This study examines whether both parents' relationships with their offspring, parents, and parents-in-law matter for young adults' perceptions of closeness to grandparents. This study focuses on two groups of grandchildren (ages 18 - 23) in Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households: young adults with married biological parents (N = 442) and those whose biological mother is not married to their biological father (N = 399). Findings suggest that it is important to examine grandparent-grandchild ties within a complete kinship network. Parents' relationships with the grandchild and grandparent generations were associated with the grandparent-grandchild bond. In support of the kinkeeping perspective, mothers' intergenerational ties across lineage lines appeared to be more influential for grandparent-grandchild relationships than fathers'. Key Words: adult grandchildren, grandparents, intergenerational relationships, kinkeeping perspective. An increase in life expectancy has facilitated the possibility of long-term relationships between grandparents and grandchildren (Harwood & Lin, 2000). Grandparents and adult grandchildren generally view their relationships with each other as important and influential (Hodgson, 1992). They provide each other with different kinds of support and affect each other's overall well-being (Bengtson, 2001). However, grandparentgrandchild bonds are renegotiated when grandchildren go through different life changes. Young adulthood, in particular, brings new priorities, goals, and responsibilities into grandchildren's lives (Hodgson, 1998). It is necessary, therefore, to examine factors that facilitate strong grandparent-grandchild ties when grandchildren reach adulthood. Other intergenerational relationships in the family are likely important among these factors. This paper examines whether and how intergenerational relationships in the family are associated with affectual solidarity (i.e., feelings of closeness) between young adults (ages 18 - 23) and their grandparents. Most research on the grandparent-adult grandchild bond has not investigated this relationship within a complete kinship network (for an exception, see Brown, 2003). Taking into account how relationships in other key intergenerational dyads in the family matter for grandparent-grandchild interaction can help to elucidate variations in grandparent-grandchild ties. This study extends prior research in this area in four primary ways: (a) by examining the role of parents' ties with young adults, their own parents, and parents-in-law, thus incorporating both within- and across-lineage intergenerational relationships; (b) by focusing on young adults' ties to each living grandparent, which has rarely been done (e.g., Brown; Matthews & Sprey, 1985); (c) by assessing whether the association of parent-child bonds with grandparent-grandchild closeness is conditioned by gender; and (d) by bringing data from a nationally representative sample from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to bear on a subject dominated by convenience samples of college students (e.g., Brown; Matthews & Sprey; Thompson & Walker, 1987). BACKGROUND Intergenerational Relationships The grandparent-grandchild bond is one of the three relationships (i.e., parent-child, parentgrandparent, and grandparent-grandchild relationships) that represent the basic intergenerational triangle of the family (Van Ranst, Verschueren, & Marcoen, 1995). These three relationships develop in the context of the family and change throughout the life course of individuals. They also contribute to intergenerational solidarity and family continuity over time (Silverstein, Giarusso, & Bengtson, 1998). Intergenerational solidarity can be described as intergenerational interactions in the family that represent sentiments, attitudes, and behaviors that bond family members across generations (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991). …


In order to understand the role of electrode materials in electrical discharges with micro gaps (<200 µm) filled with a liquid hydrocarbon dielectric, the post-breakdown phase of low ignition voltage (100 V) and low current (<20 A) pulsed electric discharges is experimentally investigated. The electric discharge energies are selected in the range from 1 to 150 mJ. Due to the non-repetitive and transient nature of the micro-discharges, time-resolved imaging, spectroscopy and electrical analysis of single discharges are performed. The plasma–material interaction is investigated by analysing the erosion craters on anode and cathode. It is found that the electrode materials in these multiphase discharges affect the gas bubble dynamics, the transport properties of the discharge plasmas and the transition from the gaseous to metallic vapour plasma. The change in the energy fractions dissipated in the electrodes in function of the discharge time is influenced by the thermo-physical properties of the electrode materials. The simulation of craters in multiple discharge process requires consideration of the gas bubble dynamics due to different energy fractions and plasma flushing efficiencies.


The parameters influencing laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry as a tool for imaging elemental distribution in tissues are critically commented on in this work, and penile cancer tissue was used as a model. General aspects of LA-ICP-MS are discussed, and among them, issues regarding sample preparation and calibration. The optimization process of the following variables is described in detail in a step-by-step tutorial manner: laser intensity, laser frequency, laser resolution, ICP radiofrequency, nebulizer and auxiliary gas flow rates, and C isotopes as internal standards. Once the best condition is found for each variable, MATLAB software is used to generate two-dimensional images. Herein it is also explained how to use MATLAB software to generate tissue images using acquisition, exporting and data treatment parameters.


Background/aims The noninvasive measurement of liver stiffness using transient elastography (TE) is increasingly being used alongside liver biopsy. However, several conditions may lead to higher liver stiffness values without reflecting more fibrosis. Such conditions (e.g. hepatitis, cholestasis, heart failure, mechanical ventilation) limit the interpretation of liver stiffness measurements. The influence of hemodialysis on the measurement of liver stiffness has not been investigated to date. Here, we analyzed liver stiffness assessed by fibroscan in 17 patients directly before and after a hemodialysis session. Patients and methods Measurement of hepatic stiffness by TE was carried out using the Fibroscan device with the 'M probe' directly before and directly after one session of hemodialysis. Each measurement consisted of at least 10 individual and valid measurements, with a success rate of at least 60%, and an interquartile range of less than 25%. All measurements were carried out by one investigator not involved in patient management. Results Before dialysis, the median TE was 5.1 kPa (2.8–17 kPa). Ten patients had values below the threshold of 7.1 kPa and seven patients had TE>7.1 kPa. The median net fluid withdrawal by hemodialysis was 2.5 l (0.4–3.1 l) and did not differ between patients. After dialysis, the TE median was 7.4 kPa (3.5–12.5 kPa) and had changed in all patients except one. Liver stiffness increased significantly when the initial TE was lower than 7.1 kPa (P=0.05), but not when the initial TE was higher than 7.1 kPa. Furthermore, the magnitude of the change in TE after hemodialysis correlated inversely with the liver stiffness before hemodialysis (P=0.03) and with spleen length measured by ultrasound (P=0.03). Conclusion This study is the first to report on the influence of hemodialysis on liver stiffness measurement. In contrast to previous reports, liver stiffness might increase after fluid withdrawal if patients do not show significant fibrosis. We conclude that before dialysis, TE possibly better differentiates between patients with or without significant fibrosis.


Abstract. Energy dissipation during wave propagation in fragmented geomaterials can be caused by independent movement of fragments leading to energy loss on their impact. By considering a pair of impacting fragments at times much greater than the period of their oscillations, we show that at a large timescale, the dynamics of the pair can be described by a linear viscous model with damping coefficients expressed through the restitution coefficient representing energy loss on impact. Wave propagation in fragmented geomaterials is also considered at the large timescale assuming that the wavelengths are much larger than the fragment sizes such that the attenuation associated with wave scattering on the fragment interfaces can be neglected. These assumptions lead to the Kelvin–Voigt model of damping during wave propagation, which allows the determination of a dispersion relationship. As the attenuation and dispersion are not related to the rate dependence of rock deformation, but rather to the interaction of fragments, the increased energy dispersion at low frequencies can be seen as an indication of the fragmented nature of the geomaterial and the capacity of the fragments for independent movement.


Moral or character education represents one of the principal loads in the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum and it is carried out by means of an integrated learning approach. Problems arise because not all teachers possess the potential sensitivity adequate for identifying and analyzing materials for character education in the learning materials or lesson books used. The teachers tend to merely teach whatever is explicit in the learning materials while the materials for character education implicit in the learning materials are not perceived and revealed. As a result, the character education implied is not worked out and does not reach the learner. To solve the problem, certain strategies need to be employed in carrying out character education integrated in the competency-based class subjects. The strategies cover presentation and learning strategies, the former further covering implicit and explicit strategies and the latter further covering deductive and inductive strategies. The identification, interpretation, and analysis of materials for character education should be made to fit the local cultural context (implying Contextual Teaching and Learning).


BACKGROUND
Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, in which the pathogenesis is believed to be partly influenced by the gut microbiome. Probiotics can be used to manipulate the microbiome and have therefore been considered as a potential therapy for CD. There is some evidence that probiotics benefit other gastrointestinal conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis, but their efficacy in CD is unclear. This is the first update of a Cochrane Review previously published in 2008.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the efficacy and safety of probiotics for the induction of remission in CD.

SEARCH METHODS
The following electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE (from inception to 6 July 2020), Embase (from inception to 6 July 2020), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), The Cochrane IBD Review Group Specialised Trials Register, World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry, and ClinicalTrials.gov.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared probiotics with placebo or any other non-probiotic intervention for the induction of remission in CD were eligible for inclusion.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. The primary outcome was clinical remission. Risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for dichotomous outcomes.

