Bromide tracer breakthrough and natural soil colloid leaching curves for undisturbed soil columns were used to characterize dissolved and suspended matter transport at the field scale. Data from 33 columns of 20‐cm diameter and 20‐cm height were used. Columns were collected in a grid of 25 by 30 m at an agricultural field. A two‐region (mobile–immobile water phase, MIM) solute transport model was fitted to data. The model was used to estimate bromide and colloid transport parameters including mobile and immobile water contents (θm, θim), bromide and colloid advective velocities (vBr, vColl), and mobile–immobile mass transfer coefficients (αbr, αcoll). Both soil physical properties and transport parameters were highly variable across the sampling field. Comparison of bromide transport parameters with basic soil physical properties revealed that vBr was proportional to soil clay content and bulk density (ρb), but αBr was inversely proportional to these parameters. Colloid transport parameters, vColl and αColl, however, showed only a weak correlation with clay content and ρb. Also, vColl was typically three to four times higher than vBr. The colloid velocity was generally higher than the bromide velocity, implying size exclusion of colloids. The spatial distributions of soil physical properties, bromide and colloid transport parameters, and leached quantities of particles were compared. The results suggested that bromide and colloid mass transfer (diffusion) were not controlled by the same soil physical conditions, and that soil structure and macropore flow are more important than the quantity of dispersible colloids in controlling colloid leaching.


The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) became law in 2010 and is an important development in combatting income tax evasion. Under FATCA, American individual and corporate taxpayers must provide comprehensive information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding foreign bank accounts. In addition, a more controversial part of FATCA requires foreign banks to report directly to the IRS certain information about financial accounts held by American taxpayers.These drastic changes in American tax policy are alarming to the international financial community. International banks are forced to implement expensive compliance programs to satisfy the information reporting requirements. An increasing number of foreign financial institutions will no longer want any involvement with American citizens or investments. Furthermore, Americans living abroad might be forced to denounce their American citizenship in order to gain access to insurance and basic banking options.In response to the unilateral imposition of FATCA, foreign governments and banks may lobby for its repeal. This Comment examines factors in the global movement to repeal FATCA and suggests several workable solutions that would be agreeable to the United States and foreign nations. Specifically, this Comment suggests how investment income withholding and increased IRS enforcement actions are a better solution to prevent income tax evasion.


Joseph Pulitzer Jr. inherited the famous name and occupation of his grandfather, the journalist and publisher who established the Pulitzer Prize. Yet while he carried on the family business in St. Louis, he was also building one of the greatest private art collections of the 20th century. Classic Modern is the first biography to focus on this often-overlooked aspect of Pulitzer's life-arguably his greatest passion. Marjorie B. Cohn reveals how Pulitzer helped to introduce modern art, including the work of artists such as Picasso, Miro, and Beckmann, to the Midwest, despite the region's lack of receptiveness. The book also includes details about Pulitzer's commissions-the first outdoor, site-specific works by Serra, Flavin, and Judd among them-along with never-before-released purchase prices. Integral to the account are tensions between upper-class collectors and countercultural artists, and between connoisseurs and the cultural theorists who were gaining ground in the academy.


Background Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease characterised by increased cell signalling via cytokines and chemokines. A wide variety of treatment options are available including systemic biological treatments such as tumour necrosis factor antagonist infliximab. Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of infliximab for the treatment of psoriasis in adults. Material and methods Observational, retrospective study, from 2008 to 2014, in patients with psoriasis treated with infliximab in a tertiary hospital. Data were obtained from the electronic medical history supported by Selene Clinical Station. Data collected were demographics, average treatment dose and duration, previous treatments, dose escalation and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). Results The study included 27 patients (66.7% males), mean age 49.7 years (25–88). The treatment protocol was infliximab 5 mg/kg infused as indicated in the Summary of Product Characteristics. The average dose and duration were 393.38 mg (300–585.22) and 4.074 years (1–6), respectively. Previous treatments used were 44.4% topical corticosteroids, 14.8% phototherapy, 18.5% ciclosporin, 44.4% methotrexate, 18.5% adalimumab and 7.4% etanercept. Regarding treatment effectiveness, 7.4% of patients showed some resistance, 33.33% experienced some outbreaks and 59.2% became totally asymptomatic. The average PASI at baseline was 6.83 (0–50) and 1.9 (0–16) at the end. Intensification of treatment was indicated in 25.9% of patients who changed their infusion from every 8 to 6 weeks. Dose reduction was possible in 7.4% of patients with a dose of 4 mg/kg. During treatment, 7.4% of patients had lower respiratory tract infections, 7.4% tonsillitis and 3.7% herpes zoster. Conclusion Most of the patients had a good response to treatment. Infliximab should be considered in patients who have failed to respond to, have a contraindication for, or are intolerant of, other systemic treatments. Some of the patients developed infections. Risks and benefits of infliximab must be carefully considered prior initiating treatment in patients with chronic or recurrent infections. References and/or Acknowledgements http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Product_Information/human/000240/WC500050888.pdf No conflict of interest.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion between the segments of the normal human tricuspid valve (TV) annulus and its use as a parameter for ring annuloplasty "in vitro" and "in vivo". METHODS: Digital images of the tricuspid ring of 30 human cadaveric hearts, without fixation and without tricuspid regurgitation (TR), were analyzed and the proportion between the antero-posterior and septal segments was determined. This proportion was used for TV annuloplasty with bovine pericardium (BP) flexible rings on 15 hearts from adult cadavers with TR and ring dilatation. The same proportion and technique were used for TV repair on 11 patients with functional TR. Preoperatively, seven patients had severe and four moderate TR; five patients were class IV and six class III (NYHA). RESULTS:The mean ratio between the antero-posterior and septal segments was 2.43±0.212 in the 30 hearts without TR. The mean size of the BP flexible ring used for "in vitro" surgical procedure was 71.5±5.2 mm, median 70 mm, and there was no TR after that in all 15 hearts. The mean size of the orthesis used on the patients was 73.4±6.5 mm, median 72 mm. There was 1 hospital death. Six months after surgery, 7 patients had no TR and 3 had mild TR; 6 patients were in NYHA class I, 3 in class II and 1 in class III. CONCLUSION: The use of the ratio 2.43:1 between the anterior-posterior and septal segments as a parameter in tricuspid valve annuloplasty with a bovine pericardium flexible ring leads to satisfactory results.


Procedure Appropriateness Category Relative Radiation Level Radiography chest Usually Appropriate ☢ Radiography rib views May Be Appropriate ☢☢☢ CT chest without IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ Bone scan whole body Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ CT chest with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ CT chest without and with IV contrast Usually Not Appropriate ☢☢☢ US chest Usually Not Appropriate O


Current seismic retrofit strategies generally focus on increasing the strength/stiffness or upgrading the mechanical properties of a structure or element. A typical drawback of this approach is that the demand on structural and sub-structural elements can be increased. In a previous contribution by the authors (Ireland et al., 2006) a counter-intuitive but rational seismic retrofit strategy consisting of selective weakening techniques was proposed. In this paper results of experimental investigations performed on benchmark & selectively weakened structural walls at the University of Canterbury are discussed. The experimental investigations consisted of quasi-static uni-directional tests on two benchmark and two retrofitted cantilever wall specimens. The first benchmark wall specimen was detailed as typical of pre-1970's construction practice. An equivalent wall was retrofitted using a selective weakening approach involving a horizontal cut at foundation level to allow for a controlled rocking response. The second benchmark specimen represented a more severe scenario where the inelastic behaviour was dominated by shear. A retrofit solution involving vertically segmenting the wall to improve the ductility and retain gravity carrying capacity by inducing a flexural response was implemented. The experimental results confirmed the viability and efficiency of the proposed retrofit technique towards improving the performance of structural walls. Constructability issues and suggestions for practical implementation of the proposed retrofit solution are also discussed.


In the last decade or so, "critical whiteness studies" scholars have produced articles and books virtually without number on the supposedly unexamined center of American racial formations. Unsurprisingy, most of these scholars have been white, but as African American philosopher George Yancy writes in his introduction to a collection of essays on "the whiteness question," while whiteness studies has produced valuable, potentially liberating insight, "it must remain open to those nonwhite voices that continue to reveal the extent to which they actually suffer and feel terrorized by whiteness" (17). As recent work in the field has begun to acknowledge, African American voices have been observing and writing about whiteness for centuries-out of necessity, but also with largely ignored acuity. In terms of literary scholarship and pedagogy, the rise of multiculturalism has greatly elevated the status of some minority authors and their works, but there has also been the disadvantage of pigeonholing, a delimiting insistence on a matched correspondence between an author's racial identity and that of his or her characters. Nearly every minority writer's work accorded significant attention features central characters from his or her racialized group, and works that do otherwise, such as the "white-life" stories and novels by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, or Ann Petty have been until just recently either continually overlooked or pointedly dismissed. (1) Thanks in part to the rise of critical whiteness studies, and especially to the great deal of such work in literary studies, several African American white-fife novels are receiving their due, both in scholarship and in the classroom. (2) This overdue interest credits the writers with perceptive and instructive insight into the ways of white folks, insight that whites tend to lack about their own racialized selves and communities. While such literary commentary commonly arises from the studied observation of white people themselves, I want to highlight African American thought that illuminates the workings of whiteness at a broader hegemonic level, particularly the ways in which whiteness now works as a veiled and insidious set of social processes that affect the fives of all Americans. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is one novel that has already received widespread credit for this sort of insight. By depicting white hegemony's powerful ability to infiltrate and degrade black identity, The Bluest Eye demonstrates that twentieth-century whiteness functions as a veiled, unspoken process that partially organizes the consciousness of all Americans. In another sense, Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills also examines the subtle workings of whiteness, and again without the use of significant "white" characters. Published a decade or so before the coalescence of academic whiteness studies, Naylor's novel anticipates several of its key insights and hermeneutics regarding the workings of whiteness. Both The Bluest Eye and Linden Hills deal with more abstract and insidious workings of whiteness as a set of forces that shape black fives. However, while Morrison delineates in painful detail the internalized effects of its relational denigration of seemingly indelible black subjectivity, Naylor reveals its broader workings as a social process that encourages the opposite--the deracination of seemingly transcendable black subjectivity. (3) While Morrison depicts a desire to shed blackness and become white, Naylor dramatizes a desire to shed blackness and become rich. While the latter seems more a matter of class than of race, it nevertheless entails a "whitening" process that parallels the workings of white racialization. Naylor offers a prescriptive statement on the corrosive, "whitening" effects of materialism by openly adopting the narrative structure and didactic thrust of Dante's moral allegory, The Inferno. In addition to creating a space that replicates in many ways the multi-leveled Hell posited by Dante, Naylor adopts her model's general thematic emphasis on the individual's responsibility for exerting his or her will in order to resist worldly temptation and to make better choices in life (thus the suggestively similar names of the novel's dual protagonists, Willa Nedeed and Willie Mason). …


