotor activities. During obstacle avoidance steps, an anticipatory quadrupedal limb coordination is up‐regulated, with an involvement of proximal arm muscles during the acquisition and performance of this precision locomotor task.


While recent scholarship focuses on the fluidity or dissolution of the boundary between body and machine, "The Body Machinic" historicizes the emergence of the categories of "human" and "mechanical" labor. Beginning with nineteenth-century debates about the mechanized labor process, these categories became defined in opposition to each other, providing the ideological foundation for a dichotomy that continues to structure thinking about our relation to technology. These perspectives are polarized into technophobic fears of dehumanization and machines "taking over," or technological determinist celebrations of new technologies as improvements to human life, offering the tempting promise of maximizing human efficiency. "The Body Machinic" argues that both sides to this dichotomy function to mask the ways the apparent body-machine relation is always the product of human social relations that become embedded in the technologies of the labor process. Chapter 1 identifies the emergence of this dichotomy in the 1830s "Factory Question" debates: while critics of the factory system described workers as tools appended to monstrous, living machines, apologists claimed large-scale industrial machinery relieved human toil by replicating the laboring body in structure and function. Chapters 2 examines factory workers' autobiographies which record their experiences of being treated like machine parts, disposed of when broken by gruesome factory accidents. Chapter 3 analyzes Trollope's Michael Armstrong and Tonna's Helen Fleetwood, in which merely occupying the space of the factory initiates workers' transformations into a dangerously politicized yet mindless "community of automata." Chapter 4 analyzes Babbage's mathematical theory, his Difference Engine, and Dickens's representation of Babbage in Little Dorrit to argue that representations of mechanization were crucial to debates about the category of mental labor, which we continue to define as productive of intellectual property through its categorical opposition to mechanized manual labor. The conclusion looks at Butler's Erewhon and argues that the particular forms of technophobia and technophilia that dominate today—in which humans become increasingly mechanical, or machines become increasingly life-like—are a direct inheritance of Victorian constructions of human and mechanical as categorically opposed, and of the resulting metaphor of the mechanized laboring body. THE BODY MACHINIC: TECHNOLOGY, LABOR, AND MECHANIZED BODIES IN VICTORIAN CULTURE


From the deepest, darkest reaches of space came the greatest threat the Federation had ever faced: the BorgTM. Half organic/half mechanical, the Borg were relentless and bent on conquering and "assimilating" all intelligent life; a single Borg vessel destroyed 39 Federation starships, decimating Starfleet. Only the courage and determination of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew prevented the Borg from striking at the heart of the Federation and Earth itself in the year 2367. Picard and the "USS Enterprise" TM were able to score a stunning victory against the Borg. But all that has changed, and the Borg are back... Stronger and more dangerous than ever, they are ready to launch a new attack against the Federation, one that threatens its past...present...and future. Once again, Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Lieutenant Commander Data and the rest of the crew must face their greatest foe in a startling confrontation that will take them across time and put them face-to-face with their relentless enemy, revealing the Borg Collective's deadliest secret...and its true face.


The UK's Prevent Program within the education sector and its referral initiative Channel, are counter-effective.  The government claims that these initiatives are a means of safeguarding vulnerable students from extremism. Contrary to these claims is that the Prevent program is not well received within the education sector. In fact, most interactions that have involved police intervention have resulted in violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of children under the care act. Consequently, a number of lawsuits have been levied against Prevent by parents and academicians which is highlighted in this paper. Furthermore, the statutory duty imposed under Prevent is a form of risk governance driven by pre-emption. British Muslim students are singled out as suspect communities because they 'lack in Britishness' and placed under surveillance.  Moreover, the government claims that Prevent is a safeguarding initiative implemented to protect vulnerable students from extremism. This paper will show that the uncertainty level presented by the term extremism, renders Prevent's risk assessment unreliable. Furthermore, the changing level of risk associated with risk governance renders the premise of Prevent political. This is the kind of governmentality that is constructed at the supranational level and implemented locally through domestic policies such as Prevent.


A method using a wedge-plate shear shifting system with adjustable accuracy and measuring range is proposed for measuring the focus shifting caused by thermal distortion in a single-shot laser system. Two beam splitter groups are used in this method to precisely split a single beam into multiple beams with different optical path difference. The focus shifting is determined by position change of the minimum spot on the detector. This method is convenient and economic, especially as it powerfully solves the problem of catching focus shifting in an ultrashort time.


Objectives: To analyze the growth pattern of the functional food market in Korea, and thus produce essential information in mapping out a strategy for Korean medicine. Methods: A survey of literature or analysis reports about market changes related to functional foods in Korea was undertaken. Results: The Korean functional food market has been growing rapidly, to 1.4 trillion won in 2012 compared to 250 billion won in 2004, which is an annual growth rate of about 14%. In particular, individually-approved functional food is worthy of notice regarding its growth rate and functional position, which is similar to herbal drugs. The expanding growth of functional food affects negatively the decrease of herbal drug industry in Korea to date. Conclusions: To compete with functional foods, the Korean medicine community needs to develop patient-friendly and cost-effective herbal drugs, and strategies to adopt them as therapeutic modalities.