MAIN RESULTS
There were two studies that met criteria for inclusion. One study from Germany had 11 adult participants with mild-to-moderate CD, who were treated with a one-week course of corticosteroids and antibiotics (ciprofloxacin 500 mg twice daily and metronidazole 250 mg three times a day), followed by randomised assignment to Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG (two billion colony-forming units per day) or corn starch placebo. The other study from the United Kingdom (UK) had 35 adult participants with active CD (CDAI score of 150 to 450) randomised to receive a synbiotic treatment (comprised of freeze-dried Bifidobacterium longum and a commercial product) or placebo. The overall risk of bias was low in one study, whereas the other study had unclear risk of bias in relation to random sequence generation, allocation concealment, and blinding. There was no evidence of a difference between the use of probiotics and placebo for the induction of remission in CD (RR 1.06; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.71; 2 studies, 46 participants) after six months. There was no difference in adverse events between probiotics and placebo (RR 2.55; 95% CI 0.11 to 58.60; 2 studies, 46 participants). The evidence for both outcomes was of very low certainty due to risk of bias and imprecision.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The available evidence is very uncertain about the efficacy or safety of probiotics, when compared with placebo, for induction of remission in Crohn's disease. There is a lack of well-designed RCTs in this area and further research is needed.


This paper examines the expropriation of a foreign investor by a local partner and the subsequent resolution of the case through international arbitration in favor of the investor. Despite the investor's 99% interest in the joint venture, the local partner managed to divert the entire value of the underlying entity for his personal benefit. This clinical examination of an expropriation and its aftermath illustrates the interaction of property and contract rights in a global setting, how corporate control is shaped by geography, and how multinational firms may be advantaged by availing themselves of stronger investor protections than local firms. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.


Recent approaches based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) have shown promising results for named-entity recognition (NER). In order to achieve high performances, ANNs need to be trained on a large labeled dataset. However, labels might be difficult to obtain for the dataset on which the user wants to perform NER: label scarcity is particularly pronounced for patient note de-identification, which is an instance of NER. In this work, we analyze to what extent transfer learning may address this issue. In particular, we demonstrate that transferring an ANN model trained on a large labeled dataset to another dataset with a limited number of labels improves upon the state-of-the-art results on two different datasets for patient note de-identification.


This paper studied the perceptions of customer value delivery among customers of carmakers in Malaysia. Delivery of customer value deals with the intensity of customer perceptions and its relationships with customer satisfaction and delight. Data was analyzed mainly using the Description Statistical Analysis. The purposive sampling was employed. The samples consist of 260 respondents who were car owners. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied whereby frequency analysis was used to analyze demographic variables. Means and ANOVAs were used to analyze other variables under study. The major finding was that first, demographic factors do not affect the perception on value delivery and customer satisfaction. Second, the means of customer perception on value delivery and customer satisfaction dimensions are statistically different among carmakers. Third, the ranking based on value delivery and customer satisfaction is consistent among the carmakers. Fourth, Honda is ranked at the top in terms of delivering good value to the customers and fulfilling customers' satisfaction and Toyota ranked second place. Finally, Honda has the strengths in terms of performance value, social value, emotional value and payer's value while Toyota's strengths are in terms of service value, convenience value and personalized value.


Background: Prognostic significance of the programmed death-ligand-1 status in non-small cell lung carcinoma remains controversial Aims: To show the programmed death-ligand-1 expression status in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma and its effect on the prognosis and the relationship with clinicopathologic data. Study Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study. Methods: The study included 208 cases who were diagnosed with NSCLC and who underwent surgical resection between 2001 and 2012. Programmed death-ligand-1 (SP142 clone) was applied to the histological sections acquired from the microarray paraffin blocks with immunohistochemistry. Staining intensity was scored as weak (+, 1), moderate (++, 2), and strong (+++, 3). Percentage (0%-100%) was multiplied by staining intensity (1-2-3) to calculate the H score. Four different cut-off values were used; 1: ≥1% (independent of intensity), 2: ≥5% (independent of intensity), 3: ≥5% moderate/strong staining (except for weak staining), 4: H score ≥30 values were considered positive. In this study, staining a single cell at any intensity was considered positive. Results: Thirty-four out 208 cases (16.3%) had PDL-1 positive staining. PDL-1 expression was observed in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma independent of the histological type or subtype (range; 0-25%). When the cut-off level was set to ≥5% with moderate and strong staining, the median overall survival was 45 months for the PD-L1 positive group and not reached for the PD-L1 negative group (p-value 0.024). PD-L1 positivity was significantly higher in patients over the age of 60 years and in cases with a tumor diameter of more than 5 cm (p=0.023 and 0.025, respectively). Conclusion: PD-L1 expression is positive in 16.3% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer and may have a negative prognostic value.


Photovoltaic (PV) technology has been gaining an increasing amount of attention as a renewable energy source. Irradiation and temperature are the two main factors which impact on PV system performance. When partial shading from the surroundings occurs, its incident shadow diminishes the irradiation and reduces the generated power. Moreover, shading affects the pattern of the power–voltage (P–V) characteristic curve to contain more than one power peak, causing difficulties when developing maximum power point tracking. Consequently, shading leads to a hotspot in which spreading the hotspot widely on the PV panel's surface increases the heat and causes damage to the panel. Since it is not possible to access the circuit inside the PV cells, indirect measurement and fault detection methods are needed to perform them. This paper proposes the global maximum power point tracking method, including the shading detection and tracking algorithm, using the trend of slopes from each section of the curve. The effectiveness was confirmed from the dynamic short-term testing and real weather data. The hotspot-detecting algorithm is also proposed from the analysis of different PV arrays' configuration, which is approved by the simulation's result. Each algorithm is presented using the full mathematical equations and flowcharts. Results from the simulation show the accurate tracking result along with the fast-tracking response. The simulation also confirms the success of the proposed hotspot-detection algorithm, confirmed by the graphical and numerical results.


Berkner Island is a marine ice sheet grounded on bedrock within the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. In 1994/95 two ice cores of intermediate depth were retrieved, one from the North dome ("R1", 151 m deep, 700 years) and one from the South dome ("B25", 181 m deep, 1200 years). For the chemical analysis of the B25 core a new methodical approach has been developed: A continuous ice core melter was used to provide decontaminated sample, which was fed both into continuous flow analysis systems for conductivity, microparticles, Ca++, and NH4+ (the latter two provided by the University of Berne) as well as into a discrete sampler for subsequent ion chromatographic anion measurement. A detailed volcanic chronology and clear seasonal variabilities allow for good dating of the cores. Here we will discuss the seasonality of selected aerosol species as well as regional and temporal variations of accumulation, stable isotopes, and concentration of biogenic sulfur species, sea salt, and microparticles. Long term records will be presented for both cores. This allows us to assess the representativity of climatic records from this site for the surrounding regions


PURPOSE
There is potentially more to quality assurance in mammography than the MQSA mandated tests. In this paper we describe a method of capturing individual mammogram technical parameters and the creation of new measures. These include the numbers of images required for each screening examination by technologist, median compression by technologist, and the radiation dose of the examination to the general population of patients.

METHOD/MATERIALS
With this method we describe a semiautomated method of the collection of technical data from mammography exposures. The data that are automatically created by the mammography unit are saved on a computer for later analysis. The method was used on 2738 consecutive screening mammography examinations and 13 621 exposures from one machine. Data were obtained from November 1998 through December 1999.

RESULTS
Using standard methods, the mean glandular dose (MGD) per exposure was 2.62 mGy (SD 1.2). The mean dose per bilateral screening examination was 6.53 mGy (SD 3.07), the median dose was 6.11 mGy, and the dose range was 1.13-34.23 mGy. Rhodium filtration was used for 18% of the exposures. The average and median breast thickness was 4.9 cm. The ACR phantom MGD for this machine was 2.44 mGy at 25 kVp, and 1.97 mGy at 26 kVp. The mean number of exposures for a bilateral mammogram was 4.9, and varied by a technologist from 4.7 to 5.2. The mean compression pressure varied by technologist from 13 to 30 lbs (58-134 N).

CONCLUSIONS
The mean dose per mammogram is slightly greater than the ACR phantom dose at 25 kVp. Almost five exposures were necessary for a standard bilateral examination, and this varied by technologist. The compression used also varied by technologist. The semiautomated collection of technical data can aid in maintaining an effective mammography QA program.


On October 1, 2002, Magnus Gafgen was taken into custody by the Frankfurt police in connection with the kidnapping of a young boy held for ransom. The police threatened Gafgen with various forms of torture unless he divulged the location of the boy. Gafgen quickly relented and led the police to the boy, who was already dead. Gafgen was convicted of murder and the police were convicted of coercion. However, the district court concluded that the police, though culpable, were not appropriate subjects of punishment. Gafgen, unhappy that his torturers were not punished, filed a case against Germany at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that Germany's failure to punish his torturers violated his human rights. The ECHR concluded that Gafgen was right--the German government was obligated to punish perpetrators of torture, and by failing to do so adequately, Germany violated Gafgen's human rights.
The goal of this chapter is to show that the argument in Gafgen is generalizable to other contexts. Although the case arose from a particular procedural posture, there is little reason to suspect that the arguments in Gafgen will not hold for other crimes as well. At the very least, these arguments can be extended, without logical disruption, to other international crimes that states are under a legal obligation to criminalize, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Moreover, if the structure of these arguments is conceptually sound, in theory they should apply outside of the European context, unless the argument is based on a particular right that is only protected by the European Convention and not by international law.
This subtle change in emphasis -- moving from punishment as a license to punishment as a legal requirement -- has profound consequences for the operation of international criminal justice. States and international tribunals are required to punish perpetrators as a matter of human rights law, and their failure to follow through on this obligation violates not just some vague or inchoate ergo omnes obligation, it also violates an obligation owed directly to the victims of that particular atrocity. This applies not just when the perpetrators are not punished at all but also when the perpetrators, like in Gafgen's case, are not punished severely enough.