Islamic banking is interest-free banking which makes it necessary for Islamic banks to take active part in the operations of the business, i.e. share profits as well as losses. Banks including Islamic banks prefer to take minimum risk. On the surface, it may seem that Islamic banks face more risk and hence, will have more volatile or even negative returns on their assets. This paper analyzes the risk management procedures of Islamic banks by giving a differential analysis of risk management discussing only the unique characteristics of risk management in Islamic Banking. The usual credit assessment procedures and BASEL are not discussed. This paper looks at the comparative performance of Islamic banks and conventional banks by using ROE as the benchmark.


New hybrids synthesized by linking two anthracenyl units to the Ccluster atoms of a non- (4), a mono- (5) and a di-iodinated (6) m-carborane fragment through CH2 spacers, along with their full characterization, are reported. Noticeably, bonding the m-carborane fragment to the anthracene moieties produces a significant increase of more than two-fold in the intrinsic fluorescence quantum yield (ϕF) of the anthracene itself, with values of ϕF > 60% in THF and ϕF > 48% in toluene, although it does not alter the absorption and emission patterns of the fluorophore in solution. A red-shift of the emission maximum with respect to the solution is observed in the aggregate state (THF/H2O, 1 : 99 v/v), along with moderate quantum yields; compounds 4 and 5 show ϕF = 22 and 19%, respectively, whereas 6 has a lower value (ϕF = 8%). The difference between the ϕF values in the aggregate state has been attributed to the arrangement of dimers for each compound in the solid state structures. X-ray crystal structures of compounds 4 and 5 show the anthracene units to be roughly parallel, whereas such an arrangement is clearly disrupted in compound 6. Such differences have been analyzed by Hirshfeld surfaces, decomposed fingerprint plots for the three compounds and DFT calculations. The combined results from the supramolecular analyses and DFT studies support the idea that a less delocalized system in the case of 6 can be explained by the different packing in the aggregate or solid state for this di-iodo derivative. The observed arrangement of molecules of 6 seems to be related to a larger number of H⋯I contacts, with respect to the non-iodinated or mono-iodinated compounds, 4 or 5. According to this assumption, there is a direct relationship between the structure in the solid state and the PL properties; in the m-carborane derivatives, small changes in their structures have caused variations in the photophysical properties, especially in the quantum efficiency.


Thank you and good afternoon. I appreciate the invitation to be with you today at this great institution. Last week, when the President announced his nomination of Judge Sam Alito to be Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, Judge Alito said that he holds the Supreme Court "in reverence"1; it represents to him "our dedication as a free and open society to liberty and opportunity, and, as it says above the entrance to the Supreme Court, 'equal justice under law.'"2 Judge Alito's comment reminds me of a statement by President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln said that, while Americans come from many walks of life, a "reverence for the laws"3 is our unifying heritage. He urged Americans to make reverence for the laws a "political religion,"4 a civic duty taught in every home, school, and place of worship, "proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice."5 I want to discuss with you today a trend I see in our courts, led most prominently by certain members of the Supreme Court, that I fear may undermine the long tradition of reverence that Americans have for the supreme law of the land-the Constitution of the United States. I am referring to the growing tendency by some judges to interpret the Constitution by reference to the laws and judicial decisions of foreign nations and to strike down American laws enacted through the democratic process. Before I proceed further, let me be clear: I hold the Judiciary in the highest regard, and nothing I say today diminishes the respect and admiration I have for judges and, in particular, the Justices of the Supreme Court. Nor do I mean to disparage any other nation's laws or the important role of international law. Far from it. Judges and lawyers routinely use international law in other contexts. For instance, judges and lawyers seeking to interpret our treaty obligations routinely consider the interpretations of our treaty partners. Sometimes our statutes direct us to consider international law, as when the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act6 creates jurisdiction over cases involving property "taken in violation of international law,"7 and foreign law will often be relevant in the litigation of public and private contract disputes involving foreign parties. All this is as it should be, and US government attorneys and the Judiciary are on solid ground in paying attention to developments abroad in these instances. It is also entirely appropriate for our elected representatives in the Congress or the State legislatures to consider how lawmakers in other countries have approached problems when our representatives write the laws of the United States, as I'll discuss later. And of course, international obligations play a vital, powerful, and positive force in the conduct of our foreign policy. As Secretary of State Rice has said, and I want to underscore today: America is a country of laws. When we observe our treaty and other international commitments . . . other countries are more willing . . . to cooperate with us and we have a better chance of persuading them to live up to their own commitments. And so when we respect our international legal obligations and support an international system based on the rule of law, we do the work of making the world a better place, but also a safer and more secure place for America.8 This is not just the view of the Secretary of State. President Bush expects other countries to observe their treaty and other international commitments to us, and has stated that in all cases our own international obligations are also to be taken seriously. At the Department of Justice, we rely on treaties every day. For example, the many extradition treaties we have in place ensure that criminals are brought to trial and justice. The globalization of terrorism makes international cooperation between domestic and foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies essential. I work and visit regularly with my counterparts around the world as we fight common threats that do not recognize political boundaries. …


This paper describes the simulation, design, realization, and experimental test of a tapered transmission line (TL) for adapting a broad-band impulse generator to a radiating antenna, for a frequency range of 50 MHz-1 GHz. Two different taper geometries are considered and discussed in the analysis: exponential and logarithmic. Two analysis methods are also used: 1) analytical equations obtained by applying the TL theory and 2) full-wave numerical simulations in both frequency and time domains using Comsol. It is shown that, in general, an exponential taper performs better than a logarithmic one, particularly at high frequencies. Time-domain simulations reveal that, for fast transient subnanosecond pulses, both tapers can be used equivalently and the signal does not suffer from any significant distortion while traveling along the tapers. We also show that analytical equations obtained using the TL theory are in very good agreement with full-wave simulation results and can be used advantageously in the design of tapers. This paper also presents the mechanical design and the realization of an exponential taper used for the connection of a 50-Ω pulser to a half-impulse radiating antenna (HIRA) having an input impedance of 100-Ω . The realized taper is fully characterized in the frequency domain using a vector analyzer and in the time domain using a reflectometer and shown to be performing in agreement with the simulations.


In In this demo session, it will be shown how to perform Active Noise Control (ANC) and various important Acoustic experiments remotely on the remotely controlled ANC laboratory developed by Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. An important consideration in ANC is the active control's performance dependence on the spatial position of the reference and error sensors, etc. This will be highlighted particularly. This feature is recently implemented using stepper motors which can be controlled via the Internet. It will be demonstrated how to write and upload active noise control algorithms e.g. Filtered-X Least Mean Square (FXLMS) to a digital signal processors (DSP) board. For the acoustic experiments various interesting acoustic properties such as waveforms, speed of sound, mode shapes and sound pressure spectra may be measured. A short guide about the measurements and PowerPoint presentation will be provided during the demo to facilitate for the users. The Lab setup and the equipment will be shown to the user using Skype and a web camera.


Emotions play a significant role in many human mental activities, including decisionmaking, motivation, and cognition. Various intelligent and expert systems can be empowered with emotionally intelligent capabilities, especially systems that interact with humans and mimic human behaviour. However, most current methods in affect recognition studies use intrusive, lab-based, and expensive tools which are unsuitable for real-world situations. Inspired by studies on keystrokes dynamics, this thesis investigates the effectiveness of diagnosing users' affect through their typing behaviour in an educational context. To collect users' typing patterns, a field study was conducted in which subjects used a dialogue-based tutoring system built by the researcher. Eighteen dialogue features associated with subjective and objective ratings for users' emotions were collected. Several classification techniques were assessed in diagnosing users' affect, including discrimination analysis, Bayesian analysis, decision trees, and neural networks. An artificial neural network approach was ultimately chosen as it yielded the highest accuracy compared with the other methods. To lower the error rate, a hierarchical classification was implemented to first classify user emotions based on their valence (positive or negative) and then perform a finer classification step to determining which emotions the user experienced (delighted, neutral, confused, bored, and frustrated). The hierarchical classifier was successfully able to diagnose users' emotional valence, while it was moderately able to classify users' emotional states. The overall accuracy obtained from the hierarchical classifier significantly outperformed previous dialogue-based approaches and in line with some affective computing methods.