Background Chronic inflammation characterised by IgG-producing plasma cell infiltration of colonic mucosa is a histological hallmark of ulcerative colitis (UC); however, whether its function is pathogenic or protective remains unclear. Objective To explore the contribution of intestinal IgG plasma cells to UC pathogenesis. Methods We isolated lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMCs) from intestinal mucosa of UC patients and analysed the characteristics of intestinal plasma cells (expression profiles of differentiation molecules and chemokine receptors). We investigated the involvement of IgG-immune complex (IC)-Fc gamma receptor (FcγR) signalling in intestinal inflammation by examining the cytokine production by LPMCs in response to IgG-IC stimulation. Results IgG plasma cells that were markedly increased in number in the inflamed mucosa of UC patients showed a distinct expression profile (CD19+CD27low, CCR10lowCXCR4high) compared with IgA plasma cells (CD19+/−CD27high, CCR10highCXCR4−/low). In vitro IgG-IC stimulation activated intestinal CD14 macrophages that were increased in number in the inflamed mucosa of UC patients via FcγRI and FcγRII, and induced the extensive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), comparable to the effect of commensal bacteria stimulation. Co-stimulation with IgG-IC and commensal bacteria increased TNF and IL-1β production more than stimulation with the latter alone. Furthermore, IgG-IC notably up-regulated the expression of TL1A, whereas commensal bacteria specifically induced IL-23. Conclusions Collectively, these results demonstrate a novel aspect of UC pathogenesis in which unique IgG plasma cells infiltrate the inflamed mucosa via CXCR4, and critically influence UC pathogenesis by exacerbating mucosal inflammation through the activation of 'pathogenic' intestinal CD14 macrophages via IgG-IC-FcγR signalling.


As an art major, we are required to finalize our senior year with a public showing of our work. More specifically, as a graphic design concentration, we as a graduating senior class compose a show together as a group. This is a very long and extensive process. However, as graphic design majors, we handle our senior shows a bit differently than everyone else. We are the only major that has a combined group show in Mendenhall Student Center both our Junior and Senior year. While other concentrations only have one solo show their senior year, however they have to find and book their own venue.
 As a group we have to plan the entire show. From the title to the theme and down to how we are going to show and hang each piece. We enjoyed the idea the seniors had last year, where they showed their process work behind different projects. This was interesting because not many people get to see the process, or even know the process work that goes behind what we do as designers. However, though we appreciated the idea, we did not think they presented it clearly. We decided to take the idea of showing the "behind the final product" work but communicate it better to our audience.
I personally came up with the idea of showing our process on a horizontal board. Basically, each person's work starts on the left with the first ideas and work its way through until the end or right of the board with the finished product. This idea then sparked a group discussion about how designs have an evolutionary process. This is where all the ideas and pieces started to come together. Everyone is familiar with the image of the monkey evolving into man and slowly changing throughout time. Well this was basically what we were trying to convey with our designs. This is where the show title "Evolve" came from.


Android is the most widely deployed end-user focused operating system. With its growing set of use cases encompassing communication, navigation, media consumption, entertainment, finance, health, and access to sensors, actuators, cameras, or microphones, its underlying security model needs to address a host of practical threats in a wide variety of scenarios while being useful to non-security experts. The model needs to strike a difficult balance between security, privacy, and usability for end users, assurances for app developers, and system performance under tight hardware constraints. While many of the underlying design principles have implicitly informed the overall system architecture, access control mechanisms, and mitigation techniques, the Android security model has previously not been formally published. This article aims to both document the abstract model and discuss its implications. Based on a definition of the threat model and Android ecosystem context in which it operates, we analyze how the different security measures in past and current Android implementations work together to mitigate these threats. There are some special cases in applying the security model, and we discuss such deliberate deviations from the abstract model.


TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Digital Assets and Death of the Consumer A. What Are Digital Assets? B. Death of the Consumer III. What Do You Own? A. The License Agreements 1. Apple: Music and E-Books 2. Amazon.com: Music and E-Books 3. Barnes & Noble: E-Books 4. Google: Music and E-Books B. Conclusions IV. What Can You Do With Your Digital Content? A. The Account Itself B. The Digital Content: Two Wrinkles 1. The First Wrinkle: First Sale of Digital Content? 2. The Second Wrinkle: Digital Rights Management V. Where Do We Go From Here? A. State Legislation and the Uniform Law Commission B. What Every Person Should Do C. What Every Content Provider Should Do VI. Conclusion I. INTRODUCTION In early September, 2012, several news outlets erroneously reported that actor Bruce Willis intended to sue Apple, Inc., for the right to will his iTunes collection to his children. (1) The Willis family immediately denied the rumor, (2) but this story left the technology and legal communities with a question: Can Mr. Willis actually leave his iTunes collection to his children? There is a great deal of confusion and misinformation about this question. For instance, one often repeated assumption is that an iTunes consumer does not own the songs he or she buys; (3) a careful reading of the license agreement indicates that this is not the case. (4) The confusion stems in part from uncertainty in the law, which has not kept pace as copyrighted material has moved from wellunderstood, printed formats into the digital realm. (5) The confusion is also caused by consumers not understanding, or--far more likely-not having even read the "end user license agreement" (EULA) that he or she agreed to when registering for a service such as iTunes. (6) The uncertainty is exacerbated by lack of clarity in the EULAs themselves. The majority do not even address the death of the consumer who agreed to it. (7) Why do the EULAs even matter? After all, in Western culture individuals have had the ability to purchase printed or inscribed words for thousands of years. (8) Though sound recordings were only granted federal copyright protection since 1972, (9) consumers have been able to purchase them for over a century. (10) Thanks to this long history, consumers have an expectation when they purchase books and music CDs: once purchased, the consumer owns the book or CD, free from any contractual obligations. Yet the inverse is true for digital music and e-books: the purchase of digital content is universally governed by EULAs. The EULAs may impose restrictions on a person's ability to pass his or her digital music and e-books at death, restrictions that do not exist for traditional media books and music. (11) In addition, a close reading of the EULAs for what are today some of the most popular providers of digital music and e-books--the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon.com's Kindle e-books and MP3 Store, Barnes & Noble's NOOK e-books, and Google Play Store's music service-reveals that, unlike traditional printed books and CDs, cassettes, or vinyl LPs, the consumer may not in fact, actually own what he or she has purchased. (12) Another key difference between traditional, print media and digital media is that a consumer can only purchase digital content by establishing an account with the content provider. (13) The account itself is also governed by a EULA, typically a different document than the one governing the purchase of the content, and thus having distinct issues. The most important of these issues is that access to the account generally gives access to the digital content purchased through the account. Thus it is important to know: can the consumer pass on the account itself, or at least pass on control of the account, to his or her heirs at death? of course, once purchased, the consumer typically (and legally) transfers the digital music or e-book onto a device such as an iPod or Kindle e-reader, and thereafter the consumer generally does not have to log into the account again. …