The Framers of the American Constitution viewed the decennial census as providing a certain rhythm to American politics. Every ten years a state's tax burdens and representation in the House of Representatives would change to reflect its share of the national population as revealed in the "actual enumeration," the manner of which Congress "shall by law direct." Much has changed since the first census, but the rhythm still remains. Perhaps unintended and unimagined by the Framers, however, is the rhythmic and ritualistic dance to the courtroom every ten years to argue over the census numbers themselves and the methods used to construct apportionment totals.This Article examines the law of the census: specifically, how to count, what to count, whom to count, and where to count them. For the most part this Article draws on my experience and research concerning the use of census data in the redistricting process; however, many of the topics discussed apply to federal funding decisions as well. The Article begins by describing the most recent legal controversies involving census methods, particularly imputation and statistical adjustment. When one thinks of the "law of the census," these high-profile disputes probably come first to mind. In cases that have arrived at the Supreme Court at the beginning of each of the last three census cycles, undercounted cities and states have argued that census methods were deficient in that the procedures missed some people, double-counted others, or counted people that did not exist. Second, this Article explores the legal implications of the decisions concerning what to include on the census form, paying particular attention to the topics of race and citizenship. For the second time, the 2010 Census allows respondents to check off more than one race, raising a host of interesting questions concerning the legal implications of alternative methods for categorizing the multiracial population. More significantly for the 2010 Census, the long form, which was previously asked of one sixth of the population, has been replaced by the yearly American Community Survey (ACS), distributed to 2.5% of households. The ACS is the only source for citizenship data from the census, raising questions about the reliability of citizenship estimates for purposes of VRA litigation. Finally, this Article examines the related issues of who should be included in the census and where they should be counted. The section deals with special populations such as soldiers and other Americans living abroad, college students, the homeless, and prisoners. Prisoners, in particular, present an important case, as some have argued that the wholesale involuntary transfer of convicted criminals away from their communities toward more rural and often whiter areas has allowed for the padding of legislative districts in one part of a state at the expense of districts in other parts of a state. For the first time in 2011, the census will make data available in time for redistricting about the number of prisoners in each census block. Jurisdictions will now be able to subtract out prisoners from the census redistricting data file. Some states have even gone further and have reallocated prisoners to their pre-incarceration address for purposes of redistricting.


The case law of the World Trade Organization is extensive, now running into some three hundred decided cases and thousands of pages. The interpretative process involved in this jurisprudence constitutes a form of legislative activity, and is therefore of great significance not only to the parties to disputes, but to the membership of the WTO. Qureshi identifies some of the underlying problems of interpreting WTO agreements, and examines the conditions for the interpretation of these agreements. Since the first edition of this book, the case law has grown, and the interpretation evolved further. This second edition addresses these developments and engages in the contemporary discourse on the subject. Also included is a new section on issues of interpretation relating to preferential trade agreements and the WTO. This book is an essential tool for WTO trade specialists, as well as government and judicial officers concerned with interpreting these agreements.


Physical defects reduce the organic solar cells (OSC) functioning. Throughout the OSC fabrication process, the defects can occur, for instance, by scratches or uneven morphologies. In general, bulk defects, interface defects, and interconnect defects can promote shunt and series resistance of the cell. It is crucial to properly detect and classify such defects and their amount in the structure. Correlating such defects with the performance of the cell is important both during the R&D stages to optimize processes, and for mass production stages where defects detection is an integral part of the production line. For the recognition of texture variations in the scanning electron microscope images caused by these defects is crucial the definition of a set of features for texture representation. Because the low‐order Zernike moments can represent the whole shape of the image and the high‐order Zernike moments can describe the detail. Then, in our case, the feature of the image can be represented by a small number of Zernike moments. In fact, the feature set extracted and described by the Zernike moments are not sensitive to the noises and are hardly redundant. So it possible concentrate the signal energy over a set of few vectors. Finally, for classification, an elliptical basis function neural networks was used. The results show effectiveness of the proposed methodology. In fact, we obtained correct classification of 89.3% over testing data set.


The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 places a duty on highways and national park authorities to establish local access forums (LAFs), to advise on the improvement of public access to land for the purposes of open air recreation and enjoyment. This paper examines these proposals in the context of recent academic and political debates about deliberative democracy, and empirical research on the nature and practice of existing access liaison groups and forums. While demonstrating that the proposed LAFs are consistent with contemporary constructs of participative, if not deliberative democracy, the paper argues that most existing groups and forums fall short of this ideal, in a number of significant respects. The paper proceeds to discuss the extent to which the draft regulations for LAFs in England and Wales address these issues, and concludes by questioning the extent to which such consultative arrangements can contribute to new forms of local governance.


The stable isotope compositions of organic carbon (OC), and contents of OC and nitrogen for four sediment cores recovered from lakes Makat (located in the Ngorongoro Crater), Ndutu and Masek (located in the Serengeti Plains) are used to document sources of organic matter (OM) and climatic changes in sub-arid northern Tanzania during the late Pleistocene-Holocene period. Accelerate mass spectrometer (AMS) 14C ages on total OM for sediments collected from the Ngorongoro Crater Lake indicate that the sedimentation rate is approximately 17 cm/ka. The 𗉝C values from the 20 cm long core (short core) show a downcore increase, whereas that of 500 cm long core (long core), show two peaks enriched in 13C and three peaks depleted in 13C. A general downcore increase in the 13C values for the short core suggests changes in the relative proportion of C3 and C4 with C4 fraction increasing downcore. Similarly, low and high peaks in the long core suggest changes in the relative proportion of C3 and C4 with low values having high proportion of C3 type of material, probably indicating changes in precipitation and lake levels in the area. Deposition of OM depleted in 13C took place during periods of high precipitation and high lake levels. Although high content of OC and nitrogen in some core sections are associated with elevated C/N ratio values, diagenetic alteration of isotope signature is unlikely to have caused OC isotope enrichment in sections having high contents of OC and nitrogen. The OC isotope record from Lake Ndutu shows a general downcore decrease in 𗉝C values and contents of OC and nitrogen. Furthermore, this general trend is punctuated by a period of above normal enrichment in 13C, with 𗉝C values being as high as -6‰. A downcore decrease in 𗉝C values and contents of OC and nitrogen could be attributed either to climatic variability or diagenetic effect. Moreover, a peak enriched in 13C probably indicates a period of reduced precipitation, where phytoplankton used dissolved bicarbonate rather than dissolved atmospheric CO2. Lake Mesak record shows two peaks depleted in 13C that are flanked by near constant values of about -20‰. These two peaks (depleted in 13C), which most likely have high proportion of C3 type of OM, are associated with low contents of OC and nitrogen. Generally, the contents of OC and nitrogen for this lake are lowest relative to other lakes. Tanzania Journal of Science Vol. 32 (1) 2006: pp. 61-74


Tourism, a global industry, brings with it a number of public health problems, one of which is the spread of sexually transmitted infections transmitted between travelers and hosts. Previous studies have largely focused on sex workers and sex tourists. This study assesses sexual behavior, knowledge and condom use among male trekking guides in Nepal. A self-administered questionnaire survey (n=324) was conducted using snowball sampling amongst men working as mountain trekking guides in Nepal. Most respondents (59%) had initiated sex before the age of 18. Most (84 %) reported sexual relations with a woman other than their partner, 46% reported foreign partners, 43% had Nepalese partners, and 28% had concurrent foreign and Nepalese partners. Most (70 %) reported ever having sex with a foreign woman and two-thirds had had sexual intercourse with foreign women in the previous 12 months. Participants' age, education status, age of first sex, smoking and drinking habits and English proficiency were significant predictors of having sex with foreign women. About 60% reported condom use during their most recent occasion of extra-marital sex. A similar proportion had used a condom during last sexual intercourse with a foreign woman. The likelihood of condom use was associated with a guide's age, educational level, ethnicity, age of first sex and work experience. Most trekking guides reported sexual relations with foreign women as well as irregular use of condoms. Although sexual health knowledge about among trekking guides is high, some misconceptions still result in unsafe sex. Hence there is an urgent need to revise the existing training for trekking guides and implement appropriate health promotion programmes. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jmmihs.v1i4.12000 Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences Vol. 1, Issue 4, 2015 Page: 35-42


Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are important nosocomial pathogens in many countries with the genotype vanA and vanB being the most important is hospital environment. The objectives of this study is the Molecular characterization of VRE isolated from hematology-oncology patients. Fecal/rectal samples from 50 randomly selected patients together with blood samples from the 11 patients who developed bacteremia. Enterococcal isolates were identified and subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing to vancomycin by agar screen method. Vancomycin resistance was confirmed by determining its minimum inhibitory concentration by broth dilution method. Susceptibility of the VRE isolates to different antimicrobials was also determined using the disk diffusion method. Multiplex PCR was used to detect vanA and vanB genes among the isolated VRE strains. Fifty enterococcal strains were isolated from the fecal-rectal samples, of which six (12 %) were VRE (3 E. faecium, 2 E. faecalis and one E. gallinarum). On the other hand, blood cultures from patients with bacteremia were all negative for enterococci. The most significant risk factor for colonization with VRE was previous hospitalization. Other factors included prolonged hospitalization, previous ICU admission, febrile neutropenia, current and previous vancomycin administration. 83.3% of the VRE strains were sensitive to nitrofurontoin, while 83.3% were resistant to ampicillin and erythromycin. vanA gene was detected in two isolates while van B gene was detected in another three isolates. One isolate was found to be devoid of both vanA and vanB. It is concluded that Vancomycin resistance genes are present among the enterococci colonizing the gastrointestinal tract of hematology-oncology patients. This represents a critical risk factor for hospital aquired infection by these pathogens as well as a threat of spread to other pathogens. Surveillance for VRE in high-risk patients together with effective infection control measures and adapted antibiotic policies are important to control transmission of VRE among patients.


