The DANE algorithm is an approximate Newton method popularly used for communication-efficient distributed machine learning. Reasons for the interest in DANE include scalability and versatility. Convergence of DANE, however, can be tricky; its appealing convergence rate is only rigorous for quadratic objective, and for more general convex functions the known results are no stronger than those of the classic first-order methods. To remedy these drawbacks, we propose in this paper some new alternatives of DANE which are more suitable for analysis. We first introduce a simple variant of DANE equipped with backtracking line search, for which global asymptotic convergence and sharper local non-asymptotic convergence rate guarantees can be proved for both quadratic and non-quadratic strongly convex functions. Then we propose a heavy-ball method to accelerate the convergence of DANE, showing that nearly tight local rate of convergence can be established for strongly convex functions, and with proper modification of algorithm the same result applies globally to linear prediction models. Numerical evidence is provided to confirm the theoretical and practical advantages of our methods.


OBJECT
Craniopharyngioma accounts for 2%-5% of all primary intracranial neoplasms. The optimal management of craniopharyngioma remains controversial. The authors evaluated the early results of surgery and the longterm risk of tumor recurrence in a large series of patients undergoing resection of craniopharyngiomas.

METHODS
Between 1990 and 2008, 112 consecutive patients (57 male and 55 female patients with a mean [± SEM] age of 33.3 ± 1.8 years) underwent resection of craniopharyngiomas at the authors' hospital. Recurrence or growth of residual tumor tissue during follow-up was assessed using MR imaging.

RESULTS
There were 3 perioperative deaths (2.7%). Severe adverse events were more frequent in patients who underwent operations via the transcranial route (37%) than the transsphenoidal approach (5.6%; p < 0.001). Magnetic resonance imaging showed radical resection of the tumor in 78 (71.6%) of the remaining 109 patients. Previous surgery and maximum tumor diameter were associated with persistence of disease after surgery. Craniopharyngioma recurred in 26 (24.5%) of 106 patients. Presence of residual tumor on the first postoperative MR imaging, male sex, and no postoperative radiation therapy were associated with a risk of tumor recurrence. Quality-of-life data were assessed in the 91 patients who attended the authors' institution for follow-up visits. Among them, 8.8% patients were partially or completely dependent on others for daily living activities before surgery. This percentage increased to 14.3% at the last follow-up visit. The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 94.4% (95% CI 90.0%-98.8%) and 90.3% (95% CI 83.4%-97.3%), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Complete surgical removal of craniopharyngioma can be achieved with reasonable safety in more than 70% of patients. Recurrence of craniopharyngioma may occur even after apparent radical excision. Prompt management of residual or recurring disease by radiotherapy, repeat surgery, or a combination of both is usually successful in controlling further tumor growth.


In this article it is claimed that there is a set of universal speech processing constraints which applies to all types of second language acquisition. These constraints define the range of possible hypotheses about the structure of the L2 which a learner can create at a given stage of development and cannot be overridden by formal instruction or by other alterations in the linguistic input. These claims, however, do not imply that all types of language acquisition are identical or that teaching has no influence whatsoever on the way a second language develops in a formal context. It has been shown elsewhere (cf. Pienemann, 1984, 1985, 1987a) that under certain conditions teaching can influence formal L2 development. These demonstrable positive effects of teaching, however, remain inside the variational margin left open by the processing constraints. The present paper reports on the interlanguage development of one learner of German as a second language, selected from a broader longitudinal study of one year's duration. It was found that the learner's word order development was identical to the natural development of German as a second language despite the progression intended in the teaching. A similar result was obtained in the development of verbal morphology. It is also shown that agreement marking is acquired at the same time as specific word order rules.


Diverse means have been deployed for harvesting electrical energy from mechanical actuation produced by low-grade waste heat, but cycle rate, energy-per-cycle, device size and weight, or cost have limited applications. We report the electromagnetic harvesting of thermal energy as electrical energy using thermally powered torsional and tensile artificial muscles made from inexpensive polymer fibers used for fishing line and sewing thread. We show that a coiled 27 μm-diameter nylon muscle fiber can be driven by 16.7 °C air temperature fluctuations to spin a magnetic rotor to a peak torsional rotation speed of 70 000 rpm for over 300 000 heating–cooling cycles without performance degradation. By employing resonant fluctuations in air temperature of 19.6 °C, an average output electrical power of 124 W per kg of muscle was realized. Using tensile actuation of polyethylene-based coiled muscles and alternating flows of hot and cold water, up to 1.4 J of electrical energy was produced per cycle. The corresponding per cycle electric energy and peak power output, per muscle weight, were 77 J kg−1 and 28 W kg−1, respectively.


The impact of lakes on the European climate is considered by analysing two 30-year regional climate model (RCM) simulations. The RCM applied is the Rossby Centre regional climate model RCA3.5. A simulation where all lakes in the model domain are replaced by land surface is compared with a simulation where the effect of lakes is accounted for through the use of the lake model FLake coupled to RCA. The difference in 2m open-land air temperature between the two simulations shows that lakes induce a warming on the European climate for all seasons. The greatest impact is seen during autumn and winter over southern Finland and western Russia where the warming exceeds 1 °C. Locally, e.g. over southern Finland and over Lake Ladoga, the convective precipitation is enhanced by 20%―40% during late summer and early autumn while it is reduced by more than 70% over Lake Ladoga during early summer.


A systematic study is performed to understand the dynamics of collisions involving a modern light weight passenger car and a heavy freight vehicle and to design an improved crash energy management system to reduce the severity of collisions. A concept of an energy dissipating under-ride guard is analytically modeled and the performance potentials are investigated under direct and oblique impacts to enhance the crashworthiness of automobiles involved in collisions with heavy freight vehicles. The under-ride guard is analytically modeled incorporating non-linearities due to asymmetric damping, stiffness, clearance spring and kinematics of linkages, using the principle of conservation of momentum and Lagrangian dynamics. Hardware-in-the-loop tests are performed to evaluate the impact energy dissipated by the damper and to verify the proposed model. The performance benefits of the proposed guard are investigated using a performance criterion based upon the magnitude of intrusion of the car mass, peak car mass acceleration, and dissipated energy. A multi-variable design optimization is performed to minimize the magnitude of intrusion and peak acceleration, and maximize the energy dissipated by the damper. A lumped parameter model of a lightweight vehicle is further formulated to study the car-to-truck collision and is analyzed under impacts with conventional and damped under ride guards. The dynamic response characteristics of different lumped masses subject to direct impacts at different velocities are analyzed and the guard parameters are optimized to achieve minimum peak acceleration level. A detailed finite element model of the car structure is further developed using DYNA3D and an elastic-plastic analysis of the car-to-under-ride guard is performed. The results obtained using the rigid body, lumped parameter model and the finite element analysis are discussed to illustrate the relative merits of the methods. The crashworthiness of the automobile impacting heavy freight vehicles is further enhanced by incorporating crush elements to absorb the impact energy. Experimental studies are conducted to enhance an understanding of the crash behavior, energy absorption capacity and the strain rate effect on the energy absorption capacity of crush elements made of different composite materials. The advantages of using crash elements made of composite materials to reduce passenger casualty are investigated through analysis of lumped parameter and finite element models. The results of the study show that the severity of a crash involving an automobile and a heavy vehicle can be significantly reduced by the proposed guard


Background: Genetic diversity studies are important for the selection of parents with a greater combination capacity which, when crossed, increase the chances of obtaining superior genotypes. Thus, 26 polymorphic SSR primers were used to assess the genetic diversity of 140 individual samples from 12 diploid sugar beet pollinators (pollen parents) and 2 cytoplasmic male sterile lines (seed parents). Eight pollinators originated from three research centers of the United States Department of Agriculture, while four pollinators and cms lines came from Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia. Results: A total of 129 alleles were obtained, with mean value of 3.2 alleles per SSR marker. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.00 to 0.87 with mean value of 0.30. Expected heterozygosity and Shannon's information index were the lowest for marker BQ590934 and the highest for the markers SB15s and FDSB502s; the same markers were the most informative, with PIC value of 0.70 and 0.69, respectively. Three private alleles were found in pollinator EL0204, two in pollinator C51, and one in pollinators NS1, FC221, and C93035. Molecular variance showed that 77.34% of the total genetic variation was attributed to intra-population variability. Cluster and correspondence analysis grouped sugar beet pollinators according to the breeding centers, with few exceptions, which indicate that certain amount of germplasm was shared although centers had their own breeding programs. Conclusions: The results indicate that this approach can improve selection of pollinators as suitable parental components, and could further be applied in sugar beet breeding programs. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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Problem statement: Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) provides a meta-heuristic optimization tool and collective intelligence model to several applications such as routing and load balancing. A lot of work found in the literature on using ACO in load balancing. However, as far as our knowledge, there was no work relating load balancing in distributed systems with ACO. Approach: In this study, a proposed ACO algorithm for load balancing in distributed systems will be presented. This algorithm is fully distributed in which information is dynamically updated at each ant movement. Multiple colonies paradigm will be adopted such that each node will send a colored colony throughout the network. Results: In this study, colored ant colonies are used to prevent ants of the same nest from following the same route and hence enforcing them to be distributed all over the nodes in the system and each ant acts like a mobile agent that carries newly updated load balancing information to the next visited node. Conclusion: Finally, the performance of the proposed ACO algorithm is compared with the work-stealing approach for load balancing in distributed systems.