The phenomenal growth of French immersion programs in Canada has been called by the popular press the educational success story of the 1980s. Although this view is certainly justified in terms of the method's popularity and political success, this study contends that it is not so in terms of the results obtained.The author bases his contention on a comparison and analysis of results achieved on the Laval Placement Test by three groups of students at the university level: (1) native French speakers; (2) former French-immersion students; (3) former core-French students. The test results place the immersion group's language level much closer to that of the core-French group than to that of the native speakers, although the immersion group does appear to have a considerable advantage over the nonimmersion group, at least in the passive comprehension skills. The results are further analyzed in the light of existing literature on bilingualism and immersion programs. The comparison and analysis of the test results show that the often extravagant claims made for the bilingualism of immersion graduates can lead to false optimism about their real command of French.The study concludes with a call for less complacency about the effectiveness of present immersion programs and for more research into alternative methods of language teaching.


We present new N-band photometry and spectroscopy for a sample of eight pre-main sequence stars including T Tauri, Herbig Ae/Be stars and FU Ori objects using the ESO TIMMI2 camera at the La Silla observatory (Chile). For some objects this is their first N-band spectroscopic observation ever. The FU Ori stars V 346 Nor, V 883 Ori and Z CMa show a broad absorption band which we attribute to silicates, while for BBW 76 we find silicate emission. A comparison with ISO-SWS spectra of V 346 Nor and Z CMa taken in 1996/1997 reveals no differences in spectral shape. All T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars possess N-band emission features. We model the emission spectra with a mixture of silicates consisting of different grain sizes and composition. The Herbig Ae star HD 34282 shows strong features of PAHs but none of silicate, while the emission spectrum of the Herbig Ae star HD 72106 resembles those of solar-system comets and known Herbig sources of evolved dust. We demonstrate that HD 72106 is host to highly processed silicates and find evidence for enstatite, which is not common in young objects. Evolved dust is also seen in the T Tauri stars HD 98800 and MP Mus. We further detected MP Mus at 1200 µm with the bolometer array SIMBA at the SEST in La Silla. The findings of our analysis are given in the context of previous dust studies of young stellar objects.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Pirfenidone is an orally available antifibrotic agent that has shown benefit in animal models of pulmonary and renal fibrosis and in clinical trials of pulmonary fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, and hepatic cirrhosis. Our objective was to determine whether pirfenidone slows the loss of renal function in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
An open-label trial was performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pirfenidone in patients with idiopathic and postadaptive focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. The monthly change in estimated GFR, expressed as ml/min per 1.73 m2, was compared between the baseline period and the treatment period. During both periods, patients received angiotensin antagonist therapy if tolerated. Twenty-one patients were enrolled, and 18 patients completed a median of 13 mo of pirfenidone treatment.

RESULTS
The monthly change in GFR improved from a median of -0.61 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (interquartile range -1.31 to -0.41) during the baseline period to -0.45 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (interquartile range -0.78 to -0.16) with pirfenidone therapy. This change represents a median of 25% improvement in the rate of decline (P < 0.01). Pirfenidone had no effect on BP or proteinuria. Adverse events attributed to therapy included dyspepsia, sedation, and photosensitive dermatitis.

CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that pirfenidone is an attractive candidate for placebo-controlled trials in patients with progressive chronic kidney disease.


To assess the regional adaptation of wine grape cultivars to Iowa, a trial was established in 2003 through an Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS)specialty crops grant awarded to the Iowa Wine Growers Association. The trial was designed to evaluate up to 20 cultivars or advanced selections at four ISU farms representing different geographic, climatic, and soil conditions: Horticulture Research Station (HRS), Ames; the Armstrong Research Farm (ARF), Lewis; the Southeast Research Farm (SERF), Crawfordsville; and the Northeast Research Farm (NERF), Nashua. The SERF and NERF plantings also included the 15 cultivars being evaluated in the 2002 grape cultivar by management system trial. This report summarizes the results for the 2006 growing season.