We have investigated the application of a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coil to a high-power wireless power transmission system operated in the frequency region less than 10 kHz. In order to reduce the ac loss of the HTS coil, it is necessary to clarify the characteristics of magnetization loss in the HTS tape with a copper layer in the kHz frequency band. Therefore, we prepared GdBCO tapes with and without the copper layer and measured the magnetization loss of the GdBCO tape exposed to a vertical magnetic field in the kHz frequency band. We analyzed the ac losses of the GdBCO layer, the copper layer, and the other layers within the tape by a finite element method analysis. The influence of the copper layer thickness on the ac loss in each layer was investigated by a finite element method (FEM) analysis. The magnetization loss per cycle of the GdBCO tape slightly decreased with the frequency. The magnetization loss, however, can be approximately estimated by Brandt's formula with a certain accuracy when the n  value of the tape is large. In the GdBCO tape with the copper layer, when the external magnetic field was large, the magnetization loss per cycle of the GdBCO layer was larger than the copper layer loss. The magnetization loss, however, decreased and the copper layer loss increased with the thickness of the copper layer. The total loss of the GdBCO tape can be reduced by placing the coppers layer near the GdBCO layer.


This paper retraces the fundaments of the 'nature-culture' divide within the study of Swiss alpine 'cultural landscape commons', showing how this notion was shaped by early ecological thinking expressed through environmental determinism, dynamic systems, and cultural ecology. These fields of research are seen as precursors to some of the currently dominant concerns within commons scholarship more broadly: defining system boundaries, distinguishing endogenous from exogenous forces, and identifying change patterns over extended spatiotemporal scales. Recent studies based in resilience thinking and the social-ecological systems (SES) framework reveal promising contributions from complexity studies, New Institutional Political Ecology (NIPE), and the analysis of change dynamics over the longue duree. A critical review of this research indicates possible ways forward to establish a conceptual framework for 'cultural landscape commons' based on a comparative, multi-scalar, and eco-evolutionary approach.


In this paper, we identify some milestones in the construction process for mobile science museums and centres in Brazil. As background for presenting the Brazilian context, we initially address the records found on the earliest travelling museum exhibitions and mobile museums in Europe and North America. We then introduce the role of UNESCO in the promotion and implementation of travelling science exhibitions and museums in several countries. Finally, we document important events in the history of mobile science museum and centres in Brazil and outline three general and inter-related challenges currently faced by them. Abstract


In the mid-19th century the North Pole was a mystery. Some believed that it was an island of basalt in a warm crystal sea. Explorers who tried to penetrate the real icy wastes failed or died. But after Sir John Franklin disappeared with all his men in 1845, serious efforts began to be made to find the true Northernmost point of the globe. Fergus Fleming's book is a vivid, witty history of the disasters that ensued. The new explorers included Elisha Kane, a sickly man and useless commander, who led his team close to death in 1854, and Charles Hall, a printer from Ohio. Hall made the mistake of taking an experienced crew, who refused to commit suicide for him. Their mutiny so enraged Hall that he died of a stroke, and some of his crew escaped south on an ice-floe. They were followed by the Germans, newly united and eager for their place in the ice, the Austro-Hungarians and the British, who in 1876 managed to get further than any other expedition, travelling over terrain later explorers considered impassable. They left the field to the Norwegians, to expeditions organized by the American tabloid press, Swedish baloonists, aristocratic Italians and finally to the obsessive Robert Peary, who on one trip took his pregnant wife with him in order to set a record for the most northerly birth in history. He finally made it in 1909.


Each of the writers in this contentious and thought-provoking collection is an artist and fine art educator at the School of Art, RMIT University. In the School of Art it is understood that the processes of undertaking the creative project - the experimental works and the testing of ideas right through to the finished artwork - is the research itself. Thinking Through Practice shows what the process of 'thinking' might mean through art and its practices. Each chapter moves us into closer proximity with what it means to think through making and all that is involved in sustained forms of creative practice - questioning, reviewing, reflecting, analysing, performing, speculating, relating, remembering, critiquing, constructing and ultimately further questioning.


Background: Minimally invasive surgery is performed using an endoscope and other instruments including the electrosurgical units. However, concerns including surgical smoke, tissue sticking, and thermal injury are remaining in electro surgery.
Aims: Accordingly, a newly developed electrosurgical electrode coating with hydrogenated Cu-incorporated diamond-like carbon (DLC-Cu) film is purposed to improve the instrument performance.
Methods: The morphologies of DLC-Cu surfaces were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. In this study, lesions were made on the liver lobes of adult rats, using a monopolar electrosurgical unit equipped with untreated stainless steel electrodes or treated-electrodes. Animals were sacrificed for evaluations at 0, 3, 7, and 28 days post-operatively.
Results: Treated-electrodes generate less sticking tissues and adhesive blood cells. Thermography revealed the surgical temperature in liver tissue from the treated -electrode was significantly lower than the untreated-electrode. Total injury area of livers treated with treated-electrodes was significantly smaller than the untreated-electrodes treatment. Moreover, treated-electrodes caused a relatively smaller area of lateral thermal injury, a smaller area of fibrotic tissue, and a faster process of remodeling than the untreated-electrodes. Western blot analysis showed that rats treated with treated-electrode expressed lower levels of NF-κB, caspase-3, and MMP-9 than untreated-electrode. Immunofluorescence staining for caspase-3 revealed the untreated-electrode caused more serious injury.
Conclusions: This study reveals that the plating of electrodes with hydrogenated Cu-incorporated diamond-like carbon film is an efficient method for improving the performance of electrosurgical units. However, more tests must be carried out to confirm these promising findings in human patients.


Diversity in educational settings exists beyond racial and cultural definitions. Family diversity is also an important concept in education. However, the needs of adoptive families have rarely been addressed in schools, and considerable research suggests that adoptive family members experience social stigma. Accordingly, this review of the literature examines attitudes toward adoption, including research revealing the perceptions of adoptive family members, as well as research on community attitudes, attitudes of students, and attitudes of professional educators. The review continues by addressing the foundations for these attitudes in American family ideology, theory and research on adoption, practices in social work, and media representations of adoption. Research on positive outcomes in adoption is also presented for a balanced view of adoptive children and families, and the plausible effects of social stigma in educational settings are explored. The study culminates with a discussion of effective educational practices for teachers and administrators to implement to effectively counter social stigma in educational settings, as well as suggestions for educator preparation programs and future research.


This paper examines the evolution of a social network in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) by modeling the players' interaction network as a continuous-time markov chain. Results indicate that social hierarchy emerges out of an anarchical situation in which social actors participate voluntarily, have equal access to virtual resources from the beginning, cannot show their physical superiority and cannot show physical gestures during their communication / interaction. Our study findings hence contribute to the current interdisciplinary debate whether hierarchy is an emergent phenomenon that can be attributed to variations in individual qualities or whether hierarchy is an artificial outcome that is enacted on societies by parties that are privileged from birth.


Background: Because of the high concentration of oil refining and petrochemical facilities, the industrial area of the lower Mississippi River of South Louisiana has been termed the Industrial Corridor and has frequently been referred to as the "Cancer Corridor". Aims: To quantitatively assess the "Cancer Corridor" controversy based on mortality data available in the public domain, and to identify potential contributing factors to the observed differences in mortality. Methods: Age adjusted mortality rates were calculated for white and non-white males and females in the Industrial Corridor, Louisiana, and the United States for the time periods 1970–79, 1980–89, and 1990–99. Results: All-cause mortality and all cancer combined for white males in the Industrial Corridor were significantly lower than the corresponding Louisiana population while Louisiana had significantly higher rates than the US population for all three time periods. Cancer of the lung was consistently higher in the Industrial Corridor region relative to national rates but lower than or similar to Louisiana. Non-respiratory disease and cerebrovascular disease mortality for white males in the Industrial Corridor were consistently lower than either Louisiana or the USA. However, mortality due to diabetes and heart disease, particularly during the 1990s, was significantly higher in the Industrial Corridor and Louisiana when compared to the USA. Similar mortality patterns were observed for white females. The mortality for non-white males and females in the Industrial Corridor was generally similar to the corresponding populations in Louisiana. There were no consistent patterns for all cancer mortality combined. Stomach cancer was increased among non-whites in both the Industrial Corridor and Louisiana when compared to the corresponding US data. Mortality from diabetes and heart disease among non-whites was significantly higher in the Industrial Corridor and Louisiana than in the USA. Conclusions: Mortality rates in the Industrial Corridor area were generally similar to or lower than the State of Louisiana, which were increased compared to the United States. Contrary to prior public perceptions, mortality due to cancer in the Industrial Corridor does not exceed that for the State of Louisiana.