We examined the architectural properties of the rotator cuff muscles in 10 cadaveric specimens to understand their functional design. Based on our data and previously published joint angle-muscle excursion data, sarcomere length operating ranges were modeled through all permutations in 75º medial and lateral rotation and 75º abduction at the glenohumeral joint. Based on physiologic cross-sectional area, the subscapularis would have the greatest force-producing capacity, followed by the infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and teres minor. Based on fiber length, the supraspinatus would operate over the widest range of sarcomere lengths. The supraspinatus and infraspinatus had relatively long sarcomere lengths in the anatomic position, and were under relatively high passive tensions at rest, indicating they are responsible for glenohumeral resting stability. However, the subscapularis contributed passive tension at maximum abduction and lateral rotation, indicating it plays a critical role in glenohumeral stability in the position of apprehension. These data illustrate the exquisite coupling of muscle architecture and joint mechanics, which allows the rotator cuff to produce near maximal active tensions in the midrange and produce passive tensions in the various end-range positions. During surgery relatively small changes to rotator cuff muscle length may result in relatively large changes in shoulder function.


Our global ecological crisis demands that we question the rationality of the culture that has caused it: western modernity's free market capitalism. Philip Goodchild develops arguments from Nietzsche, Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marx, to suggest that our love of Western modernity is an expression of a piety in which capitalism becomes a global religion, in practice, if not always in belief. This book presents a philosophical alternative that demands attention from philosophers, critical theorists, philosophers of religion, theologians, and those in ecological politics.


The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary interval represents one of the most significant mass extinctions and ensuing biotic recoveries in Earth history. Earliest Paleocene fossil mammal faunas corresponding to the Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) are thought to be highly endemic and potentially diachronous, necessitating precise chronostratigraphic controls at key fossil localities to constrain recovery dynamics in continental biotas following the K–Pg mass extinction. The Laramide synorgenic sedimentary deposits within the Denver Basin in east-central Colorado preserve one of the most continuous and fossiliferous records of the K–Pg boundary interval in North America. Poor exposure in much of the Denver Basin, however, makes it difficult to correlate between outcrops. To constrain fossil localities in coeval strata across the basin, previous studies have relied upon chronostratigraphic methods such as magnetostratigraphy. Here, we present a new high-resolution magnetostratigraphy of 10 lithostratigraphic sections spanning the K–Pg boundary interval at Corral Bluffs located east of Colorado Springs in the southern part of the Denver Basin. Fossil localities from Corral Bluffs have yielded limited dinosaur remains, mammal fossils assigned to the Puercan NALMA, and numerous fossil leaf localities. Palynological analyses identifying the K–Pg boundary in three sections and two independent, but nearly identical, 206Pb/238U age estimates for the same volcanic ash, provide key temporal calibration points. Our paleomagnetic analyses have identified clear polarity reversal boundaries from chron C30n to chron C28r across the sections. It is now possible to place the fossil localities at Corral Bluffs within the broader basin-wide chronostratigraphic framework and evaluate them in the context of K–Pg boundary extinction and recovery.


Background
Knee osteoarthritis can be accompanied by depression and obesity, which could affect the quality of life (QOL) and function after a total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Objective
To compare the QOL in subjects with depression and obesity 5 years after TKA.

Methods
Cross-sectional study of prospectively collected data, with two and three groups based on depression and obesity status. Sociodemographic variables, QOL and pain were compared. Depression was evaluated with a screening geriatric depression questionnaire used in the Mexican Health and Age Study (CENASEM). QOL was evaluated with the health survey SF-36.

Results
378 participants were reviewed, 266 were included. Depression was detected in 24.1%, female (p < 0.001), with comorbidity (p = 0.04) and anxiety (p < 0.001), and the QOL score in subjects with depression was lower (p < 0.001). Obese subjects had greater pain (analogous visual scale 3 vs. 2; p = 0.002) and affection of the vitality domain in the QOL (75 vs. 80; p = 0.02).

Conclusions
Evaluating depression and QOL with questionnaires such as CENASEM and SF-36 in elderly subjects who undergo ATR should be indispensable, since detecting and treating depression could increase QOL and function. Obese elderly with TKA may present greater pain.


Flood sediments characterise the alluvial record, though the series of floods these deposits record is a complex one because of variable deposition in different alluvial subenvironments. To date, flood sequences in the UK have been analysed using upland boulder berms, vertically accreting fills in contracting channels, cutoff fills and flood basin deposits. These cover different timespans ranging from c. 100—300 yr (berms and channel fills) to a limited set of the most extreme of Holocene events. Collation of future site data may allow record splicing to generate longer or more continuous series. Other sequences are potentially available from alternative depositional environments, including lateral accretion deposits, slackwater sediments in bedrock channels and palaeochannels. However, these have not produced UK results as yet, and there are reasons for them being less useful in this environment than has proved to be the case elsewhere. Finally, a new approach to overbank sedimentation sequences is presented. Analysing such deposits in much greater detail than hitherto gives flood series on a millennial timescale, and it is suggested that the prevalence of such sediments on UK floodplains may allow longer and more complete flood series data to be obtained than has otherwise been possible.


One important function of AIS as the premier global organization for academics specializing in information systems is to create and sustain a community devoted to "Good Work." The psychologist, Howard Gardner, defines Good Work as work that is "technically Excellent; personally Engaging; and carried out in an "Ethical manner." This talk will reflect on how the LEO award encourages and celebrates Good Work in the Field.


In a teacher preparation methods course for elementary and secondary education at the University of San Diego, the integration of community service learning and the development and application of the case methods are proving a powerful approach to assess the teacher candidates' understanding and ability to apply university course content. In constructing their case studies, teacher candidates must provide information that will require readers to identify the factors that contribute to the situations or problems facing an immigrant child they are tutoring one-on-one. Along with case design, candidates provide their own evaluation of the case. These case studies are then reviewed by the instructor and distributed to other students for analysis and evaluation in class. This form of case methods development departs from the more traditional use of case studies where the instructor or textbook provides the students with the material to be analyzed. Instead of asking the students to analyze hypothetical cases in light of theory covered in class and field based learning experiences, they are asked to build cases themselves. This paper describes salient aspects of this interactive instructional approach that has effectively contributed to building bridges between theory and practice. Incorporating Case studies as Part of Experiential Education Case studies are useful because they provide college students with opportunities for decision making based on personal beliefs and educational theories (Greenwood & Parkay, 1988) that lead to effective practices. In adding experiential education or community service learning as an element for constructing case studies, these students are able to make professional decisions based on direct observation, interaction and practice with the subjects and school contexts with which they interact. Community service learning is a "pedagogical model that connects meaningful community service experiences with academic course learning" (Howard, 1993). It has proven effective to "socially engage students" (Alexander, 1993) and encourage active citizenship (Boyte & Farr, 1996). In the field of teacher education, research has shown that service learning helps to enhance prospective teachers "moral knowledge", and make them more aware of their own attitudes and biases. The experiences in the community also teach future teachers about inequities in the schools, and prepare them to teach populations who are culturally and linguistically diverse and different from them (Alexandrowicz & Kujawa, 1998; Anderson and Guest, 1993; Root & Bacheider, 1994: Root, 1997; Siegel, 1994; Sullivan, 1991). The development of case studies by teacher candidates is part of a framework designed to achieve the course objectives for EDUC 145/245 "Methods for Language and Academic Development in English", which has an enrollment that ranges from 20 to 30 students each semester. These objectives include: * Acquiring knowledge of theories and models of second language acquisition; * acquiring knowledge of pedagogical factors affecting second language/literacy development; * acquiring knowledge of cognitive and affective factors affecting second language learners development of literacy; * developing an awareness of theory of bilingual education; * acquiring knowledge about language arts programs for English learners; * providing hands-on assessment of second language learners for instructional planning; * developing and implementing lesson plans for language and academic development; * becoming aware of the key issues that promote or hinder a student's access to equal and quality education; * promoting an awareness of the relationship between socio-cultural contexts, second language development, and school success, and; * understanding and being more sensitive to the process of language development and acculturation. …


Recently, the controversy surrounding the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by Olympic and professional athletes has captured the media spotlight, in part as a response to the very public and pervasive steroids scandal plaguing Major League Baseball (MLB). This article examines trends in Americans' attitudes toward the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in Olympic and professional sport as a way to better understand the messaging challenges that policy makers, players, managers, coaches, and publicists face when trying to influence the media agenda. As the poll data presented suggest, Americans feel that the incidence of performanceenhancing- drug use in professional sport is significant, especially in MLB. Furthermore, Americans suggest that the leadership of various professional sports is not doing enough to combat the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by top competitors.


The current review aims at highlighting the main theoretical assumptions of historical sociolinguistics associated with its origins with special attention given to how these theoretical assumptions can assist language activists in their endeavor to provide the right conditions for analyzing linguistic variations and changes. Clearly, this review is organized around closely related paragraphs accompanied by commentaries on the historical sociolinguistics. This review provides a clearly written and concise introduction to the origins, philosophical developments, motivations, and main paradigms in historical sociolinguistics with a particular focus on the basic research done in the field over the last four decades with its diverse foundations in sociolinguistics, social history, historical linguistics, histories of individual languages, corpus linguistics, philology, discourse studies, socio-pragmatics, and traditional dialectology. Comparing the first four decades based on the studies conducted in the area, it is clearly observed that various studies have been carried out based on genre, speaker variables, and integration, respectively. This review also demystifies the fundamental distinction between principles and generalizations.