The impact of metal-ion contamination (present on wafer surface before oxidation) on gate oxide integrity (GOI) is well known in literature, which is not the case for clean silica particles [1, 2]. However, it is known that particles present in ultra-pure water (UPW) decrease the random yield in semiconductor manufacturing [3]. The presence of silica in UPW is common knowledge. UPW has also a certain content of metal ions, which can be attached to silica. That means, when a wafer is in contact with UPW metal ion can directly and/or in form of a silica-metal conglomerate be attached to the wafer surface. That means, it is not known in which form metal-ion contamination will deteriorate GOI the most. In order to receive more clarity in this field a short-loop study was set up, where we want distinguish between the impacts of - low metal ion contamination (Calcium), - clean silica particles (330nm) contamination, - silica particles with metal-ion core (330nm) contamination, and - metal-ion contamination at similar concentration as the metal-ion core of the particles on GOI (uniform and none uniform distribution).


The Metadata Objects for Linking Environmental Sciences (MOLES) model has been developed within the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) DataGrid project [NERC DataGrid] to fill a missing part of the 'metadata spectrum'. It is a framework within which to encode the relationships between the tools used to obtain data, the activities which organised their use, and the datasets produced. MOLES is primarily of use to consumers of data, especially in an interdisciplinary context, to allow them to establish details of provenance, and to compare and contrast such information without recourse to discipline-specific metadata or private communications with the original investigators [Lawrence et al 2009]. MOLES is also of use to the custodians of data, providing an organising paradigm for the data and metadata.

The work described in this paper is a high-level view of the structure and content of a recent major revision of MOLES (v3.3) carried out as part of a NERC DataGrid extension project. The concepts of MOLES v3.3 are rooted in the harmonised ISO model [Harmonised ISO model] - particularly in metadata standards (ISO 19115, ISO 19115-2) and the 'Observations and Measurements' conceptual model (ISO 19156). MOLES exploits existing concepts and relationships, and specialises information in these standards.

A typical sequence of data capturing involves one or more projects under which a number of activities are undertaken, using appropriate tools and methods to produce the datasets. Following this typical sequence, the relevant metadata can be partitioned into the following main sections – helpful in mapping onto the most suitable standards from the ISO 19100 series.
• Project section
• Activity section (including both observation acquisition and numerical computation)
• Observation section (metadata regarding the methods used to obtained the data, the spatial and temporal sampling regime, quality etc.)
• Observation collection section

The key concepts in MOLES v3.3 are:

a) the result of an observation is defined uniquely from the property (of a feature-of-interest), the sampling-feature (carrying the targeted property values), the procedure used to obtain the result and the time (discrete instant or period) at which the observation takes place.
b) an 'Acquisition' and a 'Computation' can serve as the basis for describing any observation process chain (procedure). The 'Acquisition' uses an instrument – sensor or human being – to produce the results and is associated with field trips, flights, cruises etc., whereas the 'Computation' class involves specific processing steps. A process chain may consist of any combination of 'Acquisitions' and/or 'Computations' occurring in parallel or in any order during the data capturing sequence.
c) The results can be organised in collections with significantly more flexibility than if one used the original project alone
d) the structure of individual observation collections may be domain-specific, in general; however we are investigating the use of CSML (Climate Science Modelling Language) for atmospheric data

The model has been tested as a desk exercise by constructing object models for scenarios from various disciplines.
References
NERC DATAGRID: http://ndg.nerc.ac.uk
LAWRENCE ET. AL. ,Information in environmental data grids, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, March 2009 vol. 367 no. 1890 1003-1014
ISO HARMONISED MODEL: All relevant ISO standards for geographic metadata from the TC211 series (eg. ISO 19xxx), and is harmonised within a formal UML description in the 'HollowWorld' packages available at https://www.seegrid.csiro.au/twiki/bin/view/AppSchemas/HollowWorld


We investigate the case for official dollarization in a selection of Latin American countries. We argue that the monetary shock absorbers of base control, foreign exchange reserve sterilization and exchange rate policy should be retained the more volatile is a country's actual real exchange rate. Our investigation of the asymmetry of macroeconomic shocks between the USA and Latin America suggests that the time series property of the real exchange rate is likely to be one of such volatility that it is advisable to retain at least some monetary shock absorbers. The case for official dollarization is further weakened by the unlikelihood of international agreements to accommodate Federal Reserve management of the dollar base to Latin American requirements.


In this paper, we introduce a new operating system abstraction called reservation domains, and describe its implementation in Eclipse, an experimental operating system that provides a testbed for Quality of Service (QoS) support for applications.

Reservation domains enable explicit control over the provisioning of system resources among applications in order to achieve desired levels of predictable performance. In general, each reservation domain is assigned a certain fraction of each resource (e.g., 25% CPU, 50% disk I/O, etc.). Eclipse implements reservation-domain scheduling of multiple resources. It currently supports CPU and disk and physical memory (working set size) scheduling.

Eclipse implements a new scheduling algorithm, Move-to-Rear List Scheduling (MTR-LS), that provides a cumulative service guarantee, in addition to fairness and delay bounds. Cumulative service guarantee is necessary for ensuring predictable aggregate throughput for applications that require multiple resources. Preliminary experiments indicate that MTR-LS provides good QoS in overloaded systems. In particular, MTR-LS favors less-greedy processes.

The Eclipse operating system is based the Plan9 from Bell Labs, and can run any Plan9 application without modification. Eclipse emphasizes the use of perprocess name space, and it can schedule any I/O device or user level file system without any change to device driver or file system code.