Forecasting the evolution of complex systems is noted as one of the 10 grand challenges of modern science. Time series data from complex systems capture the dynamic behaviors and causalities of the underlying processes and provide a tractable means to predict and monitor system state evolution. However, the nonlinear and non-stationary dynamics of the underlying processes pose a major challenge for accurate forecasting. For most real-world systems, the vector field of state dynamics is a nonlinear function of the state variables; i.e., the relationship connecting intrinsic state variables with their autoregressive terms and exogenous variables is nonlinear. Time series emerging from such complex systems exhibit aperiodic (chaotic) patterns even under steady state. Also, since real-world systems often evolve under transient conditions, the signals obtained therefrom tend to exhibit myriad forms of non-stationarity. Nonetheless, methods reported in the literature focus mostly on forecasting linear and stationary processes. This article presents a review of these advancements in nonlinear and non-stationary time series forecasting models and a comparison of their performances in certain real-world manufacturing and health informatics applications. Conventional approaches do not adequately capture the system evolution (from the standpoint of forecasting accuracy, computational effort, and sensitivity to quantity and quality of a priori information) in these applications.


Developed countries has long been paying attention to performance management (PM) field. Team and individual performance were always part of PM framework that were an area for research and development. Countries as well as oorganizations have increased their reliance on teams which is part of a basic aspect of modern organizational life; less work assignments fully performed by one individual alone. It is naturally the result of cost cutting pressure and improving efficiency to enable the public sector to remain competitive on a global scale. However, when diving deep into the team performance and specifically individual performance within the team, it is not clear if the individual target setting is linked with the team target and how it effects the overall performance either for the team or organization. Much research has been conducted on individual target settings, and increasingly on team targets. However, not enough research has been conducted on exploring and evaluating individual targets linked to the team target.

Abu Dhabi as a city is becoming well recognized and its economy is strong and globally recognized to be a driver. It is also evident that Abu Dhabi Government (ADG) is putting lots of efforts in building sustainable knowledge based economy. As ADG has gone through transformation during the past few years. As a result, PM are an area of attention to which it facilitate the efforts to be efficient and more developed government. As any modern government, cross functional teams were created between ADG organizations to achieve different deliverables that can't be achieved by individuals or an organization alone. Despite the fact that ADG is using PM as an important method to improve and sustain growths, it is faced with a number of challenges that could affect the performance of the different teams to deliver their targets in more effect way.

This study therefor aims to investigate the effect of individual target setting on team effectiveness and overall performance in ADG and propose strategic approach to improve individual performance within teams. This aim was achieved by conducting qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection targeting to explore how the main variables of target setting are associated with the attitudes and opinions of individuals working in teams.

The study reveals that despite the growing emphasis on the important of PM and the role of individual target setting within teams in enhancing the organisations capabilities and the overall operational excellence, the study shows how individual target setting with teams impact on overall performance of various organisations within ADG.


This chapter seeks to demonstrate some of the potential contributions of a corpus-based approach to study abroad research. Drawing on the Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpora, the present analysis examines a set of vague expressions known as general extenders (GEs) (Overstreet 1999) utilized by undergraduate English L1 learners after a year abroad. Specifically, the analysis focuses on patterns emergent from the concordancing analysis of learner language production alongside four exploratory case studies of learners' motives and dispositions towards their study abroad experience. The discussion draws parallels between the corpus-derived types, frequencies and pragmatic functions of GEs, and individual learner access to everyday language use in various study abroad situations.


The measurement of stream metabolism (gross primary production and respiration) has become more feasible with the availability of more reliable dissolved oxygen (DO) probes. Such metabolic measurements offer important opportunities in fundamental and applied research, especially in relating stream metabolic responses to human and other pressures. The accurate determination of the reaeration coefficient is one challenge for making reliable ecological inferences from DO measurements made over many diel periods (i.e., months or years). We outline three methods for calculating atmospheric reaeration but concentrate on the use of statistical estimation to simultaneously estimate reaeration and metabolic rates using Bayesian model fitting. While there are existing programs (ModelMaker and Bayesian Metabolic Model [BaMM]), these are either slow or unable to be used easily for fitting multiple days of metabolic data (one to many months). Our implementation, BAyesian Single‐station Estimation (BASE), uses freely available software (R and OpenBUGS), includes a batch mode that can fit data for many days, and provides visual and statistical measures of "goodness‐of‐fit." We compare the results of the BASE, ModelMaker, and BaMM programs.


Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were used to verify the segregation of the genus Cassia L. (sens. lat.) into three distinct genera namely, Chamaecrista Moench.,Senna P. Mill. and Cassia L. (sens.str.).  Eighteen representatives of the three taxa were characterized using the molecular markers. 25 RAPD, six ISSR primers and six AFLP primer combinations resulted in the amplification of 612, 115 and 622 bands (loci), respectively. Most of the loci are found to be polymorphic, showing high degrees of genetic diversity among the different taxa studied. The dendrogram constructed on the basis of the RAPD, ISSR and AFLP data using the SHAN clustering, divided Cassia L. (sens. lat.) into three different clusters as Chamaecrista Moench., Senna P. Mill. and Cassia L. (sens.str.). High bootstrap value revealed that all the clusters were stable and robust.  It was observed from the present investigation that these genera have their identity at molecular level, which supports the elevation of the genus Cassia L. sens. lat. to the level of sub tribe Cassiinae and segregationinto three distinct genera instead of intra-generic categories. In the present study taking the molecular markers into account the trifurcation of the sub tribe Cassiinae could be re-established.

 Key words: Cassia, molecular phylogeny, RAPD, ISSR, AFLP.


We present multi-band photometry and multi-epoch spectroscopy of the peculiar Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2007qd, discovered by the SDSS-II Supernova Survey. It possesses physical properties intermediate to those of the peculiar SN 2002cx and the extremely low-luminosity SN 2008ha. Optical photometry indicates that it had an extraordinarily fast rise time of ≲10 days and a peak absolute B magnitude of −15.4 ± 0.2 at most, making it one of the most subluminous SN Ia ever observed. Follow-up spectroscopy of SN 2007qd near maximum brightness unambiguously shows the presence of intermediate-mass elements which are likely caused by carbon/oxygen nuclear burning. Near maximum brightness, SN 2007qd had a photospheric velocity of only 2800 km s−1, similar to that of SN 2008ha but about 4000 and 7000 km s−1 less than that of SN 2002cx and normal SN Ia, respectively. We show that the peak luminosities of SN 2002cx like objects are highly correlated with both their light-curve stretch and photospheric velocities. Its strong apparent connection to other SN 2002cx like events suggests that SN 2007qd is also a pure deflagration of a white dwarf, although other mechanisms cannot be ruled out. It may be a critical link between SN 2008ha and the other members of the SN 2002cx like class of objects.


With respect to marital property rights, the contemporary view of marriage is that it is an economic partnership. Spouses are viewed as equal partners with respect to property acquired during the marriage from either of their efforts, but as having no claim to property the other spouse brought to the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance during the marriage. The widespread acceptance of this theory, which has long been an underlying principle of the community-property system, is evidenced by the adoption over the last 30 years of equitable distribution as the means for the division of the property of divorcing spouses in all noncommunity-property jurisdictions. Generally, under equitable distribution property of spouses is divided in divorce proceedings in an equitable manner without regard to legal title. In most jurisdictions, only marital property of spouses is subject to such division, and in most of the jurisdictions in which separate property also may be divided, the clear preference is not to do so. In 1990, the spousal elective-share provisions of the Uniform Probate Code were revised to bring elective-share law into line with the partnership theory of marriage. The new UPC system, however, does not determine the surviving spouse's elective-share claim by direct reference to the marital property the spouses accumulated during the marriage. Rather, it uses a mechanically applied "approximation system" to estimate the amount of the spouses' property that is marital, and the amount that is separate, based solely on the length of their marriage. When a spouse brings property to the marriage, as often is the case in second and subsequent marriages, or receives property during the marriage by gift or inheritance, the approximation system often will allow a surviving spouse's elective-share claim to reach that separate property. The result will be elective-share claims that are inequitable and inconsistent with the partnership theory of marriage. The purposes of this article are (i) to examine how well the approximation system will accomplish its intended objective of incorporating the marital partnership theory into elective-share law, and (ii) to propose a deferred-community-property system as an alternative means of doing so. Under such a system, the surviving spouse's elective share would be half of the couple's actual marital property, rather than half of an estimate of their marital property that is determined solely by the length of their marriage. A deferred-community-property elective-share system would produce results that are more consistent with the partnership theory of marriage and with the manner in which the property of spouses is divided when their marriage ends in divorce.


The existing literature on China's soft power is mainly concerned with its success or failure, ignoring the ideological tensions between the Chinese state's international pursuit of soft power and its efforts at reviving the popularity of socialist ideology at home in a country profoundly transformed by modernisation and globalisation processes. This article argues that such ideological tensions should be contextualised and critically analysed by employing an approach informed by critical globalisation studies, particularly by the power-to-whom critique. It offers a critical analysis of the CPC is With You Along the Way film, a notable recent example of the CPC's publicity videos in the context of its pursuit of soft power. Borrowing Reisigl and Wodak's discourse-historical approach (DHA) in addition to the analytical devices for the study of ideology from Eagleton and van Dijk, the article argues that CPC is With You Along the Way illustrates a shift in the party's ideological approach to the question '(soft) power to whom?'.