The gas jet is blown from the lateral surface of an axisymmetric vehicle moving with supersonic speed, this leads to a change in the flow pattern. The main flow, interacting with the blown jet, behaves as the flow around an equivalent solid obstacle, namely: a relatively small zone of increased pressure is formed upstream of the blowing hole, an extended low pressure zone is formed downstream of the blown hole. On the surface of a moving vehicle with blowing jet, the reactive force of the blown jet acts and the force generated by the redistribution of pressure along the surface of the axisymmetric vehicle acts. This force, in some cases can be commensurable with the jet thrust of the blown jet. The study of problems associated with the force generated is important for creating new gas-jet control systems. The results of numerical simulation and experimental studies are demonstrated.


A fundamental disagreement among legal ethics scholars concerns the difference between client-centered and justice-centered approaches to lawyers' ethical obligations. Advocates of client-centered approaches put lawyers' duty to the client first. Justice-centered theorists critique the elevation of the client's interests over other important concerns lawyers affect through the work they do on behalf of clients. Scholars who adopt justice-centered approaches argue that lawyers' ethical obligations should be analyzed with a paramount focus on achieving justice. Legal ethicists often view these two approaches as inconsistent with each other, but I argue in this Article that they are not necessarily so. Building on the growing awareness of the need for context-specific legal ethics analysis, I argue that a key factor responsible for the disagreement between client- and justice-centered legal ethics scholars is their focus on different practice settings, where different ethics concerns have priority. Ethicists concerned about the immense power of corporate clients to do harm to fragile structures of public regulatory law focus on lawyers' duties to concern themselves with the underlying justice of their representations, while ethicists immersed in practice settings involving the representation of relatively powerless clients or interests, such as in criminal defense and poverty law practice, are adamant about the need for client-centeredness. I argue that we can make much better sense of the debate between client- and justice-centered ethicists if we appreciate the importance of context in setting ethics priorities. The challenge then becomes identifying the factors that vary with practice setting and account for the different emphases of justice- and client-centered approaches. I suggest that a key factor that accounts for ethicists' varying views about the appropriate balance to be struck between client- and justice-centeredness is the relative power of the lawyer's client in relation to other interests affected by the representation. Of course, power is not, and should not be, the only factor taken into account in calibrating ethics analysis to context, but it is an important one, which deserves further attention in legal ethics scholarship. I next propose a normative standard for how relative client power should be taken into consideration in lawyers' ethical deliberations. In representations involving obvious and substantial power imbalances, lawyers representing less powerful interests should adhere to a client-centered, zealous advocacy approach, whereas lawyers for powerful clients should temper their representations with an eye to protecting consideration of the interests of the less powerful. I identify several reasons why considerations based on relative client power should factor into lawyers' ethical deliberations in this way. These reasons include the representation reinforcement function of zealous client advocacy on behalf of the under-represented interests and the fact that the liberal underpinnings of client-centered legal ethics support the protection of the dignity of natural individuals, but not aggressive advocacy for the interests of institutions that are mere creations of law. Factoring client power into lawyers' ethics analysis also avoids the powerful criticisms leveled against justice-centered models on grounds that these approaches call for the paternalistic substitution of lawyers' socially situated judgments about morality and justice on clients who are least able to resist such lawyer domination. Finally, consideration of client power provides an ethics norm that pushes back most directly against the moral hazards produced by self-interest in varying practice contexts. In the context of representing powerful clients, lawyers' incentive is to do too much for their clients; in the context of clients with relatively little power, lawyers' incentive is to do too little. An ethics norm that calls on lawyers to temper their advocacy when representing powerful clients but to pursue client-centeredness when representing clients with little power asks lawyers to correct for the specific pressures faced in their practice locations. To test my theory, I apply a power-based ethics model to a series of hypotheticals drawn from the work of ethicists in the justice- and client-centered traditions. I show how considering client power in resolving difficult ethical dilemmas in situations of obvious and substantial power imbalance can help produce ethical judgments that are most appropriately tailored to varying practice contexts.


ABSTRACT Tacuarembó is a department located in northeastern Uruguay, whose population is the result of several migration waves from Europe and Near East, as well as Africans and Afro-descents mostly from Brazil; these waves settled with the territory's various Native ethnic groups (Charrúa, Minuán, and Guaraní). In the past, this population has been the focus of genetic studies showing this trihybrid origin, with greater contributions of Natives and Africans than in other Uruguayan regions. In this study we analyzed eight Alu insertions (A25, ACE, APOA1, B65, D1, F13B, PV92, TPA25) to provide valuable information for ancestrality and genetic differentiation and to compare with both previous studies on the Tacuarembó population and Alu frequencies in other Uruguayan populations. The European contribution to Alu and classical markers was almost equal to that of a previous study using 22 classical markers (63% vs. 65%), while African contribution was higher (30% vs. 15%), and Native American contribution shows an important difference in Alu: 7% versus 20%. We found no significant differences in genetic differentiation between Tacuarembó and Montevideo but significant differences between Tacuarembó and Basque descendants from Trinidad. Our results support previous findings obtained with classical markers that demonstrate the trihybrid composition of the Tacuarembó population, correlated with historical records. Thus, Alu insertions provide interesting information in light of the admixture process in the Uruguayan population.


The primary differentiation within the genus Miogypsina is based on features seen in vertical sections. The subgenus Miogypsinoides lacks lateral chambers and the equatorial plane is covered on each side by zones of massive laminae, whereas the subgenus Miogypsina has well-developed lateral chambers on each side of the equatorial layer. Miogypsinoides shows an intraseptal canal system, due to the presence of a toothplate and a septal flap which are not found in Miogypsina s.s. Several samples contained specimens which show the possible transition from Miogypsinoides to Miogypsina s.s. The disappearance of the septal flap and the toothplate in Miogypsina was probably simultaneous with the appearance of lateral chambers. It seems that the existence of lateral chambers precluded the presence of an intraseptal canal system. The equatorial chambers of Miogypsinoides have a simple stolon system, whereas the equatorial chambers of Miogypsina show a more complex stolon system. With the appearance of the lateral chambers the stolon system became more complex. The diameter of the protoconch of Miogypsinoides is generally larger than that of Miogypsina s.s. This difference is less striking in the stratigraphically older samples. Several morphological features and microstructures are described in detail, such as the canal systems, the stolon system, the protoconchal stolon, the growth of the equatorial chambers, and the free nucleoconches of Miogypsinoides and Miogypsina s.s.


Introduction In England and Wales, National Health Service (NHS) primary dental care services are now commissioned on a local basis. In planning for the future, it is important that commissioning authorities have a clear understanding of the perspectives of recent dental graduates: vocational dental practitioners (VDPs). Objectives This study investigated the career aspirations and preferred modes of working of VDPs in Wales. Methodology Data were collected via a postal questionnaire, comprising 37 closed and open questions, mailed to all 59 VDPs in Wales. Results A total of 53 (90%) VDPs participated, of whom 47 saw their future in general dental practice: 5, 35, and 7 indicating a preference to work in the NHS, mixed (NHS and private), and private sector, respectively. None selected the Community Dental Service as their preferred vocation. More than half of all respondents intended to undertake a postgraduate qualification within the next five years and 22 wished to specialise. Of the 53 VDPs, 44 were concerned that lack of NHS contracts would limit where they could practise, and agreed that family and other social commitments were a significant influence on choice of practice location. Access to high-quality premises and continuing professional development were agreed as important by 41 VDPs. A majority (37) agreed that private dentistry was an attractive alternative to NHS dentistry. Of the respondents, 38 (22 females, 16 males) expected to work part-time at some point in the future and 14 said they would consider a career outside dentistry. Only nine VDPs agreed that they would be happy working in a single-handed practice and even fewer (six) indicated they would be happy working for a corporate body. Conclusions Numerous factors impact on the career aspirations of VDPs. These factors have been quantified in this study, and healthcare-commissioning bodies need to be aware of them when planning future dental care provision in Wales.


Abstract. We describe an estimation technique for biomass burning emissions in South America based on a combination of remote-sensing fire products and field observations, the Brazilian Biomass Burning Emission Model (3BEM). For each fire pixel detected by remote sensing, the mass of the emitted tracer is calculated based on field observations of fire properties related to the type of vegetation burning. The burnt area is estimated from the instantaneous fire size retrieved by remote sensing, when available, or from statistical properties of the burn scars. The sources are then spatially and temporally distributed and assimilated daily by the Coupled Aerosol and Tracer Transport model to the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (CATT-BRAMS) in order to perform the prognosis of related tracer concentrations. Three other biomass burning inventories, including GFEDv2 and EDGAR, are simultaneously used to compare the emission strength in terms of the resultant tracer distribution. We also assess the effect of using the daily time resolution of fire emissions by including runs with monthly-averaged emissions. We evaluate the performance of the model using the different emission estimation techniques by comparing the model results with direct measurements of carbon monoxide both near-surface and airborne, as well as remote sensing derived products. The model results obtained using the 3BEM methodology of estimation introduced in this paper show relatively good agreement with the direct measurements and MOPITT data product, suggesting the reliability of the model at local to regional scales.