This work I try to deliver
in this paper due to the search by the sense of being a teacher-engineer, for
some time. The constant search for the meaning of engineering education in
environments like ours, still so dependent senses and knowledge of others, that
being so alien, and imposes were simply assumed without further discussion.
Industrial engineering does not arise in Colombia as a field of being able
specific, with a corpus discipline clearly definitely and differentiated, which
is constituted one of the motives that impedes his tracking inside engineering
education history. In the statements till now opposing, there is glimpsed how
this function was replaced by other engi- neers in the industry, such as
chemical or mechanical engineers, maybe the only one fact that re- veals his
emergence is his institutionalization as study plan in the Universidad
Industrial de San- tander in 1958 The exhibition of these facts, it uses as
support: The first one is that the processes of modernization and the form like
formed, from the new forms of economic rationality created with the development
model; they made necessary the appearance of the industrial engineering as
discipline in the powers of engineering. The second one is that it is possible
to form alternate speeches for the field of the industrial engineering in
Colombia. This reflection becomes relevant in recent times when promoting
critical thinking in engineering education has become important, from the
understanding that engineering moves into the intersection between social and technical
expertise should adapt to the economic, political and cultural contexts in
which it is applied. To which I make use of Foucault's notions of power and
subjectivity, the Bourdieu's notions of symbolic violence and Habermas
communicative action. Finally I try to illustrate the reflection with the
application of the concept "affectively critical learning" developed from the
courses that I directed in the Universidad Autonoma de Colombia.


Electrophiles formed during metabolic activation of chemical carcinogens and reactive oxygen species generated from endogenous and exogenous sources play a significant role in carcinogenesis. Cancer chemoprevention by induction of phase 2 proteins to counteract the insults of these reactive intermediates has gained considerable attention. Nuclear factor E2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a bZIP transcription factor, plays a central role in the regulation (basal and or inducible expression) of phase 2 genes by binding to the "antioxidant response element" in their promoters. Identification of novel Nrf2-regulated genes is likely to provide insight into cellular defense systems against the toxicities of electrophiles and oxidants and may define effective targets for achieving cancer chemoprevention. Sulforaphane is a promising chemopreventive agent that exerts its effect by strong induction of phase 2 enzymes via activation of Nrf2. In the present study, a transcriptional profile of small intestine of wild-type (nrf2 / ) and knock out (nrf2 / ) mice treated with vehicle or sulforaphane (9 mol/day for 1 week, p.o.) was generated using the Murine Genome U74Av2 oligonucleotide array (representing 6000 well-characterized genes and nearly 6000 expressed sequence tags). Comparative analysis of gene expression changes between different treatment groups of wild-type and nrf2-deficient mice facilitated identification of numerous genes regulated by Nrf2 including previously reported Nrf2-regulated genes such as NAD(P)H:quinone reductase (NQO1), glutathione S-transferase (GST), -glutamylcysteine synthetase (GCS), UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT), epoxide hydrolase, as well as a number of new genes. Also identified were genes encoding for cellular NADPH regenerating enzymes (glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, and malic enzyme), various xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, antioxidants (glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, ferritin, and haptaglobin), and biosynthetic enzymes of the glutathione and glucuronidation conjugation pathways. The data were validated by Northern blot analysis and enzyme assays of selected genes. This investigation expands the horizon of Nrf2-regulated genes, highlights the cross-talk between various metabolic pathways, and divulges the pivotal role played by Nrf2 in regulating cellular defenses against carcinogens and other toxins.


In Led by Language, poet and scholar Rachel Tzvia Back offers a close and detailed reading of Susan Howe's provocative and powerful poetry. Howe's work is dense, often difficult, but always distinctive, and Back's volume explains a number of features crucial to understanding her poems. In this complete survey of Howe's major work, from 1978's Secret History of the Dividing Line to 1999's Pierce-Arrow, Back highlights the key strategies underlying Howe's work: linguistic experimentation, historical motifs, autobiographical references, and visual experimentation with types, fonts, and images. One of the book's most compelling arguments is Back's case for reading Howe's work autobiographically. An obsession with history characterizes Howe's poetry - historical figures from Mary Magdalene to Melville haunt her work - and Back deftly demonstrates the intensely personal nature of much of the historical terrain Howe traverses. This study debunks the myth of Howe's impenetrability, making her work accessible to a wide range of readers. Back has created a thorough guide to reading and understanding this important poet, and her book will be welcomed by students and scholars of contemporary poetry, American literature, literary theory, and cultural studies.


Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains four known acyl-CoA synthetases (fatty acid activation proteins, Faaps). Faa1p and Faa4p activate exogenously derived fatty acids. Acyl-CoA metabolism plays a critical role in regulating protein N-myristoylation by the essential enzyme, myristoyl-CoA:protein N-myristoyltransferase (Nmt1p). In this report, we have examined whether Faa1p and Faa4p have distinct roles in affecting protein N-myristoylation as cells transition from growth in rich media to a growth-arrested state during nutrient deprivation (stationary phase). The colony-forming potential of 10 isogenic strains was defined as a function of time spent in stationary phase. These strains contained either a wild type or mutant NMT1 allele, and wild type or null alleles of each FAA. Only the combination of the Nmt mutant (nmt451Dp; reduced affinity for myristoyl-CoA) and loss of Faa4p produced a dramatic loss of colony-forming units (CFU). The progressive millionfold reduction in CFU was associated with a deficiency in protein N-myristoylation that first appeared during logarithmic growth, worsened through the post-diauxic phase, and became extreme in stationary phase. Northern and Western blot analyses plusN-myristoyltransferase assays showed that Nmt is normally present only during the log and diauxic/post-diauxic periods, indicating that N-myristoylproteins present in stationary phase are "inherited" from these earlier phases. Moreover,FAA4 is the only FAA induced during the critical diauxic/early post-diauxic transition. Although substitution of nmt1–451D for NMT1 results in deficiencies in protein N-myristoylation, these deficiencies are modest and limited by compensatory responses that include augmented expression of nmt1–451D and precocious induction of FAA4in log phase. Loss of Faa4p from nmt1–451D cells severely compromises their capacity to adequately myristoylate Nmt substrates prior to entry into stationary phase since none of the other Faaps are able to functionally compensate for its absence. To identify Nmt1p substrates that may affect maintenance of proliferative potential during stationary phase, we searched the yeast genome for known and putative N-myristoylproteins. Of the 64 genes found, 48 were successfully deleted in NMT1 cells. Removal of any one of the following nine substrates produced a loss of CFU similar to that observed in nmt1–451Dfaa4Δ cells: Arf1p, Arf2p, Sip2p, Van1p, Ptc2p, YBL049W (homology to Snf7p), YJR114W, YKR007W, and YMR077C. These proteins provide opportunities to further define the molecular mechanisms that regulate survival during stationary phase.


In Arkansas where nearly 50 percent of the U.S.A rice is produced, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) toxicity causes the primary symptom that mainly include stunted plants with black root rotting and yellowish foliage in some flooded fields where the disorder prevail. In rice fields where H2S toxicity is severe, rice root crowns rot rendering an opportunity for the invasion of weak pathogenic fungi causing a phenomenon called autumn decline or akiochi in Japanese. The symptoms in rice plants are irreversible once the fungal invasion established. With the identification of more rice fields displaying H2S toxicity and autumn decline in the recent five years, we started testing commercial rice cultivars for tolerance to these disorders. In the testing process we faced problem what scale to use. The objective of the study was directed to developing a method that estimates the combined damages from H2S toxicity and autumn decline on rice root mass and root crown. The scale was developed from percentage values collected separately in 2015 on root mass discoloration and root crown damage. The percentage values were first translated to a 0 to 5 and a 0 to 9 scale for root mass discoloration and root crown damage, respectively. A double weight was assigned to root crown damage due to its greater impact on the survival of a rice plant. To combine the damages from the two disorders, a matrixaddition scale was developed to best reflect our field observations. Correlation coefficients were compared between the prior scales and the transformed matrices in matrix-addition scale. Further verification was carried out in a replicated field experiment in 2016. The matrixaddition scale was verified as reliable and useful to assess rice cultivars grown in fields with a history of H2S toxicity and autumn decline in the U.S.A and worldwide. The scale can also be used to estimate responses of other wetland vegetation or crops that may have two related phenomena.


Throughout English history the rule of law and the preservation of liberty have been inseparable, and both are intrinsic to England's constitution. This accessible and entertaining history traces the growth of the law from its beginnings in Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. It shows how the law evolved from a means of ensuring order and limiting feuds to become a supremely sophisticated dispenser of justice and the primary guardian of civil liberties. This development owed much to the English kings and their judiciary, who, in the twelfth century, forged a unified system of law - predating that of any other European country - from almost wholly Anglo-Saxon elements. Yet by the seventeenth century this royal offspring - Oedipus Lex it could be called - was capable of regicide. Since then the law has had a somewhat fractious relationship with that institution upon which the regal mantle of supreme power descended, Parliament. This book tells the story of the common law not merely by describing major developments but by concentrating on prominent personalities and decisive cases relating to the constitution, criminal jurisprudence, and civil liberties. It investigates the great constitutional conflicts, the rise of advocacy, and curious and important cases relating to slavery, insanity, obscenity, cannibalism, the death penalty, and miscarriages of justice. The book concludes by examining the extension of the law into the prosecution of war criminals and protection of universal human rights and the threats posed by over-reaction to national emergencies and terrorism. Devoid of jargon and replete with good stories, Law, Liberty and the Constitution represents a new approach to the telling of legal history and will be of interest to anyone wishing to know more about the common law - the spinal cord of the English body politic. Harry Potter is a former fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and a practising barrister specialising in criminal defence. He has authored books on the death penalty and Scottish history and wrote and presented an award-winning series on the history of the common law for the BBC.