This paper argues that the conventional art-historical periodization, in which Modernism inexorably supersedes Aestheticism, and the year 1900 marks a radical break in the history of art, is seriously flawed: not only historiographically naive, it is also tinged with misogyny and homophobia. In a long perspective, it clearly makes sense to divide Victorian Aestheticism from twentieth-century Modernism. But in the shorter time frame of the very end of the Victorian period and the first few years of the twentieth century (the end of the `long nineteenth century`), the divide is not one of period. Aestheticism and Modernism overlap at this historical moment, and both of them involve serious exploration of basic problems in aesthetics and art theory. The difference between them is not a matter of chronology; instead it is a question of art-historical valuation, of what will count (in Clive Bell's term) as `significant` in modern art. The paper compares Aestheticist and Modernist paintings to argue that the similarities between them may be as important as the differences, and that this observation may change our evaluations on both sides.


Since 2017, the US has blocked appointments to the WTO Appellate Body (AB), citing various concerns over its judicial approach, with the most significant being the issue of judicial overreach. This article provides a critical analysis of this issue and makes important contributions to the ongoing debate. Drawing on the fundamental function of the WTO, it offers a fresh approach to assess judicial overreach and shows that AB rulings in major non-trade remedy cases (that have consistently concerned the US) have served that function and hence should not be treated as 'overreaching'. We argue that, the allegation of judicial overreach, while untenable, does reflect systemic concerns with the legislative failure of the WTO Members to provide effective checks against the judicial power. This will need to be addressed, or else it will continue to haunt the AB or any other adjudicative body that takes over its role. We propose several fresh solutions to restore a proper balance between the legislative and judicial functions of the WTO, before concluding that as a Member-driven organization, the success or failure of the WTO ultimately depends on its Members.


Low-cap and low-rated companies have tended to outperform large stocks and growth stocks, according to studies of U.S. and other stock markets published in the 1980s and 1990s. The results turn out to be different in this examination of the longer-term returns of small-caps and value stocks in 14 European countries. Smaller company returns have been lower than, or only modestly ahead of, big company returns, and out-of-sample returns on value stocks mostly remained higher than those on other companies. Historically, across the countries and over periods of as long as 104 years, investing in value stocks has generated larger and more persistent rewards than investing in small companies.


According to various theories of economic geography, agglomeration economies drive innovation and the dynamic benefits of clustering facilitate learning and innovation. Additionally, many observers claim that labor mobility is a key factor when it comes to the diffusion of ideas and knowledge. In this paper we try to explore whether these theories also apply to firms in the service industry, notably tourism and hospitality. The majority of jobs in tourism and hospitality are poorly paid, highly feminized, semi-skilled or unskilled and temporary. Tourism and hospitality is also notorious for its high staff turnover. In this paper we try to identify under what circumstances labor mobility might benefit or pose a problem to firms´ capacity to innovate and meet the demand for service quality. The discussion is based on interviews with directors and human resource managers in firms located in Are (a mountain resort in the north of Sweden) and Stockholm (capital of Sweden). Apart from being located in regions with very different conditions concerning population, labor market mobility, seasonality, and so on, the selected firms represent different sub-sectors (hotel, restaurant, tourism supplier) and also vary in terms, for example, of their size and organization. The paper concludes with a discussion on labor mobility in connection to, on the one hand, knowledge diffusion and, on the other hand, knowledge-accumulation.


Background: Play is the child's natural world. According to psychoanalytical studies, play has an important role in children's development, and the absence of play during a child's life could lead to severe pathological implications. Based on this theory and being aware that physiotherapy treatment programs could be long lasting, tiresome and lacking motivation for children, this literature review presents a perspective regarding the integration of play within physiotherapy programs and examines the physical and emotional outcomes during this integration. Aim: To investigate the outcomes of integrating play in physiotherapy for children with chronic health conditions. Method: The research strategy for this review was a thorough search of peer-reviewed articles in the databases CINAHL and AMED which include articles from the fields of allied and complementary medicine, as well as the database Scope Med. Participants were children with chronic health conditions, ranging from 2-18 years old. In the term 'play' virtual reality and video game activities were included due to the lack of research. In addition, articles from a previous literature review conducted by the author were also included in the present paper. Results: The focus of researchers on children with CP and the lack of evidence for children with other health conditions, the persistence of physiotherapists to assess mainly physical outcomes and not emotional needs of children, and the measurement tools used for this purpose are presented. Conclusions: For children with chronic health conditions who attend physiotherapy sessions, play could serve as a mediate and an appropriate developmental approach in order to achieve physical and emotional changes. There is a need for physiotherapists to balance physical and emotional needs, and have a more 'human' relationship, rather than a 'bodily' - strict professional relationship with children. Although the information presented in this review is not considered as sufficient to draw conclusions, it could serve as a first step for researchers to study this integration in greater depth, and to focus on children with conditions other than CP.


(Received: 2014/10/31 - Accepted: 2014/12/15)The scientific interest in climate change allowed to uncover evidence demonstrating a general warming trend caused by human activities. Facts such as rising sea levels, extreme weather events and retreat of glaciers, are indicators of the presence of alterations of normal weather patterns. In Ecuador, the Antisana is a stratovolcano of strategic importance affecting the climate of the region, in the functioning of the surrounding ecosystems. It is also a reserve of water for the population of the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ). The glaciers of the tropical volcano are also suffering the effects of global warming. Its decline over time is of concern and should be analyzed. The present research work performed a spatial and temporal study based on historical series of aerial photographs taken between 1956 and 2011, through geo-processing capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS). The results show a significant decrease in the glaciers of the Antisana Volcano and significant changes in the surrounding local ecological formations.


The fetal origins hypothesis (FOH) posits that fetal adaptations to nutritional insufficiency elevate future risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although birth weight (BW) remains the most commonly used index of fetal nutritional sufficiency in FOH research, it is a poor index of fetal nutrition because it is also influenced by genes, epigenetic effects and other nonnutritional factors. This paper uses data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) to explore an alternate strategy--the supply-demand model--as a means to model fetal nutritional sufficiency, adaptation and cardiovascular programming. Specifically, it is hypothesized that small size should be associated with elevated CVD risk, but only when there is corroborating evidence that the individual had a higher growth potential, was born to a nutritionally stressed mother, or both. Using low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) as markers of CVD risk, the predictions of the model are only met for LDL-C and only in males. There is evidence for an association between maternal nutritional status and male offspring SBP, but this relationship is independent of fetal nutritional sufficiency as defined by the model. Thus, although both the LDL-C and SBP findings support the general hypothesis that the prenatal milieu has long-term implications for CVD risk in males, only the patterns observed for LDL-C are consistent with the prediction that fetal nutritional sufficiency is key to CVD programming.


News articles, reports, blog posts and academic papers often include graphical charts that serve to visually reinforce arguments presented in the text. To help readers better understand the relation between the text and the chart, we present a crowdsourcing pipeline to extract the references between them. Specifically, we give crowd workers paragraph-chart pairs and ask them to select text phrases as well as the corresponding visual marks in the chart. We then apply automated clustering and merging techniques to unify the references generated by multiple workers into a single set. Comparing the crowdsourced references to a set of gold standard references using a distance measure based on the F1 score, we find that the average distance between the raw set of references produced by a single worker and the gold standard is 0.54 (out of a max of 1.0). When we apply clustering and merging techniques the average distance between the unified set of references and the gold standard reduces to 0.39; an improvement of 27%. We conclude with an interactive document viewing application that uses the extracted references; readers can select phrases in the text and the system highlights the related marks in the chart.


Mohar and Vodopivec [Combinatorics, Probability and Computing (2006) 15, 877-893] proved that for every integer $k$ ($k \geq 1$ and $k\neq 2$), there exists a snark which polyhedrally embeds in $\mathbb{N}_k$ and presented the problem: Is there a snark that has a polyhedral embedding in the Klein bottle? In the paper, we give a positive solution of the problem and strengthen Mohar and Vodopivec's  result. We prove that for every integer $k$ ($k\geq 2$), there exists an infinite family of snarks with nonorientable genus $k$ which polyhedrally embed in $\mathbb{N}_k$. Furthermore, for every integer $k$ ($k> 0$), there exists a snark with nonorientable genus $k$ which polyhedrally embeds in $\mathbb{N}_k$.


Variation in the ability of adult humans to digest the lactose in milk is a genetically determined trait that has excited the interest of many for the past 50 years. The trait seems to have risen to high frequencies by one of the strongest selection pressures ever described. This section describes the phenotypic polymorphism and the evidence that the genetic trait involves regulation of expression of the lactase gene and is caused by multiple independent mutations that have reached high frequencies in different populations, because of the benefits of drinking milk. The evolutionary history in Europe and Africa are rather different; there being a single high-frequency allele in Europe, in contrast to multiple alleles in Africa. Also the selective forces, which are likely to include both the nutritional and water content of milk, may have been different in these regions.

Key Concepts:

The enzyme, lactase, is restricted to the small intestine where it digests lactose in the milk of suckling mammals.

Lactase persists into adult life in some, but not all, people.

Lactase persistence is a genetic trait, which varies in frequency in different populations of the world.