London. A fox makes its way across Waterloo Bridge. The distraction causes two pedestrians to collide — Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes, and Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist there to deliver a keynote speech. From this chance encounter, Aminatta Forna's unerring powers of observation show how in the midst of the rush of a great city lie numerous moments of connection.

Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma, as he has done many times before; and to contact the daughter of friends, his "niece," Ama, who hasn't called home in a while. Ama has been swept up in an immigration crackdown, and now her young son Tano is missing.

When, by chance, Attila runs into Jean again, she mobilizes the neighborhood rubbish men she uses as volunteer fox spotters. Security guards, hotel doormen, traffic wardens—mainly West African immigrants who work the myriad streets of London—come together to help. As the search for Tano continues, a deepening friendship between Attila and Jean unfolds.

Meanwhile a consulting case causes Attila to question the impact of his own ideas on trauma, the values of the society he finds himself in, and a grief of his own. In this delicate tale of love and loss, of cruelty and kindness, Forna asks us to consider the interconnectedness of lives, our coexistence with one another and all living creatures, and the true nature of happiness.


Motivation Flow cytometry is a powerful technology that allows the high-throughput quantification of dozens of surface and intracellular proteins at the single-cell level. It has become the most widely used technology for immunophenotyping of cells over the past three decades. Due to the increasing complexity of cytometry experiments (more cells and more markers), traditional manual flow cytometry data analysis has become untenable due to its subjectivity and time-consuming nature. Results We present a new unsupervised algorithm called "cytometree" to perform automated population discovery (aka gating) in flow cytometry. cytometree is based on the construction of a binary tree, the nodes of which are subpopulations of cells. At each node, the marker distributions are modeled by mixtures of normal distribution. Node splitting is done according to a normalized difference of Akaike information criteria (AIC) between the two models. Post-processing of the tree structure and derived populations allows us to complete the annotation of the derived populations. The algorithm is shown to perform better than the state-of-the-art unsupervised algorithms previously proposed on panels introduced by the Flow Cytometry: Critical Assessment of Population Identification Methods (FlowCAP I) project. The algorithm is also applied to a T-cell panel proposed by the Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC) program; it also outperforms the best unsupervised open-source available algorithm while requiring the shortest computation time. Availability An R package named "cytometree" is available on the CRAN repository. Contact email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com Supplementary information Supplementary data are available.


The study of plant-pollinator relationship and the degree of their specialization is among the most lively and debated issues in plant biology and ecology. The fates of plants and bee pollinators are strictly connected: the severe decline lately encountered by wild Apoidea, which in turn results in a lower pollination rate, trigger the so-called "extinction vortex" phenomenon. This study was finalized to improve knowledge on plant-pollinator interactions, in ecological context with conservation needs. Field work on the natural populations of Dictamnus albus allowed us to define practical methods for the joint protection of wild Apoidea and endangered plants applicable in several contexts. In order to define the pollinator importance of single taxa and of the whole pollinator guild of D. albus, an index distinguishing between potential (PPI) and realized (RPI) pollinator importance was created. Moreover, it was assessed the effect of some abiotic and biotic factors on the abundance and activity pattern of flower-visiting insect groups. Laboratory experiments on Gentiana lutea nectar pointed out a gender-specific amino acid solution preference in Bombus terrestris, one of the main pollinator of this plant, and confirm a negative influence of high amino acid concentration diet on insect mortality. The behavioural study showed that β-alanine may affect either positively or negatively bumble bees walking and flying activities depending on its concentration, and that GABA enriched solution greatly increase bumble bee survival time. Studies on B. terrestris colony development and reproductive strategies led to define an inbreeding risk index (IRI) for the colony and highlighted the lack of an inbreeding-avoidance system in this species. Finally, three years of rearing practice allowed to provide new guidance methods for diapause and deposition in bumble bee artificial rearing. In conclusion, this thesis may help to better understand of the complex world of plant-pollinator relationships.


With vegetable oils supplies at record levels, increased emphasis is being placed on
finding new and growing markets for different oils. The Middle East and North
Africa region (MENA) is one of such emerging markets for palm oil and its products.
Strong consumption growth for vegetable oils in general, and palm oil products in
particular, coupled with limited vegetable oils production capabilities in the region,
have been behind the increase in trade. Further growth is anticipated in large part due
to a strong regional GDP forecast. Palm oil has the opportunity to be a prime
beneficiary of this growth in trade, due to its export competitiveness in the global
market of fats and oils. The objectives of this study are; firstly to analyse the palm oil
import demand in representative MENA countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Iran,
Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and Turkey, over a period of
time; and secondly, to identify the prospects of expanding its market in the MENA
regon. Ten single equation models are specified, following a general to specific
approach. to represent palm oil import demand functions in these countries. The
models have been estimated using multivariate cointegration and ECM methods for
the analysis through utilizing the ARDL technique.
The findings of the study show that the palm oil price variable emerged to be a
significant determinant of palm oil demand across the ten models. Soybean oil
proved to be an important substitute for palm oil in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan,
Morocco and Turkey. The major substitute oil for palm oil in Saudi Arabia and Libya
is corn oil, while rapeseed oil and sunflower seed oil came out to be important
substitutes for it in Sudan and Syria respectively. The prices of substitute oils in
almost all countries have been found to play an important role in shaping the palm oil
demand. Palm oil demand in all countries turned to be significantly dependent on
income. The remarkably high palm oil discount was an important factor in raising the
Turkish demand for palm oil. The results suggest that the sharp increase in world
petroleum prices in 1970s contributed significantly to the palm oil import demand in
Saudi Arabia.The anti-palm oil campaign came out to be an important factor that
negatively affected the palm oil import demand in Algeria and Iran. The Malaysian
market promotion effort proved to have a great influence in expanding the demand
for palm oil in Egypt. The Gulf war crisis and trade sanctions on Iraq expanded the
market of palm oil in Jordan, whereas the trade embargo on Libya suppressed the
demand. Exchange rate also proved to be an important determining factor for shaping
Libyan import demand for palm oil. Demand elasticities with respect to own price,
substitute price and income came out to be very high indicating its high
responsiveness to changes in these variables and implying the importance of
considering them in the process of formulating the marketing policies.
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Finally, projections for palm oil import demand revealed that import demand is
expected to increase in all the countries under consideration, with variations in the
magnitude of expansion among them, indicating the good potentiality of this market
for absorbing more palm oil.


Meiotic crossovers must be properly patterned to ensure accurate disjunction of homologous chromosomes during meiosis I. Disruption of the spatial distribution of crossovers can lead to nondisjunction, aneuploidy, gamete dysfunction, miscarriage, or birth defects. One of the earliest identified genes in involved proper crossover patterning is textitDrosophila mei-41, which encodes the ortholog of the checkpoint kinase ATR. Analysis of hypomorphic mutants suggested the existence of crossover patterning defects, but it was not possible to assess this in null mutants because of maternal-effect embryonic lethality. To overcome this lethality, we constructed mei-41 null mutants in which we expressed wild-type Mei-41 in the germline after completion of meiotic recombination, allowing progeny to survive. We find that crossovers are decreased to about one third of wild-type levels, but the reduction is not uniform, being less severe in the proximal regions of 2L than in medial or distal 2L or on the X chromosome. None of the crossovers formed in the absence of Mei-41 require Mei-9, the presumptive meiotic resolvase, suggesting that Mei-41 functions everywhere, despite the differential effects on crossover frequency. Interference appears to be significantly reduced or absent in mei-41 mutants, but the reduction in crossover density in centromere-proximal regions is largely intact. We propose that crossover patterning is achieved in a stepwise manner, with the crossover suppression related to proximity to the centromere occurring prior to and independently of crossover designation and enforcement of interference. In this model, Mei-41 has an essential after the centromere effect is established but before crossover designation and interference occur.


The influence of the KTiOPO4 (KTP) crystal boundary temperature on conversion efficiency in high power green laser has been studied theoretically and experimentally. Temperature distribution inside the KTP crystal has been analyzed by solving the thermal conductivity equation. From the temperature distribution inside the KTP crystal, we have calculated the optimal phase-matching angles of the type-II KTP crystal as a function of temperature. The second-harmonic conversion efficiency as a function of temperature has also been calculated. In the experiment, two KTP crystals with different phase-matching angles were used in the intrcavity-frequency-doubled resonator. When the boundary temperature of KTP-A (? = 23.6o, ? = 90o under the condition of 27 oC temperature) was setting at 4 oC, a maximum green light power of 104 W was generated at repetition rate of 20.7 kHz and pulse width of 132 nm with pumping current of laser diode of 18.3 A, leading to 10.2% optical-to-optical conversion efficiency. When KTP-B crystal (? = 24.68o, ? = 90o under the condition of 80 oC temperature) was employed, an average output power of 110 W at 532 nm has been achieved with values of 11.5% and 2% for the optical-to-optical efficiency and the instability, respectively. The optimal boundary temperature of this KTP crystal has been found to be 48.8 oC.