In recent years health insurers have placed a great deal of emphasis on the ability of generic medicines to deliver significant savings to overstretched health care budgets due to their lower cost and potential for a more efficient resource allocation. In this paper we study market developments after patent expiry, whether health insurance captures the financial benefits from cheaper generics, and whether regulation and product differentiation, among others, have any power in explaining originator and generic price movements, generic entry and diffusion. We find that health insurance does not capitalize fully or fast enough on the cost advantage of generic medicines, either because generic policies do not encourage their fast uptake, or because generic drug prices are high and frequently tied, directly or indirectly, to originator drug prices. We also find that reference pricing, a particular form of reimbursement regulation, encourages generic entry and reduces generic prices but only marginally. Finally, in generic markets characterized by homogeneous products, we find evidence of product differentiation which is impacting prices upwards rather than downwards. If health insurance is to benefit fully from generic medicines, it ought to encourage faster uptake and price competition, and discourage price-fixing regulation that ties generic prices to those of originator brands.

— Panos Kanavos, Joan Costa-Font and Elizabeth Seeley


When two fires approach each other, convective and radiative heat transfer processes are greatly enhanced. The interaction between two linear fire fronts making an angle θoi between them is of particular interest as it produces a very rapid advance of their intersection point with intense radiation and convection activity in the space between the fire lines. This fire is designated here as a 'jump fire' for when the value of θoi is small, the intersection point of the fire lines can reach unusually high rate of spread values that decrease afterwards in the course of time. A very simple analytical model based on the concept of energy concentration between the fire lines is proposed to explain this behaviour, which in large-scale fires can be of great concern to personnel and property safety. Experimental tests performed at laboratory scale on a horizontal fuel bed confirmed the basic assumptions of the model and provide a framework to extend the present analysis to more general conditions, namely to explain the behaviour of real fires. Given the rapid changes in fire behaviour, 'jump fires' can be considered as a form of extreme fire behaviour.


In aging societies, information on how to reform pension systems is essential to policy makers. This study scrutinizes effects of early retirement disincentives on retirement behavior, individual welfare, pensions and public budget. We employ administrative pension data and a detailed model of the German tax and social security system to estimate a structural dynamic retirement model. We find that retirement behavior is strongly influenced by the level of disincentives. Further, disincentives come at the cost of increasing inequality and individual welfare losses. Still, net public returns are about three times as high as monetarized individual welfare losses. Our estimates also suggest that similar levels of net public returns, if achieved by indiscriminating pension cuts, are associated with individual welfare losses that are more than twice as high.


The fluorescent dye 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazin-2-yla)m inofluorescein (DTAF) was used to label a small alga (Nannochloris sp.), following the protocol of Sherr et al. (1987). A rotifer (Brachionus sp.) and a small ciliate (Euplotes sp.) ingested the fluorescently labelled algae (FLA) and demonstrated saturation kinetics. A small tintinnid ingested the FLA at rates intermediate to those of the rotifer and ciliate. Fluorescent labelling of algae is a promising technique that may be used for estimating grazing rates in a manner analogous to that discribed by Sherr et al. (1987) using fluorescently labelled bacteria (FLB).


This study evaluated the Sanitary Vigilance System for Blood at federal government level (VIGISAN). This assessment included the following components: managerial system of registration of hemotherapeutic services; external evaluation program of quality of hemotherapy services; hemovigilance system; standardization and inspection of health services for blood and its components. Besides the description and the calculation of efficiency (cost-effectiveness ratio) of VIGISAN, the assessment consisted of two phases based on three methods. VIGISAN had a poorly defined structure, though it operated smoothly and its utility was acceptable for public health. From a total of four defined indicators to evaluate performance, one obtained a satisfactory result. Three out of the seven evaluation attributes achieved positive assessment in this study. The cost-effectiveness ratio was US$ 37,965.16 per activity performed, which resulted in loss of efficiency for the system. This study demonstrates the importance of conducting evaluations of vigilance systems in public health, which should be performed periodically in order to contribute to improvement of the system and thus improve public health in the country.


The IDB's support for Urban Transportation projects in Latin America has grown rapidly in recent years, with annual lending volume for the urban transport sector growing by 36% from 2005 to 2012, comprising more than 20 percent of the transport sector lending portfolio by 2012. This support is likely to continue growing in the next decade due to several institutional commitments, programs, and strategies, including the GCI-9 Agreement, the Sustainable Transport Action Plan (REST-AP), the Sustainable Cities Program, and the Rio+20 Commitments. The objective of these comparative case studies is to identify lessons learned from Bank supported integrated mass transit projects involving bus rapid transit (BRT) systems as a central component. In light of the growing importance of urban transport sector in the region and in the Bank's portfolio, the evaluation findings will help identify factors that affect the successes, challenges, and barriers to effective implementation Bank supported integrated urban transport system projects and inform future Bank urban transportation operations, as well as identify possible future urban transportation evaluation needs.


To celebrate the 150th volume of the Journal of the Geological Society, several distinguished authors have been invited to present their personal views on significant topics that had been brought to the fore in earlier publications of the Geological Society. These include the early seminal works of Lyell, Murchison, Sedgwick and Sorby to later ones by Howell Williams, O.T. Jones, H.H. Read and even several by still active protagonists. Two or three such contributions will appear in each issue of volume 150 of the Journal. In this issue, Martin Rudwick looks at the history of the Journal, Brian Windley applies Lyell's Principle of Uniformitarianism to solving the Earth's history during the Archaean and subsequently, and Stuart McKerrow considers the works of Murchison and Sedgwick and others, and sees how they created a foundation from which modern global stratigraphy has emerged. The contributions make evident the role held by the Journal and other publications of the Geological Society, at the forefront of geological thinking right across the many specializations that now divide the science. Volume 150 in 1993 is not quite the sesquicentennial issue, because in 1977 two volumes were published in order to clear the back-log of good papers awaiting publication. The same feeling that too much good science was not receiving the wide appreciation deserved, was one factor that made Lyell, Murchison, Warburton, Horner and De La Beche seek an improved medium of publication for the Geological Society in the 1840s. As Rudwick points out in the first of


It has been fully recognized that the looming loss of the majority of the world's languages requires rapid direct action in the form of linguistic documentation, description and conservation. However, documentation efforts have thus far been focused on traditional fieldwork largely to the exclusion of working with immigrant groups outside the original speech community. By doing so, an enormous linguistic resource has been overlooked. Here, I explore the advantages, disadvantages and general prospects for "ex-situ" documentation in the context of the Urban Fieldstation for Linguistic Research, a soon to be launched center for language documentation in New York City. The UFLR will operate in collaboration with the the City University of New York Graduate Center with the following goals: (i) to facilitate an ongoing survey of endangered and marginalized languages within NYC, (ii) to produce high quality documentation and descriptive work on languages spoken by local immigrant groups, (iii) to find ways of integrating language documentation into the standard linguistics curricula. Some obvious disadvantages of "ex-situ" documentation are that many of the original speech genres and social contexts are difficult to reproduce outside the original community, localized environmental vocabularies (e.g. fauna and flora) are impossible to document beyond the basics, and the social mobility required to travel outside the speaker's native country often corresponds to dominance in the national language, which can make finding fluent speakers challenging. Because of all these factors, ex-situ documentation will never be able to replace in-situ fieldwork. Nonetheless, I argue that ex-situ documentation is still feasible, necessary and even has its own unique advantages, the most important of which are the reduction of cost, bureaucracy, time pressure and the affordance of a controlled environment for recording. More importantly, by easing logistic burdens, large-scale collaboration with multiple researchers can be facilitated. I discuss all these issues in the context of two on-going projects in the UFLR, one on the Minahasan languages (Austronesian; North Sulawesi, Indonesia) and the other on Zaghawa (Nilo-Saharan; Darfur, Sudan).


The incentives for investments in Americans' health are poorly aligned. Health insurers are not sufficiently motivated to invest for the long term. The structure of health insurance does not compensate insurers for investments in lasting health, such as measures preventing chronic disease. If an American changes insurers, the new insurer reaps the benefits of the good health the prior insurer's investment produced. This Essay explores insurers' incentives to invest in health, illustrates how those incentives fail, explores possible improvements, and shows that subsequent insurers should have an obligation to compensate the prior insurer for the averted expenses of expected diseases that did not emerge. This gives insurers the full incentive to prevent chronic disease while strengthening the incentives to develop cures.


Pilot innovative accelerator based neutron source for neutron capture therapy of cancer is under construction now at the Budker Institute. One of the main elements of the facility is lithium target producing neutrons via threshold 7Li(p, n)7Be reaction at 10 mA proton beam with energies of 1.915 MeV or 2.5 MeV. In the present report, choice of target was substantiated. The main problems of lithium target were determined to be: 7Be radioactive isotope activation, keeping lithium layer solid, presence of photons resulted from proton inelastic scattering on lithium nuclei, and radiation blistering. The results of thermal testing of target prototype, investigation of radiation blistering and several simulations are presented. It becomes clear that water is preferable for cooling this target, and that the lithium target 10 cm in diameter is able to run up to 25 kW proton beam before melting. The conception of optimal target is proposed: thin and easy to detach metal disk 10 cm in diameter, evaporated with thin layer of pure lithium from the side of proton beam exposure: its back is intensively cooled with turbulent water flow to maintain lithium layer solid. Design of target for the neutron source constructed at BINP is shown. Conceptions of radiation protection and neutrons, γ-rays and α- particles diagnostics are presented. The immediate plans on obtaining epithermal neutron beam are declared.