The amphetamine derivative 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) is a widely used recreational drug, which produces strong psychological effects such as increased empathy and sociability. MDMA inhibits the uptake of and releases serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine via an interaction with the respective monoamine transporter. While the role of serotonin in the human pharmacology of MDMA has been well described, the role of norepinephrine in the mediation of the effect of MDMA is mostly unexplored. Preclinical data indicate that norepinephrine may play a crucial role in the effects of MDMA. This project focused on the role of norepinephrine in the pharmacology of MDMA in humans. We performed five experimental clinical studies and analyzed data from a previously performed study investigating the role of norepinephrine in the mechanism of action of MDMA. All studies were pharmacological interaction studies with selective medications used as research tools to inhibit the effects of MDMA in healthy subjects. All clinical studies used placebo-controlled, double-bind cross-over designs and were each performed in 16 healthy subjects in the University Hospital of Basel. In the first study, we showed that the selective norepinephrine transporter inhibitor reboxetine reduced the MDMA-induced increases in circulating plasma norepinephrine, psychostimulant, and cardiovascular effects in healthy volunteers. Moreover, we also showed that the observed pharmacodynamic interaction in this study was not attributed to a pharmacokinetic interaction between reboxetine and MDMA, because reboxetine decreased the pharmacodynamics effects of MDMA although it increased MDMA plasma levels. The results demonstrate a critical role for transporter-mediated norephinephrine release in the cardiovascular and the subjective stimulant-like effects of MDMA in humans. Norephinephrine transporter inhibitors could therefore be useful in the clinical treatment of stimulant addiction. In the second study, we then demonstrated that the a2 agonist clonidine, an inhibitor of the vesicular norepinephrine release, did not inhibit the response to MDMA in healthy subjects confirming that vesicular release of norepinephrine is not responsible for the effects of MDMA in humans. This study also confirmed indirectly that the monoamine transporter is the primary target of psychostimulants such as MDMA and that physiological impulse-dependent release of monoamines does not appear to be critical for the effects of MDMA in humans. In the ensuing studies we addressed the roles of the postsynaptic adrenergic receptors where the norepinephrine released by MDMA would be expected to act. We analyzed data from a previously performed study and showed that the non-selective s adrenergic receptor antagonist pindolol reduced MDMA-induced increases in heart rate but had no effect on blood pressure or body temperature elevations produced by MDMA. In the third study, we assessed the effects of the postsynaptic a1 and s adrenergic receptor antagonist carvedilol on the cardiostimulant, thermogenic, and subjective response to MDMA in healthy subjects. Carvedilol reduced elevations in blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature but did not affect the subjective effects produced by MDMA. Thus, a1 and s adrenergic receptors contribute to the cardiostimulant and thermogenic effects of MDMA in humans. The findings suggest that carvedilol would be useful in the treatment of cardiovascular and hyperthermic complications associated with ecstasy use. In the fourth study, we determined the effect of a pretreatment with the selective a1 adrenergic receptor blocker doxazosin on the response to MDMA. Doxazosin reduced MDMA-induced increases in blood pressure but did not affect heart rate responses to MDMA. Doxazosin also attenuated some of the subjective effects of MDMA indicating that a1 adrenergic also contribute to the psychotropic effects of MDMA. Taken together, the studies suggest a role for norepinephrine in particular in the cardio- and the psychostimulant aspects of the MDMA effect in humans. However, MDMA is not only a potent releaser of norepinephrine but also serotonin. Previous clinical studies have shown that inhibition of the serotonin transporter reduced positive psychotropic effects produced by MDMA. However, selective serotonin or norepinephrine transporter inhibitors, when used alone, only moderately affected the response to MDMA in humans. In fifth study we therefore tested the effects of the dual serotonin and norepinephrine transporter inhibitor duloxetine on the acute effects of MDMA in humans. We demonstrated that duloxetine almost completely prevented the pharmacodynamic response to MDMA despite an increase in duloxetine-associated elevation in MDMA plasma levels. The serotonin and norepinephrine transporters may therefore both be potential targets for the treatment of psychostimulant dependence.


Throughout the ages, banks have evolved as intermediaries taking deposits of funds, lending money, and providing payment services. In the process they became also suppliers of commercial bank money, now only in the form of bank deposits. Following a historical review as to how money changers and goldsmiths became bankers, the paper points out that money and payment digitization has brought some challenges to the traditional role of banks as intermediaries. First, the digital age is about to facilitate the availability of central bank money balances or their equivalent to the public. Second, cryptocurrencies and blockchains were born. Third, claim-check centralized digital currencies have been created. This paper argues that availability to the public of central bank money, in the form of either full-reserve banking or plain sovereign money, is unlikely to affect the role of banks other than in money creation. The paper goes on to argue that cryptocurrencies are mostly not a new form of money and that in essence blockchains do not pose a major threat to the traditional interbank settlement system; at most they spur improvements in legacy systems. Finally, the argument goes, the creation of claim-check centralized digital currencies will give banks enough space to continue their role in providing payment services and even create alternative currencies fully backed by fiat ones. Ultimately banks will retain their role as intermediaries; Fintech does not have a payment services model which will supersede banking so that, in order to competitively provide payment services, IT firms will have to become banks.