Degree Master of Arts (MA) Department Political Science Document Type Thesis Abstract The ideas of Albert Camus and Immanuel Kant are not often thought of as sharing pronounced similarities. However, both thinkers are deeply concerned with role of aesthetics in moral, and subsequently, political life. According to each, taste is a faculty whereby one is able to develop the "moral insight" needed for the flourishing of a robust, thoughtful, ethical individual. Yet, both Camus and Kant utilize highly divergent methodologies in going about this. Camus prefers the artistic form and poetic language offered by the novel and Kant prefers the logical rigor of critical philosophical arguments. This thesis hopes to reveal that this methodological chasm allows one thinker to express what the other cannot. Camus is able to artistically and beautifully express the absurdity of moral life in such a way that is ripe with personal resonance and meaning; while Kant is able to philosophically ground Camus' concerns in a logically thorough manner. Utilizing the novels of Camus and the works of Kant, this thesis posits that Camus and Kant are complimentary thinkers, each in need of one another in order to express a more nuanced conception of politics in which judgment and aesthetic taste play a key role. Such a project also hopes to demonstrate the importance of aesthetics and artistic expression in the maintenance of a just political order. Date 2015 Document Availability at the Time of Submission Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide. Recommended Citation Cole, Alex Donovan, "Between Beauty and Duty: Ethics and Judgment in Camus and Kant" (2015). LSU Master's Theses. 3651. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/3651


Objective: To look for antioxidant, lightening and anti aging effects from combination of Indonesian plant consist of Centella asiatica, Camellia sinensis and Glycine max extract in propanediol (CCGE). Methodology: The study was carried out using DPPH scavenging activity for antioxidant effect and anti tyrosinase activity for lightening effect. The efficacy test on volunteers was performed using Mexameter MX 16 and Cutometer MPA 580 to measure skin melanin index, elasticity and firmness respectively. The dermatological safety test was conducted using Repeated Opened Patch Test (ROPT) and Single Closed Patch Test (SCPT), while HETCAM test was performed to evaluate irritation at ocular level. Result: At the concentration of 2%, CCGE has DPPH scavenging activity and anti tyrosinase activity of 70.56% and 52.76% respectively compared to ascorbic acid and kojic acid. The efficacy test showed that CCGE significantly increased skin elasticity and firmness after two and four weeks of application compared to base, but showed no significant effect on skin lightening. The dermatological safety test showed that CCGE did not cause any irritation or allergic skin reaction at the concentration of 5% for the ROPT and up to 3% for the SCPT. Meanwhile at the concentration of 5%, CCGE could cause allergic reaction in 4.0% of all subjects. The HETCAM test showed that CCGE is not irritant at the ocular level. Conclusion: These results concluded that CCGE is proven to be safe for human skin as well as at ocular level and could be used as cosmetic active ingredient for anti aging. Key words: Centella asiatica, Camellia sinensis, Glycine max, Antioxidant, Lightening, Anti aging, Cosmetic.


The surgical treatment of spinal metastases is still controversial. Due to developments in diagnostic imaging there has been a great evolution in minimally invasive surgical techniques for the spinal surgery. Most of the patients with spinal metastases are debilitated and under high risk of major surgical morbidity and mortality. Less perioperative pain, less blood loss, less hospitalization time, protection of the spine biomechanics, fast recovery and less morbidity in medically debilitated patients are the advantages of minimally invasive surgical techniques. Radiotherapy, chemotherapy or combining both treatments are the standard treatment options for spinal tumors following surgery. Standard open approaches are not suitable for some patients due to limited life expectancies, high surgical complication rates and decrease in quality of life. Minimal invasive techniques represent major advance in minimizing approach related morbidity in the treatment of spinal tumors. Because of the evolution of minimally invasive surgical techniques for the spinal surgery, minimally invasive techniques are alternative treatment to standard open approaches for the treatment of metastatic spinal tumors. Due to less complication rates there has been a trend toward the minimalization of spine surgery.


Size selected water clusters are generated by photoionizing sodium doped clusters close to the ionization threshold. This procedure is free of fragmentation. Upon infrared excitation, size- and isomer-specific OH-stretch spectra are obtained over a large range of cluster sizes. In one application of this method the infrared spectra of single water cluster sizes are investigated. A comparison with calculations, based on structures optimized by genetic algorithms, has been made to tentatively derive cluster structures which reproduce the experimental spectra. We identified a single all-surface structure for n = 25 and mixtures with one or two interior molecules for n = 24 and 32. In another application the sizes are determined at which the crystallization sets in. Surprisingly, this process strongly depends on the cluster temperature. The crystallization starts at sizes below n = 200 at higher temperatures and the onset is shifted to sizes above n = 400 at lower temperatures.


On August 30, 1976 an americium-241 ion exchange column exploded in a Hanford Site waste management facility causing significant damage to the hood containing the column, extensive facility radiological contamination, and spraying an operator with highly contaminated nitric acid and debris. The worker underwent medical treatment for acid burns, as well as wound debridement, extensive personal skin decontamination and long-term DTPA chelation therapy for decorporation of americium-241. Because of the contamination levels and prolonged decontamination efforts, care was provided for the first three months at a unique emergency decontamination facility with gradual transition to the patient's home occurring over another two months. The accident underwent an extensive investigation as to cause, response, lessons learned, therapy, and dosimetry, and has been well documented in numerous reports and journal articles. The room in which the accident occurred has been essentially isolated from entry since the accident, and only recently has effort begun to decontaminate and decommission the facility. This year 2011 marks the 35th anniversary of the accident. The lessons learned with regard to patient treatment and effectiveness of therapy still form the underlying philosophy of treatment for transuranic-contaminated injuries. Changes in infrastructure and facilities as well as societal expectations make for interesting speculation as to how responses might differ today.


'I love controversy' claimed William Richardson (1740-1820), a clerical polymath whose activities ranged from Ulster politics to interventions in international scientific debates. A prolific pamphleteer, agricultural improvement was his principal project. He believed that Irish fiorin grass could reclaim wasteland throughout Britain and make hay in winter. Though critics alleged he was mad for overturning the adage of 'making hay while the sun shines', he was supported by Sir Humphry Davy and Sir Joseph Banks. His true historical significance is that his fiorin campaign represented an Irish attempt to remedy Britain's food supply problem during the Napoleonic war and came immediately after the Union.Richardson was intensely interested in the origin of basalt at the Giant's Causeway and refuted claims that it was volcanic. He applied the same empirical reasoning to political economy and Irish politics, where he represents an alternative strand of loyalism to that of Sir Richard Musgrave.


The Ismailis have enjoyed a long, eventful and complex history dating back to the 8th century CE and originating in the Shi'i tradition of Islam. During the medieval period, Ismailis of different regions - especially in central Asia, south Asia, Iran and Syria - developed and elaborated their own distinctive literary and intellectual traditions, which have made an outstanding contribution to the culture of Islam as a whole. At the same time, the Ismailis in the Middle Ages split into two main groups who followed different spiritual leaders. The bulk of the Ismailis came to have a line of imams now represented by the Aga Khans, while a smaller group - known in south Asia as the Bohras - developed their own type of leadership.This collection is the first scholarly attempt to survey the modern history of both Ismaili groupings since the middle of the 19th century. It covers a variety of topical issues and themes, such as the modernising policies of the Aga Khans, and also includes original studies of regional developments in Ismaili communities worldwide. The contributors focus too on how the Ismailis as a religious community have responded to the twin challenges of modernity and emigration to the West. "A Modern History of the Ismailis" will be welcomed as the most complete assessment yet published of the recent trajectory of this fascinating and influential Shi'i community.


In work reported last year at this meeting we had shown that subthreshold microstimulation in V1, V2, LIP, FEF and MEF of monkeys can variously produce facilitation, interference, and delays in saccade initiation, thereby identifying some of the essential neural computations carried out in the process of target selection with saccadic eye movements. We now report the effects of local administration of the GABA antagonist bicuculline and the GABA agonist muscimol on this process. Following fixation, monkeys had the free choice of selecting one of two identical targets presented with various temporal asynchronies, with one placed into the receptive or motor field of the neurons treated with the pharmacological agents. Also tested were the brightness, color and shape discrimination abilities at intact and affected sites. Bicuculline produced a high level of facilitation in the choice of the target appearing in the receptive and motor fields of the neurons in the FEF but yielded major interference in V1. Bicuculline also produced deficits in brightness, color and shape discrimination at the injected sites in V1 but not in LIP and the FEF. Muscimol in V1 produced dramatic interference in target selection as well as in visual discrimination whereas in the FEF it produced only moderate interference. Our results suggest that (1) GABAergic inhibitory circuits in V1 play a central role in the analysis of visual stimuli, (2) Signals for the generation of eye movements in V1 appear to be produced not by disinhibition but predominantly by excitation, (3) in the FEF disinhibition is a central process for initiating eye movements and (4) inhibitory circuits in the FEF do not appear to be central for visual analysis.  Received October 16, 2002.


We present an interactive design system that allows casual users to quickly create 3D-printable robotic creatures. Our approach automates the tedious parts of the design process while providing ample room for customization of morphology, proportions, gait and motion style. The technical core of our framework is an efficient optimization-based solution that generates stable motions for legged robots of arbitrary designs. An intuitive set of editing tools allows the user to interactively explore the space of feasible designs and to study the relationship between morphological features and the resulting motions. Fabrication blueprints are generated automatically such that the robot designs can be manufactured using 3D-printing and off-the-shelf servo motors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution by designing six robotic creatures with a variety of morphological features: two, four or five legs, point or area feet, actuated spines and different proportions. We validate the feasibility of the designs generated with our system through physics simulations and physically-fabricated prototypes.