Background Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common subtype of non-small cell lung cancer. Ferroptosis is a newly recognized process of cell death, which is different from other forms of cell death in morphology, biochemistry, and genetics, and has played a vital role in cancer biology. This study aimed to identify a ferroptosis-related gene signature associated with LUAD prognosis. Methods Dataset TCGA-LUAD which came from the TCGA portal was taken as the training cohort. GSE72094 and GSE68465 from the GEO database were treated as validation cohorts. Two hundred fifty-nine ferroptosis-related genes were retrieved from the FerrDb database. In the training cohort, Kaplan–Meier and univariate Cox analyses were conducted for preliminary screening of ferroptosis-related genes with potential prognostic capacity. These genes then entered into the LASSO Cox regression model, constructing a gene signature. The latter was then evaluated in the training and validation cohorts via Kaplan–Meier, Cox, and ROC analyses. In addition, the correlations between risk score and autophagy were examined by Pearson correlation coefficient. The analyses of GSEA and immune infiltrating were performed for better studying the function annotation of the gene signature and the character of each kind of immune cells played in the tumor microenvironment. Results A 15-gene signature was found from the training cohort and validated by Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression analyses, revealing its independent prognosis value in LUAD. Moreover, the ROC analysis was conducted, confirming a strong predictive ability that this signature owned for LUAD prognosis. One hundred fifty-one of 222 (68.01%) autophagy-related genes were discovered significantly correlated with risk scores. Analyses of GSEA and immune infiltration exhibited in detail the specific pathways that associate with the 15-gene signature and identified the crucial roles of resting mast cells and resting dendritic cells owned in the prognosis of the 15-gene signature. Conclusion In this present study, a novel ferroptosis-related 15-gene signature (RELA, ACSL3, YWHAE, EIF2S1, CISD1, DDIT4, RRM2, PANX1, TLR4, ARNTL, LPIN1, HERPUD1, NCOA4, PEBP1, and GLS2) was built. It could accurately predict the prognosis of LUAD and was related to resting mast cells and resting dendritic cells, which provide potential for the personalized outcome prediction and the development of new therapies in LUAD population.


Background/aims The Y402H polymorphism in the complement factor H (CFH) gene is an important risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Complement activation products and proinflammatory cytokines are associated with this polymorphism at the systemic level, but less is known of the associations in the outer retina of the genotyped eye. Here we investigate complement activation products and their role in nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation and gene expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. Methods Postmortem donor eyes were genotyped for the CFH Y402H polymorphism and assessed for complement C3a, C5a, interleukin (IL)-18 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α. ARPE19 cells were stimulated basolaterally with C5a or TNF-α in polarised cultures. NF-κB activation was assessed with a reporter cell line. Gene expression of inflammasome-related (NLRP3, caspase-1, IL-1β and IL-18) and classic inflammatory (IL-6 and IL-8) genes was studied. The distribution of inflammasome products, IL-1β and IL-18, was studied in postmortem donor eyes with AMD pathologies. Results Eyes with the homozygous at-risk variant demonstrated higher levels of C5a, IL-18 and TNF-α in Bruch's membrane and choroid. C5a promoted NF-κB activation and upregulation of IL-18 in polarised ARPE19. TNF-α promoted NF-κB activation and gene expression of caspase-1, IL-1β, IL-18, IL-6 and IL-8, but downregulated NLRP3. In eyes with geographic atrophy, strong immunoreactivity was observed for inflammasome products IL-1β and IL-18 compared with age-matched controls. Conclusion The at-risk polymorphism of the CFH Y402H may contribute to AMD disease process through increased complement and NF-κB activation, and the upregulation of IL-18, a product of inflammasome activation.


The concept of the minimum spanning tree (MST) plays an important role in topological network design, because it models a cheapest connected network. In a tree, however, the failure of a vertex can disconnect the network. In order to tolerate such a failure, we generalize the MST to the concept of a cheapest biconnected network. For a set of points in the Euclidean plane, we show that it is NP-hard to find a cheapest biconnected spanning graph, where edge costs are the Euclidean distances of the respective points. We propose a different type of subgraph, based on forbidding (due to failure) the use of a vertex. A minimum spanning multi-tree is a spanning graph that contains for each possible forbidden vertex a spanning tree that is minimum among the spanning trees that do not use the forbidden vertex. We propose a worst-case time optimal algorithm for computing a minimum spanning multi-tree for a planar Euclidean point set. A minimum spanning multi-tree is cheap, even though it embeds a linear number of MSTs: Its cost is more than the MST cost only by a constant factor. Furthermore, we propose a linear time algorithm for computing a cheap vertex failure tolerant graph, given the Delaunay triangulation. This graph bounds the cost of the minimum spanning multi-tree from above.


We describe 47 new species of Nodosariid small foraminifers from the upper part of the Cisuralian through Lopingian (Dzhigdalinian, Omolonian, Gizhigian and Kolymian regional stages) in the Permian of the Omolon massif, northeastern Siberia, Russia as follows: Nodosariidae ( Protonodosaria – 2 species, Nodosaria – 21 species, Pseudonodosaria – 1 species, Rectoglandulina – 12 species); Dentalinidae ( Dentalina – 1 species); Geinitzinidae (genus Howchinella – 9 species and Omoloniella, n. gen, with type species O. russiensis ). The generic affinity of the species Nodosaria vaskovskyi (A. Miklukho-Maklay 1948) has been changed and also a new description of this species is given. The genus Rectoglandulina Loeblich and Tappan 1955 is considered to be a valid genus and is reinstated herein. The diagnosis of the genus Protonodosaria is emended.


In general, mesophilic anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge is more widely used compared to thermophilic digestion, mainly because of the lower energy requirements and higher stability of the process. However, the thermophilic anaerobic digestion process is usually characterised by accelerated biochemical reactions and higher growth rate of microorganisms resulting in an increased methanogenic potential at lower hydraulic retention times. Furthermore, thermal pre-treatment is suitable for the improvement of stabilization and could be realized at relatively low cost especially at low temperatures. The present study investigates the effect of the pre-treatment at 70 8C on thermophilic (55 8C) anaerobic digestion of primary and secondary sludge in continuously operated digesters. Thermal pre-treatment of primary and secondary sludge at 70 8C enhanced the removal of organic matter and the methane production during the subsequent anaerobic digestion step at 55 8C. It also greatly contributed to the destruction of pathogens present in primary sludge. Finally it results in enhanced microbial activities of the subsequent anaerobic step suggesting that the same efficiencies in organic matter removal and methane recovery could be obtained at lower HRTs.


With globalisation and technological innovation changing the global marketplace, research (e.g. Australian International Education Foundation, 1998; Kling, Alexander, McCorkle, & Martinez, 1999; Webb, Mayer, Pioche, & Allen, 1999) has shown that employers are seeking graduates with international competencies. Moreover, it is argued that it is the role of universities to prepare students to work in the new international context, thus meeting the needs of business and society (Fantini, Arias-Galicia, & Guay, 2001; Higher Education Council, 1990). International education opportunities such as student exchange programs have been identified as effective means through which university students may develop such skills and knowledge (Clyne & Rizvi, 1998; Fantini et al., 2001; Wallace, 1993). Currently, less than one percent of Australian undergraduate students complete part of their qualification in an overseas institution (IDP Education Australia, 1995). Much research to date has focused on issues such as psychological and social adjustment of international students. Yet, there is a paucity of literature relating to the effects of international education experiences for Australian domestic students. Hence, this paper will examine the issues affecting Australian students' participation in academic mobility programs, with a particular focus on the factors influencing the decision to participate in a student exchange program.


Finding one's way ('wayfinding') whilst driving in unfamiliar areas is a complex activity. The dual tasks of wayfinding and driving simultaneously may lead to driving performance decrements, as many cognitive resources are required to perform both the components required for navigation as well as manage those required for safe driving. Older drivers with age-related cognitive decline may have particular difficulty with the extra cognitive demands associated with wayfinding. The main aims of this thesis were 1) to examine how ageing and cognitive functioning impact wayfinding ability whilst driving; and 2) to investigate aspects of performance, usability, acceptability and acceptance issues for selected wayfinding strategies to assist with wayfinding whilst driving. This thesis was submitted by publication and included three research studies reported in five journal articles. The first study included a mail-out survey completed by drivers aged 65 years and over (n=534) and their main driving companions (n=194). The survey covered self-reported wayfinding ability, use of wayfinding strategies, passenger assistance and acceptability of electronic navigation systems. In the second study forty-seven participants aged between 21-82 years (47% aged over 65 years) completed a self-directed wayfinding task on a driving simulator whilst using a paper map. Wayfinding and driving performance variables were examined and the role of age and objective measures of cognitive functioning were studied. A sub-set of participants (n=27; aged 32-82 years) in this study completed an additional driving simulator wayfinding task, directed by their regular passenger. Wayfinding and driving performance variables during passenger collaboration were compared with performance for the self-directed task. The third study involved a sample of older drivers aged 65 years and over (n=20) who participated in a trial of a GPS in their own cars. Participants completed surveys about their acceptance of the technology and barriers to use. The combined results of the studies suggest that wayfinding whilst driving is difficult and associated with driving performance decrements for some older drivers, particularly those with age-related cognitive decline. Older drivers with perceived wayfinding difficulties are more likely to use and be willing to use compensatory measures to assist with wayfinding. The studies demonstrated several benefits of passenger-assisted wayfinding, including reduced distraction caused by looking at wayfinding materials and fewer compensatory actions such as slowing down and stopping. While there was no clear evidence of a safety benefit, importantly, there were no detrimental effects on other driving performance variables. The benefits of passenger assistance were greater for older drivers with poorer cognitive abilities. While many older drivers reported being willing to use navigation systems in the future, for others, perceived need and performance issues were potential barriers to acceptance. This study provided several new insights into the reported wayfinding behaviour of older drivers, as well as their use of compensatory strategies. The relationships between age, cognitive performance and wayfinding were investigated under conditions more closely related to the actual wayfinding experiences of older drivers than in previous research. The research reported in this thesis highlights the need for further investigation of driving and wayfinding difficulties and potential strategies to ensure the safety and mobility of older drivers.