Abstract. Airborne small-footprint LiDAR is replacing field measurements in regional-level forest inventories, but auxiliary field work is still required for the optimal management of young stands. Waveform (WF) recording sensors can provide a more detailed description of the vegetation compared to discrete return (DR) systems. Furthermore, knowing the shape of the signal facilitates comparisons between real data and those obtained with simulation tools. We performed a quantitative validation of a Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT) -based LiDAR simulator against real data and used simulations and empirical data to study the WF recording LiDAR for the classification of boreal juvenile forest vegetation. Geometric-optical models of three common species were used as input for the MCRT model. Simulated radiometric and geometric WF features were in good agreement with the real data, and interspecies differences were preserved. We used the simulator to study the effects of sensor parameters on species classification performance. An increase in footprint size improved the classification accuracy up to a certain footprint size, while the emitted pulse width and the WF sampling rate had minor effects. Analyses on empirical data showed small improvement in performance compared to existing studies, when classifying seedling stand vegetation to four operational classes. The results on simulator validation serve as a basis for the future use of simulation models e.g. in LiDAR survey planning or in the simulation of synthetic training data, while the empirical findings clarify the potential of WF LiDAR data in the inventory chain for the operational forest management planning in Finland.


This article studies the notion of "national character" as it is formulated in literature and as it influences literary praxis. Starting from the insights of image studies or "imagology" (a comparatist specialism developed over the last five decades, mainly in France and Germany), national thought, as one of the most pervasive and enduring cultural ideologies, should be critically and systematically studied in its literary manifestation. In order to propose an agenda for such a study, I survey the existing constructivist and structuralist literary practice, drawing two general conclusions: (1) It is possible to make an analytical distinction, based on cogent textual observation, between the discursive registers of factual reporting and stereotyping. That distinction revolves not only around the commonplace nature and intertextual dissemination of certain characterizations but also around the individual text's strategies of characterization: the quasi-psychological ("character"-based) motivation that a given text may adduce for cultural patterns, and the way a text constructs salient features concerning a given nation as "typical" or "characteristic." (2) "Deep structures" in national stereotyping, involving the construction of binaries around oppositional pairs such as North/South, strong/weak, and central/peripheral, should be addressed diachronically and historically. The end result of such (historically variable but unfalsifiable) stereotypical oppositions is that most imputed national characteristics will exhibit a binary nature, capable of attributing strongly contradictory characteristics to any given national group ("is a nation of contrasts"). I propose that national stereotyping be studied at a more fundamental level as a pattern of Janus-faced "imagemes," stereotypical schemata characterized by their inherent temperamental ambivalence and capable of being triggered into different actual manifestations.  On the basis of these insights, it must be possible to move from textual analysis and intertextual inventory to a pragmatic/rhetorical study of national characterization and national stereotyping, taking into account a text's audience function. This ambition (i.e., to address the dynamics of national stereotyping as a historical, audience-oriented praxis rather than as a textual feature) raises a challenge of its own, largely revolving around the hermeneutic and/or historical distance between a text's provenance and its audience; but some possible ways to address that challenge are also indicated.


Although a number of devices are currently in use for monitoring eye position, none is both accurate and convenient to use. Methods based on the use of contact lenses can provide high accuracy but have obvious inconveniences. Other techniques—e.g., skin-mounted electrodes, or eyeglass-mounted photoelectric pickups—are relatively convenient, but eye position can be measured to an accuracy of no better than about 0.5° to 1°. A novel eye-tracking instrument has been developed that makes use of two Purkinje images. The instrument operates in the infrared, so that it does not interfere with normal vision; it requires no attachments to the eye; it has a sensitivity and accuracy of about 1 min of arc, and operates over a two-dimensional visual field of 10° to 20° in diameter. The basic principle of the instrument is described, and operating records are shown.


Breast milk samples and blood serum collected from primipara women in Sweden during the period 1996 to 2004 were analyzed with the aim to study levels of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and the concentration ratio between milk and blood. A total of five perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) were detected in breast milk, of which perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS) were found most frequently. In addition, perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were detected. The highest mean concentration in individual milk samples was obtained for PFOS (0.172 ng/mL) followed by PFHxS (0.068 ng/mL) and PFOSA (0.012 ng/mL). The quantification of PFOA was hampered in most of the samples due to a high procedural blank contamination. A total of eight PFCs were detected in the serum samples. Breast milk levels in this study were on average 113 times lower compared to serum levels for PFOS, 57 times lower for PFHxS and 23 times lower for PFOSA. There was a strong association between increasing serum concentration and increasing milk concentration for PFOS and PFHxS. During the period 1996-2004, the levels in pooled breast milk samples were relatively constant with a slightly decreasing trend for the pools collected in years 2003-2004. Analysis of breast milk, consecutive sampled over a period of several days, did not indicate a decrease in levels with progression of lactation.


How important to well-being is choosing a career with the right fit? This question is difficult to answer because we observe individuals only in their chosen careers, not in the other (presumably inferior) options they did not choose. To overcome this problem, we use expected utility to cardinalize a logit model of career choice in a setting where we observe the income risk of chosen careers and the risk-aversion of the people who choose them. The key parameter of interest - the importance of idiosyncratic taste and skill in career choice - is identified from the shift in the distribution of income risk with risk aversion. We estimate the model using individual-specific measures of income volatility to proxy for income risk and survey questions about hypothetical income gambles to proxy for risk preference, both from the PSID. We separate idiosyncratic career taste from skill using the pay gap between highand low-income risk people with high and low risk-aversion.


This paper examines factors motivating private residential rental property investment in New Zealand, especially in the context of low inflation. The related question of the need for retirement income provision is also examined. The findings are based on a postal survey of residential rental property owners and qualitative interview data.