Compound existence at one particular plant extract ingredient that has ability to inhibitory α -glucosidase enzyme, give a chance to develop a natural medicine in the effort therapy of diabetic. This aim of study to see effectivity of n-buthanol isolate from plants Acorus calamus L. on inhibitory α -glucosidase enzyme. Extraction done with masceration method use methanol. The gummy methanol extract followed by partition using n-heksan, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The n- buthanol extract isolate using column chromatography method with stationer phase is resin diaion hp 20 and eluent ethanol: water in various concentration, isolation result is got 5 fraction. In each fraction was assayed for inhibitory activity on α-glucosidase enzyme. The potential inhibition effect was got in 5 th fraction and from purified process using column chromatography method with stationer phase is silica gel and eluent dichloromethane : methanol 95:5 was got ACB as active compound with IC50 17.89 µg/ml. This result shows that plants Acorus calamus L. has a potency to develop upon which diabetes therapy. Key word : enzyme α -glucosidase, n-butanol Isolate, Acorus calamus L.


Ultra-low voltage operation of memory cells has become a topic of much interest due to its applications in very low energy computing and communications. However, due to parameter variations in scaled technologies, stable operation of SRAMs is critical for the success of low-voltage SRAMs. It has been shown that conventional 6T SRAMs fail to achieve reliable subthreshold operation. Hence, researchers have considered different configuration SRAMs for subthreshold operations having single-ended 8T or 10T bit-cells for improved stability. While these bit-cells improve SRAM stability in subthreshold region significantly, the single-ended sensing methods suffer from reduced bit-line swing due to bit-line leakage noise. In addition, efficient bit-interleaving in column may not be possible and hence, the multiple-bit soft errors can be a real issue. In this paper, we propose a differential 10T bit-cell that effectively separates read and write operations, thereby achieving high cell stability. The proposed bit-cell also provides efficient bit-interleaving structure to achieve soft-error tolerance with conventional Error Correcting Codes (ECC). For read access, we employ dynamic DCVSL scheme to compensate bitline leakage noise, thereby improving bitline swing. To verify the proposed techniques, a 32 kb array of the proposed 10T bit-cell is fabricated in 90 nm CMOS technology. The hardware measurement results demonstrate that this bit-cell array successfully operates down to 160 mV. For leakage power comparison, we also fabricated 49 kb arrays of the 6T and the proposed 10T bit-cells. Measurement results show that the leakage power of the proposed bit-cell is close to that of the 6T (between 0.96x and 1.22x of 6T).


This fully revised and expanded edition of Sea Urchins provides a wide-ranging understanding of the biology and ecology of this key component of the world's oceans. Coverage includes reproduction, metabolism, endocrinology, larval ecology, growth, digestion, carotenoids, disease and nutrition. Other chapters consider the ecology of individual species that are of major importance ecologically and economically, including species from Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa. In addition, six new contributions in areas such as immunology, digestive systems and community ecology inform readers on key recent developments and insights from the literature.

 Sea urchins are ecologically important and often greatly affect marine communities. Because they have an excellent fossil record, they are also of interest to paleontologists. Research on sea urchins has increased in recent years, stimulated first by recognition of their ecological importance and subsequently their economic importance. Scientists around the world are actively investigating their potential for aquaculture and fisheries, and their value as model systems for investigations in developmental biology continues to increase.

 Continues the series "Developments in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science" with a newly revised volume

 Collects and synthesizes the state of knowledge of sea urchin biology and ecology

 Expanded from previous edition to include non-edible species, providing the needed basis for broader evolutionary understanding of sea urchins


The purpose of this review was to evaluate factors in early childhood (≤5 years of age) that are the most significant predictors of the development of obesity in adulthood. Factors of interest included exposures/insults in the prenatal period, infancy and early childhood, as well as other socio‐demographic variables such as socioeconomic status (SES) or birth place that could impact all three time periods. An extensive electronic and systematic search initially resulted in 8,880 citations, after duplicates were removed. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were set, and following two screening processes, 135 studies were retained for detailed abstraction and analysis. A total of 42 variables were associated with obesity in adulthood; however, of these, only seven variables may be considered as potential early markers of obesity based on the reported associations. Possible early markers of obesity included maternal smoking and maternal weight gain during pregnancy. Probable early markers of obesity included maternal body mass index, childhood growth patterns (early rapid growth and early adiposity rebound), childhood obesity and father's employment (a proxy measure for SES in many studies). Health promotion programmes/agencies should consider these factors as reasonable targets to reduce the risk of adult obesity.


BACKGROUND
The epidemiology of typhoid fever in Mauritius was studied to determine whether there was any need for tourists visiting Mauritius to be vaccinated against the disease, and where Mauritians with typhoid fever had been infected. Data on antibiotic susceptibility of Salmonella typhi isolates from Mauritius were also analyzed.

METHODS
Since 1997 every time S. typhi is isolated from blood cultures at our laboratory, an epidemiologic inquiry is conducted to determine the likely origin of the infection and the outcome of treatment, and the information collected is recorded. Results of antibiotic susceptibility testing are also noted. Data recorded on cases between 1997 and 2004 were reviewed and analyzed.

RESULTS
S. typhi was isolated on 25 occasions during the 8-year period. The infection was likely to have been acquired in Mauritius in only 6 cases (24%). Another 6 cases (24%) occurred in expatriate workers from the Indian subcontinent. Of the 13 Mauritians (52%) who probably acquired the infection abroad, 11 had a history of recent travel to India. Thirteen of 14 S. typhi isolates from cases acquired in India were resistant to nalidixic acid. Of the 6 cases acquired in Mauritius, 4 occurred in children under 12 years and 1 was caused by a multiply resistant strain. Twenty-two patients made an uneventful recovery. One death was indirectly caused by typhoid fever, and there was 1 case each of intestinal perforation and relapse.

CONCLUSIONS
In Mauritius typhoid fever is mainly an imported disease, but indigenous cases of the illness occur rarely and sporadically. Travelers to Mauritius need not be vaccinated against typhoid fever as the risk of acquiring the disease in the country is negligible. Mauritians traveling to India must be made aware of the risk of typhoid fever and of preventive measures. Ceftriaxone should be used as the initial first-line treatment of infection acquired in India.


Methylotrophs play an essential role in the global carbon cycle due to their participation in methane oxidation and C1 metabolism. Despite this important biogeochemical role, marine and estuarine microorganisms that consume C1 compounds are poorly characterized. In this study, we investigated the diversity of active methylotrophs and methanotrophs in sediment from the Colne Estuary (Brightlingsea, UK). Aerobic surface sediment samples were examined for the presence of C1 -utilizing communities using DNA stable-isotope probing (DNA-SIP) with (13) C-labelled methane, methanol and monomethylamine. Active methylotrophic bacteria were confirmed after DNA-SIP and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analyses. Clone libraries of 16S rRNA gene amplicons revealed the presence of methylotrophic bacteria affiliated with Methylophaga spp. in methanol and monomethylamine incubations. The addition of marine ammonium mineral salts medium to the microcosms increased the rate of substrate metabolism in DNA-SIP incubations, although nutrient addition did not affect the active populations contributing (13) C-labelled DNA. The (13) CH4 SIP incubations indicated the predominant activity of type I methanotrophs and microarray hybridization of amplified particulate methane monooxygenase (pmoA) genes confirmed the role of type Ia methanotrophs in SIP incubations. Type II methanotrophs (i.e. Methylocystis and Methylosinus) were only detected in the original sediment and in the unlabelled DNA fractions, which indicated that type II methanotrophs were not actively involved in C1 compound assimilation in DNA-SIP incubations with estuarine surface sediment samples.


We all fear selling out. Yet we all face situations that test our ideals and values with no clear right answer. In a world where compromise is an essential aspect of life, authors Lily Zheng and Inge Hansen make the bold claim that everyone sells out—and that the real challenge lies in doing so ethically.

 Zheng and Hansen share stories from a diversity of people who have found their own answers to this dilemma and offer new ways to think about marginalization, privilege, and self-interest. From these stories, they pull out teachable skills for taking the step from selling out to selling out ethically. The Ethical Sellout is for all those committed to maintaining their integrity in a messy world.


On compact Riemann surfaces, the Laplacian has a discrete, non-negative spectrum of eigenvalues of finite multiplicity. The spectrum is intrinsically linked to the geometry of the surface. In this work, we consider surfaces of constant negative curvature with a large symmetry group. It is not possible to calculate explicitly the eigenvalues for surfaces in this class, so we combine group theoretic and analytical methods to derive results about the spectrum. In particular, we focus on the Bolza surface and the Klein quartic. These have the highest order symmetry groups among compact Riemann surfaces of genera 2 and 3 respectively. We analyse the irreducible representations of the full isomorphism group of the Bolza surface and prove that the multiplicity of the first positive eigenvalue is 3, building on the work of Jenni, and identify the irreducible representation that corresponds to this eigenspace. This proof relies on a certain conjecture, for which we give substantial numerical evidence and a hopeful method for proving. We go on to show that the second distinct positive eigenvalue has multiplicity 4.