The following studies by Johns Hopkins researchers describe two new potential targets for cancer drugs, one that takes aim at the beginning of the tumor growth process and origins of cancer cells and the other at the process of tumor spread. Reports on the work, published in the August 1, 2006 issue of Cancer Research, describe experiments with mice and cell cultures that could lead to new treatments for childhood brain tumors and adult prostate cancers. Researchers Target Cells That cause Brain Cancer Building on previous research linking a common childhood brain cancer called medulloblastoma with high levels of the Notch2 gene, a team led by Charles Eberhart, M.D., Ph.D., is exploiting Notch2 gene products known to regulate brain stem-cell growth and survival. The new studies provide the first hint that a class of drugs, called gamma secretase inhibitors, which block Notch proteins and currently are being developed for Alzheimer's disease, specifically kills stem cells responsible for creating and sustaining a brain tumor. "Drugs that we typically use to treat cancer don't seem to kill tumor stem cells," says Eberhart, associate professor of pathology and oncology, and after the stem cells survive an onslaught of chemotherapy and radiation, they are left to regrow new tumors. Gamma secretase inhibitors appear to overcome this barrier. Eberhart and postdoctoral fellow Xing Fan, M.D., Ph.D., treated medulloblastoma cell cultures for 48 hours with a gamma secretase inhibitor and found that tumor growth slowed. Closer inspection of the types of cells in the culture revealed that the cancer's stem cells were almost completely eliminated by the drug, but remained indrugless cultures. Intrigued, the researchers injected the drugged and drug-free cultured cells into mice. All 24 control mice with cells not treated with the Notch-blocking drug grew large tumors. Mice that received cells previously treated with the drug fared much better. Only two of eight mice in this group grew very small tumors - less than one-tenth the size of control tumors. "Medulloblastoma stem cells have much higher Notch gene activity than other cells in the tumor, which may be why the stem cells die first. They are more dependent on the Notch pathway, and blocking it causes severe problems," Eberhart explains. Although the stem cells are a very small percentage of the entire tumor - approximately 1 percent - other researchers have identified heavy-duty transporters on their cell surfaces that may pump out chemotherapy drugs and cause cancers to become treatment-resistant. Eberhart and Fan are continuing laboratory studies to select an appropriate gamma secretase inhibitor for clinical trials. This study was funded by the Children's Cancer Foundation of Baltimore, Md. Additional authors include William Matsui, Leila Khaki, and Duncan Stearns of Johns Hopkins; and Jiong Chun and Yue-Ming Li of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Enzyme Linked to Prostate Cancer Spread Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have found that an enzyme, normally associated with the nervous system, appears to control deadly spread in prostate cancer. Blocking the enzyme, called CDK5, could prevent disease spread in high-risk patients and make metastatic cells more susceptible to chemotherapy. "Cancer cells must be able to 'crawl' out of the primary tumor in order to spread," says Barry Nelkin, Ph.D., professor of oncology, who notes that the cell's mobility is controlled by activation of the CDK5 enzyme. The enzyme alters a cell's inner skeleton, allowing it to change shape and move to invade other tissues. Says Nelkin, cancer cells also activate CDK5 to reduce the number of "sticky" molecules coating its surface and loosen the bonds to neighboring cancer cells. Once a cancer cell pulls free, it can migrate to other areas of the body via the bloodstream and establish potentially lethal spread. High levels of active CDK5 were found inprostate cancer cells, as well as melanoma and thyroid, adrenal, pancreatic and small cell lung cancers. Using mice with a form of prostate cancer that spreads to the lung, the researchers implanted genetically modified tumors that blocked the CDK5 enzyme. Mice with CDK5-free tumors had a 79 percent reduction in the number of metastatic lung lesions. The researchers will continue studies to determine the role of CDK5 in other cancers and development of a CDK5 enzyme-blocker suitable for humans. This research was funded by the National Cancer Institute and Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund. Authors include Christopher J. Strock, Jong-In Park, Eric K. Nakakura, G. Steven Bova, John T. Isaacs, and Douglas W. Ball of Johns Hopkins. For more information, contact: Vanessa Wasta; Tel.: 410.955.1287


Cellular responses to the extracellular environment can involve changes in gene expression, often the end point of signaling cascades that originate at the cell surface. Some signaling pathways regulate RNA polymerase II enzyme activity to control transcription. Many pathways impinge on transactivator proteins poised at gene promoters. These transactivators recruit the RNA polymerase II by interacting with regulator proteins of the Srb and Mediator complexes that also make up the polymerase holoenzyme. Chang et al. report that the Ras-protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which controls cell proliferation, targets the Srb9p protein in the Srb complex. Srb proteins and the Ras-PKA pathway are known to repress the expression of genes during the stationary phase of cell growth. Srb9p was phosphorylated by PKA in vitro and in vivo. Expression of a constitutively activated form of Ras also increased phosphorylation of Srb9p and the modification modulated the effect of the Srb complex on cell growth. The authors propose that by directly targeting proteins of the polymerase complex, cells could rapidly induce broad changes in gene expression. Y.-W. Chang, S. C. Howard, P. K. Herman, The Ras/PKA signaling pathway directly targets the Srb9 protein, a component of the general RNA polymerase II transcription apparatus. Mol. Cell 15, 107-116 (2004). [Online Journal]


Uncertainty is a precondition for our choices to have meaning, but we like to think we have adaptive capacities to deal with the surprises and opportunities uncertainty entails. The turbulent field was defined in 1965 by Emery and Trist as the most uncertain causal texture a system could be in, though the more uncertain hyper-turbulent and vortical fields have been considered since. Peoples' experience of the uncertainty in turbulence is moderated by the adaptive capacities they perceive they can mobilize, both individually and collectively. In turbulence, pre-existing adaptation possibilities are overwhelmed for the individual system. Turbulence for a system arises because its broader contextual environment and its constituent parts become highly inter-linked and the resulting complexity and the uncertainty it produces overwhelms that system's response capability, as happened in the recent financial crises - the demise of Lehman Brothers, the Icelandic and Irish melt-downs, the even questioning the Euro's viability. In a turbulent world, scenarios are helpful navigators of the uncertainties of such futures for systems in it. The values that scenarios can surface, test, and contest contribute to create certainty for those that participate in their production, pushing turbulence back and re-constructing a more stable ground for decision making and investing.


REAL TIME MONITORING OF MORPHOLOGY ON EXTRUSION OF THE POLYPROPYLENE/ NYLON 6 POLYMERIC BLEND The aim of this work is to assess in real time the morphological parameters of polypropylene and polyamide 6 blends during the extrusion process. An optical detector based on the visible light transmitted and extinction principle was assembled in a slit die located at the exit of a twin screw extruder in order to get the changes in the polyamide 6 particle concentration and size. The influence of particle size and concentration was first verified during bench calibration, where it was observed that the light extinction was greater the higher the concentration and the lower the particle size. In the case of mixtures an additional relation concerned to changes in size and density was verified. It was also stated that the detector records the ponderal average size of a set of particles. During extrusion experiments, the analyses were performed in the steady and transient state. In both cases it was verified that normalized signal intensity increases with increasing particle concentration and decreasing the dispersed phase size. Infrared analysis and images obtained from scanning electron microscopy confirmed these results. The correlation between dispersed phase concentration and size with the detector's normalized signal was established through the elaboration of regression equations. The plot of normalized signal as a function of the dispersed phase concentration and size enabled the calculation of the extinction cross section values for the PP/ PA6 blend.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Concern is often expressed about the satisfaction of new physicians and the potential match of their workplace goals with available positions. We studied the interface of desired professional activities with actual initial positions. METHODS: Survey study of all general pediatricians taking the 2012 General Pediatrics Certifying Examination. RESULTS: Of the 5210 who sat for the General Pediatrics Certifying Examination, 5163 (>99%) completed the survey. Of the total respondents, 45% self- identified as general pediatricians (N = 2327). Of those who completed training <2 years ago (N = 1365), most were currently engaged in clinical care (87%; N = 1190). The most important factor, cited most frequently by both men and women, in the choice of their first job was lifestyle and spousal or family considerations. Most (83%; N = 977) reported that the allocation of time for specific duties in their current position was consistent with their goals, with no differences between men and women. Most had no desire for inpatient activity. CONCLUSIONS: Despite concerns about young general pediatricians being able to find positions that meet their career goals, most were in jobs that approximated their desired allocation of professional time and focus of clinical work.