Mutations in an enhancer sequence, at a distance from the lactase gene, appear to be responsible for lactase persistence.

These alleles arose in the last few thousand years and have been under strong positive selection.

The selection may be attributable to one of the nutrients or water in fresh milk and/or its calorific value.

Keywords:

lactose;
milk;
lactase;
selection;
persistence;
tolerance


Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is increasingly investigated as a therapy for psychiatric disorders. In the ethical evaluation of this novel approach, incidence and impact of side effects (SE) play a key role. In our contribution, we analyze the discussion on SE of DBS of the subthalamic nucleus (STN)—a standard therapy for movement disorders like Parkinson's disease (PD)—based on 66 case reports, 69 review papers, and 347 outcome studies from 1993 to 2009. We show how the DBS community increasingly acknowledged the complexity of STN-DBS side effects. Then we discuss the issue of study quality and the methods used to assess SE. We note that some side effects are the subject of conflicting evaluations by the different stakeholders involved. This complicates the ethical controversy inherent in any novel treatments for diseases that involve psychiatric aspects. We delineate how the lessons from STN-DBS could guide future DBS applications in the field of psychiatry.


We show how to efficiently project a vector onto the top principal components of a matrix, without explicitly computing these components. Specifically, we introduce an iterative algorithm that provably computes the projection using few calls to any black-box routine for ridge regression.
By avoiding explicit principal component analysis (PCA), our algorithm is the first with no runtime dependence on the number of top principal components. We show that it can be used to give a fast iterative method for the popular principal component regression problem, giving the first major runtime improvement over the naive method of combining PCA with regression.
To achieve our results, we first observe that ridge regression can be used to obtain a "smooth projection" onto the top principal components. We then sharpen this approximation to true projection using a low-degree polynomial approximation to the matrix step function. Step function approximation is a topic of long-term interest in scientific computing. We extend prior theory by constructing polynomials with simple iterative structure and rigorously analyzing their behavior under limited precision.


The number of people living in urban neighborhoods has been rising in recent decades. This Commentary investigates changes in the number, ages, and financial status of those who have been moving into and out of urban neighborhoods, using data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel. I find that since 2000, the increase in urban populations is the result of young adults migrating into urban neighborhoods and senior citizens aging in place. Urban populations have also become more educated and well to do. While declining urban neighborhoods may still outnumber growing urban neighborhoods within some regions, urban leaders there can work toward population or tax base growth knowing that consumer tastes and national trends are favorable to those goals.


The interactions between each component of the pre-polymerisation mixtures used in the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) specific for 1,2,3,4,5-pentachlorobenzene (1) and 1,2,3-trichlorobenzene (2) were examined in four molecular dynamics simulations. These simulations revealed that the relative frequency of functional monomer-template (FM-T) interactions was consistent with results obtained by the synthesis and evaluation of the actual MIPs. The higher frequency of 1 interaction with trimethylstyrene (TMS; 54.7%) than 1 interaction with pentafluorostyrene (PFS; 44.7%) correlated with a higher imprinting factor (IF) of 2.1 vs. 1.7 for each functional monomer respectively. The higher frequency of PFS interactions with 2 (29.6%) than TMS interactions with 2 (1.9%) also correlated well with the observed differences in IF (3.7) of 2 MIPs imprinted using PFS as the FM than the IF (2.8) of 2 MIPs imprinted using TMS as the FM. The TMS-1 interaction dominated the molecular simulation due to high interaction energies, but the weaker TMS-2 resulted in low interaction maintenance, and thus lower IF values. Examination of the other pre-polymerisation mixture components revealed that the low levels of TMS-2 interaction was, in part, due to interference caused by the cross linker (CL) ethyleneglycol dimethylacrylate (EGDMA) interactions with TMS. The main reason was, however, attributed to MeOH interactions with TMS in both a hydrogen bond and perpendicular configuration. This positioned a MeOH directly above the π-orbital of all TMS for an average of 63.8% of MD2 creating significant interference to π-π stacking interactions between 2 and TMS. These findings are consistent with the deviation from the 'normal' molecularly imprinted polymer synthesis ratio of 1 : 4 : 20 (T : FM : CL) of 20 : 1 : 29 and 15 : 6 : 29 observed with 2 and TMS and PFS respectively. Our molecular dynamics simulations correctly predicted the high level of interference from other MIP synthesis components. The effect on PFS-1 interaction by MeOH was significantly lower and thus this system was not adversely affected.


1. Examination of escape behaviour in freely moving animals with chronically implanted nerve cord electrodes has clarified the normal function of the giant fibres and the general organization of escape behaviour in the crayfish. 2. The giant fibres react almost exclusively to sudden stimuli; they do so at very short latency; and they produce rather stereotyped actions. Certain visual stimuli such as very rapidly approaching objects and rostral tactile stimuli such as taps to the anterior carapace or antennae fire the medial giants; caudal stimuli such as taps to the abdomen fire the lateral giants. In free animals even very weak stimuli often excite the giants. 3. Spontaneous tail flips and responses to more gradual stimuli are mediated by non-giant systems. When latencies can be meaningfully measured, they are at least an order of magnitude greater than those of giant-fibre reactions. Visual stimuli such as reaching for an animal or walking past its aquarium and somatic stimuli such as pinching or even cutting typically excite these systems. 4. Animals commonly escape with a sequence of tail flips (swimming). When they do this, the first flip of the sequence is determined as above, but subsequent flips are almost always mediated by non-giant systems. Both swimming and delayed (i.e. non-giant) escape involve a variety of phasic abdominal movements. 5. Experiments with animals whose nerve cords were cut at various levels indicate that non-giant escape either originates in or is strongly facilitated by the suboesophageal ganglion complex.


This thesis investigated the proposition by Johnson (1995; 1999) that there are distinct patterns of physical aggression within relationships, characterised as common couple violence and intimate terrorism. To investigate Johnson's theory, a stratified sample containing students (n=1 13), women from a domestic violence refuge (n=43), and male prisoners (n=108). Participants completed measures of physical aggression, escalation of physical aggression, controlling behaviour, fear of injuries, and actual injuries. Results of chapters 3 and 5 provided broad support for the view that there are distinct patterns of aggressive relationships corresponding to those identified by Johnson (1995; 1999). Chapter 4 found however, that the use of physical aggression was predicted by instrumental beliefs for both intimate terrorism and common couple violence, and analysis at the individual level (chapter 6) did not support the distinction between controlling and non-controlling partner aggression, but instead indicated that the use of physical aggression was associated with controlling behaviours in all relationship categories. To investigate Johnson's (1999) classification procedure in a non-stratified sample, a second sample was collected which consisted of 399 men and 951 women. In chapters 8 and 9 analysis was conducted separately for victim and perpetrator reports. Results were broadly supportive of Johnson's categories (though not the earlier findings regarding sex composition of the categories), but not the controlling noncontrolling dichotomy. Chapter 11 sought to investigate the ultimate aim of such behaviour and found that both men and women use more control when the woman was fecund, and more control and physical aggression when an individual had lower mate-value. The findings of this thesis are discussed in relation to sampling strategies, the control and physical aggression relationship and the effect of reporting2 bias. The conclusions from this thesis are that Johnson's dichotomy may not represent a qualitative difference, but instead may be one of quantity.


The application of a multiscale strategy integrated with a stochastic technique to the solution of nonlinear inverse scattering problems is presented. The approach allows the explicit and effective handling of many difficulties associated with such problems ranging from ill-conditioning to nonlinearity and false solutions drawback. The choice of a finite dimensional representation for the unknowns, due to the upper bound to the essential dimension of the data, is iteratively accomplished by means of an adaptive multiresolution model, which offers a considerable flexibility for the use of the information on the scattering domain acquired during the iterative steps of the multiscaling process. Even though a suitable representation of the unknowns could limit the local minima problem, the multiresolution strategy is integrated with a customized stochastic optimizer based on the behavior of a particle swarm, which prevents the solution from being trapped into false solutions without a large increasing of the overall computational burden. Selected examples concerned with a two-dimensional microwave imaging problem are presented for illustrating the key features of the integrated stochastic multiscaling strategy.


An increasingly competitive environment can lead to considerable problems for many organizations as they struggle to adapt to change. As a result, they fail to create the conditions that can lead to sustainable development over the long term, thus affecting the capabilities of employees. This book provides a fresh perspective on sustainable change and development in organizations, as well as a critical perspective on lean implementation, work environment and sustainability.


The problem of this study was to describe the operation and organization of Francophone Baptist Publications and to learn the publication needs of missionary personnel in the six countries served by the organization. Information for the study was gathered from Baptist history books, minutes from organizational meetings, questionnaires, and personal interviews with office and missionary personnel. The study revealed that although 47 per cent of those receiving questionnaires responded, only 28 per cent knew the materials and the organization sufficiently to evaluate them. This led to the conclusion that a lack of communication between the center and the missionaries exists and that the center should keep the market informed of materials available. The responses indicated that the present publications priorities do not reflect the real needs of the missionary personnel.