Sexually Transmitted Diseases present a major public health challenge. Over 25 diseases can be transmitted through sexual activity, and effective treatment, especially where long term infection can lead to further health problems, and in women infertility, requires good diagnostic skills and understanding of the best treatment methods. This book aims to give a practical guide to diagnosis and treatment in a patient-centered framework, with care at the heart of the book.


The relationship of physical activity with weight loss may largely be due to its association with psychosocial factors. The goal of this research was to clarify such relationships using a field design lasting 24 weeks. In Study 1, change in self-regulation for controlled eating, but not energy expenditure, mediated the relationship between changes in physical activity and weight in formerly sedentary, severely obese adults (n = 174). In Study 2 (n = 148), the addition of a cognitive-behavioral nutrition treatment was associated with significantly greater improvement in self-regulation for eating. Physical activity-related self-regulation changes were related to those improvements. Changes in self-efficacy for controlled eating and mood mediated the prediction of changes in eating-related self-regulation from changes on physical activity-related self-regulation. Change in body satisfaction was not a significant mediator. Based on the findings, practical uses of physical activity to enhance self-regulatory skills for controlled eating were suggested.


A confocal set-up for three-dimensional (3D) micro X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) was used at the mySpot beamline at BESSY II, which allows compositional depth profiling for various applications. We present results obtained with a confocal 3D micro-XRF set-up for chemical age dating using the U, Th and Pb concentrations of monazite within rock thin sections. The probing volume was determined to be approximately 21 × 21 × 24 μm 3 for W- L α using an excitation energy of 19 keV. The relative detection limits particularly for Pb are below 10 ppm (for counting times of 1000 s). Therefore, this 3D micro-XRF set-up is suitable for dating of minerals with low Pb concentrations as long as all Pb is radiogenic, allowing spatial resolution comparable to ion microprobe or laser ablation techniques. The set-up was tested on monazites that are well characterized by isotopic techniques and have a wide range of ages, varying from 20 Ma to 1.82 Ga. Reference materials (GM3, F6, 3345) can be reproduced within error. The spread in the ages of all points determined by 3D micro-XRF is within 8 % of the isotopic reference value. The average 3D micro-XRF dates reproduce the reference ages with discrepancies between 10 and 13 Ma which translate to deviations of 1–4 %. Younger monazite samples from the European Alps (Baceno2, Bi9801) show slightly older 3D micro-XRF dates than those determined by isotopic techniques and table-top micro-XRF on whole grains. We interpret this to be related to age heterogeneities smaller than the spatial resolution and/or contributions by common Pb, which is a limitation for this technique. The method was then applied to monazites of unknown age from sapphirine-bearing granulites originating from the Gruf Complex (Alps, N-Italy). The 3D micro-XRF mean date was determined as 33 ± 4.4 Ma (2 σ) and was verified by ID-TIMS techniques. This age can be reliably interpreted as the age of the high-temperature (H T ) event because the monazites are included in and intergrown with H T minerals (sapphirine, high-Al orthopyroxene).


The concept of ecosystem services is increasingly being promoted by academics and policy makers as a means to protect ecological systems through more informed decision making. A basic premise of this approach is that strengthening the ecological knowledge base will significantly enhance ecosystem health through more sensitive decision making. However, the existing literature on knowledge utilisation, and many previous attempts to improve decision making through better knowledge integration, suggest that producing 'more knowledge' is only ever a necessary but insufficient condition for greater policy success. We begin this paper by reviewing what is already known about the relationship between ecological knowledge development and utilisation, before introducing a set of theme issue papers that examine—for the very first time—how this politically and scientifically salient relationship plays out across a number of vital policy venues such as land-use planning, policy-level impact assessment, and cost–benefit analysis. Following a detailed synthesis of the key findings of all the papers, this paper identifies and explores new research and policy challenges in this important and dynamic area of environmental governance.


At the very beginning of the history of the covenant idea, human beings were conceived as entering into a morally grounded and informal pact with God. Politically, this pact, or covenant, involves the coming together of basically equal humans who consent with one another through a morally binding pact, setting the partners on the road to a new task. As a theological and political concept, covenant is designed to keep the peace in the face of conflicting human interests, needs, and demands. This pioneering continuation of Daniel J. Elazar's work is concerned with political uses of the idea of covenant and the political arrangements that flow from it. Covenant and Commonwealth is the second in a series of volumes exploring the covenantal tradition in Western politics. The first, Covenant and Polity in Biblical Israel, analyzed how the Bible set forth ideas of covenant in ancient Israel and the Jewish political tradition. In this volume, those themes are taken a step further to examine covenant as a political idea and tradition along with the culture and behavior that they produced. The book focuses on the struggle in Europe to produce a Christian covenantal commonwealth, a struggle that climaxed in the Reformed Protestantism of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It also briefly examines covenant and hierarchy in Islam and other premodern polities that shape our present. The third volume in this series will examine the progressive secularization of the covenant idea in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Covenant and Commonwealth is a fundamental and original contribution to the scholarship of Western civilization. It ranks with commensurate efforts of Ferdinand Braudel and Joseph Needham. As such it will be of deep interest to historians, social scientists, and theologians of all persuasions.


A sociocultural approach is used to explore voluntary high-risk consumption. Specifically, we examine the dynamics of individuals' motives, risk perceptions, and benefit/cost outcomes of participation in increasingly popular high-risk leisure activities such as skydiving, climbing, and BASE jumping (parachuting from fixed objects). An ethnography of a skydiving subculture provides the primary empirical data. We propose an extended dramatic model that explains both macroenviron-mental and inter- and intrapersonal influences and motives for high-risk consumption. Key findings indicate (1) an evolution of motives that explains initial and continuing participation in high-risk activities and (2) a coinciding evolution of risk acculturation that leads to the normalization of risk.


OBJECTIVE
The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of blood conservation strategies on patient outcomes after aortic surgery.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort analysis of prospective data.

SETTING
University hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Patients undergoing thoracic aortic surgery.

INTERVENTIONS
One hundred thirty-two consecutive high-risk patients (mean EuroSCORE 10.4%) underwent thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection repair from January 2010 to September 2011. A blood conservation strategy (BCS) focused on limitation of hemodilution and tolerance of perioperative anemia was used in 57 patients (43.2%); the remaining 75 (56.8%) patients were managed by traditional methods. Mortality, major complications, and red blood cell transfusion requirements were assessed. Independent risk factors for clinical outcomes were determined by multivariate analyses.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Hospital mortality was 9.8% (13 of 132). Lower preoperative hemoglobin was an independent predictor of mortality (p<0.01, odds ratio [OR] 1.7). Major complications were associated with perioperative transfusion: 0% complication rate in patients receiving<2 units of packed red blood cells versus 32.3% (20 of 62) in patients receiving ≥2 units. The blood conservation strategy had no significant impact on mortality (p = 0.4) or major complications (p = 0.9) despite the blood conservation patients having a higher incidence of aortic dissection and urgent/emergent procedures and lower preoperative and discharge hemoglobin. In patients with aortic aneurysms, BCS patients received 1.5 fewer units of red blood cells (58% reduction) than non-BCS patients (p = 0.01). Independent risk factors for transfusion were lower preoperative hemoglobin (p<0.01, OR 1.5) and lack of BCS (p = 0.02, OR 3.6).

CONCLUSIONS
Clinical practice guidelines for blood conservation should be considered for high-risk complex aortic surgery patients.


The number of disabled people, who have been called the world's largest minority by International United Nations Organization, shall increase even further as the world's population ages; the older generations are the greatest individuals at risk of becoming disabled. Because of increasing and reaching a large number of people with disabilities, it should form an important subject of attention for the tourism industry of the World and Turkey. The aim of this research is to determine the tendencies and expectations of travel agencies involved in the supply side of tourism. In this study, it was determined that travel enterprises did not regularly have special services devoted to disabled people, but they were able to offer solutions to the problems encountered by disabled people during travel. It was seen that travel agencies were not ready to accommodate the tourism needs of disabled people or, in other words, engage in accessible tourism.


The services of general interest (SGI) have received increasing attention of the European Union, which considers them a key element of the European model of society. They not only play an important role in the ongoing competitiveness of the European economy, but are also essential for achieving the goal of promoting social and territorial cohesion. Their potential role in the pursuit of the objectives of European cohesion and convergence policies may be significant which calls for an appropriate measurement and analysis of territorial distribution. The indicators are assumed to be a key element in measuring and describing the SGI, however, it is necessary to make a serious reflection how such indicators should be selected. The selection of indicators can be conditioned by several factors, however, it is imperative to make a qualitative reflection on the adequacy and relevance of indicators to analyse the SGI. This reflection runs through the paper. The concept of indicators is addressed, and their strengths and weaknesses are discussed. The indicators are classified according to the role they play in the cause-effect relations in distinct territories. Three types of indicators are identified. Appraisal of indicators and review of literature render it possible to identify the most frequently used indicators and to see SGI analysis from several perspectives, thus verifying that indicators can present different meanings and relevance, based on a range of factors and the scale of analysis. Some of the uncertainties arising in the SGI territorial analysis, which can contribute to the success of the policy making process, are recognized through an example based on the ICT Telecommunication SGI sub-domain. Some procedures connected with the integration of different types of indicators are proposed in order to limit the emergent uncertainties resulting from their interpretation


In the last years, the phenomenon of eutrophication is affecting many river ecosystems. Besides being an environmental problem, it can also be a problem for human health. This study aims to explore how environmental parameters affect the concentration of green algae and cyanobacteria throughout the period from 2010 to 2013 in A Baxe reservoir (NW Spain). Factors such as temperature, rainfall and solar radiation influenced in the presence of the algae, as well as in its concentration. Being limiting factors in the cyanobacterial blooms. The highest value of chlorophyll occurs during the summer, with higher temperatures, coinciding with the dry season and with a light cycle of 15/9 light/dark cycle. We conclude that predictive models can be designed using the weather forecast that are currently available well in advance, with the result that water managers can know when it will be probable that a bloom take place as an early warning system, therefore they will have a protocol of action. Keywords: Freshwater ecosystems, cyanobacteria blooms, temperature, dry season.