Latent HIV infection of long-lived cells is a barrier to viral clearance. Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells are a heterogeneous population of cells, some of which are long-lived. CXCR4-tropic HIVs infect a broad range of HSPC subtypes, including hematopoietic stem cells, which are multi-potent and long-lived. However, CCR5-tropic HIV infection is limited to more differentiated progenitor cells with life spans that are less well understood. Consistent with emerging data that restricted progenitor cells can be long-lived, we detected persistent HIV in restricted HSPC populations from optimally treated people. Further, genotypic and phenotypic analysis of amplified env alleles from donor samples indicated that both CXCR4- and CCR5-tropic viruses persisted in HSPCs. RNA profiling confirmed expression of HIV receptor RNA in a pattern that was consistent with in vitro and in vivo results. In addition, we characterized a CD4high HSPC sub-population that was preferentially targeted by a variety of CXCR4- and CCR5-tropic HIVs in vitro. Finally, we present strong evidence that HIV proviral genomes of both tropisms can be transmitted to CD4-negative daughter cells of multiple lineages in vivo. In some cases, the transmitted proviral genomes contained signature deletions that inactivated the virus, eliminating the possibility that coincidental infection explains the results. These data support a model in which both stem and non-stem cell progenitors serve as persistent reservoirs for CXCR4- and CCR5-tropic HIV proviral genomes that can be passed to daughter cells.


We consider a two-component one-dimensional model of gap solitons (GSs), which is based on two nonlinear Schrödinger equations, coupled by repulsive XPM (cross-phase-modulation) terms, in the absence of the SPM (self-phase-modulation) nonlinearity. The equations include a periodic potential acting on both components, thus giving rise to GSs of the "symbiotic" type, which exist solely due to the repulsive interaction between the two components. The model may be implemented for "holographic solitons" in optics, and in binary bosonic or fermionic gases trapped in the optical lattice. Fundamental symbiotic GSs are constructed, and their stability is investigated, in the first two finite bandgaps of the underlying spectrum. Symmetric solitons are destabilized, including their entire family in the second bandgap, by symmetry-breaking perturbations above a critical value of the total power. Asymmetric solitons of intra-gap and inter-gap types are studied too, with the propagation constants of the two components falling into the same or different bandgaps, respectively. The increase of the asymmetry between the components leads to shrinkage of the stability areas of the GSs. Inter-gap GSs are stable only in a strongly asymmetric form, in which the first-bandgap component is a dominating one. Intra-gap solitons are unstable in the second bandgap. Unstable two-component GSs are transformed into persistent breathers. In addition to systematic numerical considerations, analytical results are obtained by means of an extended ("tailed") Thomas-Fermi approximation (TFA).


An experiment aiming to study shape coexistence in Bi-193 has been performed. Due to its transitional character, it has an exceptionally large number of structures identified close to the yrast line. Many new states have been found, significantly extending the previously known level scheme of 193Bi, including several new rotational bands. The pi i(13/2) band was extended to I-pi = 45/2(+). The I-pi = 31/2(+) member of the pi i(13/2) band was found to de-excite also to a long-lived isomeric state. This isomeric state is located at 2350 keV and has a spin and parity of 29/2(+). The half-life of the isomeric state was measured to be 85(3) mu s and it decays via the emission of an 84 keV E2 transition. A level structure feeding this isomeric state was constructed. A low-energy, 49 keV transition has been identified to depopulate the (29/2(-)) isomeric state, which places it at an energy 2405 keV in the level scheme. This is the first time such a decay has been observed in the neutron-deficient Bi isotopes. A superdeformed band almost identical to that present in the neighboring isotope Bi-191, based on the 1/2[651] Nilsson orbital, has also been identified.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To examine the effects of a psychosocial group intervention on loneliness and social support in Japanese women with breast cancer.

DESIGN
Secondary analysis of a randomized, controlled trial.

SETTING
A breast cancer outpatient area of a National Cancer Center hospital in Japan.

SAMPLE
50 women who were less than 65 years old, were diagnosed with primary breast cancer, and had undergone surgery within 4-18 months of the start of the study.

METHODS
Data were collected as part of a trial of an intervention. The investigators conducted a six-week group intervention consisting of health education, coping skills training, stress management, and psychological support. Subjects completed the revised University of California, Los Angeles, Loneliness Scale and a social support questionnaire at baseline, six weeks, and six months.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Loneliness, number of confidants, satisfaction with confidants, and satisfaction with mutual aid.

FINDINGS
Fifty (33%) of the 151 invited patients participated and were randomized to either experimental (n = 25) or control (n = 25) groups, and 23 (92%) in each group completed the study. The experimental group had significantly lower scores than the control group for loneliness and significantly higher scores for the number of confidants, satisfaction with confidants, and satisfaction with mutual aid over the six-month study period.

CONCLUSIONS
This intervention is beneficial for Japanese patients with breast cancer experiencing loneliness and inadequate social support.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
The program can be used as an effective support for Japanese patients with cancer to manage their psychosocial concerns associated with illness.


Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) affects atmospheric composition, air quality and radiative transfer, however major difficulties are encountered in the development of reliable models for SOA formation. Constraints on processes involved in SOA formation can be obtained by interpreting the speciation and evolution of organics in the gaseous and condensed phase simultaneously. In this study we investigate SOA formation from dark α-pinene ozonolysis with particular emphasis upon the mass distribution of gaseous and particulate organic species. A detailed model for SOA formation is compared with the results from experiments performed in the EUropean PHOtoREactor (EUPHORE) simulation chamber, including on-line gas-phase composition obtained from Chemical-Ionization-Reaction Time-Of-Flight Mass-Spectrometry measurements, and off-line analysis of SOA samples performed by Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry and Liquid Chromatography. The temporal profile of SOA mass concentration is relatively well reproduced by the model. Sensitivity analysis highlights the importance of the choice of vapour pressure estimation method, and the potential influence of condensed phase chemistry. Comparisons of the simulated gaseousand condensed-phase mass distributions with those observed show a generally good agreement. The simulated speciation has been used to (i) propose a chemical structure for the principal gaseous semi-volatile organic compounds and condensed monomer organic species, (ii) provide evidence for the occurrence of recently suggested radical Correspondence to: M. Camredon (email@example.com) isomerisation channels not included in the basic model, and (iii) explore the possible contribution of a range of accretion reactions occurring in the condensed phase. We find that oligomer formation through esterification reactions gives the best agreement between the observed and simulated mass spectra.


Information technology (IT) is rapidly growing influencing every sector of the economy. That has contributed to increased interest by various nations to boost IT connectivity within their borders and beyond to serve a number of national wellbeing. Many countries are focusing on the need to enhance their security as well as economic performance. In that regard, Saudi Arabia launched Vision 2030 in 2016with the hope of diversifying its economy, changing its oil reliant nature to a manufacturing economy. To achieve these goals, the application of IT cannot be underestimated. IT has been known to contribute greatly to creation of a good business environment be enhancing government relationship with firms especially by ensuring smooth operations for the latter. Again, it has allowed business-tobusiness exchanges, which will promote business growth through ideas and innovations. That will lead to increased production, employment opportunity and increased revenues for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, thus improving the country's GDP. As such, technology should be considered a necessity in the realization of Saudi's Vision 2030.


Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems are critical for monitoring aging infrastructure (such as buildings or bridges) in a cost-effective manner. Such systems typically involve collections of battery-operated wireless sensors that sample vibration data over time. After the data is transmitted to a central node, modal analysis can be used to detect damage in the structure. In this paper, we propose and study three frameworks for Compressive Sensing (CS) in SHM systems; these methods are intended to minimize power consumption by allowing the data to be sampled and/or transmitted more efficiently. At the central node, all of these frameworks involve a very simple technique for estimating the structure's mode shapes without requiring a traditional CS reconstruction of the vibration signals; all that is needed is to compute a simple Singular Value Decomposition. We provide theoretical justification (including measurement bounds) for each of these techniques based on the equations of motion describing a simplified Multiple-Degree-Of-Freedom (MDOF) system, and we support our proposed techniques using simulations based on synthetic and real data.


Although it has become accepted as a matter of course that small firms are important for economic development and there exists an abundant literature on small enterprise promotion, very little attention is given to understanding the factors that affect small firms' capacity to participate in politics. Filling this gap is important, for supporting small firms is not a technical choice but rather the outcome of political processes involving conflicts between actors with competing interests. In the simplest terms, representation affects policy, so anyone concerned with small enterprise development needs to consider the process by which small firms can secure representation. This paper addresses this political vacuum, analysing the capacity of small industrialists to construct durable mechanisms of representation. Emphasis is placed on representation outside of the electoral realm. Using Stepan's distinction between "civil society", where interest groups and social movements articulate their interests, and "political society", the arena that hosts formal contestation among parties over policymaking authority, the analysis here is focused on civil society. Rather than focusing on political parties, attention is paid to the aggregation and articulation of actors' interests through business associations. The analysis is presented in two stages. The first section presents a framework for analysing small industry politics. By drawing attention to the core characteristics that define small firms as political actors, an explanation is presented for why representation may be difficult, and I highlight the key issues at stake: the importance of formal organisation, the difficulties of small firm collective action, the critical role of the state, and the unavoidable tensions between dependence, autonomy, and political marginalisation. These points are then illustrated with a comparative analysis of small industry representation in post-war Latin America, focusing on the politics of small industry representation in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Each 'case' consists of two sub-cases, the first corresponding to the period after World War II until the late 1970s or early 1980s, the second corresponding to the contemporary period in which all three countries have undergone democratisation in the context of implementing neoliberal economic policies. The conclusion extracts the main lessons from the cases and ties the case studies to the framework set out above. This is then linked to the issues of representation and participation to the broader issue of small enterprise development. Most importantly, the analysis points to the importance of the state, and state institutions more generally, in helping weak actors overcome barriers to collective action and providing nourishment for organisational development. And the analysis speaks to the fundamental tensions that weak actors confront, between autonomy and representation: dependence on the state can distort interest representation, but the absence of the state hardly appears to improve representation. We need to distinguish between the state as a source of political control and the state as a resource that may allow weak actors to overcome their basic political handicaps and be integrated into local and national politics.


In the article the possibility to increase capability of the ricochet of armour-piercing projectiles by application of a thin layer on the frontal surface of the armour with the Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) method was carried out. The armours were made of the ARMOX 500T steel plates and were placed at various angles of inclination in relation to the initial flight path of the impacting projectile. The aim was to find the angle of inclination of the armour at which the penetration process changes from perforation to ricochet. Seven types of surface layers made of high-strength materials such as Ti, TiN, Al2O3, CrN were analysed. Results showed that the ricochet capability of the plates with and without the PVD coating is similar but the mechanisms of projectile-armour interaction are different.