BritainandChinahaveexperiencedperiodsofrapidpopulationgrowthandinadequate housing construction. Social housing is a form of housing tenure easing the housing pressure. It solves residential demands of different living patterns in middle to low-income groups. The sustainable strategy lies in three aspects:1. Making the utmost use of the local natural environment;2. Providing reasonable public spaceandsuitabletraffic to revitalize community awareness; and 3. The holistic design of multiple dwelling units for different people and long-term needs. This paper shows two projects – Park Hill in Sheffield, UK and Longnan Garden in Shanghai – as precedents of how to design social housing with sustainable approaches by following the local natural characteristics,by respecting traditions and the different demands of residents and the long-term housing usage. UP TO HERE Compared with China's 20-year social housing development, that in Britain has a long history and presents complicated multiplicities, could provide significant references. This paper shows that such communities could be design in steps: using the organic gallery apartment building layout, the special corridor system connecting the public function to neighborhoods, SI House theories optimizing the hostile design of dwelling units and components. During the design, the local nature and tradition should be respected. Specifically, the Park Hill is built up along the sloping field, four types of apartment units are based on the traditional terraced house, designed holistically for different families; the deck, which is called "street in the sky", is not only the traffic but also the active place promoting public and neighborhoods relationships; the renovation design retains the former structure and makesthemaximizationofindoorflexibility.LongnanGardenissurroundedbyexisting resident districts; the organic planning based on the traditional courtyards ensures the enough sunlight and river views in the community; the community environment is improved by the courtyards,which include the ground are and roof gardens;elevated corridors run through courtyards connecting common rooms on the second floor; the 7.6-meter-heightskeletonisinnovatedfromSIhousingandtheexperienceofEuropean social housing. The paper summarizes the development tendency of social housing and provides reference for future.


Under the Bankruptcy Code, the filing of a bankruptcy petition creates a gulf between the pre-petition and post-petition worlds. The allowable amount of a claim in bankruptcy is determined as of the petition date. Interest stops accruing on claims (other than oversecured claims), as of the petition date; post-petition interest is not an allowable part of an unsecured claim. It would seem that post-petition attorneys' fees similarly would not be an allowable part of an unsecured claim, even if the claim arises under a contract or statute that calls for the creditor's attorneys' fees to be added to the debt. The right to fees (pre-petition and post-petition) under a contract or statute with respect to a pre-petition debt is itself a pre-petition claim that typically will be discharged, regardless of whether the fees that are allowed in the bankruptcy case include post-petition fees. Because the right is a pre-petition claim, there is an argument (with its genesis in the 1982 United Merchants decision of the Second Circuit applying pre-Code law) that post-petition fees are allowable as pre-petition contingent claims, either in an estimated amount or in an amount established after the fees are incurred. The majority of courts (where the debtor is insolvent) have rejected the Second Circuit's argument and thus held that post-petition fees are not allowable with respect to pre-petition unsecured claims. The article provides an argument from the text of Bankruptcy Code sections 502(b), 506(a), and 506(b) in support of the majority view, a textual argument that the article concludes is determinative. In its unanimous 2007 Travelers opinion, the Supreme Court refused to decide whether post-petition fees are allowable on unsecured claims, deciding instead only that the Ninth Circuit's Fobian rule - a federal common law rule precluding award or allowance of post-petition fees for litigation of bankruptcy law issues - had no basis in the text of the Bankruptcy Code and could not stand. The article analyzes Travelers, concludes that the Court left open for consideration all grounds other than the Fobian rule for deciding the allowability of post-petition fees, and provides a brief eulogy for the Fobian rule. The article describes and critiques the conventional arguments for the majority view. It also explains that some courts - including courts of appeals in at least three circuits - have embraced a misunderstanding of section 506(b). They have done so in part to resolve a quandary created by their adoption, in limited circumstances, of the minority view, and in part to allow for a review under federal common law standards of the reasonableness of pre-petition fees incurred by oversecured creditors - a federal common law approach reminiscent of the ill-fated Fobian rule. The article then argues, as noted above, that the text of sections 502(b), 506(a), and 506(b) - in fact the plain meaning of those sections - precludes allowance of post-petition fees on unsecured claims. Thus the majority view is correct. The article goes on to consider five potential problems with the majority view, concluding that none of them cast serious doubt on its correctness. (1) The majority view does not render section 502(b)(2) superfluous. (2) There is no conflicting plain meaning interpretation of the provisions of the Code dealing with contingent claims. If there were, it would have to yield to the more specific provisions of sections 502(b), 506(a), and 506(b) (and if there were a need for harmonization, the policies of the Code cut in favor of the majority view). (3) Any potential unfairness of denial of post-petition fees in indemnity situations may be substantially mitigated if post-petition "collateral legal expenses" are allowable, a possibility noted below. (4) The apparent unanimity of courts in requiring payment of post-petition fees where the debtor is solvent may not conflict with the textual analysis that is at the base of the majority rule, because specific provisions of the Code may call for payment of post-petition fees where the debtor is solvent, even if the fees are not part of an allowed claim. (5) The majority view does not conflict with pre-Code law as Congress would have understood it at the time of enactment of the Code. Finally, the article describes issues that require further consideration. First, further analysis is needed to determine whether payment of post-petition fees is required by provisions of the Code where the debtor is solvent; to the extent the answer is "no," the courts will need to be reminded to follow the text of the Code (or perhaps the correctness of the majority view may need to be reconsidered). Second, further analysis is needed of the concept of a contingent claim, and of whether a claim for post-petition fees should be considered to be contingent as the Code uses that term. Third, further consideration is needed of the relationship between section 506(b) and "collateral legal expenses." It is likely that collateral legal expenses - even to the extent they consist of attorneys' fees - are not the kind of fees, costs, or charges referenced in section 506(b). If further analysis confirms that conclusion, then allowance of post-petition collateral legal expenses as contingent claims would not conflict with the text of sections 502(b), 506(a), and 506(b). Fourth, the Fobian rule dealt not just with whether post-petition fees could be included in allowed claims but also with imposition of personal liability for fees incurred in litigating bankruptcy law issues (such as an award of fees against a debtor who unsuccessfully opposes a nondischargeability action brought by a contract creditor whose contract includes a broad attorneys' fee clause). With the Fobian rule abrogated, such fees may be awarded unless another basis is found for precluding an award, such as preemption by the provisions of section 523(d). By granting certiorari in the DeRoche case, vacating the Ninth Circuit's decision, and remanding for further consideration in light of Travelers, the Supreme Court has teed up that issue.


Parties frequently seek exemption from regulation on the ground that they contribute only a very small share to a problem. These one percent arguments are not inherently questionable; it can be efficient to exclude relatively small contributors. These arguments for exemption garner broad acceptance in part because they appeal to behavioral biases that induce individuals to discount or ignore small values. But when a regulatory problem can be solved only by regulating small contributors, accepting one percent arguments creates what we call the one percent problem. This Article shows that this general problem for regulation has particularly damaging effects on climate change policy: The global character of the climate change problem renders many sources of carbon emissions candidates for one percent arguments, but the climate problem cannot be solved without attention to these sources. This Article then isolates a gap in U.S. climate policy that is critical to addressing the one percent problem for climate. Unlike many other bodies, Congress currently legislates and appropriates without calculating the emissions consequences of its actions or adhering to an emissions budget. Both are necessary. Congress has long responded to one percent problems in managing the federal budget with disclosure and offsetting requirements. Requiring Congress to disclose the carbon emissions of legislation treats carbon costs on par with financial costs, and brings Congress's emissions disclosure duties in line with those that already apply to federal agencies and many industrial sources. Adopting a budgeting pre-commitment strategy of last resort - a carbon pay-as-you-go rule - directly confronts the analytic slippage exploited by one percent arguments.


A novel reaction route was proposed from 5-hydroxymethylfuran-2- carbaldehyde (HMFCA) to 2-hydroxy-5-methylene-2,5-dihydro-furan-2-carbaldehyde (HMDFC) on the basis of the mechanism previously offered by Horvat, to account for the formation mechanism of levulinic acid. The probabilities of the two mechanisms were compared by Gaussian 03 software. It was found that the conversion from HMFCA to HMDFC in the newly deduced mechanism has a lower net energy requirement than that in the original mechanism, and thus should be more preferable. The mechanism indicates that HMFCA is initially protonized by H+ addition at the position 5 of the furan ring, and then combines with OH-, thereby completing the hydration process after isomerization. Finally, an H2O molecule is released, forming the intended intermediate product of HMDFC.


Edith Wharton's ghost stories have usually been seen as skilful appropriations of the Gothic that allowed her, in Kathy Fedorko's words, to dramatise "the conflict between male and female selves in a 'dialogue with the unconscious.'" They are also vehicles through which she expresses not only her indebtedness to her precursors in the Gothic mode, such as the Brontës, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sheridan Le Fanu, but also her independence from them. In this article we shall argue that some of Wharton's ghost stories contain a further dimension, beyond allusion, where they shift into a parodic and humorous strain that enables her to engage self-reflexively with the Gothic tradition. Here we define parody as a literary mode that, whilst engaging with a target text or genre, exhibits a keen sense of the comic, an acute awareness of intertextuality and an engagement with the idea of metafiction. This is a deliberately generous and inclusive definition that differs, for example, from some postmodern definitions of parody which (perhaps in an attempt to elevate its cultural function) minimise or excise the importance of comedy as an aspect of parody. We would suggest, furthermore, that it differs from travesty, pastiche and satire in that travesty reduces the target text to something ludicrous, pastiche "works by imitation rather than direct transformation" and satire does not necessarily engage with precursive texts.