How to incorporate hard-to-value assets into the wealth tax? We analyze the effect of an optimal wealth tax on risk-taking behavior and welfare when investors do not only have the standard portfolio choice with a well-diversified market portfolio, but can alternatively choose to invest all their wealth into a non-diversifiable, indivisible project. The latter is interpreted as entrepreneurial investment into a small, nonlisted firm for which the actual value is hard to measure and non-verifiable. For such firms, real-world wealth tax systems base the wealth tax on deterministic book values. We show that this tax treatment does not distort the choice of projects if the tax is set optimally with an imputed interest rate on book values, actually larger than the risk-free market rate of return. The market equilibrium and a proportional tax on the market portfolio will ensure an efficient risk allocation between private and public consumption and across projects. Failing to apply an imputed inflation of book values, instead, gives rise to an implicit subsidy on entrepreneurial activity and distorts investment. Our findings also have implications for taxation of hard-to-value assets under capital-gains and inheritance taxation.


Scheduling a streaming application on high-performance computing (HPC) resources has to be sensitive to the computation and communication needs of each stage of the application dataflow graph to ensure QoS criteria such as latency and throughput. Since the grid has evolved out of traditional high-performance computing, the tools available for scheduling are more appropriate for batch-oriented applications. Our scheduler, called Streamline, considers the dynamic nature of the grid and runs periodically to adapt scheduling decisions using application requirements (per-stage computation and communication needs), application constraints (such as co-location of stages), and resource availability. The performance of Streamline is compared with an Optimal placement, Simulated Annealing (SA) approximations, and E-Condor, a streaming grid scheduler built using Condor. For kernels of streaming applications, we show that Streamline performs close to the Optimal and SA algorithms, and an order of magnitude better than E-Condor under non-uniform load conditions. We also conduct scalability studies showing the advantage of Streamline over other approaches.


The development of the relationship between employer and employee is an important aspect of management, i. e. management behaviour and management style play an important role with regard to the employee as a critical factor for success. Increasing average sizes of agricultural enterprises and numbers of employees and the missing hierarchical structures create the need for additional motivation opportunities. In the agricultural sector the quality performance of labour activities is difficult to control, therefore, it becomes even more important to discuss management behaviour and management styles. Management styles are mainly described theoretically in the literature but rarely for agricultural enterprises. An empirical study demonstrates that in practice agricultural entrepreneurs are aware of numerous management styles. Although various standard management styles are known to the managers, the successful manager quickly adapts his individual management style to the current situation.


Linde 80 weld metals are characterised by a narrow range of chemical compositions, except for copper content, which varies from 0.2 - 0.42 wt%. The surveillance database for Linde 80 weld metals constitutes a unique and large database on a single class of material for evaluating embrittlement models and property correlations used in the assessment of RPV embrittlement. Correlations between Charpy transition temperature shifts and yield strength, which best characterises the hardening behaviour, were tested and it was concluded that fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) provided less scatter and a more representative indicator than either lateral expansion or Charpy 30 ft-lb energy. This is believed to be a consequence of the low upper shelf of Linde 80 weld metals distorting the latter two transition temperatures, especially after irradiation, which induces a significant reduction in upper-shelf to levels approaching the indexing values. The main purpose of the present study has been to obtain a simple two component barrier hardening model form which best describes the behaviour of Linde 80 weld metal. To this end, the UK Magnox Embrittlement Model, often referred to as the Fisher Model, has been used and the key parameters, such as activation energies, dislocation densities and damage cross sections, were used as fitting parameters. Good agreement was found between model predictions and the surveillance yield strength data following optimisation of model parameters. Applying the latter optimised form produced equally good prediction of HSSI results at a significantly higher damage rate demonstrating the "rate effect" inherent in the irradiation enhanced copper precipitation process. The best agreement was obtained assuming a matrix copper content of about 0.23 wt% which is consistent with recent solubility data for Linde 80 welds. For these materials an insensitivity to bulk copper content was demonstrated even though this varied from 0.21 - 0.42 wt%. Additionally, the parameters optimised for high copper welds provided a good prediction for low-copper materials indicating that the matrix hardening component was correctly specified. The low matrix hardening and predicted completion of copper precipitation by doses of about 1x10 1 9 ncm - 2 support the notion of embrittlement saturation at high doses.


In the face of declining stock and catch, fisheries stakeholders worldwide are evaluating conservation practices necessary for sustainability. Contrariwise, the Maine lobster fishery's success in resource management, particularly with the v-notch law, stands as an exemplar for success. The v-notch law protects the reproductive stock via fishermen voluntarily marking egg-bearing females with a "notch" in the tail fin, indicating they may not be caught and sold. In 1948, lobstermen supported v-notch legislation having recognized the necessity of preserving their resource. This research provides an updated examination of the v-notch law's role today in conservation efforts. Through an analysis of legislation over the past ten years and oral history interviews reflecting current lobstermen's beliefs, this research assesses how lobstermen perceive and practice the law, while also exploring the broader historical and social-ecological context in which this law is situated.


A prosecutor is a detective, a litigator, a manager, and a policymaker. He is responsible for investigating illegalities' and is permitted to use specially assigned tools-a grand jury or subpoena-to acquire information and evidence. As a litigator, he is counsel for an artificial client-the government or people-but also the representa- tive of identifiable victims. Moreover, though he functions in an adversary system, he must temper his advocacy and zeal. His goal is not merely to "win," but also to see that "justice is done."The prosecutor must manage an increasing set of responsibilities in a complex and often arbitrary system, and therefore must balance twin goals of efficiency and success. Finally, as a policymaker, she must make choices concerning both what laws to enforce and how to enforce them. Her power to make those choices is almost unfettered.A thorough analysis of this difficult mixture of roles, responsibilities, and skills would be quite valuable. Such a general text on "The Prosecution Function" would assist in the training of new prosecutors and increase recognition of the prosecutorial perspective by the legal profession and the public.Hoping for such an examination, one approaches "The Prosecution Function" by David M. Nissman and Ed Hagen with both expectation and concern. Will the two assistant district attorneys turned authors explore the special obligations and attitudes of the prosecutor? Will they allow their biases to taint their analysis? Will they reveal the broad scope and nature of the prosecution function? Will they lead the reader to see the need for better training and for increased reflection about the prosecutor? Nissman and Hagen's text provides responses to these questions that highlight the problems of becoming and being a prosecutor. Most lawyers, including judges and prosecutors, define the prosecutorial role narrowly and analyze it in terms of the day-to-day courtroom combat. The public perceives the prosecutor as its legal representative in the "war against crime" and seldom, if ever, goes beyond that vision to look at her role as part of a larger and extremely troubled justice system. Students and new prosecutors, in turn, absorb these perspectives and seek training as "courtroom torpedoes," fighting to win a war against wrongdoers.This review essay first presents Nissman and Hagen's view of the prosecutorial world as expressed in their text. Their view is limited in that it focuses on the local district attorney in the courtroom. The second section of this essay considers the extent to which Nissman and Hagen succeed in detailing and exploring that circumscribed perspective. This reviewer concludes that, while the text gives helpful guidance on selected prosecutorial functions and techniques, it is deficient in that it chooses too few areas of courtroom activity for analysis, and fails to describe the environment in which a prosecutor works. Moreover, the text misses an opportunity to convey to a young prosecutor the need for ethical sensitivity in his day-to-day actions.This essay then critiques the authors' premise that a "clinical law" teaching text, or a "how to" book for students and new prosecutors should not delve into matters of policy. As this essay demonstrates, the authors' view is misdirected. Clinical and other students and young prosecutors could use a more thorough text in order to put the prosecutor's quasi-judicial role in its proper context.Finally, this essay suggests the need for a broader prosecutorial sourcebook. The essay offers a proposed format that will increase the value of such a book to students, attorneys, and interested citizens.


This experiment was aimed to study the association between the DGAT1 K232A polymorphism and milk production traits and somatic cell score (SCS) in Iranian Holstein dairy cows. The records of 408 animals from five dairy herds were randomly identified and then genomic DNA was extracted from blood using the modified-salting method described by Miller. RFLP-PCR was performed to obtain all the polymorphisms and two alleles, K and A were observed with frequency of 0.37 and 0.63. Genotypic frequencies of AA, KA and KK were 0.3578, 0.5515 and 0.0907, respectively. The relationship between DGAT1 K232A and milk traits and somatic cell score in the first lactation was studied. The results showed significant difference (p≤0.05) between the genotypes on milk production, fat percent but not for protein percent and SCS. According to this research, the DGAT1 K232A polymorphism can be considered for increasing milk performance traits in Holstein dairy cows in the proximal region of bovine chromosome 14.