In the industrial sector refractory material is required due to an increased amount of usage of high temperature furnance, particularly in the metal smelting insdutry at PT. Suyuti Sido Maju Ceper Klaten. The refractory materials use as a furnace heat insulator, so that it can stabilized the heat 13000C. The use of refractory material should be adjusted to the characteristics of the melted metal, so that the errors can be minimized and the material can be more efficient. Therefore, refractory material characterization is needed in order to determine the chemical composition analysis using XRD, grain size, and shape using the mesh, bulk density, apparent porosity, and microstructure analysis using optical microscope.
 In this study, refractory material in the form powder made by 240 MPa compaction pressure, with 17.8 mm dimension of mold and the height 50 mm. The process of making the specimen through the sintering process by temperature variation 12000C, 1300 0C, 14000C and time of detention/holding time 2 hours at each temperature, while the heating rate of 10oC/min and cooling rate of 20oC/min.
The x-ray diffraction results showed that the main chemical composition refractory powder is quartz (SiO2) with low quartz phase, whereas the refractory specimens that have been printed and sintered at 14000C appears the cristobalite phase. The results form and grain size showed that the refractory powder classified by major types of sub-angular grain size between 0.062 to 4 mm. density and porosity values at a temperature of 12000C, 13000C, 14000C in a row is 2.16 g/cm3, 2.22 g/cm3, 2.28 g/cm3 and 18.47%, 18.25 %, 16.62%. the results of microstructure analysis show that increasing the sintering temperature refractory pores has narrowed.


AIM
Pharmacogenetic landscapes of commonly used antiplatelet drugs, warfarin and clopidogrel have been studied in-depth in many countries. However, there is a paucity of data to understand their patterns in the Arab populations.

MATERIALS & METHODS
We analyzed the whole exome sequencing datasets of 100 Qatar individuals available in public domain with this perspective.

RESULTS
We characterized the allelic distribution of variants routinely tested for warfarin and clopidogrel. We additionally evaluated the population stratification and its effect on allele frequency distribution. Our analysis points to ethnic differences in the frequency distribution even for the small population studied.

CONCLUSION
This is one of the first and most comprehensive pharmacogenetic maps of variants associated with warfarin and clopidogrel for an Arab population, which can help tailor the drug dosage to the population.


Introduction: All references about France, be they about French language, French culture, French arrogance or French cuisine seem to indicate that this country is homogeneous, mono-lingua and mono-cultural. If we consider some of its regions we can note a huge linguistic and cultural diversity: Corsica is Italo-Roman, Brittany is Celtic, Flemish is spoken in the North of France, Alsace is Germanic, the language in the Basque region is pre Indo-European while Catalan and Occitan both form part of the "occitano-roman group, half way between Gallo-Roman and Ibero-Roman." According to the new Atlas of Endangered World Naguages published by UNESCO, all these languages, with the exception of Corsican, are part of the 3000 languages in danger of extinction.


The original review of macropores and water flow in soils by Beven and Germann is now 30 years old and has become one of the most highly cited papers in hydrology. This paper attempts to review the progress in observations and theoretical reasoning about preferential soil water flows over the intervening period. It is suggested that the topic has still not received the attention that its importance deserves, in part because of the ready availability of software packages rooted firmly in the Richards domain, albeit that there is convincing evidence that this may be predicated on the wrong experimental method for natural conditions. There is still not an adequate physical theory linking all types of flow, and there are still not adequate observational techniques to support the scale dependent parameterizations that will be required at practical field and hillslope scales of application. Some thoughts on future needs to develop a more comprehensive representation of soil water flows are offered.


Biosorption of Au(III) and Cu(II) from dilute aqueous solutions was investigated by biomass of the non-living Cetraria islandica (L.) Ach. The removal and recovery of gold and copper were studied by applying batch technique. The experimental parameters such as the pH of the solution, contact time, the amount of Cetraria islandica (L.) Ach. (dried lichen), the concentration of metals on retention and eluents kind and amount have been investigated. Au(III) and Cu(II) were adsorbed on the dried lichen at pH 3 and pH 8, respectively. Quantitative retention (> or = 90%) was obtained within 60 minutes for metals. Maximum capacity of 1.0 g of dried lichen for biosorption of Au(III) and Cu(II) were found as 7.4 mg of Au(III) and 19.2 mg of Cu(II). It was seen that the adsorption equilibrium data conformed well to the Langmuir model and Freundlich equation for Au(III) and only Freundlich equation for Cu(II). The method proposed in this study was applied to spiked mineral water analysis and metals adsorbed on the lichens were quantitatively (> or = 90%) recovered from mineral water samples by using 0.5 mol L(-1) HCl.


The effect of the tidal residual flow on the horizontal diffusion in a shallow tidal bay is investigated through a hydraulic model experiment, for which Mikawa Bay in central Japan was used as a prototype. A hydraulic model of about 20 x 30 m including Mikawa Bay and neighboring sea area, with a horizontal and vertical scale of 1/2000 and 1/160 respectively, was used, and a semi-diurnal tide was provided for it. Experiments nave shown that tide and tidal current are well reproduced in the model. The tidal locus does not close, that means the existence of the residual flow. The distribution of the concentration of the dye, which is discharged from the bay bottom, corresponds to the pattern of the residual flow. The diffusion coefficient in the bay obtained through one dimensional analysis is the order of 10' cm2/sec and that through two dimensional analysis is less by one order and the dispersion coefficient becomes 105 cm2/sec. It is concluded that the dispersion due to the residual flow plays more important role on the distribution of the material in the shallow bay, as Mikawa Bay, than the diffusion due to the tidal current itself.


This study investigated the effects of variety of sorghum on nutritional levels of malted grains. Unscreened grains of BSH1, Mahube, Phofu and Segaolane were malted and analysed for crude protein, minerals, fiber, organic matter and in-vitro digestibility. Malts from red coloured sorghum varieties (Mahube and BSH1) had significantly higher (P<0.01) crude protein, iron, copper and zinc. This could mean malting liberated more protein, iron, copper and zinc from protein-mineral phytates and oxalates in the red coloured sorghum grains than the white coloured grains. On average, malts from white grain sorghum varieties (Segaolane and Phofu) had higher neutral detergent fiber (52.0%) than those from red coloured varieties (42.3%). While malts from red coloured grains had higher percentage of acid detergent fiber (5.6 %) than those white grains (4.5 %), they (red coloured grains) were found to be more digestible than those from white coloured grains. It may be concluded that since red coloured sorghum grains are disliked by people for their bitter taste, they may be malted and be used for animal feed and spare the white coloured sorghum grains for human food. Using malted sorghum grains as a substitute to maize grains in animal feeds is likely to reduce the fast rising price of chicken and pig feeds.


This paper investigates a high power all fiber ultrashort pulse laser system. This system consists of a mode-locking laser oscillator, a multi-stage amplifier, a pulse selector, and a paired grating pulse compressor. With pulse energy of 12 uJ at repetition rate of 30 kHz, the laser at center wavelength of 1.05 um was obtained. Pulse width of 525 fs was achieved after the grating pair compressor.


The primary purpose of this study was to analyze the rice import demand behavior in seven Asian countries namely, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Three rice import demand models were estimated, the direct demand model which treats imports as a function of border prices and income, the residual import demand model where the imports are the excess of consumption over domestic production, and the reduced form model which incorporates both domestic demand and supply variables. Import demand functions were estimated by the ordinary least squares (OLS) method. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) was used in the estimation of the residual model hypothesizing that government policies contemporaneously influence both supply and demand. Structural stability tests were performed on all equations assuming that a structural break may have occurred in the early 1970s. The same standard model specifications were used for all countries in order to make inter-country comparisons possible. The data for the analysis were mainly from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and selected publications of the World Bank. xiv The effects of government policy. on rice import demand were explicitly incorporated into the models by including subsidized input-output price ratios and a technology index. The results indicated evidence of structural changes in demand and supply variables for all the countries analyzed. Instabilities were pronounced in the supply variables such as the input-output price ratio and the technology index indicating effects of government policy incentives to domestic production. Further, structural changes were observed in income, wheat prices and foreign exchange reserves. Out of the three models the reduced form model performed best in terms of forecasting efficiency. The residual import demand model estimates were the least efficient; however in this model SUR estimates were only marginally better than the OLS estimates. As Asian rice importers reach near self-sufficiency a shift away from input-output subsidies was noticeable but technology incentives continued unabated inducing shifts in the supply curve.


We demonstrate how the symmetric convolution-multiplication property of the discrete trigonometric transforms can be applied to problems in image reconstruction. This property allows for linear filtering of degraded images by means of point-by-point multiplication in the transform domain of trigonometric transforms. Specifically, in the transform domain of a type II discrete cosine transform, there is an asymptotically optimum energy compaction near d.c. for highly correlated images, which has advantages in reconstructing images with high-frequency noise. The symmetric convolution-multiplication property allows for scalar representations in the transform-domain space of discrete trigonometric transforms for linear reconstruction filters such as the Wiener filter. An analysis of the scalar Wiener filter's performance in the trigonometric transform domain is given.


When It's Smart to Say NoNearly every week we read about a tragedy or scandal that could have been prevented if individuals had said no to ill-advised or illegitimate orders. In this timely book, Ira Chaleff explores when and how to disobey inappropriate orders, reduce unacceptable risk, and find better ways to achieve legitimate goals.

 The inspiration for the book, and its title, comes from the concept of intelligent disobedience used in guide dog training. Guide dogs must recognize and resist a command that would put their human and themselves at risk and identify safer options for achieving the goal. This is precisely what Chaleff helps humans do. Using both deeply disturbing and uplifting examples, as well as critical but largely forgotten research, he shows how to create a culture where, rather than "just following orders," people hold themselves accountable to do the right thing, always.