This book's rare insight on media practice shakes conventional notions of the role and enabling environment of the modern press. "Romancing the Gun" rattles academic tradition by illustrating that Nigeria's hard-hitting press has not only thrived better while military regimes were in power but that it actually welcomed and supported praetorian rule.

This compelling book draws its energy and depth from the combination of Ndaeyo Ulo's engaging media practice in Nigeria, and his international education and academic career in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. It exposes the chasm between the armchair media scholarship of Westerns scholars and the damning reality of the media institutions in non-western societies. "Romancing the Gun" retells the history of the press in Nigeria, and confronts some of the issues that Nigeria's brand of journalism and the country's debased political system had driven into oblivion. One example is the letter-bomb death of prominent Nigerian editor and columnist, Dele Giwa, in 1986 that made headlines around the world. This books asks some questions which the international and local media as well as scholars were 'too polite to conceive and ask' about the incident that shook the media world. One such burning question is: "what would a renowned journalist be expecting in a large envelope from a military dictator on a Saturday morning?"

By posing startling questions and querying conventional wisdom and mental habits, "Romancing the Gun" unveils the power and irresponsibility of the Nigerian press—one of the world's freest presses—and provides crucial missing pieces in the puzzle of global media scholarship and practice.


Financial markets use complex computer trading systems whose failures can cause serious economic damage, making reliability a major concern. Automated random testing has been shown to be useful in finding defects in these systems, but its inherent test oracle problem (automatic generation of the expected system output) is a drawback that has typically prevented its application on a larger scale. Two main tasks have been carried out in this thesis as a solution to the test oracle problem. First, an independent model of a real trading system based on constraint programming, a method for solving combinatorial problems, has been created. Then, the model has been integrated as a true test oracle in automated random tests. The test oracle maintains the expected state of an order book throughout a sequence of random trade order actions, and provides the expected output of every auction triggered in the order book by generating a corresponding constraint program that is solved with the aid of a constraint programming system. Constraint programming has allowed the development of an inexpensive, yet reliable test oracle. In 500 random test cases, the test oracle has detected two system failures. These failures correspond to defects that had been present for several years without being discovered neither by less complete oracles nor by the application of more systematic testing approaches. The main contributions of this thesis are: (1) empirical evidence of both the suitability of applying constraint programming to solve the test oracle problem and the effectiveness of true test oracles in random testing, and (2) a first attempt, as far as the author is aware, to model a non-theoretical continuous double auction using constraint programming.


The emission spectrum of mercury hydride has been photographed in the second and third orders of a 21-ft concave grating in the region 2930–4550 A. The light source was an electrodeless discharge tube containing a drop of mercury in an atmosphere of hydrogen and argon. Twenty-six bands of the A-X system and four bands of the B-X system have been analyzed, most of them to their predissociation limits. A table of these bands and a vibrational energy-level diagram are given. The behavior of the lambda-type doubling in the 2Π state for which the electronic coupling is Hund's case a is compared with the theoretical prediction.


We address the problem of generating all possible palindromes from a corpus of Ngrams. Palindromes are texts that read the same both ways. Short palindromes ("race car") usually carry precise, significant meanings. Long palindromes are often less meaningful, but even harder to generate. The palindrome generation problem has never been addressed, to our knowledge, from a strictly combinatorial point of view. The main difficulty is that generating palindromes require the simultaneous consideration of two inter-related levels in a sequence: the "character" and the "word" levels. Although the problem seems very combinatorial, we propose an elegant yet non-trivial graph structure that can be used to generate all possible palindromes from a given corpus of Ngrams, with a linear complexity. We illustrate our approach with short and long palindromes obtained from the Google Ngram corpus. We show how we can control the semantics, to some extent, by using arbitrary text corpora to bias the probabilities of certain sets of words. More generally this work addresses the issue of modelling human virtuosity from a combinatorial viewpoint, as a means to understand human creativity.


Background: The stressful condition may cause oxidative stress, which is responsible for various diseases. Aims: The present study was designed to find out whether yoga has impact on the reduction of oxidative stress. Methods: For the present study, 95 (n = 95) healthy male volunteers within the age group of 18–24 years were included, 35 (n = 35) volunteers were excluded. The remaining 60 (n = 60) volunteers were randomly divided into two groups: (a) Yoga Group (n = 30) and (b) Control Group (n = 30). Yoga training was given for 60 min per day, 6 days per week for 12 weeks in the yoga group, with no yoga training in control group. Assessment of body composition and oxidant-antioxidant status were performed in both the groups at baseline, before yoga training (0 week) and after (12 weeks) of the training. Results: Significant reduction (P < 0.001) in the percentage of body fat and malondialdehyde; significant elevation (P < 0.001) in superoxide dismutase, catalase, reduced glutathione and ascorbic acid levels were noted in the yoga group after 12 weeks when compared to baseline data (0 week). However, there was no significant difference in height, weight, body mass index, body surface area and lean body mass among the yoga group after 12 weeks when compared to baseline data. These changes might be due to yoga training. Conclusions: Regular yoga practice reduces body fat and oxidative stress. Yoga training may be helpful to reduce the chance of occurrence of various diseases and helps to maintain normal healthy lifestyle.


"As Professor Fazlur Rahman shows in the latest of a series of important contributions to Islamic intellectual history, the characteristic problems of the Muslim modernists the adaptation to the needs of the contemporary situation of a holy book which draws its specific examples from the conditions of the seventh century and earlier are by no means new. . . . In Professor Rahman's view the intellectual and therefore the social development of Islam has been impeded and distorted by two interrelated errors. The first was committed by those who, in reading the Koran, failed to recognize the differences between general principles and specific responses to 'concrete and particular historical situations.' . . . This very rigidity gave rise to the second major error, that of the secularists. By teaching and interpreting the Koran in such a way as to admit of no change or development, the dogmatists had created a situation in which Muslim societies, faced with the imperative need to educate their people for life in the modern world, were forced to make a painful and self-defeating choice either to abandon Koranic Islam, or to turn their backs on the modern world." Bernard Lewis, "New York Review of Books" "In this work, Professor Fazlur Rahman presents a positively ambitious blueprint for the transformation of the intellectual tradition of Islam: theology, ethics, philosophy and jurisprudence. Over the voices advocating a return to Islam or the reestablishment of the Sharia, the guide for action, he astutely and soberly asks: What and which Islam? More importantly, how does one get to 'normative' Islam? The author counsels, and passionately demonstrates, that for Islam to be actually what Muslims claim it to be comprehensive in scope and efficacious for every age and place Muslim scholars and educationists must reevaluate their methodology and hermeneutics. In spelling out the necessary and sound methodology, he is at once courageous, serious and profound." Wadi Z. Haddad, "American-Arab Affairs""


Summary The use of commercial bumble bees for crop pollination has been implicated in the decline of wild bumble bees through the spread of pathogens. This study investigates whether diseases from commercial bumble bees threaten native species in the UK. We sampled bumble bees from ten soft fruit farms: five that deploy commercial Bombus terrestris and five that do not. Each farm was visited monthly throughout the summer and workers of B. terrestris, B. pratorum, B. pascuorumand B. lapidarius were captured. The faeces of these bees were inspected for the gut microparasites Crithidia spp., Nosema bombi and Apicystis bombi. Prevalence was defined as the proportion of individuals infected and abundance was defined as the number of pathogen cells per volume of bumble bee faeces. The prevalence of A. bombi and N. bombi was too low to analyse. The prevalence and abundance of Crithidia spp. was significantly different among bumble bee species. Overall, the prevalence of Crithidia spp. was initially lower on farms deploying commercial bumble bees, possibly due to a dilution effect caused by the high density of imported bees. Crithidia spp. prevalence in Bombus terrestris, however, rose sharply on commercial farms at the end of the season. One potential explanation is that commercial bumble bees contract the local pathogen, which is then rapidly transmitted among them due to the high bee density. Whilst our data provide no evidence of pathogen spillover to wild species, it would be premature to conclude with certainty that commercial colonies do not represent a disease risk to native bees in the UK and we urge further studies into this phenomenon.


Students' high use of technology outside the classroom has led teachers and researchers to believe that technology could be highly effective for language learners when used appropriately. The present study was designed to identify students' perceptions towards the role of technologies such as computer and internet in English language classes. Furthermore, it aimed to find out motivating and preventing factors that led these students to use or not to use technology in their classes. This study employed a qualitative approach. Five ESL students and three teachers were selected randomly to take part in the study. Interviews were conducted to gather and analyze data collected. The finding showed the students' positive orientation toward technology. They are enjoyed and satisfied with it for foreign language learning in classes because of its convenience, and practicality which facilitate their acquisition of learning skills. Students valued the feedback from teachers and thought technology made easier and faster, but some factors such as insufficient computer skills, lack of internet access, and lack of time as obstacles students utilized it rarely in their classes. Yet little is known about how students actually react to technology-based tools for language learning purposes. It was discovered that age was the most significant predictor of student attitudes about technology. Meanwhile, it was explored that general attitudes toward technology do affect the ways in which students will react to a technology-based curriculum.